In B2B marketing, it's all about precision: knowing who your customer is, what they need, and when to act. But what if one team member is always awake, never forgets, and knows exactly what works? Exactly: data. Three experts share how data has transformed their commercial processes, with examples from their day-to-day work.
Data as the catalyst between sales and marketing
At CM.com, the commercial organization is tightly structured. With around 250–300 people worldwide in sales and customer success, everything revolves around specialization and focus. “We use the sales methodology Winning by Design", says Pim Camps. Roles and processes are worked out in detail. Leads come in through our own marketing tools, are enriched in Salesforce, and are only picked up by SDRs once there's sufficient information. And that's intentional: “We saw that deals closed faster and the quality improved.”
The collaboration between sales and marketing is crucial, but not a given. “Four years ago, it was the classic story: marketing would say ‘we’ve delivered enough leads,’ and sales would respond ‘we can’t do anything with them.’” That has since changed thanks to better lead classification, clear acceptance criteria, and shared goals. “Marketing looks at contacts, sales looks at accounts. You have to consciously build that bridge.”
See: Webinar: Hoe CM.com marketing en sales optimaliseert
Data as architect of processes
At WeTransfer, Mathieu Kok moved from creative designer to director of advertising systems. Along the way, he encountered the limitations of creative tools, product features, and data systems. “Ultimately, we wanted to know exactly what users did with our interactive ads. That meant new databases, better reporting, and more automation.”
The major challenge was that everyone worked in silos: sales used Salesforce, the Ad Ops department worked with the AdServer, and finance tracked everything in Excel. “In the end, Salesforce was an expensive notepad. Everyone maintained their own version of the truth.” This fragmentation made it impossible to create reliable reports or quickly adapt to changes in campaigns.
The solution: a thorough restructuring of Salesforce. “We said goodbye to the standard order-opportunity split and consolidated everything into a single record. Combined with automation through picklists and screen flows.” The result? Less manual work, faster handovers, fewer errors, and finally reliable reporting.
See: Webinar: WeTransfer over hun sterke datastrategie
Data as the engine of automation
At Altares Dun & Bradstreet, we automate 30,000 to 50,000 commercial tasks each month. Thanks to no-code tools like Zapier and reliable data from our own D&B platform, data is no longer just for IT, it’s a tool for sales and marketing.
“Why wait for IT when you can automate it yourself?” asks Joël van Vugt. “If you know what you need, you can often build it yourself—faster and with immediate results.” Think of lead assignment flows where new leads are automatically linked to the right account manager based on the unique DUNS number. “The beauty is: there are zero minutes between form submission and action.”
Michiel Scheepens adds: “You can have the most beautiful processes, but without good data, it still falls apart. With our own company data—such as revenue, number of employees, and industry codes—we can qualify leads based on relevance, not just interest. That makes the difference.”
See: Webinar: No-Code automation with D&B data: doing more with less effort (Dutch)
From a cluttered CRM to a growth engine
A cluttered CRM is disastrous for commercial effectiveness. “On average, poor data costs companies about 12% of their revenue,” says Matthieu Kok. And that’s not even counting the frustration on the work floor. At WeTransfer, cleaning up data combined with automation led to a dramatic improvement: from 60% incorrect orders down to just two per month.
The common thread
Whether you’re running campaigns, qualifying leads, or supporting sales: data is the silent force that connects everything. But you need to set it up properly, keep it clean, and use it smartly. The difference between frustration and flow often lies in a well-automated process, built by people who understand it, not necessarily by IT.
Data is not an abstract concept or an IT party. It’s your colleague who’s always ready, never makes mistakes, and shows the way. When you know how to use it, data becomes your most valuable team member.
