# CRM Requirements Template

**SoftwareGlimpse** · Updated 15 Aug 2026  
**Type:** TEMPLATE · **Stage:** DEFINE  
**JTBD:** Capture must-haves, constraints, and acceptance checks before shortlisting.

> Define what your CRM must do before you shortlist. Fill this template with your pipeline model, must / should / nice priorities, hard constraints, and one acceptance check per must-have — then freeze it so every later demo and score uses the same bar.

## How to use

1. **Capture context** — Team, motion, systems holding contacts and deals today, and what is out of scope.
2. **Write the stage model** — Name your stages, entry/exit checkpoints, and owner plus next-step rules.
3. **List capability rows** — Contacts, activities, email/calendar, reporting, and seats — each tagged must / should / nice.
4. **Add constraints & data** — Integrations, import sources, export requirement, admin capacity, and security baseline.
5. **Write acceptance checks** — Give each must-have a check a non-admin can attempt in a trial or demo.
6. **Freeze & hand off** — Cap the must-haves, sign and date the sheet, then pass it to evaluation and scoring.

## What counts

- A need expressed on contacts, deals, stages, activities, views, or seats
- Something a non-admin can attempt in a trial
- A constraint with a named owner
- A row the committee signed off in writing

## What does not count

- A vendor feature name with no acceptance check
- A wish added mid-demo without change control
- Everything tagged must-have
- A need that only works on a future roadmap date

## Worksheet

### 1. Buying context & scope

Orient every later row around how you sell and where contacts and deals live today. Keep it short enough to read aloud.

| # | Requirement | Why it matters | Priority | Acceptance check | Owner | Status | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1.1 | Team, motion, and objects in scope | Every later row depends on how you sell and which CRM objects are day one. | Must-have | One short paragraph naming team size, sales motion, and whether accounts and post-sale records are in scope. | Sponsor |  |  |
| 1.2 | Where contacts and deals live today | Migration effort and import risk come from your current systems, not the new one. | Must-have | List every system holding contacts, deals, or activities today, with its owner. | Ops |  |  |
| 1.3 | Top three operational pains | Keeps requirements tied to problems instead of feature envy. | Must-have | Three pains stated as behaviours — unowned deals, missing next steps, no weekly view. | Sales + ops |  |  |
| 1.4 | Explicit out of scope for phase one | Prevents demo scope creep into marketing automation or custom objects. | Should / nice | Written list of what this purchase will not solve in the first 90 days. | Sponsor |  |  |

### 2. Pipeline, stages & ownership

Define how deals move before you watch anyone else’s board. This section is the spine of every later test.

| # | Requirement | Why it matters | Priority | Acceptance check | Owner | Status | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2.1 | Pipeline stage model written down | Stages are the spine of every later demo test and scorecard row. | Must-have | Name each stage and its entry/exit checkpoint before you see a vendor board. | Sales lead |  |  |
| 2.2 | Owner and dated next step on open deals | Unowned deals and missing next steps are the most common CRM failure. | Must-have | State whether owner and next step must be enforced, prompted, or optional. | Sales lead |  |  |
| 2.3 | Required deal fields kept short | Long required-field lists get bypassed and wreck reporting. | Must-have | List required versus optional deal fields — amount, close date, stage, source. | Ops |  |  |
| 2.4 | Multiple pipelines or motions | Independent stage sets change which editions and products qualify. | Should / nice | Mark must only if motions genuinely need separate stages; otherwise should, nice, or N/A. | Sales ops |  |  |
| 2.5 | Won-deal and renewal handoff | Post-sale scope is where phase-one budgets quietly double. | Should / nice | State whether won deals become accounts or renewals in phase one, or later. | CS / AM lead |  |  |

### 3. Contacts, activities & email/calendar

Activity on the record beats private inboxes. Write these rows so a seller — not an admin — can verify them.

| # | Requirement | Why it matters | Priority | Acceptance check | Owner | Status | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 3.1 | Contact and account data you will maintain | A taxonomy nobody maintains produces reports nobody trusts. | Must-have | List required contact fields and when contacts roll up to accounts. | Ops |  |  |
| 3.2 | Activity logging expectations | Activity on the record is what makes the CRM the system of record. | Must-have | State which activities — calls, notes, tasks, emails — must attach to contacts and deals. | Sales lead |  |  |
| 3.3 | Email and calendar requirement stated precisely | “Email integration” means very different things per product and edition. | Must-have | Write whether you need manual logging, one-way sync, or two-way sync — and for which users. | Ops / IT |  |  |
| 3.4 | Mobile and inbound routing needs | Field updates and lead assignment are common hidden must-haves. | Should / nice | Tag mobile activity updates and inbound assignment rules must / should / nice / N/A. | Sales ops |  |  |

### 4. Reporting, seats & admin capacity

Views and edition gates eliminate more vendors than missing nice-to-haves ever will.

