Feature comparisons are the default way most organisations start evaluating a CRM, and they are the least useful part of the process. At the enterprise tier, most major platforms can do most of what any feature checklist asks for. The decision lives somewhere else.
Adoption, not capability, is the real risk
The most common reason a CRM implementation fails to deliver value is not a missing feature. It's a sales team that doesn't actually use the system consistently, because the workflow doesn't match how they actually sell, or the data entry burden outweighs the reporting benefit for the people doing the entering. Ask a vendor for a reference customer's actual adoption rate, not just their logo.
Migration and integration cost more than the license
The sticker price of a CRM is rarely the real cost of switching. Data migration, integration with existing tools, and the retraining period all carry cost that shows up after the contract is signed, not in the proposal. A lower-priced platform with a harder migration can end up more expensive in year one than a higher-priced one with a clean data import path.
Support responsiveness at your tier, not their top tier
Every vendor's top-tier enterprise customers get white-glove support. What matters is what support looks like at the tier you'll actually be paying for. Ask specifically, and ask for a reference at that tier, not the flagship logo customer three pricing levels above where you'll sit.
Where the real evaluation happens
None of this is visible in a product demo, which is built to show the platform at its best, configured by someone who knows it intimately. It surfaces in conversations with reference customers at your actual size, asking about the parts of the relationship that don't make it into the sales deck.