Yes — CLM can be difficult to implement, and the data backs it up. Gartner estimates that nearly 50% of CLM implementations fail, not because the software is bad, but because the rollout touches every part of the business: legal, sales, procurement, finance, and IT.
And when a system this cross-functional isn’t rolled out with clear goals, aligned stakeholders, clean data, and the right change management, even the best tool will struggle.
But here’s the good news: CLM isn’t inherently “hard” — it’s just easy to implement poorly.
Teams that follow the right process consistently see faster cycle times, better compliance, and full adoption.
Below, we’ll break down:
Let’s dive in.
Sales, legal, finance, procurement, ops… everyone relies on contracts, but no single department fully “owns” the end-to-end workflow.
So right from Day 1, CLM implementation starts as a shared project with no clear driver, and shared projects fail unless leadership forces alignment.
→ This is the quiet root cause behind constant miscommunication, unclear priorities, and decision paralysis.
Legal wants accuracy.
Sales wants speed.
Finance wants compliance.
Procurement wants visibility.
CLM forces all of these groups into one standardized process, and guess what: nobody agrees on what the ideal workflow should actually look like.
→ So teams fight for their version of “ideal,” and the CLM rollout inherits that conflict.
The “data migration nightmare” everyone talks about?
Yeah… that’s not a technical problem.
It’s an organizational problem.
Because years of inconsistent templates, missing metadata, and manual processes mean every contract looks different — and no one person even knows what “clean data” should look like.
→ The CLM becomes the place where years of operational debt finally show up.
CLM requires new workflows, new approvals, new responsibilities, and new habits — across multiple teams.
This cross-functional complexity is part of what sets CLM apart from CPQ, which usually focuses on configuring, pricing, and quoting products within sales—making CLM inherently broader and more challenging to adopt.
And unlike CRM or ERP, CLM touches steps people don’t want to change:
→ Getting all of them to shift behavior at the same time is objectively one of the hardest forms of change management.
This is the big one.
The killer.
CLM isn’t “install software.”
It’s:
→ When companies approach CLM as a software purchase rather than a process transformation, the rollout cracks under its own weight.
(Fixing the 5 root causes one by one)
Root cause solved: No single owner → Parallel agendas
Pick ONE department to lead (usually Legal Ops or RevOps), and give them authority to enforce decisions across Sales, Legal, Finance, and Procurement.
What this fixes:
This one step alone eliminates 40% of rollout chaos.
Root cause solved: Each team has its own version of “done right”
Before evaluating vendors or building workflows:
This prevents CLM from becoming a battleground between teams.
Root cause solved: Legacy data inconsistencies
A CLM cannot fix messy templates.
This is one of the main differences between ERP and CLM systems, since ERPs are designed to manage broad enterprise data, whereas CLMs need clean, standardized contract data to work effectively.
So BEFORE implementation:
This turns “data migration hell” into a predictable, clean pipeline.
Root cause solved: Cross-functional behavior change
Build a plan that includes:
CLM succeeds when people succeed — not when the software is switched on.
Root cause solved: Treating CLM as a tool rollout instead of transformation
The winning sequence looks like:
This reduces risk, builds momentum, and ensures every stage has success baked in.
And there you have it!
If there’s one thing to take away, it’s this: CLM isn’t difficult because the software is complicated — it’s difficult because the rollout touches people, data, processes, and every operational system that contracts rely on.
So - before you start any CLM initiative, make sure you’re clear on three things:
If you have any other questions, book a demo with our team and we’ll walk you through a practical rollout plan tailored to where you are today — no pressure, just clarity.