Half of C-suite CRM data out of date in less than two years

Half of CRM data relating to C-suite leaders across Europe’s three biggest markets will be out of date within two years as sales teams struggle to identify and keep up with accelerating leadership churn, according to new research from B2B data specialist Cognism.

One in four CEOs leaves their role every year, with CMO and CRO roles even more volatile. And with 78% of those decision-makers spending their budgets within their first 90 days - under pressure to deliver immediate impact - sales teams face more frequent, but narrower, windows to engage them at their most receptive.

The CMO role sees the most churn, leading to a 35% annual decay in CRM data accuracy across France, Germany, and the UK. The equivalent for CROs is 34%, and for CFOs it is 32%. The CEO is the most stable C-suite role, but CRM data decay is still 26% annually.

This means that across all roles, half of a company’s C-suite CRM data will be inaccurate within two years. Churn – and therefore data decay – is lower for US roles, pointing to a marginally more stable market, but the pattern is the same, with CMOs (30% annual data decay) being the most volatile, followed by CROs (29%), CFOs (24%), and then CEOs (23%).

C-suite CRM data lasts longer there, but half of records will still become inaccurate in just 25 to 27 months.

Vendors need to position themselves to capitalise on the combination of instability and urgency in the C-suite, said Dominic Allon, CEO at Cognism:

“When a new leader steps in, they review everything and reset priorities, buying committees, and budgets. These changes are more frequent than ever now, but if you know when they happen you can be ready to act on narrow windows of opportunity.

The companies thriving in this new reality are fluent in data – able to detect, interpret, and act quickly on live buying signals. Data freshness is non-negotiable: annual plans are no good if you’re relying on stale data that keeps opportunities hidden.”

Unsurprisingly, Cognism’s research shows that AI is front of mind for B2B buyers. One in five surging B2B intent topics are AI-related, with particular emphasis on automation, analytics, and enablement as companies prioritise efficiency, intelligence, and impact.

Buying signals for AI-enabled sales productivity solutions in particular rose sharply in Q4 of 2025, with strong interest in using AI to power lead scoring and messaging, and to automate workflows.

However, while AI adoption is accelerating rapidly, there are signs that companies’ underlying data infrastructure has not kept pace. This not only creates a growing risk – compounded as accelerating leadership churn quickly renders information outdated – of making bad decisions at scale and wasting time and effort, but also of falling foul of data regulation.

75% of revenue leaders consider data quality their biggest challenge as they recognise that investment in AI systems can be undermined by feeding stale, inaccurate, or incomplete data into them.

Meanwhile, a surge in buying intent signals relating to cybersecurity resilience points to the need to mitigate the risk of investment in automation, with companies moving to protect data integrity and compliance as they increase their use of AI.

“Account maps age fast, org charts shift overnight, and buying committees could look different every quarter. AI can be powerful, but it’s only as good as the data behind it – and today, if you’re relying on traditional twice-yearly refreshes of your CRM data, you’re creating unnecessary risk.

Success doesn’t just depend on embedding AI into your current workflows, but on having the strongest possible data for those tools to work with,” said Viktoria Ruubel, Chief Product, Data, and Technology Officer at Cognism.

Cognism’s research coincides with the launch of the company’s new brand and updates to its platform. The new platform offers expanded CRM enrichment capabilities and smarter recommendations to help sellers prioritise their prospecting workflows – the unified foundations that modern data, marketing, and revenue teams in mid-market and enterprise-scale businesses need to power their go-to-market stack.

Cognism’s approach is a response both to increasing tech stack consolidation among mid-market and enterprise-scale businesses and to external factors increasing pressure on businesses, Allon said:

"Amid macroeconomic uncertainty, geopolitical instability, and the rise of AI, efficient growth is more important than ever and data integrity is a vital strategic asset. In an age of consolidation, we want to be a foundational infrastructure layer making clean and compliant data accessible across the tools teams already use.”

Cognism recently welcomed a number of new executives to lead the company through this shift. New CEO Dominic Allon joined Cognism from Pipedrive in September 2025 alongside new Chief Revenue Officer and former Intuit UK VP and Country Manager Chris Evans. The pair were followed in January 2026 by Allon’s former Pipedrive colleague Viktoria Ruubel, who left her role as Chief Product Officer to take on the role of Chief Product, Data, and Technology Officer at Cognism.