Please don’t judge me. My name is Jason, and I’m a Pixel user. Now on my third Google Pixel phone, I have loved every one and had zero issues for years. Then it happened. My phone began randomly rebooting to the point of uselessness on my first post-covid work trip. Jason’s Pixel #3 was just 18 months old. I was frustrated.

The challenge is the same for everyone—technology customers want what they saw in the demo. It was easy, smooth and connected, and it could instantly generate efficiencies and cost savings.

All we ask of the tech we purchase is that it turn on and do what it’s supposed to do. This made me think about what I hear from fellow marketers about their sales and marketing tech stacks, and the way so many companies struggle to get their technology investments to work as seamlessly as they’d imagined—or saw in a demo.

While I’ve spent decades marketing across all sorts of industries, I started with tech clients, and they remain a large part of my customer base. Over the years, I’ve also consulted extensively on implementations and change management, primarily for Salesforce customers, to help ensure that they realize the full benefit of the technology they’ve purchased. I am a believer in the tech.

Still, the challenge is the same for everyone—technology customers want what they saw in the demo. It was easy, smooth and connected, and it could instantly generate efficiencies and cost savings. Just like my phone, marketing and sales tech is great. When it works.

Nobody gets to that point overnight. It is possible to successfully implement connected marketing and sales technology, but only when 7 additional elements are present.

1. Buy-in and commitment from the top
2. Thoughtful systems engineering and design
3. Clean data and a process to keep it clean
4. Solid connections between the various systems
5. A detailed change management plan
6. Open collaboration between all stakeholders
7. The financial commitment to make it work

The technology is not the end. It’s a tool. And it takes people and knowledge and resources to use it properly. That’s why I always encourage people to invest in a partner who can help check off each of the above requirements and help ensure the best chance of success. Who knows—one day soon you may be the company featured in that gloriously seamless tradeshow demo.

I’ll get deeper into each of those elements in future posts. In the meantime, if you want to get the most from your CRM tech investments, drop a line to FATFREE today. We’ll chat via my new Pixel phone.