Mind the Gap: Why CROs Think Their Data’s Clean (and RevOps Knows It’s Not)

A recent Traction Complete survey uncovered a fundamental disconnect between Chief Revenue Officers (CROs) and Revenue Operations (RevOps) professionals: CROs think their data is clean and reliable - RevOps professionals emphatically do not. In this expert-led discussion, Camela Thompson (Head of Marketing at RevOps Co-op), Jayme Smithers (CRO at Traction Complete), and Connor Fee (COO at Fathom) dig into why this perception gap exists, how it manifests in GTM performance, and what RevOps can do to bridge it.
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If you’re in RevOps, this conversation hits close to home: strategy is being shaped on shaky foundations, and it’s your job to fix it.
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The CRO–RevOps Confidence Gap in Account Data

Traction Complete surveyed RevOps leaders and CROs at high-growth tech companies. The most striking finding? Half of CROs expressed high confidence in the accuracy of their account data. Meanwhile, 80% of RevOps leaders said their account data quality was poor or in need of major improvement.

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That’s a 30-point confidence gap - one that has major implications for GTM planning, territory design, ABM execution, forecasting, and more.

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“Data should be a company’s most valuable strategic asset, but if your foundational data is flawed, it becomes a liability.” – Jayme Smithers

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Executives are using dashboards built on flawed data to make strategic decisions. RevOps sees the downstream consequences - mismatched territories, duplicate accounts, misrouted leads, and inflated forecasts - every day.

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See the full results and get the guide for the 2025 CRO Survey here.

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Why CROs Overestimate Data Quality

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This gap doesn’t stem from incompetence. It’s about incentives, exposure, and mindset.

• Sales leaders are inherently optimistic. Their jobs rely on forward-looking confidence, not data skepticism. “You don’t get into sales without a certain level of optimism baked in,” said Smithers. That optimism, while valuable for motivating teams, becomes a liability when evaluating the health of your CRM.
• Executives rarely operate in the weeds. CROs generally work through their managers and directors, relying on roll-up reports and summaries. They don’t see the duplicated records or mismatched parent-child hierarchies in Salesforce. RevOps does - daily.
• The timing of surveys matters. “Ask a CRO how clean their data is three weeks before quarter-end and the answer might be very different,” noted Connor Fee, CRO at Fathom. When the pressure’s on, flaws surface.

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Even experienced operators who understand the importance of data hygiene don’t always realize the extent of the problem. And when CROs assume data is good enough, RevOps is left cleaning up the mess after strategic misfires.

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RevOps Knows the Truth: Dirty Data Breaks the GTM Engine

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RevOps professionals see how poor account data undermines performance every day:

• Leads route to the wrong rep or never route at all.
• Salespeople work duplicate accounts without realizing it.
• BDRs waste time on accounts already in the pipeline.
• Customer success managers (CSMs) miss upsell opportunities due to disconnected records.
• Attribution is skewed because account structures are flat or fragmented.
• Forecasts become disconnected from reality when opportunity roll-ups aren’t tied to the correct accounts.

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“If the CRO thinks everything is fine, but the RevOps team is constantly dealing with duplicate records, mismatched hierarchies, or missing fields, you’re playing two completely different games.” – Camela Thompson

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Without clean, connected account data, no strategic initiative - from ABM and whitespace analysis to expansion forecasting and usage-based pricing - can be trusted.

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For more on data management best practices, check out RevOps Data Management 101: Definition, Tips, and 5 Best Practices.

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ARR vs. Net Retention: Why Clean Account Data Matters More Than Ever

One of the most interesting insights from the survey: while Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is still a top-line priority for CROs, net revenue retention (NRR) has emerged as a critical growth lever - especially in today’s efficiency-driven environment.

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Clean account data underpins every component of net retention:

• Clear visibility into parent-child hierarchies helps sales and CS teams cross-sell and upsell effectively.
• Accurate product usage data and firmographics allow for intelligent segmentation and playbook design.
• Understanding account lineage helps with contract consolidation, procurement leverage and whitespace identification.

