Rebuilding the Revenue Engine: How Data, Alignment and AI-Readiness Are Redefining B2B Growth

The rules of B2B growth are changing fast. Buyers are self-directed, sales cycles are messy, and AI is forcing every team to rethink how leads are created, qualified, and converted.

In B2B Marketing’s latest report, Leads That Convert: Why AI Demands a Smarter Marketing Infrastructure, we partnered with marketing leaders from Sophos, Workday, and Fujitsu to explore what separates teams that thrive in this new environment from those that stall.

Here are three takeaways every growth organization should act on.

1. Build Alignment Between Sales and Marketing

Quality leads don’t start in marketing or end in sales — they depend on collaboration in between.

The report shows that most breakdowns still happen at the handoff: disconnected systems, competing dashboards, and unclear success metrics. The solution isn’t another tool; it’s a shared operating rhythm.

• One team, one dataset, one definition of “qualified.”
• Feedback loops that turn every conversion (or miss) into better targeting next quarter.

Teams that build alignment trust the numbers and have smoother handoffs.

2. Treat Data Governance as a Growth Enabler

Governance doesn’t sound exciting. But in an AI-driven world, it helps separate innovation from risk.

Every organization in the report agreed: the goal isn’t simply collecting more data, it’s controlling how that data moves. When every lead, campaign, and system is governed, marketing gains visibility and sales gains confidence.

Good governance unlocks scale. It lets you experiment faster, measure ROI accurately, and automate safely.

3. Use AI as an Enhancer, Not a Replacement

Across every interview, one theme was consistent: the most successful teams see AI as a teammate, not a takeover.

The report highlights examples where marketing leaders are using AI to eliminate repetitive work and uncover insights that used to take weeks. The goal isn’t efficiency for its own sake — it’s making space for deeper, more strategic work.

The Bigger Picture

The future of B2B growth is about creating smarter connections between people, systems, and data.

Leads That Convert shows that when marketing, sales, and operations teams share a common foundation of trust, AI becomes an accelerator, not a disruptor. Alignment and governance stop being guardrails and start becoming growth multipliers.

The organizations that win will be the ones that move together, guided by shared data and accountability.

Read the full B2B Marketing report sponsored by Convertr to see how marketing leaders are adapting.