Why CMOs Should Be Rethinking Their Martech Stacks For 2026

Heidi Schwende
Nov 14
13 min read

AI Will Force a Rethink of the Marketing Technology Stack But Do This First

I'm going to tell you something your martech vendors don't want you to hear: You're getting fleeced.

Every week, I talk to mid-market CMOs who've spent six figures—sometimes seven—on marketing technology that's supposed to revolutionize their business. Two years later? They're using maybe a third of it, nobody trusts the data coming out of it, and they're locked into contracts they can't escape.

According to Gartner, martech utilization has cratered to just 33%. You read that right—you're paying for 100% of the platform and using one-third of it.

Most marketers admit their tech stacks are so complicated that 20% literally compare them to black holes. And here's the kicker:

Forrester reports that 64% of B2B marketing leaders don't trust their measurement framework enough to make decisions with it.

So you've got tools you can't use, data you don't trust, and a CFO who's starting to ask uncomfortable questions about that marketing budget.

Welcome to 2026. Time to get real.

The Emperor Has No Clothes (And Everyone Knows It)

Look, I've been in digital marketing for 25 years. I've seen every shiny object cycle there is. And the martech explosion? It's one of the biggest con jobs the industry has ever pulled off.

They sold you "integration." You got platforms that barely talk to each other.
They sold you "automation." You got systems that require a full-time specialist to maintain.
They sold you "insights." You got dashboards with 47 metrics that contradict each other.

The mid-market companies I work with—the ones doing $5M to $10M in revenue—are the ones getting hurt worst. Because you're trying to run enterprise-level tech stacks with three-person marketing teams. It doesn't work. It never works. And the vendors know it.

What This Actually Costs Your Business

When I audit a martech stack, I'm not just looking at the software licenses. I'm looking at the real cost:

Your marketing manager spends 12 hours a week pulling reports that nobody acts on because the numbers don't match what sales is seeing.
You've got three different analytics platforms showing three different conversion numbers. Nobody knows which one is right, so you're making decisions based on gut feel—exactly what you had before you spent $50K on analytics tools.
You set up marketing automation two years ago. Half the workflows are broken. The other half are sending emails nobody's opened since 2023. But you're still paying the full license fee.
You're paying for advanced features and AI-powered tools when your basic foundation isn't even working right.

The "Open API" Lie You Need to Stop Believing

Every sales rep loves to tout their "open API" and how everything integrates seamlessly. Sounds great in the demo, doesn't it?

Here's what they don't tell you: Having an open API means nothing if your platforms aren't actually connected properly. And I guarantee they're not.

I can't tell you how many times I've walked into a company that's paid for "integrated" platforms only to find:

The CRM and marketing automation are supposedly synced, but lead scores aren't passing through
Your web analytics and ad platforms are "connected," but the conversion tracking is misconfigured, so your attribution is garbage
Sales and marketing are using different definitions for the same metrics, so nobody's numbers match
Three different tools are tracking email engagement with three different methodologies, giving you three different open rates for the same campaign

Open API is great. In theory. In practice? Most companies don't have anyone who actually knows how to set up these integrations correctly. So you've got platforms that CAN talk to each other but aren't actually having a conversation.

The Setup Problem Nobody Wants to Admit

Here's the dirty secret of martech: Most platforms are never configured properly in the first place.

You bought the tool. Someone from the vendor did a 90-minute "onboarding" call. They checked some boxes, turned on some features, and called it done. Now you're making business decisions based on data from a system that was never set up right to begin with.

I see this constantly:

Attribution models that don't match your actual sales cycle
Lead scoring that nobody's updated since the initial setup
Reporting dashboards that track vanity metrics instead of what actually matters
Integrations that were supposed to work but broke six months ago and nobody noticed

The sales rep who sold you the platform? Their job was to get you to sign a contract. Period. They don't care if it's set up right. They don't care if you're using it effectively. They got their commission and moved on to the next deal.

You're Paying for the Same Thing Three Times

Here's what kills me: Companies will have multiple platforms that do essentially the same thing, but they're not using any of them to their full capacity.

