The go-to-market (GTM) function has always been the core driver of enterprise growth. Yet, the complexity of modern markets and GTM motions has revealed challenges that no function — be it marketing, sales, or operations — can tackle alone.
Clari recently hosted a gathering of GTM executives, focused on the impact of GTM alignment on how successful your AI strategy will be. With leading CROs, CMOs, and RevOps leaders in attendance, the event discussion centered on two critical forces driving GTM transformation today: organizational alignment and AI. Throughout the session, one sentiment resonated loud and clear: GTM alignment is no longer a "nice-to-have;” it's a prerequisite for growth and the foundation for bringing AI into the revenue process.
Guided by the principle of "No Light Between Us," a leadership framework emphasizing seamless cross-functional collaboration, the message was clear: Without alignment, even the most sophisticated AI initiatives risk devolving into chaos.
Sushi on a pizza: When CROs and CMOs are not aligned
At the event, a regional marketing leader discussed the result of what happens when GTM teams don’t pull in the same direction: they end up with a misaligned, Franksteined strategy. Or, as she put it: “sushi on a pizza.” She went on to say: “Stakeholders are lovers of different things. Marketing cannot be all things to everyone. We should be serving the customer, and ultimately, sushi on a pizza doesn't serve anybody.
Even among seasoned leaders, alignment remains a challenge. In fact, Gartner reports that 90% of marketing and sales executives say their priorities are in conflict, reinforcing just how widespread the misalignment truly is.1
The discussion revealed the top underlying causes of this disconnect:
- Misaligned goals: Without everyone marching towards the same focus and goals to drive revenue, you'll never be on the same page.
- Too much complexity: Companies with multiple products, complex sales motions and channels struggle to change to get to the necessary level of alignment, making it harder to come together as one GTM function.
- Different data sources: When sales and marketing run their functions using separate systems and dashboards to track progress, it’s hard to know what's working, what needs focus, and what will be the source of truth to guide humans and AI to work together.
- AI silos: When GTM leaders deploy separate AI tools for sales, marketing, and customer success teams, they miss the cross-team connections that unlock AI's full potential for revenue growth.
This lack of alignment creates ripple effects that block progress at every level. It doesn’t come down to lack of effort, but because teams are marching to different definitions of success.
"No Light Between Us" leadership is a philosophy that stresses shared goals, open communication, and unified data. When marketing, sales, and operations leaders come together around common objectives, they eliminate the friction around the wrong conversations that hinder progress.
Success factors for GTM alignment
When it comes down to unifying a GTM team, it can be overwhelming knowing where to begin. This won’t happen overnight; in fact, it will require a continuous process of refining and improvement over time.
Below are four key ways GTM leaders can start aligning their teams to create lasting organizational change:
1. Establish a shared language
Having a shared language of what success looks like is everything. If we can’t agree on the metrics that matter, how can we move forward together? Marketing might be thrilled about generating 500 new leads, yet sales is unhappy at the low quality or poor fit of those same leads.
Without unified definitions of what constitutes a qualified lead, successful campaign, or meaningful pipeline contribution, both teams end up operating in silos that hurt the bottom line. True alignment requires establishing common goals and KPIs that bridge both functions.
2. Unify revenue goals
Assigning credit to single campaigns or channels misses the reality of how buyers actually engage and convert. Today’s buying journey is a complex web of touchpoints spanning months or even years. Buyers are influenced by a number of factors: content, webinars, case studies, digital ads— cycling through complex buying groups before converting.
Pipeline generation requires orchestration, where marketing creates awareness and nurtures interest while sales builds relationships and drives urgency.
3. Maintain one source of truth
Working from shared dashboards and the same data creates transparency across teams and helps everyone perform as one unified revenue organization.
When marketing and sales look at the same numbers, they see the same problems and opportunities. No more arguing about lead quality or pipeline health; marketing can see which campaigns actually drive closed deals, not just form fills. Sales can track to understand how marketing impacts pipeline in the accounts they care about.
4. Focus on revenue impact, not MQLs
Marketing is the function to own overall pipeline creation, no matter where it’s sourced. The CMO needs to be the e-staff member that reports on overall pipeline performance and health to the Company and Board. And lead all teams to align and deliver the pipeline needed to drive Company growth. Marketing used to hand off leads without caring about revenue impact, passing to Sales to take them to the finish line.
When both teams focus on revenue impact, everything aligns. Everyone wins when the focus shifts from handoffs to partnerships.
“67% of enterprise leaders don’t trust their revenue data.”
– Clari Labs, 2025
Confronting your revenue data problem
The discussion revealed that poor revenue data quality has become an increasingly common issue in GTM functions. Recent Clari Labs research found that 67% of enterprise leaders don’t trust their revenue data, and it's easy to understand why. Revenue data is often siloed across systems, entered inconsistently, and lacks standardization.
Without reliable revenue data, AI can't fulfill its promise. AI thrives on context and accuracy, but without a standardized and consolidated data foundation, any AI initiative is doomed to fail.
