As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly choose the right CRM for your small business.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open a chatbot and paste the prompt, replacing every bracketed slot with your business details, current tools, sales process, integrations, budget and data requirements.
   2. Ask the chatbot to produce the shortlist and scorecard, then save the cited vendor pages and label any missing evidence as unknown.
   3. Open each shortlisted CRM's official pricing, features, integrations, security and data-processing pages, and compare those claims with the chatbot's table.
   4. Create a test dataset using dummy contacts and opportunities that match your real sales stages, then enter the same records into each shortlisted CRM trial.
   5. Run one complete lead-to-sale process in each trial, including follow-up reminders, email or calendar integration, reporting and user permissions, and record where the workflow breaks or needs manual work.
   6. Ask the chatbot to update the scorecard using your test results, remove any option that fails a must-have, and state which unresolved questions still need a vendor answer.
   7. Send the remaining questions to the vendors, confirm migration and cancellation terms in writing, and choose only after comparing the verified evidence with your weighted priorities.

   Prompt

   Act as a procurement researcher helping a UK small business choose a CRM. Do not make the final decision for me and do not invent features, prices, integrations, security certifications or user reviews. If a fact is not confirmed by a current vendor source, label it unknown and give me the exact source I should check.
   
   Business brief:
   - Business type: [describe the business]
   - Team size and CRM users: [number and roles]
   - Current system: [spreadsheet, CRM or other]
   - Main sales process: [describe the stages from lead to sale]
   - Contacts and records to manage: [describe them]
   - Required integrations: [email, accounting, website, calendar, telephony or other]
   - Required automations and reporting: [list them]
   - Data location and compliance needs: [describe any UK GDPR, hosting or access requirements]
   - Budget and preferred pricing model: [state the limit or leave blank]
   - Technical ability: [low, medium or high]
   - Must-have features: [list them]
   - Nice-to-have features: [list them]
   - Features or arrangements I will not accept: [list them]
   
   Research and compare at least five plausible CRM options available to a UK small business. Prioritise official vendor documentation and current UK pricing pages, then use independent sources only for usability or implementation evidence. Separate confirmed facts from assumptions. Create:
   1. A plain-English shortlist with the best-fit customer profile for each option.
   2. A weighted scorecard using these criteria: required features 25%, workflow fit 20%, integrations 15%, ease of adoption 15%, total cost 10%, reporting and automation 10%, data and access controls 5%. Explain every score and mark unsupported scores as unknown rather than guessing.
   3. A list of deal-breakers and unanswered questions for each option.
   4. A low-risk evaluation plan using realistic sample records and the business process above.
   5. A provisional recommendation, a credible alternative and the conditions that would change the recommendation.
   6. A final checklist of facts I must verify on the vendor websites and in a trial before choosing.
   Use pounds where a current UK price is confirmed. Do not claim that the winner is objectively right, and do not recommend a plan until its limits and likely migration work are clear.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.