How to Unify Your Sales and Customer Service Teams for Better Results

Sales and customer service may operate at different points along the customer journey, but when they work together, they drive business growth — especially when powered by a unified platform like Salesforce. Sales brings in new customers; service keeps them coming back. When sales and service align, customers don’t just buy — they return, spend more, and promote your brand. Salesforce tools like Service Cloud and Agentforce bring them together through shared data, AI, and automation.

• What do sales and customer service have in common?
• Key differences between sales and customer service
• How can good customer service increase sales revenue?
• 5 ways sales and customer service can work together
• Learn how the right customer service and sales software can unify your teams
• How Salesforce can help connect sales and customer service
• Sales and customer service collaboration FAQs

At first glance, sales and customer service can seem like two different worlds—one is focused on winning new business, the other on resolving issues. But fundamentally, they are two sides of the same coin, united by a single, shared priority: the customer. When they work in concert, they create a seamless experience that drives loyalty and growth. Here are the key things they have in common:

Every interaction a customer has with your business contributes to their perception of your brand. Sales and customer service are both customer-facing teams, meaning both have a direct influence on how customers feel about your organization. Sales earns the first impression; service shapes the lasting one. In fact, our research finds, 88% of customers say good customer service makes them more likely to purchase again. A unified CRM acts as a single source of truth, giving reps full context so the customer experience stays connected from first contact to follow-up.

Sales hears what customers want from a product or service. Service hears what they actually experience. This collective knowledge creates a powerful feedback loop, providing actionable insights for product improvements, marketing strategy, and lead nurturing. But turning all that conversation into action takes the right tools. That's where tools like Agentforce come in, which can capture and summarize these insights in real time to surface patterns and customer sentiment across both pre- and post-sale conversations.

Both teams rely on product knowledge and strong content to succeed. While sales use enablement materials to close deals, service teams rely on knowledge bases to troubleshoot and support. With shared knowledge management, both teams can access up-to-date articles, onboarding content, and AI-powered solutions from one platform.

Your sales team and customer service reps both act as ambassadors for the company. Sales may shape the first impression, but service ensures it’s not the last. Together, they shape how customers talk about your brand. That reputation is especially critical in today's digital-first, review-driven world, where one bad experience can quickly go public and influence countless future buyers. Using a CRM as a single source of truth, teams can track CSAT and customer sentiment across the journey, turning every interaction into a brand-building opportunity.

Sales and service teams both drive growth, but their roles, metrics, and timing in the customer journey differ. Knowing where and how they diverge helps you align them more effectively. The three key differences are their place in the customer journey, their primary goals, and the unique skills they use.

Sales starts the relationship, service sustains it. Sales reps build trust pre-purchase; service reps carry that trust forward post-sale. From the customer's perspective, this distinction doesn't matter — they expect a single, cohesive experience.

While both roles require strong communication and empathy, sales pros specialize in pitching and persuasion, while service pros excel at active listening, problem-solving and de-escalation. Cross-training can be highly effective, allowing each team to learn valuable skills from the other.

A key difference between the two teams lies in the metrics they use to measure success:

• Sales metrics are generally focused on goals related to the number and size of sales, including pipe generation, revenue generated, deals closed, and conversion rates.
• Customer service metrics are focused on achieving customer satisfaction (CSAT), improving retention, and Net Promoter Score (NPS).

Revenue has traditionally been the domain of sales, but customer service now plays a bigger role in driving growth. Here are three powerful ways excellent customer service contributes to increased sales.

Our research finds that 85% of decision makers say service is expected to contribute a larger share of revenue this year. Here are three powerful ways excellent customer service contributes to increased sales.

Consistently great service earns trust — and trust builds a reputation that leads to more sales. This means providing fast responses and personalized support in every interaction. When customers feel they are being treated as unique individuals, not just another number, they are far more likely to stay loyal to that brand.

Keeping a customer is more cost-effective than acquiring a new one. Yet 43% of customers have stopped buying from a brand in the last year because of a poor customer service experience. Investing in strong customer service practices is a critical step toward improving retention and increasing customer lifetime value (LTV). Meeting service expectations consistently reduces churn and builds the loyalty that keeps them with your brand. With Service Cloud, reps have full customer context and AI-powered recommendations, making it easier to resolve issues quickly and keep customers satisfied.

One of the most direct ways customer service can contribute to revenue is through upselling. According to our report, 68% of customer service reps say they're trained to upsell. This can include suggesting an upgraded plan, a protective warranty, or a useful accessory. When an upsell directly solves a customer's problem, the recommendation feels natural and helpful, not forced. Features like Agentforce’s Next Best Action can suggest timely upgrades during live service interactions — turning support moments into sales opportunities.

Alignment doesn’t just reduce friction — it drives revenue, retention, and deeper customer insight. When sales and service work in silos, valuable information gets lost. But when they collaborate, they unlock new opportunities for growth and stronger customer relationships. Our research found that 93% of high-performing service teams have a connected relationship with other departments.

