Do we actually need a CRM?
You need to follow leads, remember commitments or stop customer information getting lost. That may call for CRM, a change to an existing process or a different system altogether. First identify which work and decisions need better information.
A request for CRM often combines several requirements
Businesses often start with something broad: improve sales, get more control, stop using spreadsheets, put everything in one place.
Those are reasonable reasons to look for software. They are not yet system requirements.
The useful step is to separate the outcome you want from the information, decisions and objects a system would actually need to manage.
Different businesses need different commercial records
A CRM built around deals can fit one business very well and make another business's most valuable commercial information almost invisible.
When demand becomes a sales opportunity
It moves towards a decision and can sensibly be represented through changing stage, value, timing and probability.
Pipeline is centralCommercial activity that predates the deal
Context, relationships, changes inside accounts and possible future needs may matter long before anyone creates an opportunity.
Relationship is centralTrack both ongoing relationships and specific opportunities
New business may move through a pipeline while existing customers create commercial change through ongoing relationships.
Both need representationA joined view need not store every record in CRM
A CRM may need to know which products a customer bought without becoming the product master. It may need to show invoice status without becoming the accounting system. It may need delivery context without becoming project management.
The boundary between what CRM should own and what it only needs to see is often more important than the vendor.
What the system supplier is committing to deliver
A CRM decision review helps define requirements before vendor selection. If you already have a specific implementation quote, the next question is what the supplier will deliver, what is excluded and what your team must do.
Questions to answer before the CRM purchase
A software shortlist is useful only after the commercial workflow is described.