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It’s a familiar story.
A business invests in a shiny new platform - Salesforce, Adobe, HubSpot, Braze, take your pick.
They hire an “expert” or a top-tier implementation partner to get it live. The requirements list is ticked off, boxes are checked, and expectations are sky-high. This system is supposed to transform marketing, sales, and service overnight.
Fast forward 12–18 months and frustration sets in.
The platform sort of works, but the business still can’t seethe value. Reports don’t show the right information. Customers feel invisible.Automations fail, workflows break. Teams complain it’s clunky, slow, “not fit for purpose.” Adoption falls. Performance flatlines. And more often than not the finger almost always points at the technology.
Here’s the truth: it’s not the platform’s fault.
The problem usually lies in how it was implemented - and more importantly, the lack of a cohesive strategy to connect it all together.
Strong technical skills don’t guarantee a good implementation. You can have the smartest developers build the slickest workflows, but if the people configuring your MarTech stack don’t understand the business it’s serving, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.
A successful MarTech project isn’t about hiring a single“platform specialist.” It requires three distinct skillsets, working together from day one:
The Strategist
Understands the business model, commercial goals, operating model, and the customer. Connects objectives to technology capabilities, ensuring every decision ladders up to commercial outcomes.
The Architect
Designs the blueprint - how platforms, data, workflows, and teams fit together. Thinks in systems and operations, not silos. Ensures the infrastructure can deliver today and scale tomorrow.
The Engineer
Builds and configures the technology according to the blueprint, making sure it’s functional, integrated, and optimised for the teams using it. Works hand-in-hand with the strategist and architect to stay aligned.
If your project doesn’t have all three roles in play - or if a single specialist is expected to wear all three hats (the mythical “Unicorn”)- you’re almost guaranteed to run into problems.
In most failed MarTech projects we’ve been called in to fix, the missing piece is almost always strategy, with the symptoms typically being the same:
Records exist, but customers can’t be seen.
Data is stored but can’t be activated.
Journeys and automations are broken.
Reports mislead rather than inform.
Why? Because the tech was implemented in isolation, without a deep understanding of:
Commercial strategy - how the business makes money, where growth comes from, and what role marketing, sales, and service technology play in achieving it.
The customer - who they are, how they behave, what motivates them, and what behaviours you’re trying to influence.
Operational reality - how leads flow, how data is captured, and how teams really work together (or don’t).
Without this context, even the best platform becomes nothing more than an expensive filing cabinet - full of potential, delivering very little.
A good platform isn’t defined by the brand on the licence, the size of the price tag or the long list of capabilities. Salesforce, HubSpot, Adobe, Braze - any of them can deliver huge value. The difference lies in how they’re implemented. The strongest platform implementations share these qualities:
Aligned to business objectives
Every feature in use links directly to a commercial goal -growing customers, reducing churn, improving forecasting, delivering personalisation, or creating better customer experiences. Nothing exists “just because it’s there.”
Customer-centric by design
Platforms are configured around real customer journeys, not internal silos. Data, workflows, and campaigns map to behaviours and lifecycle stages, ensuring joined-up experiences across marketing, sales, service, and commerce.
Usable and visible for teams
The real test is whether people and technology across the organisation can see what matters and act on it:
· Unified customer view - who the customer is, where they are in the journey, what signals they’re giving off, and how they link to your strategy.
· Actionable insights with data that drives action- segmenting audiences, triggering campaigns and personalisation, informing sales conversations, meaningful reports.
· Decision clarity - dashboards that simplify complexity into useful guidance, not noise.
· Adoption-friendly workflows - automation and templates that keep teams out of spreadsheets and workarounds.
· AI is informed with accurate data so it can be deployed and used effectively across commercial teams.
Integrated, not isolated
Good platforms don’t sit in a vacuum. They connect seamlessly with the wider ecosystem - CRM, CDP, ERP, commerce, analytics - sodata flows freely and teams work from a single source of truth.
Scalable and adaptable
As markets, channels, technology and customer expectations evolve, the platform grows and adapts with them. Small tweaks can be made that flex with your strategy. No costly rebuild every two years.
Easily governed and future-proof
Strong governance is baked in: As the era of AI develops, data standards, compliance (GDPR/CCPA), role-based access, and QA processes are imperative. Avoiding the all-too-common slide into cluttered, insecure, or messy systems.
A strong platform implementation doesn’t just store information. It gives teams visibility to understand customers and the tools to act on that understanding - turning technology into a true growth driver.
If technology alone doesn’t guarantee success, then the people who design and implement it are critical. The right partner will connect strategy to execution. The wrong one will leave you with expensive software and frustrated teams.
Here’s how to tell the difference:
They understand your commercial strategy
If your partner hasn’t asked about your business model, how you make money, your product or service, or your marketing/sales/servicestrategy, you’re already 50% of the way to a bad outcome.
Red flag: Platforms and features dominate conversations without asking, “What commercial outcomes are we trying to achieve?”
They interrogate your customers
If they don’t ask for your ICP, segmentation, or behavioural data, they’re not going to be able to build journeys or experiences that actually influence behaviour or reports that deliver value and insight.
Red flag: No conversation about customer journeys, segmentation, or desired behaviours.
They understand Revenue Operations
From lead flow to renewals, RevOps is the operational bloodstream of your business. If they’re not talking to you about how your marketing, sales and service operations functions and what your pain points are then this isn’t going to be relayed into your platforms.
Red flag: They’re not asking for your operational design, or they can’t explain how the setup will help sales close faster, marketing deliver better leads, or service resolve issues quicker.
They understand your ecosystem
Without clarity on how platforms fit together it can get very messy - duplication, overlap, under-utilisation, and wasted spend.
Red flag: No audit of your current stack and ecosystem, no integration plan, no clear decisions on what stays, what goes, and why.
A successful MarTech implementation isn’t about the tool - it’s about the thinking and design.
Get the strategy right, align it to customers and operations, and the platform becomes a growth engine.
Get it wrong, and even the most advanced software will fail to deliver.
Because in the end, your MarTech stack isn’t just a set of tools. It’s the nervous system of your business. And if it’s not connected, the whole body suffers.
