How to write a dealership software RFP

What to check before you decide

List the mandatory workflows as scenarios, not features. For a CRM, that might be: a web lead arrives at seven in the evening, a salesperson replies by text, the customer books a visit and the manager sees the whole thread.

Ask the vendor to say, for each scenario, whether the product does it natively, through configuration, through a partner or not yet. Roadmap items belong in a separate column.

Ask for evidence. Request named references that match your brand and size, a sample contract, current security documents, an implementation plan with owners and dates, and a list of integrations with direction and timing for each. Ask what the vendor needs from you.

Specify the commercial terms. Ask every bidder to price the same rooftops, users, modules and term, and to list one-time, monthly and usage fees, increases, integration fees, termination fees and the cost of leaving. A proposal that does not state these cannot be compared.

State how you will decide. Share the weighted criteria, the demo process, the reference checks and the timeline. Tell vendors the questions will be answered in writing and shared with all bidders.

Finally, require acceptance tests. Define in advance what must work, with your data, before you pay in full.

Keep the RFP short enough that people will read it, and score the answers with at least two people from the store.

Send the draft to two stores that bought something similar and ask what they wish they had asked, because the questions that mattered most in hindsight, such as who answers the phone on a Saturday or what happens to the data on exit, are rarely the ones in a vendor's template, and a ten-minute call can add three better questions than a day of research.

Send the same set of questions to every bidder on the same day and share any clarification with all of them. Fair treatment produces comparable answers, and it protects the store if a losing vendor disputes the result.