What limitations do you find on Salesforce, Hubspot or Marketo?

Each platform—Salesforce, HubSpot, and Marketo—has its strengths and limitations. Below are simple, real-time examples to illustrate the limitations of each:

1. Salesforce

Limitation: Complex customization can increase implementation time and costs.

• Example:
  A company wants to set up a custom approval process for loan applications using Salesforce. While Salesforce provides tools to build custom workflows, creating and testing the process for a unique business logic might require extensive development and integration effort, which delays the rollout.

Limitation: Cost can be high for smaller businesses.

• Example:
  A startup with limited resources needs CRM functionality but finds Salesforce pricing prohibitive, especially when considering add-ons like Marketing Cloud or Service Cloud.

2. HubSpot

Limitation: Limited scalability for advanced enterprise needs.

• Example:
  A mid-sized business starts using HubSpot's free CRM and finds it excellent for managing contacts and small marketing campaigns. As the company grows, they need advanced features like custom reporting and complex automation workflows, which require expensive upgrades or integrations with third-party tools.

Limitation: Reporting capabilities may not handle advanced analytics.

• Example:
  A marketing manager wants to analyze multi-channel attribution for their campaigns. HubSpot's out-of-the-box reporting falls short in providing deep insights across channels, requiring an export to third-party analytics tools.

3. Marketo

Limitation: Steep learning curve for new users.

• Example:
  A new marketing team starts using Marketo for email campaigns. They find the user interface and advanced features challenging to navigate, which leads to delays in executing campaigns effectively.

Limitation: Dependence on third-party tools for CRM functionalities.

• Example:
  A business using Marketo wants to manage sales pipelines. Since Marketo focuses on marketing automation rather than CRM, the company needs to integrate it with Salesforce or another CRM, adding complexity and potential for data syncing issues.