All businesses benefit from marketing automation and CRM systems, especially when they are integrated. However, these systems can be very complex, even when your needs are simple. There’s more at stake than you may realize, so consider your approach very carefully.

One of my favourite business quotes comes from Peter Drucker, and it’s “Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast.” What this means is that is doesn’t matter what your companies mission, vision, and goals are if your culture isn’t aligned, then it’s never going to happen. Because in the battle between culture and strategy, culture wins every single time. I recently worked with a client where the CEO put forward a strategy that relied on the company being agile, and they made practically no progress towards those goals. Why? Because the culture of the company was one of bureaucracy, everything had to be agreed on by committee. It was a process-driven company, which is not a bad thing per se, but it’s not very agile and was certainly not agile enough to achieve the CEO’s goals in the timeframe he set for them.

Most CRM systems today are very usable right out of the box. They’ve been designed based on best practices and years of customer feedback. However, no two businesses run the same way, so optimization requires CRM customization.

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