Graeme Lawrenson

CRM and Marketing Strategist. Chartered Marketer. 12+ years building CRM as a commercial function across B2B and B2C markets.

What I’ve built

My CRM-focused marketing career started at MVF Global, where I spent five years growing revenue by an average of 200% year-on-year and built GTM frameworks for eight international high-growth market entries. That grounding in data, commercial accountability, and what actually moves a number is the foundation everything else sits on.

From there, I moved through fintech at Investec, Quick-Service Restaurant loyalty at Wrap It Up, and enterprise loyalty at Nectar before joining Michael Page on a short-term contract. Six and a half years later I left as Head of CRM for the UK and North America. In between, I owned the CRM and marketing strategy across two of the most commercially significant markets, led platform and change management across Salesforce, Marketing Cloud and Pardot, built a high-performing team in the UK and US, and developed over 15 CRM specialists across all global regions.

The work ranged from BD and lead pipeline management in partnership with Ops, which fundamentally changed conversion rates, through to sophisticated segmentation, multi-region campaign strategy, and commercial reporting that connected CRM activity to revenue outcomes rather than channel metrics. My team regularly tracked competitors copying our template design, campaign timings, automation triggers and even copy, which was a reasonable signal we were doing something right.

The results from that period were the product of implementing CRM as a strategic commercial function, moving away from a batch-and-blast channel. £12m+ CRM-attributed revenue from 2020 to 2025. B2B lead revenue up 118% year on year. US audience engagement growth of 313%. UK lead-to-sale conversion lifted from 7% to 24%.

No one there now will dare mention open rates as a primary success metric.

I hold a CIM Professional Diploma in Marketing and Chartered Marketer status. My degree was in Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Kent, a discipline built on analysing how texts operate across political, social and economic contexts, how an author’s background shapes their choices, and how ideas can be communicated even within controlled environments. That kind of analytical thinking, understanding audience, context, and the forces shaping behaviour, transferred rather nicely into marketing strategy.

A few things I believe about CRM

CRM is a strategic business function, not a channel. When it is treated as the former, it shapes commercial decisions, informs product, and connects directly to revenue. When it is treated as the latter, it sends emails.
Most CRM teams do not have a technology problem. They have a strategy problem. The platform, the data, and the people are usually there. What is missing is a coherent operating model with clear commercial accountability.
Poor data quality is rarely a technology failure. It is a people and process failure that technology is being asked to fix. The strategy has to come before the tech.
CRM and marketing strategy only work when they are aligned with the business’s commercial objectives. Siloed planning produces siloed results.
CRM success is 20% technology and 80% people. The best-designed strategy fails without stakeholder alignment and team capability behind it.

Credentials

Professional Designation

CIM Chartered Marketer
Chartered Institute of Marketing. Valid to December 2026. Membership No. 12341636.
Verify on Credly

CIM Qualifications and Specialist Badges

Continuing Professional Development

Salesforce Certified AI Associate, April 2025 (Credential ID: 5998717)
The AI-First Executive, LinkedIn Learning, March 2026