Customer relationship management can be a costly solution to implement and many of these initiatives fail to deliver their intended results. Several reasons may exist that explain why such programs fail, and this study attempts to explain CRM in terms of its use as a company strategy that when combined with the market orientation of a firm, can lead to improved company performance. By using contingency theory to develop that a "match" between culture and strategy allows a firm to better perform, an attempt will be made to establish a relationship between CRM strategy implementation and market orientation. A methodology whereby U. S. banks where surveyed is described and the results of the hypothesis test reported. Finally, implications and conclusions are provided.