{"id":10,"date":"2026-07-17T08:23:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zedconsulting.co.uk\/zed_insights\/?p=10"},"modified":"2026-07-17T09:40:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T09:40:58","slug":"the-five-questions-to-answer-before-you-buy-a-crm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zedconsulting.co.uk\/crm-blogs\/strategy\/the-five-questions-to-answer-before-you-buy-a-crm\/","title":{"rendered":"The five questions to ask before you buy a CRM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Most failed CRM projects were doomed at the buying stage. Here is the short, business-first checklist we walk every client through before a single platform is shortlisted.<\/p>\n<h2>Start with the problem, not the platform<\/h2>\n<p>Too many teams open a demo before they have agreed what they are actually trying to fix. Spend a week on the problem statement before anyone books a call with a vendor.<\/p>\n<h2>Map who touches the system daily<\/h2>\n<p>The people entering data every day should have more say than the executive sponsor. Ask them what slows them down today.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A pull quote works well to break up the text and highlight a key idea.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Decide your ceiling, not just your floor<\/h2>\n<p>Pick something that will not be outgrown within eighteen months. Migrating twice in two years costs more than paying for headroom now.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First key point, one clear idea.<\/li>\n<li>Second key point, with supporting detail.<\/li>\n<li>Third key point to round out the list.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The takeaway<\/h2>\n<p>Close with a concise summary and a single clear next step for the reader.<\/p>\n<h2>This is another level 2 heading<\/h2>\n<p>This is more content<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most failed CRM projects were doomed at the buying stage. Here is the short, business-first checklist we walk every client through before a single platform is shortlisted. Start with the problem, not the platform Too many teams open a demo before\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-strategy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zedconsulting.co.uk\/crm-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zedconsulting.co.uk\/crm-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zedconsulting.co.uk\/crm-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zedconsulting.co.uk\/crm-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zedconsulting.co.uk\/crm-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.zedconsulting.co.uk\/crm-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35,"href":"https:\/\/www.zedconsulting.co.uk\/crm-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions\/35"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zedconsulting.co.uk\/crm-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zedconsulting.co.uk\/crm-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zedconsulting.co.uk\/crm-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zedconsulting.co.uk\/crm-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}