A Familiar Scene
The CRM looks like it’s working.
Everyone’s had training.
The marketing team is sending campaigns.
Sales is logging notes (most of the time).
Customer success is trying to keep up.
And yet...
It’s not a tech problem.
It’s a model problem.
The business has built a bottom-up CRM - and bottom-up CRMs don’t scale.
What Is Bottom-Up CRM?
We define it like this:
A bottom-up CRM is one that grows from the habits of individuals and departments, rather than from business strategy and leadership design.
It usually evolves like this:
The result?
A patchwork system where every part “sort of works” - but nothing connects.
It’s not that the teams are doing a bad job. They’re doing their best.
But without a top-down design, the system reflects fragmentation - not strategy.
The 5 Signs You’re Stuck in a Bottom-Up CRM
If any of these sound familiar, you’re not alone.
Marketing, Sales, and CX all define “lead,” “opportunity,” and “conversion” differently.
Even lifecycle stages mean different things depending on who you ask.
That means handoffs fail, reports clash, and dashboards confuse more than they clarify.
You’ve got dashboards — but no one uses them to make decisions.
Leadership asks for spreadsheets instead.
Why? Because the numbers don’t reflect how the business actually works.
Everyone’s added their own tweaks over time.
What started as “just a few adjustments” becomes a jungle of fields, properties, and pipelines.
No one knows what’s mandatory, what’s outdated, or what’s linked to automation.
Teams export to Excel for accuracy.
They communicate outside the system to speed things up.
CRM becomes something they update after the real work is done - not where the real work happens.
Your people see CRM as a chore.
Your leaders don’t believe the numbers.
Your projects never quite stick.
That’s what a bottom-up system feels like.
Why It Happens (and Why It’s Not Your Team’s Fault)
This kind of CRM setup rarely comes from negligence - it comes from absence.
Absence of ownership.
Absence of clear strategic intent.
Absence of design.
When no one steps in to answer:
...then teams build what they need for today.
And what you end up with is a series of individual fixes - not a unified system.
The Breaking Point: Myenergi’s CRM Reset
At Myenergi, CRM had been live for over a year.
Every department was active in the system - but adoption was fragmented.
The marketing team had workflows running, but the sales team was still relying on spreadsheets.
Customer service had their own views. Leadership didn’t trust the reports.
And there was a growing sense of “we’re not getting value.”
The system wasn’t broken.
It just wasn’t unified.
We applied our SIMPLIFI Framework and worked directly with senior leadership to realign the system to their business model - not just their departmental tasks.
Here’s what changed:
They didn’t need a new tool.
They needed to stop building bottom-up - and start designing top-down.
What Top-Down CRM Actually Looks Like
Let’s be clear: top-down CRM isn’t about control or micromanagement.
It’s about designing a system around how your business works - and wants to grow.
It means:
Here’s the difference in table form:
|
Bottom-Up CRM |
Top-Down CRM |
|
|
Ownership |
Department-led |
Leadership-owned |
|
Setup |
Team-by-team |
Business model-aligned |
|
Reporting |
Fragmented & disputed |
Unified & trusted |
|
Perception |
Admin burden |
Strategic enabler |
|
Change Management |
Reactive |
Proactive & structured |
This is what scaling firms need if they want CRM to fuel growth - not friction.
For COOs and Heads of Growth: Your Role Is Pivotal
You can’t outsource this to marketing.
You can’t leave it to RevOps to fix later.
CRM is the operational system that supports your commercial model.
If you’re a COO or Head of Growth, here’s how to take the lead:
Treat CRM like your operating system.
It should reflect how the company moves from lead to revenue to renewal - with clarity and consistency.
Every month, review what’s working, what’s breaking, and what’s been hacked together.
Your CRM will evolve. But evolution without direction leads to entropy.
Don’t assume teams are aligned.
Create and communicate a CRM charter: shared definitions, rules of engagement, metrics that matter.
CRM shouldn’t be “just” a tool. It should power:
When CRM maps to leadership metrics, everything clicks.
The Real Problem Isn’t CRM. It’s Misalignment.
The reason bottom-up CRM doesn’t scale isn’t technical.
It’s structural.
You’re building your system based on what individual teams need instead of what the business must align around.
This creates:
Eventually, things stall - not because people aren’t trying, but because the system isn’t designed to scale with them.
Before You Add Another Field or Dashboard…
Stop.
Ask:
Because the solution isn’t more features - it’s more focus.
Final Thought: The System Is Only as Smart as Its Strategy
If CRM feels clunky, messy, and untrusted, it’s not because your people are broken.
It’s because the system has grown without leadership input.
Your CRM is a reflection of your company.
If it feels fragmented, misaligned, and reactive - there’s your sign.
Start again from the top.
Design it like you’d design your business.
Because at scale, CRM isn’t software - it’s your strategy, systemised.
Want to Spot the Real Issues?
Download our guide:
The 7 Growth Gaps Quietly Holding You Back
Built for COOs, Heads of Growth, and leaders tired of duct-tape CRM.