You're Using $10K Martech Tools Like $10 Spreadsheets

Here's a conversation I have at least once a month: A company shows me their tech stack. They're paying thousands for HubSpot. I ask what they're using it for. "Email marketing," they say. "And we store our contacts there."

I pull up their portal. No automation. No personalization. No workflows. Sales isn't connected. They have a pro subscription with capabilities they don't even know exist.

They've turned a sophisticated marketing platform into the world's most expensive contact manager.

This isn't a HubSpot problem. This is the problem with MarTech in 2025. Companies are sitting on goldmines of functionality and using a pickaxe to scratch the surface.

The 25% Problem: Three-Quarters of Your Stack Is Wasted

The bottom line that nobody wants to talk about: clients pay for roughly 100% of their MarTech products and use about 25 to 30% on average.

Think about that. For every $10,000 you spend on marketing technology, you're getting $2,500 worth of value. The other $7,500? It's just sitting there, unused, while you pay monthly fees.

Research shows that companies waste 37% of their marketing technology budgets on underutilized or unused tools. That's not a rounding error—that's a strategic failure.

Why does this happen? A few reasons. There's no clear ownership in marketing teams. No one is up to speed on what's new in their platforms. No one is driving adoption. No one is keeping things consistent. Teams get sold on capabilities during the sales process, implement the tool, and then… nothing. It just sits there while everyone goes back to doing things the old way.

The goal shouldn't be using more tools. The goal should be using what you have—really using it—up to about 80% capacity before you even think about adding something new.

HubSpot: The Platform You're Barely Scratching

I'm going to keep saying HubSpot because we see this constantly, especially with smaller companies who have been convinced that HubSpot is for them, and it's really just an expensive contact database.

Here's what we see over and over: They use it just for emailing. Maybe they've set up some basic contact properties. They're only using a small portion when they have a pro-type subscription—or worse, they needed to start with the basics but got talked into a bigger package.

What they're missing:

Not a lot of automation or personalization is implemented, even though they have tons of data they could use to start segmenting their audience. No workflows beyond maybe a welcome email. No lead scoring. No progressive profiling on forms.

The biggest miss? HubSpot is often only for marketing and completely separate from sales. It's not integrated. And we know there are ways to have one-way sync or control how data flows to be able to better report on what's actually happening when leads move to the sales team.

Right now, with some clients, it's like we only get what's reported back from sales, which is very little, and it seems quite fragmented. It can't be true that no deals were created in three months, right? But we don't have visibility because the systems don't talk to each other.

The opportunity here is massive. Using HubSpot in a more mindful way—setting up a strategy and really building from that—instead of just hopping on because of all the great things they heard about it without actually having a plan for implementation.

Once you have that sales integration, you can create those high-value reports that get leadership buy-in. You can show full-funnel visibility. You can prove ROI. But only if you're actually using the tool beyond basic email sends.

Google Workspace and Copilot: Productivity Sitting Idle

Companies are starting to test out Google Workspace features and Copilot, getting a little understanding, but there's a lot of automation that can happen within these tools to work more effectively and have more productivity throughout the whole team.

We're talking about Google Apps Scripts, Copilot capabilities—there's just a lot there that we've only kind of tapped into.

Here's a real example: A client was asking about using AI to automate some really basic task dependencies and variable updates in their project management system. They were ready to add another tool, spend more money, create more complexity. The solution? It was literally a built-in feature in Monday.com that they weren't using.

Studies show that employees use less than half of the available features in their productivity tools, even though those features could save them hours every week. That's not a training problem—well, actually, it is a training problem. But it's also a discovery problem. Teams don't know what they don't know.

The capabilities within these everyday tools—HubSpot, Monday, Google Workspace—these companies are implementing AI features constantly. Maybe they're not the absolute best AI implementations, but they're definitely a great stepping stone to test out the AI within the tool you already have before adding another tool that does the same thing to complete one task.

You don't need to add another tool. You can just utilize all the innovations happening within Monday, within HubSpot, within the platforms you're already paying for.

AI Tools: The Content Generator Misconception

It seems odd to say AI is underutilized when everyone's talking about it constantly, but where it's being underutilized is the lack of understanding of the capabilities.