I spoke to a client recently who had:

An email platform with built-in automation
A marketing automation platform with built-in email
A CRM with built-in marketing automation and email

They were paying for three different systems that all did email and automation. And they were using basic features in all three instead of leveraging the advanced capabilities in any single one.

Why? Because nobody ever asked, "What are we actually using? What features are we paying for that sit dormant? Could we consolidate?"

You don't need more features. You need to actually USE the features you're already paying for.

The Sales and Marketing Integration That Doesn't Exist

Let's talk about the elephant in the room: Your sales and marketing systems aren't actually integrated, even if the platforms claim they are.

Marketing says they delivered 200 qualified leads last quarter. Sales says they got 50 usable leads. Finance is looking at completely different numbers for customer acquisition cost.

Why? Because nobody properly integrated sales and marketing in the first place. They just assumed that connecting the CRM to the marketing platform was enough.

It's not.

Real integration means:

Both teams using the same definitions for what a lead is
Both teams agreeing on what "qualified" means
Lead handoff processes that actually work
Closed-loop reporting where marketing can see what happens to leads after they go to sales
Sales giving feedback that actually flows back into marketing's targeting

Most companies have none of this. They have two systems that technically sync, but sales and marketing are still working in silos, arguing about lead quality, and pointing fingers when revenue misses targets.

Why You Can't Trust the Sales Rep

Here's something I need you to understand: The sales rep selling you martech is not your advisor. They're not your consultant. They're not looking out for your best interests.

They're there to sell you platform licenses. Period.

Their quota depends on you buying the premium tier with all the add-ons. Their bonus is tied to multi-year contracts. Their commission structure rewards them for upselling features you'll never use.

They'll tell you:

"Everyone in your industry uses this"
"You'll need these features as you scale"
"The integration is seamless"
"Implementation is easy"
"You'll see ROI in 90 days"

None of this is necessarily true. It's a sales pitch designed to get you to sign before you ask too many questions.

I've been on both sides of this table for 25 years. I know how this game works. And I'm telling you: You need someone who can cut through the sales pitch and tell you what you actually need versus what they're trying to sell you.

Someone who's not making commission on the sale. Someone who actually has to make these tools work in the real world. Someone who'll tell you when the cheaper option is the right option.

That's not the sales rep. That's never the sales rep.

Lean Stacks Win, Even With Open APIs

The martech vendors want you to believe that the future is an ecosystem of specialized tools, all connected through APIs, each doing one thing really well.

Sounds elegant. In practice? It's a nightmare to manage.

Even when you have open APIs and everything CAN integrate, you're still managing:

Multiple vendor relationships
Multiple renewal cycles
Multiple support teams who blame each other when things break
Multiple people who need training
Multiple potential points of failure

I've seen it over and over: The companies with lean, focused tech stacks consistently outperform the ones with sprawling "best of breed" ecosystems.

Why? Because they actually use their tools effectively. They have clean data. They can make decisions quickly. They're not spending half their time managing their technology.

Even with perfect APIs, simpler is better.

The Only Metrics That Actually Matter

You know what I love about working with CFOs? They cut through the BS immediately.

They don't care about:

Impressions
Engagement rates
Email open rates
Social media reach
Website traffic (unless it converts)

They care about:

Customer acquisition cost
Customer lifetime value
Revenue by channel
Marketing contribution to pipeline
Return on marketing investment

Your martech stack should give you these numbers. Cleanly. Consistently. Without requiring three people and a week of spreadsheet gymnastics to calculate.

If your current stack can't do that, it doesn't matter how "sophisticated" it is or how many features it has. It's not giving you what you need.

The Data Trust Crisis Is Making You Look Bad

When two-thirds of B2B marketing leaders don't trust their own measurement, that's not a data problem—it's a credibility problem.

You walk into a budget meeting and the CFO asks, "What's our customer acquisition cost by channel?" You pull up your dashboard and give them a number. Then sales gives them a different number. Then finance gives them a third number.

Now nobody trusts marketing's numbers at all.

This is what happens when you bolt together six different platforms and assume they'll magically sync. They won't. The tracking gets misconfigured. The attribution models conflict. The definitions don't match. And suddenly you're defending your entire department's existence instead of talking about growth.

