Aligning sales and marketing has been a “priority” for years. Yet for most organizations, this is still more of an aspiration than a reality.
New data from Unbounce’s “The Anatomy of Aligned Go-To-Market Teams” report shows that only 56% of GTM professionals consider their organizations highly aligned, which means shared goals, shared data, and a unified system. Another 36% say they are only partially aligned, and 8% remain largely isolated.
Even among the “aligned,” maintaining that state requires constant effort. Alignment isn’t something teams achieve and move on from – it’s something they must actively maintain.
And too often, this effort stops before producing significant results.
The biggest problem is technology, not people
If you’re looking for the root cause, start with the stack. More than half of GTM teams (53%) say technology is the biggest barrier to alignment, and only 30% believe their stack actually enables it. This is a disconnect. Because if your systems don’t work together, your teams won’t either.
Most organizations feel reasonably confident in their tools: 44% describe their stack as balanced and efficient, and 24% say it is lean and integrated.
But this confidence does not always hold up in practice. Fragmentation, redundancy and legacy constraints are still common, even in “optimized” environments.
Progress is happening slowly
There is movement in the right direction. Approximately 77% of GTM teams report some improvement in alignment compared to last year. But only a quarter reported significant gains. Meanwhile, 22% saw no improvement or even a decline.
This lack of progress quickly manifests itself in daily operations:
- Missed opportunities.
- Delayed or inconsistent lead follow-up.
- Duplicate work.
- confusion about ideal customer profiles.
And ultimately, these internal problems result in a worse customer experience.
Where alignment efforts stall
A common mistake is to stop at coordination. Teams can communicate more, share updates and align on goals, but it doesn’t matter if the underlying systems don’t change. That’s where the friction lives.
More than half of GTM professionals (53%) cite operational barriers such as disconnected tools and workflows as their top issue. Additionally, 43% cite misaligned goals or incentives, 40% point to cultural issues such as communication gaps and lack of trust, and 34% highlight structural challenges.
Sales and marketing generally agree on what doesn’t work, but marketers tend to perceive it more acutely. They are more likely to point to disjointed tools, inconsistent data, and unclear ownership of KPIs as key issues.
This is partly because marketing relies on longer feedback loops and shared systems for measuring performance and planning ahead. When these systems are not aligned, visibility is lost and decision making becomes more difficult.
So why don’t companies solve the problem?
If technology is the biggest obstacle, why not solve it? Because changing it is risky.
Teams worry about disrupting what’s already in place, dealing with complex data migrations, or overcoming leadership hesitations. So they tolerate imperfect systems and try to work around them.
Go here for “The Anatomy of Aligned Go-To-Market Teams” from Unbounce. (No registration required)
