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Product marketers never forget the day they first have to dive into CRM data.

Our mid-market sales team wasn鈥檛 hitting their targets, and as the product marketing lead, I was responsible for uncovering why.

I opened Salesforce, ready to find the answers that would turn our performance around.

But what I found left me slack-jawed.

Our 鈥渃ompetitive data鈥� fields were a wasteland. Empty cells and vague responses.

鈥淣o competition鈥� was suspiciously common, and our win-loss reasons read like a game of Mad Libs.

So I exported the last quarter鈥檚 worth of opportunities into a spreadsheet and sent it to our reps, determined to fill in the blanks.

The results trickled in. Finally, we鈥檇 understand what was happening in our deals!

But as I stared at phrases like 鈥渢eam input pricing鈥� and the oh-so-descriptive 鈥渇eatures,鈥� I realized we were no closer to the truth than before.

That鈥檚 when it hit me. We鈥檇 been making three critical mistakes:

1. Blindly trusting our incomplete CRM data
2. Accepting our sellers鈥� perspectives without question
3. Filling in the gaps with our own assumptions

I marched into our CRO鈥檚 office, spreadsheet in hand, ready to make my case for a complete overhaul of our approach.

To my surprise, he was on board before I鈥檇 even finished my pitch.

What happened next changed everything about how we understand our deals 鈥� and it all started with one simple shift in perspective.

Let me show you how we finally got out of the dark and started winning more deals by going straight to the source: our buyers.

The dirty secret about your CRM data

Salesforce reports that 91% of CRM data is incomplete, and that 70% of this data becomes inaccurate annually.

That鈥檚 right. Your 鈥渄ata鈥� is about as reliable as a magic 8-ball.

Not to mention that a majority of those deal reasons are from a drop-down list that provide minimal insight, like 鈥渂udget鈥�, 鈥渘o decision鈥�, or 鈥渂ad timing鈥�.

Responses like that drive product marketers (like Andrea below) crazy. It鈥檚 like telling a doctor to treat a patient based solely on whether they wrote 鈥渇elt bad鈥� on an intake form.

Seller deal reasons are unreliable

鈥淏ut we always debrief our sales team!鈥� you might protest.

Yes, you want the seller鈥檚 side of the story. But relying on that as gospel? 

It鈥檚 biased and only gives a partial view into what really happened in a deal. In fact, 60% of sellers are partially or completely wrong about why they lost a deal.

In my case, once sellers actually filled out deal reasons, they were surface level and didn鈥檛 actually provide insight.

(We also sat down with a buyer and a seller after a deal fell apart to get the truth about what really happened below 馃憞)

Businesses have their buyers on mute

So, what鈥檚 left when your data鈥檚 unreliable and your sellers are off-base?

Instinct. Gut feeling. The 鈥渓oudest voice in the room.鈥�

That鈥檚 because our data shows only 49% of revenue leaders reported that their business conducts qualitative win-loss research.

That means over half of businesses are flying blind, without directly talking to the buyers that they sell too.

In fact, Talya Heller went through that exact scenario when she previously joined a company as a product marketer.

There is light at the end of the tunnel

But there鈥檚 hope. And it comes from an obvious yet overlooked source: your buyers.

By talking directly to the decision-makers, you can bypass unreliable CRM data, sidestep sellers鈥� misconceptions, and cut through the fog of gut feelings.

It was the quickest and most accurate way for me to get the unvarnished truth about how we stacked up.

Your competitors might already be basking in the glow of buyer insights.

Don鈥檛 let them leave you in the dust 鈥� or more accurately, in the dark. Check out 暗黑网 Win-Loss to learn more about getting your buyer鈥檚 side of the story.