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“If you want to increase customer value over time, you have to understand the full picture of each account - historically, structurally, and operationally.” – Jayme Smithers

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The Real Role of RevOps: Grounding Strategy in Truth

RevOps sits at a critical intersection: we’re expected to deliver operational efficiency, drive revenue growth, and support strategic decision-making. But to do any of that effectively, we must also serve as truth-tellers.

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“We're the ones who actually know what’s happening across systems, teams, and data. We can’t afford to sugarcoat reality.” – Camela Thompson

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RevOps professionals have a rare privilege: the ability to work “on the business,” not just in it. That means taking a step back, connecting cross-functional dots, and identifying the structural weaknesses that prevent the GTM org from achieving its goals. Account data quality is often at the center of those weaknesses.

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Where to Start: A Practical Framework for RevOps-Led Data Hygiene

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Camela Thompson outlined a tactical roadmap for RevOps teams to take ownership of account data health:

1. Align on Business Goals. Start with what the business cares about—revenue targets, go-to-market segments, expansion metrics. Don’t try to fix everything. Fix what supports the top objectives.‍
2. Define the “Account.” Is an account a billing entity? A brand? A location? A domain? Without clarity on what “account” means, any data structure will fail. Codify this definition with leadership.‍
3. Run a Gap Analysis. Identify what data you have, what’s missing, and what’s incorrect. Focus on high-impact fields like account hierarchy, ownership, industry, and ICP fit.‍
4. Prioritize Enrichment and Deduplication. Use tools like ZoomInfo, Clearbit, or Traction Complete to enrich and normalize records. Automate deduplication where possible. Salespeople should not be manually choosing which record to keep.‍
5. Agree on a “Good Enough” Threshold. Absolute perfection is impossible. Set an acceptable margin of error and align stakeholders on what’s “good enough” for strategic decisions.‍
6. Automate and Monitor. Once the definitions, processes, and systems are in place, automate workflows where possible. Set up alerts and dashboards to monitor for data decay.‍
7. Socialize Progress. Show your work. Report improvements and ROI back to the business. Get credit for the hard, unsexy work of fixing your data infrastructure.

For more on common data quality issues, check out The top 5 data quality pitfalls (and how to overcome them).

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Tech Spotlight: How Traction Complete Solves Hierarchy and Routing at Scale

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Traction Complete’s suite of Salesforce-native tools was built specifically to address RevOps' most persistent account data challenges. During the webinar, Smithers showed how customers are using Traction to:

• Build and visualize automated account hierarchies.
• Enrich records with firmographics from multiple sources.
• Route leads based on accurate parent-child relationships.
• Roll up whitespace reporting and ARR by corporate structure.
• Eliminate “orphan” accounts that sit outside of assigned territories.

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One enterprise company was spending 12 people-hours per quarter manually reconciling their account hierarchies. Traction Complete fully automated the process.

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“You can’t drive account-based anything if your accounts aren’t based on reality.” – Jayme Smithers

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For more on Salesforce Account Hierarchies, check out Who Can Use Account Hierarchies? Salesforce Account Hierarchy Use Cases for RevOps Teams.

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Final Takeaways: How to Bridge the Confidence Gap

CROs want to make the right calls. RevOps has the insights to help them - but only if we step up.

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Here’s how to bridge the data trust gap:

• Don’t assume executives know how broken your data is. Show them.
• Lead with business outcomes—not tech speak.
• Set definitions, benchmarks, and “good enough” thresholds together.
• Implement tools that reduce manual work and make data visible.
• Treat RevOps like a strategic product—one that continuously evolves based on stakeholder feedback and outcomes.

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“If we want to move from tactical to strategic, we have to take ownership of data—and tell a better story about how it drives revenue.” – Camela Thompson

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Ready to close the data perception gap at your company? Start by running your own internal audit: compare RevOps’ view of account data health to what your CRO believes. Then use that delta to spark a conversation - one that leads to better systems, more accurate forecasting, and ultimately, stronger GTM performance.

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Want more expert insights and tactical resources? Check out the RevOps Co-op blog and join the community to connect with 17,000+ RevOps pros solving the same problems.

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