Do I need a CRM?
A guided check that separates the broad goal - often “improve sales” - from the commercial model, system boundary and prerequisites underneath it.
Explore the checkCRM & systems
What do you need CRM to show you?
The sales team knows who the customer is, but not which equipment is installed or what work has been promised. The service team has those records elsewhere. Before buying or replacing CRM, decide what each system needs to record, who is responsible for it and what management must be able to see.
CONSIDERING CRMI have not chosen a CRM yet.
Work out what should improve, whether CRM is the right system, and what requirements to take to vendors.
Start before vendor selection →ALREADY USING CRMI already have a CRM.Look at adoption, visibility, pipeline logic, data and the gap between the system and the business.
See CRM problems →Before CRM selection
Decide where each record belongs
Start with what you expect to improve, how revenue actually appears in the business, and what the system would need to own or see.
What must CRM represent?
A system needs definitions for customers, opportunities, commitments and the work that follows a sale. Examine which records and events management must be able to connect.
Examine the management informationA common pattern
A new CRM can reproduce the same old problem
Teams change. Offers change. Customer journeys change. Ownership changes. The CRM can keep running while stages, fields, workflows and reports continue to represent an earlier version of the business.
That is not automatically a rebuild. The first job is to establish which parts still describe the business and which no longer do.
Across the stack
Not everything the business needs belongs in CRM
A customer can exist simultaneously as a sales record, a delivery workload and a changing commercial relationship.
Commercial change→Operational demand→Economic result
Review whether your current systems can trace that connection →
When it looks like a CRM problem
Is the problem use of the system — or what it was built to record?
The CRM may be broken. Or it may be faithfully recording definitions and processes that are no longer useful.
See the CRM problem map →When it looks like a systems problem
Connected systems still require consistent definitions
Moving data between tools does not guarantee that the same business event means the same thing on both sides.
See Revenue Visibility Review →Where systems fit
When a platform change leaves the cause untouched
Distinguish an operating-process problem from an information problem before changing systems.
OPERATING PROCESS
Compare CRM entities with actual business events
Adoption and data-quality problems can follow unclear stages, inconsistent ownership or processes that have changed since configuration.
Examine CRM adoption and processMANAGEMENT INFORMATION
Can commitments be linked to fulfilment?
The necessary information may exist but be divided across customer, service and finance systems without a shared representation.
Examine the management viewWhat to examine next
Do you need a different CRM or a clearer business model?
The system should follow the work and the decisions people need to make.
Notes about individual CRM systems
These short analyses concern what records on particular platforms can and cannot establish about sales, customers or delivered work.
HubSpot lifecycle stages · Salesforce Accounts and Opportunities · Pipedrive deals and Projects · Zoho CRM lead conversion · Dynamics 365 opportunities and orders · monday CRM boards and stages
Commercial records
Before configuring a deal pipeline
A customer record and a potential buying decision are different things. Define when an enquiry becomes an opportunity, how stages change, and whether renewals or expansions create separate deals.