Sound the Alarm: Why CRM’s Data Problem Is a Strategic Problem

This article kicks off a new series unpacking the key themes of Plinc’s Strategic CRM Playbook: From Execution to Influence. The Playbook offers a practical roadmap for CRM teams to shift from tactical delivery to driving real commercial impact.

Chapter 1: Sound the Alarm starts with a challenge many CRM leaders face but struggle to elevate: despite unprecedented access to customer data, most teams still can’t access or use it effectively. The result? Missed opportunities, slow response times, and limited influence in commercial strategy.

Download the full Playbook now or follow this series to explore all 10 chapters.

A Familiar Frustration

Many CRM teams find themselves in a peculiar position: responsible for delivering personalised, high-performing communications, yet limited by gaps in the very data needed to make that happen.

The symptoms are familiar:

• Digital engagement (e.g. web browse) data siloed from customer transactional history
• Limited access to behavioural data that could power better personalisation
• Purchase history that lives in one platform, campaign execution in another
• Crucial customer experience data untapped
• Data teams who are supportive but overstretched
• A roadmap that will eventually solve things, but never quite soon enough

The result? Teams build campaigns on what they can access, not what they know would make a difference.

This is the essence of the execution trap. CRM becomes the function that knows what could work but doesn’t have the tools or access to prove it.

The Bigger Problem Hiding Beneath

What’s important to understand is that this isn’t just a tooling issue. It’s not about platform integration alone.

At the heart of this challenge is a structural imbalance:

• CRM teams are increasingly accountable for commercial performance
• But they are not always empowered to shape the data, tech or operating models that affect performance most

That creates a disconnect between responsibility and capability. And it’s rarely intentional. It emerges gradually:

• From legacy team structures
• From unclear data ownership
• From CRM being seen as a campaign channel, not a strategic partner

Over time, it creates an invisible ceiling on performance. One that isn’t immediately obvious in dashboards, but shows up in missed opportunity, slower response times, and vague discussions about “channel ROI”.

What It Means to “Sound the Alarm”

This isn’t about blaming or finger-pointing. It’s about reframing a chronic operational issue as a strategic and commercial one. And urging CRM teams to stop coping and start calling out the cost of the status quo.

Here’s what we’ve seen work inside leading teams:

• Start with a single data blocker and name it commercially
  For example: “We’re seeing ~30% of our customers browse the app without logging in. That means no follow-up campaigns. We estimate this costs us £X/month in potential margin uplift.”
• Visualise the break in the journey
  This doesn’t need to be a full data architecture map. It could be a simple customer flow with red flags where visibility drops out. These are powerful conversation starters in cross-functional meetings.
• Use analogies that land
  One team we worked with explained it like this: “We’re collecting loyalty stamps but we don’t have the book to put them in.” It stuck. Because it made the gap legible beyond CRM.

The goal is to shift the conversation from “data access” to “revenue risk”. To position CRM as the team best placed to address it if empowered properly.

Making Progress Even Without a Fully Connected Data Platform

The most common blocker to solving these issues is the assumption that it requires a major transformation. And yes, sometimes the answer is better integration, a smarter tech stack, or a longer-term rebuild.

That said, too often, CRM teams accept their limitations as fixed. But when you frame those limitations in commercial terms and show the value left on the table, the conversation changes.

Let’s say your current data setup means:

• You can only personalise emails by lifecycle stage, not behaviour.
• It takes 3 days to generate post-campaign reporting.
• You can’t access real-time channel engagement to fuel triggers.

Translate those gaps into missed opportunity:

• How many lapsed customers could have been re-engaged?
• How many offers were wasted on customers who would have converted anyway?
• How many decisions were made without knowing who your highest-value customers will be in three months?

Use benchmarks. Share case studies of similar businesses who have bridged the gap. Make the opportunity cost visible and express it in metrics the business understands.

The First Shift — and a Foundation for the Rest

CRM leads are often the most customer-obsessed people in the building. But obsession isn’t enough without influence. Influence comes from insight, and insight depends on access.

Until CRM teams can access and act on the insight they already have, efforts to drive personalisation, loyalty, or incrementality will always be constrained.

And once the organisation understands that poor access isn’t just inconvenient, it’s costly. The door opens to bigger changes.

This article is part of From Execution to Influence, Plinc’s Strategic CRM Playbook. Download the full Playbook here to explore all 10 chapters.

Next Up:

Chapter 2 – Prove It or Lose It
How CRM teams are using incrementality to make their commercial value undeniable.