We're talking with clients about building custom GPTs to be able to answer questions for leadership so they don't have to wait for a team to report back on data. Things like that. But they're thinking, "Well, it just produces content. That's all it's really good for." That sort of mindset.

We can go in and say, "Here's all the ways you could use it, and this is how you can solve the problems you're telling us you have in a really streamlined, efficient way that actually doesn't cost a lot to implement."

The LLM situation is also creating some chaos. The marketing team has gone rogue and gotten ChatGPT subscriptions while leadership is trying to activate Copilot licenses across the organization. There's a bunch of duplicity, and that's an IP nightmare for the most part.

Research indicates that while 75% of organizations have adopted some form of AI, only 25% report achieving significant value from their investments. The gap isn't in the technology—it's in how organizations are applying it.

AI isn't just for generating blog drafts. It's for data analysis, process automation, custom solutions built on top of your existing workflows. But if everyone thinks it's just a content tool, you're missing probably 80% of the value.

Why Underutilization Happens (And It's Not What You Think)

A lot of the issues stem from the fact that there's no clear ownership in marketing teams. No one within companies is up to speed on what's new in their platforms. No one is driving adoption. No one is keeping things consistent. That's hard to do from the outside, but it's the core problem.

Here's what we see: Companies implement a tool. There's initial excitement. Maybe some training happens. Then everyone goes back to their day jobs, and the tool just… sits there. They're paying monthly fees. Nobody's using it. Or one person is using it, but nobody else knows it exists.

We also see this: They want the tool, we give them all the information, the implementation process happens, but then they don't have time to manage it. They realize they have false expectations about what they could actually handle. They don't assign an owner or a champion of the tool to manage it, and it just sits there.

Or here's another pattern: New marketing leader comes in, changes all the technology because it worked at their previous company. But they're operating at completely different scales. If you're buying an enterprise solution, you need the resources to support that, which companies really struggle to understand.

The fix isn't more tools. The fix is:

Assign clear ownership

Someone needs to be the champion of each major platform. That's their job—know it inside and out, drive adoption, keep up with new features.

Build adoption into implementation

Not just "here's your new tool, good luck." But actual post-launch support, check-ins, documentation, training that continues beyond week one.

Make adoption a KPI

This probably won't fit for every organization, but having accountability for using tools encourages the team to actually engage, be more collaborative about where they're stuck, and feel ownership.

Prioritize training. And not just one-time training. Ongoing education as features evolve and use cases expand.

The 80% Solution: Stop Buying, Start Using

My goal going forward is to really get companies to use up to 80% of that product they already have instead of adding something new.

Think about what that means financially. If you're currently getting 30% value from a $10,000 annual spend, increasing to 80% value is like getting $8,000 worth of functionality for free. You're already paying for it. You're just not using it.

Here's the approach: Start every engagement with an audit. Understand what they have versus what they use. Document everything. Look at templates, workflows, integrations—make sure everything is clean and actually functional.

Then do annual audits for current clients because things get dirty throughout the year. Tools need maintenance just like cars need oil changes.

Right-size your recommendations based on what their needs are and what they have the capacity to manage. Not what their competitor has. Not what the enterprise-level company uses. What fits their current reality.

When you do implement something new—or when you're trying to increase utilization of something existing—require ownership. Push to have a designated owner within the organization. Without a champion, adoption fails every time.

And here's the procurement angle that matters: During these audits, look at how much money you're saving in licenses and redundant tools. That's massive savings that will more than pay for the consulting time spent optimizing what you have. You've already paid for yourself before you even start the optimization work.

Get the Value You're Already Paying For

Look, this is kind of like telling someone "we have food at home" when they want to go out. I get it. New tools are exciting. Sales demos are compelling. That shiny new AI feature looks amazing.

But the reality is, you're probably sitting on thousands of dollars of unused functionality right now. Automation you could set up today. Integrations that would save your team hours every week. Reports that would finally give leadership the visibility they keep asking for.

The capabilities are already there. You're already paying for them. You just have to actually use them.

Ready to find out what you're missing in your current MarTech stack? Winsome's technology audits identify exactly where you're underutilizing tools and create a roadmap to get from 30% to 80% usage—without adding a single new platform. Let's audit your stack and unlock what you're already paying for.