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Blog Feature

By: Aimee Pagano
May 4th, 2026

In the enterprise for-profit world, sales teams often get droves of leads generated by often sturdy marketing teams. Some are sales-quality standard. Some are not. But the key is that there's steady volume and a systemized qualification in place from the marketing team. Sounds great, right?

Not so much for associations and nonprofits.

It's been an ongoing challenge for association sales and marketing teams to build proper smarketing programs based on association and nonprofit org charts and business models. Marketing teams are often focused on dues and program revenue—where's there's a conversion, not a close (i.e. membership , events, etc.). And Sales teams are focused on sponsorship, advertising, and other corporate programs. Both put in a great deal of effort but often don't work together on mutual goals. 

Until lean marketing & communications teams get more team members who are solely dedicated to feeding the top of the funnel, or sales teams add marketing resources under their budget line, this problem won't be solved.

This is where AI comes in.