A CLM RFP Checklist in the US (2026)

A request for proposal (RFP) is how serious US buyers compare contract lifecycle management (CLM) vendors on equal terms. A good RFP forces every vendor to answer the same hard questions in writing, which cuts through demo polish and sales spin. This is a ready-to-use CLM RFP checklist for 2026: the sections to include, the questions that matter, and how to score the answers. Adapt it to your needs, and keep every question tied to a requirement you actually have. ## Before you write the RFP Two steps make an RFP useful rather than a paperwork exercise. First, document your requirements: contract types, volume, who uses the tool, your integrations and your biggest pain. Second, decide your scoring weights in advance, so you judge answers against what matters to you rather than being swayed by the most confident response. Share the RFP with a short, qualified shortlist, not a long list that wastes everyone's time. ## Section 1: Company and product overview - How long has the product been in the market, and who is it built for?

• How many customers of our size and sector use it?
• What is on the near-term roadmap, and which features are live today versus planned? Ask vendors to clearly separate shipping features from roadmap items, because roadmap promises are not something you can buy today. ## Section 2: Core CLM functionality - Drafting from templates and a clause library.
• Approval workflows, including sequential and parallel routing.
• Version control and a tamper-evident audit trail.
• Central repository with full-text and metadata search.
• Renewal, obligation and key-date tracking with alerts.
• Reporting and dashboards. ## Section 3: AI capabilities - What does the AI do: drafting, review, clause extraction, risk flagging, obligation extraction?
• Which model or models power it?
• Can we test the AI on our own contracts during evaluation?
• Do you train AI models on our contract data? Answer yes or no in writing.
• How do you handle AI accuracy and errors, and what human review do you recommend? ## Section 4: Integrations - List supported integrations by name: document store, CRM, e-signature, finance, identity.
• Is there a documented, supported API?
• Are any integrations extra cost or a higher plan? ## Section 5: Security and compliance State these as questions to verify with evidence, not claims to accept. - Do you hold SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001? Provide the report under NDA.
• How is data encrypted in transit and at rest?
• What access controls, SSO and audit logging are available, and on which plan?
• Where is data hosted, and what data residency options exist?
• What is your data retention and deletion policy? ## Section 6: Pricing and commercial terms - Provide all-in pricing as line items: subscription per seat, implementation, AI, support, overage.
• Is pricing published or quote-only?
• What are the seat minimums and contract term?
• What is the annual renewal increase, and will you cap it in writing?
• Is there a trial or pilot option? ## Section 7: Implementation and support - Typical implementation timeline for a team our size.
• Who does the setup work, and what does it cost?
• What training and onboarding are included?
• Support channels, hours and guaranteed response times (SLAs) in writing.
• What is the data export process if we leave? ## How to score the responses Use a weighted scorecard tied to your requirements. Score each section, weight by importance, and shortlist the top two or three for a hands-on pilot on your own contracts. Treat a refusal to answer plainly, especially on data training, security or pricing, as a red flag. The goal is a decision you can defend, not the glossiest proposal. ## A note on transparent-priced vendors Most enterprise CLM is quote-only, so the pricing section of your RFP often returns a range rather than a number. A few vendors publish pricing, which makes the commercial section trivial to evaluate. Adira, for example, publishes Practice at $89 per seat per month billed annually (minimum 3 seats), Firm at $179 per seat per month billed annually (minimum 5 seats), Enterprise custom, with a 7-day free trial, verified October 2026, and it answers the data-training question plainly by stating it does not train on your contract corpus (verify the specifics with the vendor). It is an AI contract workspace built on frontier AI (Anthropic's Claude) that drafts, reviews, edits and tracks contracts in one place. Adira is India-first with UK, Ireland, Singapore and Australia support architected and expanding, so US buyers should include a jurisdiction-depth question in the RFP, and its Command Centre is on the roadmap rather than live. You can see it at Adira. Include it in your RFP alongside the enterprise leaders so you can see what the enterprise premium buys. When responses come back, resist the urge to score on polish. Line up the answers section by section, flag every place a vendor dodged a direct question, and weight the sections by what matters most to you rather than by how impressive each reply reads. Treat non-answers on data training, security certifications and all-in pricing as findings in their own right, because a vendor that will not commit in writing during a sales process rarely gets clearer after you sign. Take the top two or three into a hands-on pilot on your own contracts, and let that pilot, not the proposal, make the final call. This is general guidance, not procurement or legal advice. Verify every security, data and pricing answer with evidence before you decide.