Teams blame adoption. The usual failure is structural: the CRM models a generic pipeline while the company sells through WhatsApp, site visits, and partner referrals.
If stage names do not match what people actually do next, they keep the real status in chat. The CRM becomes a reporting tax.
Fix the object model before the UI. Who owns the record, what event moves it, what must be true before a close, and which fields are required for the next action.
A custom CRM is justified when those rules are stable and unique. Otherwise start with a thin tracker of the real stages and connect messages later.