The Audit You Need to Do This Week

Forget the 47-page martech audit frameworks. Here's what matters:

Question 1: If we turned this off tomorrow, would anyone notice?

Not "would someone eventually realize," but would anyone notice immediately because work would stop? If the answer is no, you don't need it.

I don't care if the salesperson was persuasive. I don't care if you got a three-year deal. Sunk costs are sunk. Cut it.

Question 2: Is this properly configured and integrated?

Not "did we do the initial setup," but is it actually working the way it's supposed to? Are the integrations passing data correctly? Are the attribution models set up right? Is anyone actually checking?

If you don't know the answer, I guarantee it's not configured properly.

Question 3: Are we paying for multiple platforms that do the same thing?

Pull up your platform list. Look for overlap. I promise you'll find it. Email marketing, marketing automation, CRM—these all have overlapping features. Pick one platform and use it fully instead of paying for three and using none of them well.

Question 4: Can you draw a straight line from this tool to revenue?

And I mean actual revenue. Dollars. Not "brand awareness" or "engagement rates" or "impression share." Can you point to this tool and say, "This directly contributed $X to the bottom line"?

If you can't, why are you paying for it?

Question 5: Does your team actually know how to use it?

Not "we took the onboarding webinar." Not "the vendor offers training." Does your team use it regularly, confidently, without needing to call support or watch tutorial videos every time?

If it requires constant vendor help or outside consultants to use, it's too complex for your organization. Period.

What You Should Actually Be Running in 2026

After 25 years and hundreds of clients, here's what I've seen work for mid-market companies:

Start with the foundation—and get it right:

Your website is your foundation, and it needs to be really good. Not just good-looking. Actually functional, fast, optimized for conversion. Everything else you do depends on this working.

Your SEO is what gets you found and brings the right people in. You need visibility for the problems you solve. Without this, you're invisible to the people actively looking for what you offer.

Your ads bring bottom-of-the-funnel leads—people ready to buy, ready to talk. This is where you capture demand, not just build it.

Your marketing automation and analytics need to measure all three. They need to track the full journey from search to sale, attribute revenue correctly, and give you clean data on what's working.

The whole idea is to make your website a revenue-generating machine. And your sales reps need to be benefiting from that. They should be getting better qualified leads, more informed prospects, and clearer attribution on where those leads came from.

Once you have this foundation right, THEN you can explore more advanced features.

Not before. Not "we'll fix the foundation later." Not "we'll add the advanced stuff now and clean up the basics eventually."

Get the foundation right first.

That means:

One CRM with built-in marketing automation that sales and marketing both actually use
Properly configured analytics that everyone trusts
Clean integration between your website, your ads, your automation, and your CRM
Attribution that tracks the full journey and gives you real CAC by channel
Reporting that shows revenue impact, not vanity metrics

Here's the critical part: Get this configured PROPERLY. And I don't mean by the sales rep who sold it to you. Hire someone who actually knows what they're doing to set up your attribution, your lead scoring, your sales-marketing integration, your reporting dashboards—all of it. Do it once, do it right.

Everything else: Question it hard. Really hard. And don't add anything else until your foundation is rock solid and generating measurable revenue.

A Critical Warning About AI and Your Broken Stack

Here's something that needs to be said loud and clear before we head into 2026:

Artificial intelligence does not fix bad martech stacks. It amplifies existing problems and inefficiencies, turning minor issues into major liabilities.

I'm watching companies rush to add AI features to their marketing tech—AI-powered content generation, AI chatbots, AI analytics, AI everything—while their basic infrastructure is fundamentally broken.

You've got garbage data? AI will make decisions based on that garbage data—faster and at scale.

Your attribution is misconfigured? AI will optimize for the wrong metrics and waste your budget more efficiently than any human could.

Your sales and marketing aren't integrated? AI will create more sophisticated reports that still don't match, making the trust problem even worse.

The effectiveness of AI is directly tied to the quality of the data and the coherence of the underlying infrastructure it operates on.

You cannot AI your way out of a broken martech stack. You can't automate your way past bad data. You can't use machine learning to fix problems that exist because nobody configured your systems properly in the first place.

Fix your foundation first. Get clean data. Configure your integrations correctly. Build trust in your measurement. THEN—and only then—start exploring what AI can do for you.

