The complete guide to creating a CRM RFP (Request for Proposal)
A CRM RFP (Request for Proposal) is a document sent to CRM providers, consultants, and partners asking them to explain how their software and services could meet your business requirements.  It’s often used as a first step in identifying potential suppliers, as it asks them to provide details of their capabilities to narrow down the list before asking for proposals.
Rather than simply asking, “How much does your CRM cost?”, an RFP allows you to provide more context about your organisation and ask potential suppliers to respond to specific requirements. If you’re shopping around, you can send the RFP to multiple providers and compare their responses to see which best fits your needs.
As CRM partners and consultants, we’ve received and completed hundreds of CRM RFPs, so we know how important it is for organisations to clearly communicate what they need from a CRM project. But if you’re new to CRM, or just new to finding a new CRM, it can be difficult to put together an RFP without any previous experience, or even find a provider that accepts them!
Keep reading to learn what to include in your RFP, questions to ask, and who to send your RFP to.
What to include in an RFP for a CRM project?
1. About your business
Start by giving potential CRM providers some background about your organisation. This helps them understand your business, your processes and what you need the CRM to achieve.
You don’t need to provide your entire company history, but consider including:
- What your business does
- The industries you operate in
- Number of employees
- Number of CRM users
- Locations you operate from
- Your main departments and teams
- How you currently manage your sales and customer relationships
- Your key business objectives
- Any plans for future growth
The more context you provide, the easier it is for CRM providers to recommend a solution that fits your business rather than simply offering a standard CRM package.
2. Your current CRM and systems
It isn’t only important to include your existing CRM, but your other business systems too. Why? Because CRM providers may provide integration services to bring this information into your new CRM, or they might help you identify and remove unneeded software from your tech stack to save you money when moving to their CRM.
Other systems to include in your RFP could include:
- ERP (Microsoft Business Central, Epicor, NetSuite, etc.)
- Marketing software (Mailchimp, HubSpot, Klaviyo, etc.)
- Accounting packages (Xero, QuickBooks, etc.)
- Spreadsheets
- Phone systems
- Ecommerce platforms
- Customer portals
- Other databases or business applications
For each system, explain what you use it for and whether you expect it to integrate with your new CRM.
This is particularly important if you’re replacing an existing CRM. Your RFP should make it clear what data you currently hold, where it is stored and what you expect to migrate into the new system.
3. CRM functionality and requirements
This is one of the most important sections of your CRM RFP. Rather than simply saying “We need a CRM”, explain what you actually need the CRM to do.
Your requirements could include:
- Contact and account management
- Lead management
- Opportunity and pipeline management
- Sales forecasting
- Customer service and case management
- Marketing automation
- Email integration
- Reporting and dashboards
- Workflow automation
- Mobile access
- Document management
- User permissions
- Data segmentation
- AI functionality
It can also be useful to separate your requirements into essential, desirable and future requirements. This helps providers understand which features are deal-breakers and which would simply be nice to have.
Most importantly, focus on the business outcome you want to achieve, rather than simply listing features.
For example, instead of saying:
“The CRM must have automated workflows.”
You could explain:
“We currently manually assign new leads to sales representatives and want to automate this process based on location and product interest.”
This gives providers a much better understanding of what you’re trying to achieve and allows them to explain how their CRM could solve the problem.Â
Tip from enable: If you’re new to CRM and not quite familiar with the features a CRM has, submitting your RFP to a CRM consultant might be a better option, as they can review and recommend what features you should be looking for in a CRM.
Questions to ask CRM providers
So, that’s enough information about your organisation, it’s time to get the information you need from CRM providers in order to make an informed decision! Here are our top questions to ask your CRM vendors.Â
How would you approach implementing the CRM?
Don’t just ask how long the implementation will take. Ask providers to explain their implementation methodology and what will happen at each stage of the project.
For example, you could ask:
- What does your implementation process involve?
- How long would you expect the project to take?
- What information would you need from us?
- Who would manage the project?
- How would you manage testing and user acceptance?
- How would you support us during go-live?
The response should give you a clear idea of what working with the provider would actually be like.
What are you doing with AI?
AI is becoming an increasingly important part of CRM, but many organisations overlook it when choosing a new system. Don’t just ask whether a CRM has AI features. Ask providers how they’re using AI today, what they’re planning for the future, and how it could benefit your organisation.
