Half of Your CRM Data Is Wrong - And It’s Costing You

9 Oct

Research has revealed a startling truth: even the world’s leading companies see CRM accuracy drop to just 50% within 12 months of entry. According to Gartner, poor-quality data costs organisations an average of $12.9 million annually.

This isn’t just a small technical issue, it’s a problem undermining revenue, decision-making, and customer experience.

The Data Decay Problem

Forbes and Gartner reports that on average B2B contact databases can deteriorate by up to 70.3% annually if left unmaintained. A database with 10,000 contacts in January could have only 3,000 usable by December.

The decay comes from:

Lead-sourcing tools such as Apollo having stale data
Teams being stretched too thin to prioritise cleaning the data in their CRM
Job changes, promotions, domain and email updates
Department reorganisations

The Business Impact

When data decays, the effects ripple across the organisation:

Wasted sales effort and time: Teams chase outdated leads
Poor decisions: Leaders act on inaccurate data, which means poorly targeted marketing
Weakened CX: Communications miss the mark and business reputation suffers
Revenue loss: Missed renewals and pricing errors

The Takeaway

The 50% accuracy figure should be a wake-up call. Accurate customer data isn’t just an IT concern - it’s a business-critical asset.

Treat CRM maintenance as an ongoing process. At Vero, we take this off your plate by checking leads lists for you in-depth and maintaining up-to-date lists. With strong data governance and a human touch in an AI-driven world, companies can protect their pipelines, improve customer relationships, and make smarter decisions.

Your CRM is only as valuable as the data inside it. Can you afford to operate on data that’s only half right?

Sources:

- Researchgate: The costs of poor quality data

- Forbes Research: The B2B Data Decay Epidemic

- Gartner: Data Quality