Marketers have never had more data, or more confusion about what it means. Data democratization promises a fix: shared access, better visibility, and smarter decisions. But without strategy and structure, it’s just another buzzword in a stack of unread dashboards.
Laura Erdem, Sales Manager at Dreamdata, joined The Undiscovered Metric to unpack what real data democratization looks like in B2B and how marketers can make it work across departments, not just within their own teams. Read on for key insights, or listen to the episode below.
Start with one shared dataset
At its core, data democratization means alignment across sales, marketing, and product. Laura defines it as when we’re looking into the same data sets, no matter which team you're in. At Dreamdata, that means linking every touchpoint - from a product demo to a LinkedIn ad, to pipeline and revenue - so everyone can see what’s really driving growth.
The key is joining data across functions, not just making more of it available. “As soon as you are starting to work from one single data set,” Laura says, “it gets much easier to understand how we pull that into one place.”
Most teams democratize data by… building more silos
Despite the best intentions, many companies end up reinforcing the very silos they’re trying to break down. Laura paints a clear picture: “Your website is one silo that only a couple of people have access to. Your ad platforms are another that nobody really understands how it works, but they hold it, and then they wait for sales to come in. And then sales are working from another silo of their pipeline.”
It’s not malicious, it’s just fragmented. Everyone is working from their own version of the truth. And while some teams try to connect the dots, the efforts are often half-baked. These small fixes might feel like progress, but they don’t create a shared foundation. Without a truly unified dataset, you’re not democratizing data, you’re just labeling the silos more neatly.
Fix the biggest leak: your website data
If you’re not capturing what happens on your website accurately, you’re flying blind. Laura calls this “the place where your data is leaking out,” especially for B2B. Tools like Google Analytics are built for fast B2C conversions, not months-long journeys with multiple stakeholders.
“So the 90-day window does not work for B2Bs,” she explains, “It’s enough to buy an expensive bag, but it’s not enough to buy a tool.”
Instead, she recommends tools that let you track your website and product usage through a B2B lens, with longer attribution windows and deeper integrations into your CRM.
Democratization is useless without education
Giving teams access to data isn’t the same as making it usable. Laura sees this disconnect show up in reporting, particularly in marketing. “We’re used to seeing 30-slide reports every quarter,” she says. “They don't know where to get the data from.”
This leads to a focus on surface-level metrics: traffic, leads, and spend, without understanding how marketing actually contributes to the pipeline. But that’s not on the marketers. “It’s only because the data is not available for them to understand the full customer journey and the whole multi-touch view of their data that they’re responsible for.” Real democratization means giving teams the tools and context to ask better questions, not just produce more slides.
Explore how AI enables real-time curiosity in Conversational AI: Bridging the Gap
Get leadership aligned before you change the model
Switching from single-touch to multi-touch attribution? Prepare for pushback. When companies update how they measure performance, the results can look politically charged. “Suddenly, we're seeing some of those channels that we thought were working are actually not working anymore,” Laura notes. “And when you compare the Salesforce report and your multi-touch report, they don't match.”
Her advice: align with leadership before the change. Be clear about what’s being measured, how it’s changing, and why. “We have enough data,” explains Laura, “but joining it in the right way for you to report into means agreeing on that in advance with the leadership team and knowing that there will be changes.”
Use AI to speed up admin, not strategy
Laura is cautious about the current state of AI in B2B data workflows. It’s helpful, yes - but limited. “AI is so good at summarizing,” she says. But she draws the line at letting AI drive key decisions or touch-sensitive systems.
Instead, she sees AI playing a supportive role - streamlining repetitive work, rather than replacing strategic thinking. At least, not yet.
Want better ROI reporting? Think multi-touch + cost
When asked about overlooked metrics, Laura points to ROI, but done properly. Too often, marketers compare LinkedIn against Google Ads without considering how each channel fits into the journey. “Each and every platform has a different perspective and a different place in the customer journey,” she says. You can’t compare an event to an ad the same way.
Instead, she recommends looking at the full journey, from first touch to closed deal, and layering cost on top. “Then it's pretty easy to understand where it is that we would like to invest more money into.”
Don’t go it alone on strategy
Laura argues that building a marketing data strategy in isolation is a major misstep. “If marketers are setting the data strategy alone, we’re missing sales, we’re missing product,” she says. Sales, product, and even engineering all play a role, and their data does too. The more you integrate across departments, the closer you’ll get to understanding real impact.
Democratization isn’t just about tools - it’s about culture
Finally, Laura makes a compelling case for data visibility at the company level. “You might think engineers don’t care about close rates,” she says. “They do. They want the company to succeed.” Simple things like including pipeline updates in all-hands meetings can go a long way in building a more data-aware culture.
In the end, democratization is less about dashboards and more about alignment: shared data, shared language, shared goals.
