Start with the job, not the software
Before you look at a single product, write down the three things you want the CRM to fix. Common ones are: enquiries getting lost between people, no visibility of which quotes are still open, and no reliable follow-up after the first conversation.
If a CRM solves those three problems well, the rest of the feature list barely matters in year one.
The five questions that separate the shortlist
Almost every CRM demo looks good. These questions tend to expose the differences:
- How does a new enquiry get into the system — manually, from a web form, from email, or from your phone system?
- Can a non-technical person change a pipeline stage or add a field without paying for consultancy?
- What does it cost per user once you add the modules you actually need (email marketing, quotes, reporting)?
- Does it integrate with the tools you already run — accounting software, email, calendar, telephony?
- How do you get your data out again if you leave, and in what format?
Match the CRM to how you sell
If you sell a small number of higher-value deals, prioritise pipeline management, quote tracking and reminders. If you sell high volumes of smaller orders, prioritise automation, list segmentation and marketing email.
Service businesses with ongoing accounts often need a CRM that handles renewals and support history as well as new sales — that is a different shape of product to a pure sales pipeline tool.
Budget realistically
Per-user pricing is only part of it. Budget for implementation, data cleaning and migration, and training time for the team. A cheap CRM that nobody uses costs far more than a mid-priced one that everyone does.
A reasonable rule for a small UK business: expect the first year to cost roughly double the headline licence fee once setup and training are included.
Plan the rollout before you buy
Decide who owns the system, what 'good data' looks like, and which single report you will use to judge whether it is working. Import a clean subset of contacts rather than everything you have ever collected.
- Clean and de-duplicate your contact data first
- Agree pipeline stages as a team before configuring anything
- Run a two-week pilot with one or two users
- Set a rule that if it is not in the CRM, it did not happen
Where to go next
Once you know what you need, comparing providers is much faster. Browse vetted CRM providers in our CRM Systems category, or read our longer guide on how to choose a CRM system for the full evaluation framework.