Why Most CRM Implementations Fall Short — And How a Fractional CMO Can Fix That There is a conversation that happens in boardrooms and sales floors far too often. A company invests significantly in a CRM system — months of evaluation, a substantial implementation budget, a roll-out plan — and yet, six months later, the sales team is still working on spreadsheets. The marketing team has no idea how their campaigns are performing downstream, and leadership is questioning whether the whole thing was worth it. The technology is rarely the problem. The gap almost always comes down to alignment — or the absence of it. When a CRM is implemented without the active involvement of the people who will use it most — the result is a system that reflects someone's idea of how the business works, rather than how it actually works. Campaigns run by the marketing team generate leads from a dozen of different sources, but the CRM only tracks three. The sales team follows a specific process for dif...