Here are five actionable strategies for collaboration:

When customer data is siloed, teams miss context. A unified CRM platform solves this by giving both sales and service access to a single source of truth for all customer data—from recent purchases and support tickets to product usage patterns. With this complete view, a service agent can easily spot a sales opportunity, or a sales rep can understand a customer's support history before reaching out. The result is a seamless customer experience where no context is ever lost between departments.

For instance, a service agent reviewing a customer's purchase history might notice they are a candidate for a premium upgrade and can flag the opportunity for sales. With Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, teams share one source of truth — no duplicate records.

Customer feedback is key to both improving service and informing smarter sales strategies. This creates a continuous feedback loop — not just one-off info — from sources like CSAT scores, support surveys, social listening, and post-sale reviews.

Onboarding is a make-or-break moment. When sales and service align here, customers get value faster — and are more likely to stick around. This alignment can take the form of shared onboarding playbooks or pre-planned email campaigns that automatically send helpful tips and next steps to new customers. Crucially, this isn’t just support’s job — sales insights should be used to help personalize the onboarding journey.

Both teams rely on content to educate and support customers. By collaborating, they ensure knowledge bases answer real questions — before customers even ask. Building a shared content roadmap is an effective way to align these efforts. The result is faster case resolution, shorter sales cycles, and improved self-service adoption.

When both teams are measured on shared outcomes — like retention, upsell success, or CSAT — collaboration becomes a necessity, not a nice-to-have. This alignment improves decision-making and reduces friction by ensuring both teams are working toward the same goals.

Lost information, inconsistent experiences, and frustrated customers—these are the direct results of disconnected sales and service systems. In an age where most customers expect teams to collaborate internally on their behalf, you can't afford these costly delays. Salesforce empowers your teams by providing a shared customer view, using data and AI to power every interaction and deliver the fast, personalized service customers expect.

• Unified Customer Profiles & Knowledge Base: A single source of truth that combines a complete customer history (including past purchases, service interactions, and open opportunities) with a comprehensive, accessible knowledge base. This provides the personalization and continuity needed for a seamless experience across touchpoints. With Salesforce Customer 360 and Service Cloud, reps have instant access to full customer profiles and searchable knowledge content, so they can deliver fast, personalized support and sales experiences.
• Intelligent Automation: Sales automation can handle lead qualification, pipeline management, and forecasting. Customer service automation manages tasks like case deflection and proactive notifications. This frees up both teams to focus on more strategic, high-value interactions with customers. Agentforce powers intelligent automation across the customer journey — handling repetitive tasks, recommending next steps, and boosting team productivity.
• Collaboration Tools: Real-time collaboration tools are essential for faster issue resolution and seamless hand-offs, especially for hybrid and distributed teams. Shared dashboards, alerts, and integrated messaging allow teams to coordinate on accounts, tag a rep for input on a ticket, or review deal updates together. Slack integration enables this level of real-time collaboration — whether you’re resolving a support case, reviewing pipeline status, or looping in product teams.
• Custom Reporting: The ability to report on joint metrics — such as customer lifetime value, churn rates, and CSAT — across both sales and service. Shared visibility into this data builds trust between teams and helps leadership track progress toward unified goals. With Tableau, Salesforce gives leaders a complete view of sales, service, and customer health metrics—helping them optimize every stage of the customer journey.

By investing in a single, connected customer relationship management (CRM) system, businesses empower teams to share insights, avoid duplicated efforts, and deliver seamless experiences.

Salesforce brings together the full customer journey — from lead generation to loyalty. With powerful, integrated software like Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, it ensures that both sales and service teams have access to the data and features they need to succeed.

By bridging gaps between teams, Salesforce helps build customer trust, streamline workflows, and unlock growth opportunities.

Aligning sales and service is crucial for growth. Here are answers to common questions about making that collaboration work.

Sales reps and their teams focus on identifying and converting new customers, while customer service teams support them post-purchase to resolve questions and issues. When aligned, they work together to deliver a seamless customer journey that drives growth and loyalty.

Yes. Great service increases customer retention, boosts referrals, and opens opportunities for upselling and cross-selling—all of which directly improve revenue. A positive customer experience is integral to a company's reputation and bottom line.

Both roles require strong communication, extensive product knowledge, and emotional intelligence. Professionals can build these abilities with resources like ct knowledge, and emotional intelligence. Professionals can build these abilities with resources like Trailhead training modules and learn from other pros in communities such as the Serviceblazer Community.

CRM platforms like Salesforce are essential for unifying data and streamlining communication. Shared dashboards, knowledge bases that act as customer self-service software, and integrated collaboration features also play a big role in keeping teams aligned.

AI and automation are taking on repetitive tasks and answering common questions. This frees up sales and customer service reps to focus on building stronger customer relationships and solving more complex problems.