The main objective of connecting your marketing automation tool to your CRM is to allow data to flow freely back and forth between sales and marketing. Identifying your key data points on each record before you begin implementation helps you to make sure that you are selecting the correct tool and properly integrating your two tools. Start by defining with sales which fields are required for a lead to be marketing qualified. Marketing-qualified leads are ones that have met all marketing criteria to be considered a lead and are then passed to sales. These fields will be the first fields you need to integrate. The fields you use for segmenting your list will be the second set of fields you need to list.
Overlap is likely here, and that is okay. You don’t integrate fields twice. Continue this process with each CRM object you use. Fields you don’t use for segmentation and that are not required by sales for a lead to be qualified don’t need to be integrated. Fields you don’t currently have but that will be required for advanced automations generally are automatically set up when you install your marketing automation tool into your CRM.
Usually a mismatch in definitions. For example, to sales, a lead may mean a person ready to buy. But to a marketer, a lead may mean someone who has an interest. Marketing automation gives you the ability to merge these definitions for a more cohesive team.