In a fast-moving, cash-tight market, the ability to make faster, smarter decisions will give SMBs a competitive edge. And unified, trustworthy data is the only way business leaders can make those decisions with confidence.
This was the key takeaway from Agents of Growth: Unlocking SMB Potential with Unified Data, a recent SmartCompany webinar presented in partnership with Salesforce.
Moderated by SmartCompany senior business journalist David Adams, the session brought together Kate Save, founder of healthy meal delivery company Be Fit Food, Lauren Calautti, chief revenue rocketeer at Scalare Partners, and Stephanie Wells, area VP of sales for emerging and small business at Salesforce ANZ.
Here’s what they had to say.
Salesforce’s Stephanie Wells has seen it many times: businesses relying on spreadsheets, siloed systems, and clashing definitions of basic metrics.
“We’ve all been around a table where someone says, ‘I’m not sure that dashboard tells the full story,’” she told the panel. “As soon as that doubt is there, the whole conversation slows down. It becomes a debate instead of a decision.”
Unified data, on the other hand, presents a “single source of truth” — one that is helpful not just for reporting, but for building momentum, creating sustainable growth, and making quick pivots.
“In this competitive landscape, data allows you to act faster than ever before,” Wells said, adding that without it, businesses risk being left behind.
For Scalare’s Lauren Calautti, the real power of unified data is in alignment.
“Choosing one platform, sticking with it, and knowing that it’s got full capability across all of the different business functions is what helps you make those important business decisions on where to grow and why,” she said.
“It’s also about interconnectedness, and making sure all of the different business functions are speaking that common language.”
Kate Save knows how fast things can go off the rails without proper systems in place. After a viral pitch exploded demand for Be Fit Food, her team jumped from five to 63 staff in just four weeks.
“We grew 1500% overnight,” she told the panel. “So it was really a scramble for about six months to fulfil the thousands of orders that were coming in when we were really only budgeting for 30 to 100 orders a week.
“Within two years, we had built really robust systems that could manage that, but it certainly wasn’t quick and easy.”
One thing that helped Be Fit Food scale smart was collecting data on why customers were buying — everything from their goals and health needs to referral sources and life stages.
“Having all of that data in one place meant the operations team could access what they needed for forecasting, that the marketing team knew how to talk to customers, and that our clinical team could provide the right service to maximise results,” Save said.
Another valuable lesson Save picked up along the way is that your frontline team holds the richest data.
“I think a lot of businesses overlook their customer success team as being probably the main point of information,” she said. “They’re the ones speaking to people day in, day out — new customers, old customers, people that are coming back after a few years.”
The key is to make sure they’re logging and tagging every interaction correctly, she added. Over time, this creates the kind of deep insight into customer behaviour that goes far beyond numbers in a spreadsheet.
One thing Save’s team discovered was that people’s needs shifted with their life stages, economic conditions, and personal circumstances.
“So we need the dietitians to keep chatting to the customers to see where they’re at with their journey, and we need to keep challenging the data,” she said.
That right there is the other benefit of gathering good data — it means you stop making assumptions and start acting on facts.
Or, as Caluatti put it: “Capturing everything from the beginning turns what you think is happening into what you know is happening.”
One of the biggest mistakes founders make around data is waiting too long to get serious about it.
“If you don’t set up a unified system from the start, you’ll end up spending all your energy untangling the mess later,” Caluatti said.
Wells added even businesses of one can benefit from scalable tools — and that the sooner you start, the easier it is to grow. Otherwise, you’re rebuilding your foundation just when you should be taking off.
Save agreed: “If the goal is growth, everything you set up needs to scale with you.”
Both Wells and Calautti pointed to AI as a game-changer, both when it comes to efficiency and unlocking new opportunities.
Wells explained that tools like Salesforce’s Agentforce are already helping small businesses automate lead triage, customer service, and internal workflows. For example, Urban Rest used Agentforce to help provide 24/7 support — and saw a 50% lift in productivity.
But, Wells warned, you can’t get good output if the input is junk. AI only works if your data is clean, unified and trusted.
The key, as Calautti pointed out, is to decide and name the metrics that matter to your business.
“Conversion rate, sales cycle, average price point — whatever it is, track it and trust it,” she said. “That’s how you grow with confidence.”
Salesforce, the global leader in customer relationship management (CRM), empowers companies to connect with their customers in a whole new way.