I'll be diving deeper into this in my next blog post—specifically how companies are wasting money on AI features while their core marketing infrastructure is fundamentally broken, and what you actually need to have in place before AI becomes helpful instead of harmful.

But for now, understand this: If you're thinking about adding AI to your martech stack before you've fixed the basics, you're about to make an expensive mistake.

The Moves That Separate Winners from Losers in 2026

The CMOs who'll thrive next year aren't the ones with the biggest martech budgets or the most AI-powered features. They're the ones who've gotten ruthlessly focused on what actually moves the needle.

They've killed the tools that looked good on paper but sit unused.
They've invested in proper configuration and integration instead of adding more platforms.
They've stopped believing sales reps and started working with people who'll tell them the truth about what they actually need.
They've built their foundation first—website, SEO, ads, automation, analytics—and made sure all of it works together before adding complexity.
They've built measurement frameworks their CFOs actually trust—which means they're defending their budgets with revenue numbers, not engagement rates.
They've stopped trying to replicate what Fortune 500 companies do and started doing what makes sense for their actual business.
They've realized that even with open APIs and AI features, lean beats complex every single time.

The CFO Conversation You Need to Win

Only 22% of CMOs have truly collaborative relationships with their CFOs.

Why? Because most CMOs walk into budget meetings talking about impressions and brand lift while CFOs want to talk about customer acquisition cost and return on marketing investment.

Your martech stack should make that conversation easier. If you can't pull clean numbers showing what each channel costs to acquire a customer and what those customers are worth over time, your stack is actively hurting you.

Here's the thing your CFO cares about: Are we making more money than we're spending? Everything else is noise.

If your martech stack can't answer that question clearly—and if your sales team isn't seeing real benefits from the leads marketing generates—it's time to blow it up and start over.

What You Need to Do Before January 1st

Pull up your martech expenses. All of them. SaaS fees, agency retainers for platform management, integration costs, training subscriptions, all those new AI features you added—everything.

Next to each one, write:

Is this part of our foundation (website, SEO, ads, automation, analytics) or is it a "nice to have"?
Is this properly configured and integrated, or are we just paying for it?
Are we using another platform that does the same thing?
Last time someone used it to make a real decision
Revenue it directly contributed to in Q4
Whether sales is actually benefiting from this tool
If it's AI-powered: Is our underlying data clean enough for this to be helpful or harmful?

Can't answer those questions? You probably don't need the tool.

Add up everything you can cut. I'm betting it's 40-50% of your total martech spend. Maybe more.

Now imagine what you could do with that budget freed up. Actually configure and integrate the tools you keep. Fix your foundation. Make your website a revenue-generating machine. Hire someone to cut through the vendor sales pitches and tell you what you really need. Maybe even prove to your CFO that marketing can be a profit center instead of a cost center.

The Hard Truth

Most CMOs won't do this. They'll read this, nod along, and then renew every contract because making cuts feels risky and uncomfortable. They'll add more AI features because that's what the analysts are talking about, even though their basic infrastructure is broken.

But keeping tools that aren't properly set up, can't prove ROI, and nobody actually uses? That's the actual risk. That's what gets marketing budgets slashed when revenue dips. And layering AI on top of broken systems? That's not innovation—it's expensive negligence.

The companies that win in 2026 won't be the ones with the most sophisticated stacks or the most AI features. They'll be the ones who cut the noise, focused on what works, got their foundation right first, and can prove their value in language the C-suite understands.

Don't trust the sales reps. Don't buy the hype about needing every feature and integration. Don't fall for AI as a magic fix for fundamental problems. Focus on the foundation: website, SEO, ads, automation, analytics—all working together to generate revenue. Get that right, measure it properly, make sure sales benefits from it.

Once that's dialed in and generating measurable ROI? Then you can talk about adding more advanced features.

Not before.

Everything else is just expensive noise.

Ready to get honest about your martech stack?

I've been doing this for 25 years—long enough to know the difference between what vendors promise and what actually works in the real world. Let's talk about whether you've got your foundation right, what you're actually using versus what you're paying for, and what you should cut before your CFO does it for you.