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# How to run an ETRM selection without getting sold to
- URL: https://www.etrminsider.com/etrm-selection-without-getting-sold-to/
- Published: 2026-10-14T09:02:55.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-14T14:02:57.000Z
- Description: Seven rules for an ETRM selection that tests systems against your business instead of a vendor's script: your deals, your data, your references, and a five-to-seven-year cost view.
- Author: Emmanuel Gonzalez
- Tags: Vendor Guides

**Independence:** ETRM Insider is vendor-independent. This article names no preferred products, and no vendor sponsored, paid for, or reviewed it. [Our standards →](https://www.etrminsider.com/standards/)

An ETRM selection is the one time in a decade when you have all the leverage. Once the contract is signed, that leverage moves to the other side of the table. Most selections waste it. They let vendors run the agenda, then pick the best presentation rather than the best fit.

I've been on both sides of these. Here are the seven rules I'd hold any selection to. None of them are anti-vendor. Good vendors like a well-run selection, because it filters out the deals that would have gone badly for everyone.

## 1\. Write requirements from your own deals

Generic requirements lists produce generic answers. "Supports physical power trading" gets a yes from everyone.

Start instead with 10 to 15 real deals from your book, anonymized: your most common trades, your most complicated structures, and the ones that cause pain today. Walk each one through its life: capture, confirmation, valuation, scheduling, settlement, accounting, and reporting. Every step that matters to you becomes a requirement, written in terms of that deal.

Weight the requirements before you see any vendor. If you weight them after the demos, you'll weight them toward whoever demoed best.

## 2\. Script the demos

Never accept a vendor's standard demo as your evaluation. It shows the product at its best, on data built to show the product at its best.

Send every vendor the same script, built from your deals, at the same time, with enough lead time to prepare. Score each step live against your weighted requirements. If a step is "not shown" or "we'd configure that later," score it as not shown.

Here's the skeleton I use for each scenario:

1. **The deal:** a plain-language description, with the terms.
2. **Capture:** book it as the trader would, live, with no pre-loaded trade.
3. **Change it:** amend a term after confirmation and show what happens downstream.
4. **Value it:** show the mark, the curve it used, and the P&L explain after a price move.
5. **Move it:** schedule or nominate it, then load an actual that differs from plan.
6. **Settle it:** produce the invoice line and trace it back to the trade.
7. **Report it:** show the position, risk, and any compliance output that depends on it.
8. **Prove it:** show the audit trail for everything above.

I'll share a fuller version of this template with newsletter subscribers later.

## 3\. Insist on a sandbox with your data

Demos show what a skilled presenter can do. A sandbox shows what your team can do. For your finalists, ask for a time-boxed environment and have your own people book a sample of your deals, run end of day, and produce a settlement.

You'll learn more in two weeks of hands-on time than in any number of presentations: how intuitive the system is, how much setup simple things take, and how responsive the vendor is when your people get stuck.

## 4\. Check references you found yourself

Vendor-provided references are happy customers, by definition. They're useful, but they're not a sample.

Find your own. Ask your network, industry groups, and former colleagues who run the system today. Talk to people at your level and one level below, not just the executive sponsor. Ask what the implementation actually cost against the original budget, how long the first upgrade took, what they still keep in spreadsheets, and what they'd do differently.

## 5\. Price total cost of ownership over five to seven years

The license or subscription line is the number everyone negotiates. It's often not the biggest number.

Build a five-to-seven-year view that includes:

- license or subscription, with escalators;
- implementation, both vendor and systems-integrator fees;
- your internal team, backfilled roles included;
- infrastructure or hosting;
- support and maintenance;
- upgrades, and the testing each one needs;
- the cost of the customizations and integrations you'll need to keep running.

Ask every vendor to fill in the same template, then fill in the gaps yourself. The vendor with the lowest year-one price isn't always the lowest over seven years.

## 6\. Read the SOW for change-order traps

Most implementation overruns aren't hidden. They're written into the statement of work as assumptions nobody challenged.

Look for these:

- **Assumptions that put the risk on you:** "Client will provide clean data," "Client will supply interface specifications," "Requirements are final at signing."
- **Vague deliverables:** "Configure trading module" instead of a list of products, deal types, and reports.
- **Unpriced work:** data migration, interfaces, reports, and testing support listed as "client responsibility" or "to be estimated."
- **Acceptance criteria you can't test:** if you can't tell when a deliverable is done, neither can the change-order process.

Every assumption in a SOW is a future change order. Price them now.

## 7\. Decide who owns integrations

Integrations decide whether a go-live works: market data, scheduling and ISO interfaces, confirmations, the general ledger, credit, and registries. They're also where responsibility gets blurry fast.

Before you sign, write down for each interface who designs it, who builds it, who tests it, who supports it after go-live, and who fixes it when the other side changes. If the answer is "the integrator, until go-live," know who it is after that.

## Keep the process honest

A few things that help regardless of which vendors are in the running:

- Write the scoring method down and share it with the evaluation team before the first demo.
- Keep the people who score independent of the people who negotiate price.
- Have every evaluator score on their own before any group discussion.
- Record why you rejected each vendor. You'll want that record in two years.

## Use it this week

If you're about to start a selection, pick five deals from your book and write each one up in the demo-script format above. That alone will tell you more about your requirements than the first draft of any RFP.

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*Drafted with AI assistance from my research notes and outline; reviewed, edited, and fact-checked by me. The opinions are mine.*