CRM discovery often begins with objects, fields, stages, permissions and reports. Those questions are necessary, but they are safer after the commercial events behind them are understood.
Customer and opportunity events
- What has to change in the real world before an account becomes an opportunity?
- What evidence do people use to make that judgement?
- Can an existing customer have no current opportunity?
- What future customer changes matter before they become committed revenue?
Commercial commitments
- What can Sales promise without asking anyone else?
- Which terms or deliverables create work outside the standard service?
- Where are customer-specific promises recorded today?
- Who needs to see them after the deal is won?
Handoffs
- What makes Sales consider the deal complete?
- What makes Delivery consider the work ready to start?
- What information does Finance need before it can invoice or recognise the commercial outcome?
- Where does responsibility become ambiguous?
Exceptions
- What happens often enough to matter but not often enough to be the standard process?
- Who currently knows how to handle those cases?
- Should the CRM represent the exception, flag it, or deliberately leave it to judgement?
Definitions and reporting
- Do Sales, Delivery and Finance mean the same thing by “customer”, “active”, “won”, “renewal” and “complete”?
- Which management questions require data from outside the CRM?
- Which reports are trusted, and which are reconstructed before every meeting?
The answers do not automatically become features. They establish what the system must be capable of representing and where the business still needs judgement.
ProperBizFix works with implementation partners on account development research, commercial discovery and white-label requirements analysis.