Most CRMs do not fail on day one. They drift: duplicates pile up, nobody trusts the pipeline report, and half the team goes back to spreadsheets. This free CRM health check gives you 30 specific things to look at, so you can see where yours stands in about an hour. It works for Salesforce, Zoho CRM, HubSpot, Dynamics and any other CRM, because it checks how the CRM is used, not which logo is on it.
Download the CRM health check checklist (PDF, 5 pages)
How to run the check
Block an hour with whoever owns the CRM and one sales manager. Go through the six areas below and give each check a score: 2 if it is consistently true, 1 if it is partly true, 0 if it is not true or you do not know. A 0 for “do not know” is still useful, because it tells you what to find out first. The maximum is 60.
1. Data quality
Bad data is the most common reason a CRM stops being trusted.
- Duplicate contacts and accounts are under 3% of records, and someone checks monthly. How to check: Run your duplicate report and divide by total records.
- Every new lead gets an owner within one business day. How to check: Filter for leads created in the last 30 days with no owner.
- Phone, email and country are filled in on at least 90% of active contacts. How to check: Count blanks in those three fields.
- Records that are dead (bounced, left the company, closed-lost over 2 years) are archived, not left in reports. How to check: Check when the last clean-up happened.
- There is one agreed list of picklist values (stages, sources, industries) and nobody can free-type them. How to check: Look for ‘Other’ or misspelled entries.
2. Sales process and pipeline
Reports are only as good as the stages behind them.
- Each deal stage has a written exit rule, and reps can say it without looking it up. How to check: Ask two reps to name the rule for stage 3.
- Open deals with no activity in 30 days are reviewed every week. How to check: Sort open deals by last activity date.
- Close dates in the past are rare (under 5% of open deals). How to check: Filter open deals with a close date before today.
- Forecast numbers match what finance expects within 10%. How to check: Compare last quarter’s forecast to closed revenue.
- Lost reasons are captured on every closed-lost deal. How to check: Count closed-lost deals with a blank reason.
3. Adoption and usage
A CRM nobody opens is just an expensive address book.
- At least 80% of licensed users logged in during the last 30 days. How to check: Pull the login history report.
- Reps log calls, meetings and notes in the CRM, not only in email or personal notes. How to check: Spot-check five recent deals.
- New hires get a CRM walkthrough in their first week. How to check: Ask the last person who joined.
- Managers run pipeline reviews from the CRM, not from spreadsheets. How to check: Sit in on the next review.
- There is a named owner for the CRM, with time set aside for it. How to check: If the answer is ‘everyone’, it is nobody.
4. Automation and integrations
Workflows that nobody remembers building are a risk.
- Every active workflow, flow or automation rule has a documented purpose and owner. How to check: Export the list and see how many have no description.
- Automations that failed in the last 30 days have been looked at. How to check: Check the error log or failed-job queue.
- Website forms, email and marketing tools write to the CRM without manual copy and paste. How to check: Submit a test form and follow the record.
- Integrations have a named owner and a known failure alert. How to check: Ask who is told when a sync breaks.
- Nothing critical relies on a retired API version, personal login or one person’s laptop. How to check: Check connected apps and the users behind them.
5. Reporting and dashboards
A dashboard should end an argument, not start one.
- Leadership can see pipeline, conversion by stage and win rate in one place. How to check: Open the main dashboard and time it.
- The same number gives the same answer in two different reports. How to check: Compare open pipeline in two reports.
- Reports with no views in 90 days have been removed. How to check: Sort reports by last run date.
- Lead source is tracked back to closed revenue, not only to leads. How to check: Pick one source and trace it to revenue.
- Anyone can explain how a key metric is calculated. How to check: Ask for the definition of ‘qualified lead’.
6. Security, access and cost
Quiet problems that show up in an audit or a renewal.
- Users who left the company have been deactivated. How to check: Compare the user list with HR’s leaver list.
- Permission sets match job roles, and few people have full admin rights. How to check: Count admin users.
- Sensitive fields (personal data, contract values) are limited to people who need them. How to check: Check field-level security on two fields.
- Data is backed up on a schedule, and a restore has been tested. How to check: Ask when the last restore test happened.
- You use at least 70% of what you pay for (licences, add-ons, storage). How to check: Compare the invoice with real usage.
What your score means
| Total | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| 48 to 60 | Healthy. Keep the monthly habits that got you here and re-run this check every six months. |
| 32 to 47 | Workable, with gaps. Pick the two lowest areas and fix those before adding any new feature or tool. |
| 16 to 31 | Slipping. People are probably working around the CRM. Start with data quality and adoption; reports will not improve until those do. |
| 0 to 15 | Needs a reset. Before buying anything, decide what the CRM is for, who owns it and which five fields matter. Then clean up and rebuild from that. |
Notes from delivery work
Fix data before automation. An automation on top of duplicate or blank fields only spreads the mess faster. Cut before you add: removing a field nobody fills in does more for adoption than adding a dashboard. And give the CRM one owner with real time set aside; most of the low scores we see trace back to nobody owning it.
If your score is under 32
A low score is a to-do list, not a verdict. If you want a second pair of eyes, our team can run this review with you and turn the findings into a scoped plan, whether that means a clean-up, a rebuild, or a move between platforms. See our CRM software development services. If you are on Zoho and planning integrations, the Zoho integration readiness checklist is the natural next step, and for a new Salesforce rollout see our Salesforce implementation checklist.
You can share and print the checklist freely. Please keep the Ashapura Softech credit.