Industry-specific CRM: definition and selection criteria

Any company looking to optimize its commercial and marketing activity needs to be equipped with a CRM (customer relationship management). However, many options exist, which can make choosing the ideal solution complicated. Among the criteria to consider is the specificity of your industry. Indeed, it is possible that standard software does not adapt well (or at all) to it.

You must then opt for an industry-specific CRM, which is a solution designed specifically for your business sector. These exist in many sectors, such as healthcare, real estate, automotive and, as we will see through a detailed example at the end of the article, retail.

What is an industry-specific CRM?

An industry-specific CRM is a software application designed to meet the specific needs of a particular sector of activity or industry. Unlike generalist solutions, an industry-specific CRM is equipped with customized features and modules that address unique needs and are adapted to the business processes and specificities of the company or its environment. This can concern the environment in which the activity is carried out (working at heights, mobile use, offline work, etc.), the distribution channel (customized sales cycle, multi-stakeholder), or the type of information to be entered (made-to-measure sheets and forms).

The industry-specific CRM thus aims to optimize customer relationship management in a particular business context. This is why it is also referred to as a vertical, sectoral, specific, or specialized CRM. In all cases, it is a real commercial relationship management (CRM) tool.

Finally, let's specify that a verticalized CRM can be developed at the express request of a project owner who cannot find a solution adapted to their business problem, but there are also companies that specialize in a single specific solution for an industry, meeting the needs of any player operating in it by default. This is the case with the Sidely application, a SFA (sales force automation) software dedicated to retail brands.

Business processes designed to optimize profitability

Let's now review the benefits to be expected from an industry-specific CRM:

• Addressing the unique needs of a sector: the first objective of a commercial steering tool is to centralize data from different marketing and sales channels. The industry-specific CRM is designed to facilitate and streamline the integration, entry, and utilization of sales data specific to the industry it addresses;

• Operational efficiency gains: it therefore allows for the optimization of the company's commercial and marketing performance processes, as well as its internal and external collaborative processes;

• Strategic steering: adapting commercial software to the structural reality of a market allows for a finer analysis of trends and facilitates strategic decision-making;

• Simplified integration: industry-specific CRM is generally designed to integrate more easily with other common systems and software in the industry it covers;

• Specialized support: industry-specific CRM providers are often specialized in a specific sector, meaning they have deep expertise in the needs and challenges faced by their customers, and can offer adapted technical support and advice.

📚 Also read: Why invest in a CRM

Points to watch out for before investing

But beware, choosing the wrong industry-specific CRM can also lead to constraints and limitations.

⚠️ This is particularly the case with custom developments. To secure your future investment, here are the points you need to be vigilant about:

• Initial cost: industry-specific CRMs can be more expensive to implement when they require custom developments;

• Customization: in addition to being adapted to your industry or sector, the industry-specific CRM must also be adapted to your company and its organization. Try to fully understand what the complexity of your need consists of and whether it is based on internal or external factors;

• Vendor lock-in: choosing an industry-specific CRM can create a strong dependency on the software vendor (updates, technical support, evolutions, etc.). This aspect can also prove problematic if your needs change, in which case an industry-specific CRM can complicate the evolution of the information system;

• Market-related limits: vertical CRMs sometimes have a limited user base due to the niche markets they address. However, many clients prefer to have financially robust partners.

To avoid these pitfalls, opt for a leader in its business vertical, such as an agrifood CRM for commercial performance in retail.

Vertical or horizontal CRM: making the right choice

For some, the question also arises of whether to opt for standard commercial software. These tools are often called horizontal or cross-functional CRMs because they address all industries without distinction. These solutions can still have relative adaptability, such as modeling the sales pipeline. But their initial structure does not anticipate the scenarios specific to certain highly specialized industries, and the customization effort most often proves to be either impossible or very costly for the project owner.

In hindsight, companies often realize they have invested in tools unsuited to their activity. In this case, the cost can be evaluated at different levels:

• Time lost in data entry by users;

• Unsupported or unusable data formats;

• Information not reported, due to a lack of provided fields;

• Inability or complexity in producing reliable and relevant analyses;

• Etc.

It can then turn out to be complex to switch to a new CRM, as the operation involves cleaning and formatting all data without sacrificing the company's commercial and marketing history.

Finally, a cost often underestimated by companies is that of the non-use of the CRM: users are indeed reluctant to use applications that are not adapted to their daily reality. As they gradually abandon the proper filling of the CRM, the value of the commercial and marketing activity decreases proportionally. Conversely, an application that solves business issues is accepted immediately and unconditionally by its users, because it allows them to improve their daily lives and results. This is indeed why we talk about team inclusivity when writing specifications!

In short, as you will have guessed, it is better to make the right choice from the start!

Example of an industry-specific CRM for retail brands

B2B2C sales is undoubtedly the case that best illustrates this trend toward the verticalization of CRM.

Consider the example of a brand that sells its products in retail. Selling its products is a more complex process than it seems, with two sales phases: annual negotiations (agreements) once a year and additional sales (picking) throughout the year.

Often, the agreements binding a brand to retail banners commit the latter to buy a certain volume from headquarters, and to engage in a set number of listing, display, and promotional actions for the products.

But, in practice, how do you know if the contractual agreements are being respected in the stores? Faced with this dilemma, manufacturers generally send their area managers to visit supermarket aisles to record all indicators and metrics specific to retail: number of facings, correct merchandising presence, distribution rate, pricing displayed on the shelf...

This process proves tedious, regularly leads to omissions or entry errors, and tends to amplify the pre-existing problems of mobile sales reps (updates to the mobile CRM application, poor connection, need for synchronization, entry time in supermarkets, unsuitability of entry sheets to real elements to be reported, etc.). But beyond that, many CRMs do not allow them to perform all of these actions because they are... not adapted.

Furthermore, in a regular sales model with a reorder system, where the majority of commercial CRMs follow a single "sales pipeline," tracking sales and customers can prove difficult.

This is why many brands tinker with generic CRMs, at the risk of missing out on important data or losing considerable time. In this case, we see how crucial the choice of an industry-specific retail CRM is in this industry, since it meets all the objectives expected from such a solution:

• In-app and customized store audit forms;

• Offline operation;

• Mobile app and UX optimized for the field;

• Immediate and automatic synchronization (when connected);

• Centralization of sales and marketing data;

• Optimal planning of sales routes;

• Time optimization, and therefore profitability.

Of course, if such custom development had to be carried out for a single client, the resulting cost would be prohibitive.

However, there is a solution that resolves these business issues without extra cost: Sidely is a CRM / SFA designed for brands selling their products in retail. Thus, all the features listed above are already in the SAAS solution by default. All that is left for you to do is try Sidely for free to see how easily you can set up any field or form with no coding knowledge required!