Step 1
Start with the sales motion
Document how work actually arrives: referrals, inbound forms, retainers, outbound prospecting, partnerships, or a mix. A referral-led studio needs excellent relationship context. An outbound agency needs sequences, calling, and task discipline. A high-volume inbound team needs routing, response-time controls, and reporting.
- List each lead source and its owner.
- Write the minimum stages from qualified lead to signed client.
- Define the next action that must exist on every open opportunity.
Step 2
Separate sales from project delivery
A CRM should own relationships, opportunities, commercial communication, and forecasting. Your project system should own scope, production tasks, resourcing, and delivery. Some small teams can use light project features inside a CRM, but forcing a sales tool to become a full delivery platform usually creates weak processes on both sides.
- Decide exactly when a won deal becomes a delivery project.
- Specify the fields and files that must cross the handoff.
- Choose one source of truth for each type of information.
Step 3
Make adoption a scored requirement
Unused sophistication has no value. During a trial, ask a representative—not only the buyer—to create a contact, move a deal, log an email, schedule a follow-up, and find the weekly pipeline view. Measure whether those tasks feel obvious.
- Time five common tasks.
- Count required fields and clicks.
- Test the mobile workflow if sales happens away from a desk.
Step 4
Model the real first-year cost
Multiply seat prices by the users who truly need paid access, then include onboarding, migration, data cleanup, add-ons, telephony or messaging usage, premium support, and internal administration. An inexpensive plan can become costly when core workflows require multiple add-ons.
- Model today, 12 months, and the next feature tier.
- Keep vendor currencies separate.
- Record renewal assumptions and one-time costs.
Step 5
Run a two-week proof
Import a representative sample rather than the entire database. Configure one real pipeline, connect the main inbox and calendar, and run live opportunities through it. End the proof with a written decision against the requirements—not a general impression.
- Use 20–50 clean records.
- Test one automation and one report.
- Confirm export access before committing.
Save the requirements, trial results, selected plan, pricing date, assumptions, and owner. Recheck vendor terms before purchase because product limits and prices change.