Ask:
- What AI functionality is currently available?
- What are your plans for developing AI within the CRM?
- How could AI help us automate repetitive tasks or improve productivity?
- Can AI analyse customer data and provide useful insights?
- Can AI summarise calls, emails or customer interactions?
- How is our data used and processed by AI features?
- Where is AI data processed and stored?
- Are there additional costs for AI functionality?
- Can AI features be controlled or disabled by administrators?
AI shouldn’t be included in your RFP simply because it’s a current buzzword. Ask providers to demonstrate how their AI capabilities could solve real problems within your business and explain how they expect those capabilities to develop over the lifetime of the CRM.
Choosing a CRM is a long-term decision, so it’s worth considering not only what the system can do today, but how well it will adapt as AI becomes a bigger part of how businesses operate.
How will you migrate our existing CRM data?
Data migration can be one of the most complicated parts of changing CRM systems.
Ask providers how they would approach migrating your existing data, including how they will identify duplicate, incomplete or outdated records.
You should also ask whether data migration is included in the implementation cost and what happens if your existing data requires significant cleaning or restructuring.
What integrations can you support?
If your CRM needs to connect to other business systems, ask potential providers exactly how they would approach those integrations.
Don’t just ask “Can you integrate with X?” Instead, explain what you need the integration to achieve.
For example:
“We need customer and order information from our ERP to be available within the CRM. Can you provide this integration, and how would the data be synchronised?”
This gives providers a much clearer understanding of your requirements and allows them to provide a more accurate response and cost.
What training, support or hosting services do you provide?
This is where a lot of CRM vendors fall short. Once a CRM is implemented, they close the door, and you’re left to manage your CRM, from fixing issues to onboarding new users.
It’s important to understand what support and training a provider offers and whether this is available continuously after implementation.
Ask:
- What support is included?
- What are your support hours?
- How can we contact your support team?
- Is support provided by your own team?
- What training is included?
- Can you provide training for new employees?
- Can you provide ongoing CRM consultancy?
- Can you help us develop the CRM as our requirements change?
- Do you provide CRM hosting services?
A CRM is rarely a one-and-done project. Your business will change, new users will join, and your CRM requirements will evolve, so consider what you’ll need from your provider beyond the initial implementation.
How customisable is the CRM?
Every business works differently, so it’s important to understand how much the CRM can be adapted to your processes.
Ask providers what can be configured without development and where bespoke development would be required.
You should also ask about the costs associated with customisation. A CRM might appear affordable initially but become significantly more expensive if every change requires bespoke development.
Do you have any existing customers who can share their experience with your CRM/services?
The proof is in the pudding.
If the CRM supplier or consultant is reliable, they’ll have long-term customers ready to vouch for them. This could be through existing CRM case studies and success stories, or perhaps a customer willing to join a meeting with you and explain their experience.
Even better, ask whether the provider can give you a customer example from the same industry as you.
It’s not unusual for prospects to ask us for social proof at enable.services. Hearing from other organisations like yours can sometimes be the reassurance you need to make the leap with a new CRM.
Which CRM providers accept RFPs?
One thing to consider when creating your CRM RFP is who you’re actually going to send it to.
Not every CRM vendor accepts RFPs directly. Some CRM providers primarily sell their software through an approved partner network, while others may have specific processes for larger enterprise opportunities.
If you’ve found a CRM that looks like a good fit but the vendor doesn’t accept RFPs directly, you don’t necessarily need to start your search again. Working with an experienced CRM partner or independent consultant can give you another route into the project.
A CRM consultant can review your requirements, help you understand which CRM systems are suitable and manage the RFP process on your behalf. This can be particularly useful if you’re comparing several CRM systems and don’t have the time or technical expertise to assess every option yourself.
Submit your CRM RFP to enable.services
If you’re finding it difficult to know which CRM providers to approach, or you’ve created an RFP but aren’t sure where to send it, why not submit it to enable.services?
We can review your requirements, discuss your objectives and help you identify the CRM solutions that could be a good fit for your organisation.
At enable.services, we’ve worked with multiple CRM systems, including SugarAI, HaloCRM and EspoCRM. Rather than simply selling you a licence, we can look at your wider requirements, including implementation, integrations, data migration, customisation and ongoing support.
