Free SFMC Failure Audit

17 signs your platform is costing more than it returns.

No form. No email gate. Just a straight checklist for CRM and marketing leaders who suspect the visible problem is not the real one.

How to use it

Read each statement and mark the ones that are true today. One isolated issue may be normal. A pattern across two or more areas usually points to a wider problem in architecture, ownership or delivery.

This is a prompt for a better conversation—not an automated diagnosis.

Architecture and data

  • Nobody can explain the account and business-unit structure without opening a diagram.
  • The same customer exists in multiple places with conflicting identifiers or attributes.
  • Data extensions and automations have unclear owners, purposes or retention rules.
  • A proposed “quick fix” creates another permanent dependency.

Journeys and automation

  • Journeys pass QA but still behave differently in production.
  • Re-entry, exclusions, consent or suppression logic is poorly understood.
  • Failures are discovered by customers or campaign teams rather than monitoring.
  • Teams are afraid to change old automations because nobody knows what depends on them.

Delivery and ownership

  • Simple campaigns take weeks because intake, data, approvals or QA are unclear.
  • One person or agency holds knowledge the wider team cannot access.
  • Marketing, technology and data teams use different definitions of “done”.
  • Documentation is outdated, scattered or created only after something breaks.

Value and direction

  • The roadmap is mostly a list of platform features rather than business priorities.
  • New tools are being added before existing capability is understood or used well.
  • Reporting measures sends and clicks but not meaningful customer behaviour.
  • Leadership is asking what the platform investment is actually returning.
  • The proposed solution is much clearer than the problem it is meant to solve.

What the pattern means

Do not count the boxes. Look at where they cluster.

Mostly architecture and data? Fix the foundation before adding journeys. Mostly delivery and ownership? Another technical rebuild may not solve it. Problems across every area? Start with an independent diagnosis before committing to a large program.

Discuss the result · A$150 ↗