 | If you’re building a growing business, you already know this:
Collecting data isn’t the problem. | | After working closely with hundreds of growth-stage companies, I’ve come to a simple but uncomfortable truth: | | Most businesses aren’t lacking data. They’re overwhelmed by it. | | Customer interactions are being tracked at every turn-emails opened, calls logged, tickets submitted, features used. | | And yet, when I ask this question to CEOs: | | “Are your sales, marketing, and success teams working from the same definition of customer value?” | | They pause. | | And say they haven’t thought about this. | | That gap – the space between the data you have and the insight you actually use-is what I call the Actionable Insights Gap. | | And in my view, it’s one of the biggest blind spots holding SMBs back from real, repeatable growth. | | | Here’s what’s happening inside most businesses: | | Look at the current reality inside growing companies: - Client onboarding has intake forms and kickoff notes
- Delivery teams track milestones and project progress
- Account managers monitor renewals and relationship health
- Financehandles billing, invoicing, and payment history
| But each team works from its own system.
And the signals that matter most – like client sentiment, upsell readiness, or early signs of churn are scattered, neglected, and often missed. | | | It’s not surprising that only 26.8% of companies report having a true data culture, where insights are actively shared, connected, and acted on across teams. | | The rest are also collecting data. | | But not connecting it. | | And that’s a problem – because according to Forrester, 60-73% of enterprise data goes completely unused for analysis. | | That’s not just inefficient. It’s a missed opportunity to lead with insight in a market that rewards speed, clarity, and customer insight. | | Here’s my perspective: | The problem isn’t that you need more dashboards.
Or more reports.
Or another tool promising “AI-powered insights”. | | The problem is that your systems aren’t connected, and your teams aren’t aligned around the signals that matter most. | | When customer stories live in different systems, no one sees the full picture. You miss the patterns that matter most. | | Patterns like: | - Which behaviors actually predict long-term value
- Where your most profitable relationships truly originate
- What subtle signals indicate readiness for expansion
- Which friction points consistently lead to churn
| Businesses that scale faster don’t just gather more metrics.
They build systems to see what matters-and act on it. | | They connect the dots. They align teams. And they act on the right signals at the right time. | | This is why I believe a unified customer hub is the most underrated growth strategy for SMBs. | | Because clarity creates action-and action drives outcomes. | | | In next week’s edition of The Catalyst, I’ll share the exact 3-step framework I’ve used with dozens of companies to turn scattered data into coordinated, high-impact action. | | The framework will help you: | - Identify which signals actually matter (and which are just noise)
- Connect cross-functional data to see the complete customer story
- Orchestrate coordinated action across your entire organization
| Until then-pause and ask yourself:
What’s one customer signal your business might be missing right now – and not even realizing it? | | I’d love to hear your thoughts. | | | | |
Your Sales Funnel is Lying to You