How to build revenue data you can trust
- Understand where your revenue data actually lives: Revenue data no longer lives solely in your CRM. Today's buying journey spans from prospect to renewal across multiple systems. The role of Revenue Operations is changing to shift to more of an architect unifying both structured and unstructured data as the foundation for actionable insights.
- Harness and unify the power of your tech stack: AI assistants, agents, and bots are only as effective as the data you provide. No amount of technology fixes poor data quality. By consolidating comprehensive revenue data and capturing into a centralized revenue database, you'll have the foundation to surface insights and patterns to guide both humans and AI.
- Build the foundation to keep the data flywheel going: Insights are worthless if they aren’t being used. Requiring teams to swivel across multiple tools kills adoption. Build a unified data layer that combines insights with data capture, creating a flywheel effect. As adoption grows, data quality improves, feeding better insights to guide superior company-wide decisions.
AI is the accelerator – not the strategy
AI is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform GTM, but realizing its potential requires more than new tools. At the London event, leaders shared how AI is already driving measurable improvements in efficiency and execution.
A common theme emerged: Revenue Operations, partnering with Enablement, is best positioned to lead this transformation. By unifying revenue data and capturing the full Revenue ContextTM — who did what, when, and what outcome it led to — RevOps provides the foundation AI needs to guide sales and marketing teams effectively.
Without this, AI risks becoming a disconnected experiment. The role of RevOps has evolved from operational support to revenue architecture by designing AI-powered workflows across the entire GTM engine.
Rather than focusing on moonshots, revenue leaders are instead using AI to achieve meaningful gains in productivity, efficiency, and execution:
- AI-Driven Coaching: Performance data powers personalized coaching for sales and customer success teams, providing call/email feedback and identifying improvement areas.
- Intelligent Content Creation: AI assists with content development by generating drafts, suggesting topics, and optimizing materials by channel, funnel stage, and persona.
- Workflow Automation: Repetitive tasks get automated across marketing, sales, BDRs, and customer success.
- Predictive Sales Analytics: AI predicts which leads will convert, which customers risk churning, and which products will gain traction, enabling proactive interventions.
- Personalized Customer Journey Mapping: Cross-touchpoint data analysis reveals patterns that enable personalized customer journeys, boosting engagement and conversions.
What makes these work? They’re integrated directly into workflows and measured for impact; while also focused on one problem at a time, rather than trying to boil the ocean.
Change management for AI adoption
While revenue leaders see the value of AI in terms of improving forecast accuracy and addressing revenue risks, many still have hold-ups when it comes to fully integrating AI in their revenue motions.
Clari Lab’s most recent report found that the main reasons for slow adoption of AI are:
- Lack of trust in AI outputs from frontline sellers
- Insufficient leadership support for AI adoption
- Over-reliance on generic AI tools instead of tailored solutions
- Lack of internal confidence about selecting the right solutions
Leaders at the event spoke candidly about resistance to AI and the steps they’re taking to overcome it.
Creating a human + AI partnership
AI will not replace professionals but augment their capabilities, much like having a team of strategic advisors who never sleep. By automating repetitive or manual tasks, it enables GTM teams to focus on high-value work.
As with any initiative, leadership sets the tone. For AI to succeed, leaders must position it as a thought partner, not a threat. This starts with fostering a culture that embraces experimentation.
Steps to foster cultural change
AI adoption isn’t just about technology. It’s about trust. Mindset. Culture.
- Celebrate wins: Showcase small but meaningful AI successes to build trust.
- Train and experiment: Equip teams with the skills and tools to interact effectively with AI.
- Redefine roles: AI will automate tasks, but it’s humans who bring creativity, empathy, and strategy to the table.
The concept of “No Light Between Us” isn’t just about getting rid of silos – it’s also about creating an environment that amplifies human potential.
A path to sustainable, scalable enterprise growth
The path forward for GTM transformation is clear: Alignment is critical, revenue data quality must be prioritized, and AI needs to be a cross-functional priority. With multiple teams involved in overlapping workflows and responsibilities, AI success depends on having a seamless coordination and collaboration between Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, Finance, and RevOps. Without this foundation, even the most advanced AI tools are unable to deliver meaningful impact.
However, this transformation ultimately hinges on leadership setting the tone and pace. As this new era continues to evolve and we discover new capabilities, it requires leaders who approach change with empathy, patience, and the ability to admit we don’t have all the answers yet. The organizations guided by this authentic and adaptive leadership will not only keep pace with market demands, but set the standard for what modern GTM excellence looks like.
The road ahead requires collaboration across functions, but the rewards — efficiency, innovation, and growth — are more than worth the effort.
Explore the Clari Labs State of Enterprise Revenue Report. See how top-performing organizations are applying AI and accelerating growth — while others fall behind.
1. Gartner, “B2B Commercial Strategy Survey,” (Bellis et al., 2025)
2. “The State of Enterprise Revenue, 2025: Insights from 10 Million Opportunities,” Clari, March, 2025