The Gap That Never Closed

The value of any CRM rises and falls with data accuracy. Bad data in, bad data out. The pressure never eased after the dot-com era, and the public company cadence made every quarter feel like a hectic race. From 2020 to 2025, data exploded, analytics multiplied, and AI accelerated decisions.

Now it often feels like: bad data in, criminal data out — because leaders can make confident, AI-amplified choices that are simply wrong. That hurts performance, stock price, and livelihoods.

But it gets worse. CRM enabled something deeper and more dangerous: it allowed sales reps and region directors to hold the truth hostage. Managers babysit reps to log next steps, update deal stages, and document engagement — and still, the data never gets close to even 60% accuracy. Aged deals pile up. Comments lack substance. There’s no compelling event, no access to economic buyers, no milestones, no reverse-engineered plan to close. And that’s if you’re lucky.

Control of pipeline and execution became political currency. Some region directors often avoid involving executives because they don’t want a microscope on their deals. So they hoard control of the narrative — not the truth. CRM never fixed this. It just made the story look better.

This false confidence drives cascading damage. AI doesn’t clean the data — it amplifies it. HR decisions are made based on corrupted signals. Leaders shift headcount to regions that didn’t need more people — they needed better systems. Entire GTM strategies get redirected by dashboards that look accurate but are built on sand.

Some region directors have lost their jobs not because they lacked skill or effort, but because they were trapped in a system that failed them. The real issue wasn’t performance — it was lack of execution rhythm. Several CROs have privately said it: if REAP had been in place, those leaders would still be here.

You can’t count on finding A-players to run every territory. The great ones get promoted. The poor ones wash out. That reinforces the need for a system at the region level — one that carries the rhythm so the manager can lead. Even the best don’t last long without it.

QBRs have turned into theater. Sales managers scramble to explain the number, massage activity, and dress up a story. More energy goes into the slide deck than into the work. Even teams that exceed quota can misrepresent the true health of their business.

Yet the same questions keep coming back:

• Did every sales manager run the playbook this week?

• Which territories were actually covered?

• Where did execution stall, and who needs help now?

If those answers live in a deck or someone’s memory, you don’t have control — you have a story.