The “It’s the Market” Trap
Economic downturns often tempt leaders to blame external forces—interest rates, inflation, or weak demand—for stalled growth. While these factors are real, letting them dictate performance is a choice. When budgets shrink, customers reveal which vendors are truly essential. If your revenue simply tracks a down market, it’s a sign your offering may not be mission critical. A slowdown, then, isn’t just a setback—it’s a mirror reflecting how indispensable your business really is.
Instead of enabling performance, CRM often burdened it—turning skilled salespeople into part-time administrators. Even as technology advanced, the core flaw persisted: systems designed for management visibility did little to make selling easier. Now, the emergence of AI and automation is rewriting that equation, shifting CRM from a tool of recordkeeping to a source of real-time intelligence that supports, rather than slows, the human seller.