It’s time to buy a new CRM system, which means rounding up the usual suspect vendors for discussions and presentations. These vendors all have one goal — to convince you that their CRM system is the best in the world and to get you to buy from them. But how do you separate marketing and salesmanship from what will be the best solution for your company? Here are five common mistakes that companies make when selecting a CRM system.

A Focus on Features instead of Vision - Many CRM vendors tout features that are rarely used in the real world. If you see a stunning, attention-grabbing feature during a demo, ask yourself, “is this something that we would ever actually use?”  If not, pretend that this feature doesn’t even exist. It’s better to focus on the question of, in a business technology environment of ever-accelerating change, is the vendor always one step ahead of the pack?

A Buying Decision Based on the Fact That We Are an “X” Shop - Often, a CRM selection is made on the basis of “we are an open source shop”, or “we are a technology Y shop”. In all likelihood, most of your end users don’t care what kind of shop you are. They just want a system that will make them most productive in their functional role. That’s probably what your C-level executives want too.

Seeing Style Over Substance - Style can get confused with substance on many levels. Like negative political campaigns, well-crafted negative marketing works — but does following the guidance of negativity always get you the best result? On the product front, gorgeous gradients in a CRM UI have little to do with how highly a CRM system will be adopted. Better questions are, how does the application flow for my sales users? Can we integrate this system with our various customer support channels?

A Focus on Price Instead of Value - You’ve heard it a million times — you get what you pay for. If something is cheap, there’s a reason. Every once in a while, something cheap has equivalent value to something expensive. But, more often than not, inexpensive can have expensive consequences.

A Dislike of the Salesperson - The salesperson was abrasive or arrogant and it seemed like they were just trying to make their sales quota. So what? The salesperson will not be involved in your implementation. The salesperson’s attitude or personality aside — did they present a strong value proposition?

Ultimately, the best value solution is something that only you, as the buyer can determine. But value is a target that requires careful consideration in order to hit a bullseye.