CRMs were once hailed as the cornerstone of customer-centric business. The promise? A single source of truth, a way to manage relationships at scale, and a system to drive growth.

But as Toni Keskinen, CPO at 180ops, puts it:

“CRM fundamentally is a human input technology. Even if much of it is automated today, it still requires human judgment to act on whatever the input is.” 

Today, most CRMs have become far more than they ever set out to be and have become over-engineered, overly complex, and outdated. 

Here's where they’re falling short—and how to fix it.

1. CRMs Were Built for Logging, Not Learning

Most CRM platforms were designed around manual input. Sales reps log calls, move deals forward, and update forecasts. That human judgment becomes the data relied on to make decisions. Sales representatives often input data based on personal judgment, which can lead to inconsistencies and inaccuracies, according to PwC. 

“It’s your human judgment that shows in the data,” Toni explains. “You decide where a deal is at, and whether a customer is likely to buy. That’s subjective—and it's a major blind spot.”

This reliance on manual inputs can result in inconsistent data and inaccurate pipelines. 

2. Your CRM Doesn’t Know What’s Actually Happening

“In most cases, CRMs don’t contain the billing or transaction data. You have the deal, but not the proof that the customer is behaving according to the agreement,” says Toni.

What’s the impact? Leadership ends up managing the business based on intentions, not outcomes. Sales leaders report on pipeline movement, not revenue realization. And without seeing what's actually happening after the deal is signed, companies can’t tell if a customer stopped using the product, never fully adopted it, or is at risk of churning.

Salesforce reports that only 28% of sales professionals strongly agree that their CRM provides a “complete view of customer interactions.” That leaves more than two-thirds relying on partial truths.

3. CRMs Focus on Forecasts, Not Revenue Signals

A typical CRM gives you opportunity stages, deal sizes, and close dates. But it doesn’t tell you what type of value is being created.

“Most CRM reporting tools don’t serve this need,” Toni says. “You might see pipeline volume—but not whether it’s moving, shrinking, or stalling.”

This is where modern revenue intelligence should step in—but most CRMs don't offer it out of the box. Furthermore, it leads to the question of whether they should, since tech stack usage doesn’t always report high adoption rates from teams: for example in 2023, martech teams report using just 33% of total martech stack capability, down from 42% in 2022 and 58% in 2020. 

4. Cross-Sell and Expansion Are Hiding in Plain Sight

CRM systems also fail to support strategic revenue growth.

“Cross-selling to existing customers who haven’t yet adopted a specific offering—that’s where the lowest-hanging fruit is,” Toni notes. “But you can’t optimize for that if your CRM doesn’t help you see it.”

Instead, reps are often focused on net-new acquisition. Depending on the industry and the piece of research, acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one, according to Harvard Business Review. 

If your CRM doesn’t clearly show:

• Which customers are underpenetrated
  
  
• Which offerings they aren’t using yet
  
  
• Who’s due for renewal or upsell

…you’re likely missing significant revenue opportunities.

5. CRMs Don’t Help You Allocate Sales Resources Strategically

Another shortcoming? CRMs aren’t built to help leaders match the right salespeople to the right accounts.

“You need different types of salespeople for different account types,” Toni explains. “Some are great at farming mature accounts, others are strategic account managers, and some excel at hunting new business. But CRMs don’t guide resource allocation at that level.”

Without that guidance, top hunters get bogged down managing stagnant accounts, and strategic growth potential is missed.

This echoes findings from PwC, which reports that 63% of high-performing sales teams use advanced analytics to guide account segmentation and rep assignments—capabilities most CRMs don’t natively support.

6. CRM Complexity Is a Barrier, Not a Feature

As CRMs try to become all things to all teams, they’ve become complicated. 

“There’s a lot of functionality. But it’s increased complexity—and if it’s complicated, nobody wants to use it,” says Toni. “We need to simplify and concentrate on the main use cases.”

The average enterprise CRM implementation today spans dozens of modules and integrations. Yet Forrester notes that CRM user adoption is still a top challenge—largely because of poor usability and interface overload. The same research further notes that while organizations rate low satisfaction with their CRM, they have no plans to switch. 

7. CRM Has a Billing Data Blind Spot

CRMs don’t typically contain billing and transaction data, meaning it is tough to match customer expectations or intent with revenue. Toni elaborates on this point in the short video below: 

WHAT’S THE FIX? 

Toni doesn’t arguing for replacing the CRM. He’s arguing for restoring its purpose.

“CRM is the number-one tool for account management—and it should be. But it needs added intelligence to meet today’s business needs.”

That means:

• Enriching CRM data with billing, usage, and product adoption metrics
  
  
• Surface-level simplicity, powered by back-end intelligence
  
  
• Tools that help leaders see what’s moving, who’s growing, and where to act
  
  

This is where platforms like 180ops come in—designed not to replace CRMs, but to make them smarter, more strategic, and fit for the real work of growing revenue.

CONCLUSION

CRMs aren’t broken, but they can be seriously outdated, and are often expected to have and do more than their true capabilities. They were built for record-keeping, not revenue strategy. For manual updates, not intelligent guidance. For sales teams, not business leaders.

“The future isn’t replacing CRM—it’s complementing it with tools that close the gaps,” Toni concludes. “Because your CRM alone isn’t enough anymore.”