| # | Requirement | Why it matters | Priority | Acceptance check | Owner | Status | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 4.1 | Weekly review views you need | If the weekly board needs an export, the CRM is not doing its job. | Must-have | Name the views you must open without exporting — stage board, owner filter, deals missing next steps. | Ops |  |  |
| 4.2 | Forecast or commit reporting need | Forecast features are often edition-locked and change the price band. | Should / nice | State whether you need open pipeline only, stage-weighted forecast, or commit categories. | Sales lead / finance |  |  |
| 4.3 | Seat and edition constraints | A must-have on an edition you will not buy is a fail, not a detail. | Must-have | List which must-haves you suspect are edition- or add-on-gated so demos confirm them. | Sponsor / ops |  |  |
| 4.4 | Admin capacity constraint | Someone must own users, fields, stages, and hygiene every single week. | Must-have | Name the admin and the hours per week they actually have. | Sponsor |  |  |

### 5. Constraints, integrations & data

Constraints here often eliminate vendors before a demo is booked. Write them as needs, not wishes.

| # | Requirement | Why it matters | Priority | Acceptance check | Owner | Status | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 5.1 | Integrations that must work on day one | Day-one integrations eliminate options faster than missing features. | Must-have | Name each system, the direction of sync, and whether it is day one or phase two. | Ops |  |  |
| 5.2 | Import sources and known data mess | Import realism decides whether go-live slips by a week or a quarter. | Must-have | List source files and systems plus the known duplicate or formatting problems. | Ops |  |  |
| 5.3 | Export and exit requirement | You should be able to leave with contacts, deals, and activity history. | Must-have | State what must be exportable and in what shape, so vendors can answer it in writing later. | Ops |  |  |
| 5.4 | Security baseline you truly require | Over-asking stalls the buy; under-asking blocks rollout at the last minute. | Should / nice | List only hard identity, access, or residency requirements — send deeper diligence to the CRM Security Checklist. | IT / security |  |  |
| 5.5 | Budget posture without invented totals | Cost clarity is a requirement; a made-up total cost of ownership is not. | Should / nice | Write the seat range, edition tolerance, and what cost breakdown you need in vendor quotes. | Sponsor |  |  |

### 6. Priority, acceptance & freeze

This section is what makes the sheet usable downstream. Skip it and demos will renegotiate your requirements for you.

| # | Requirement | Why it matters | Priority | Acceptance check | Owner | Status | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 6.1 | Every row tagged must / should / nice | Untagged rows become silent must-haves during demos. | Must-have | No capability row is left without a priority tag. | Ops lead |  |  |
| 6.2 | Must-have count capped | If everything is a must, no vendor can pass and no tradeoff is visible. | Must-have | Must-haves fit a one-page trial script across contacts, deals, activities, and views. | Committee |  |  |
| 6.3 | Acceptance check written for every must-have | A must-have with no check cannot be tested in a demo or scored later. | Must-have | Each must-have names something a non-admin can attempt in a trial or buyer-led demo. | Ops |  |  |
| 6.4 | Parking lot created for deferred wishes | Good ideas need somewhere to live that is not the must-have column. | Should / nice | Deferred items are listed separately with the reason for deferral. | Ops |  |  |
| 6.5 | Sign-off and change log started | A frozen, dated sheet is what keeps later evaluations comparable. | Must-have | Sponsor, ops, and sales lead date the sheet; post-freeze edits require a logged reason. | Sponsor |  |  |

## Worked example

Draft requirement: “Reps log email activity to the contact and deal record without admin help.”

- **Team A draft** — PASS: Tagged must-have, owner named, acceptance check written: a non-admin logs a sent email to a deal timeline during trial.
- **Team B draft** — FAIL: Row reads “email integration” with no priority, owner, or acceptance check — nothing a demo can test.

_Hypothetical Team A / Team B drafting scenario for teaching the artifact — not a SoftwareGlimpse case study._

## Related journey

1. **CRM Requirements Template** (this resource)
2. [CRM Evaluation Checklist](https://softwareglimpse.com/resources/crm-evaluation-checklist/)
3. [CRM Vendor Scorecard](https://softwareglimpse.com/resources/crm-vendor-scorecard/)
4. [CRM Business Case Template](https://softwareglimpse.com/resources/crm-business-case-template/)
5. [CRM Implementation Checklist](https://softwareglimpse.com/resources/crm-implementation-checklist/)

## Related tools

- [Requirements Builder](https://softwareglimpse.com/tools/crm-requirements-builder/?start=1)
- [CRM Finder](https://softwareglimpse.com/tools/crm-finder/)
- [Vendor Scorecard tool](https://softwareglimpse.com/tools/crm-vendor-scorecard/)

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Source: https://softwareglimpse.com/resources/crm-requirements-template/