Cognism

James Bradbury, Cognism's VP of Performance Marketing, explains why sales and marketing alignment – not just data quality – is what actually fixes fragmented GTM. Good data alone won't turn intent signals into pipeline if teams aren't working from the same definitions. Chapters: 0:00 – Introducing James Bradbury, Cognism's VP of Performance Marketing 0:22 – Why GTM fragmentation happens between marketing, SDRs and AEs 1:36 – Why teams blame budget and lead volume instead of alignment 2:26 – Why intent signals lose value faster in competitive markets 2:51 – GTM alignment challenges specific to European sales teams 3:41 – Building a GTM operating model with room for local nuance 4:02 – Why sales and marketing handoffs break without shared definitions 5:12 – Why good data is an input, not a business outcome 6:07 – How AI scales GTM inconsistency without data alignment 7:08 – What a high-efficiency GTM operating model looks like 8:38 – Treating data quality as a coordination challenge, not a database James breaks down where GTM fragmentation actually starts: teams operating with a different worldview of the market, and RevOps left stitching results together after the fact rather than coordinating the motion as it happens. He covers why performance problems usually get misdiagnosed as budget or lead volume issues, why European go-to-market adds extra complexity through shifting job title norms and compliance requirements, and why AI speeds up execution without necessarily improving it – if the underlying data and definitions aren't shared, AI just scales inconsistency faster. James also sets out what a genuinely unified operating model looks like in practice: shared foundations on ICP, target accounts and "sales-ready", with room for local execution layered on top. ➡️ Read the full breakdown, Why good data alone doesn't fix broken GTM: https://www.cognism.com/blog/data-sales-marketing-alignment #salesandmarketing #GTM #fluentindata #dataquality #RevOps