Any company wishing to optimize its sales and marketing activities needs a CRM (customer relationship management) system. But there are many options available, which can make it difficult to choose the ideal solution. Among the criteria to take into account is the specific nature of your industry. In fact, standard software may not be adapted (or not well).
In this case, you need to opt for a business CRM, i.e. a solution designed specifically for your sector of activity. These are available in a wide range of sectors, including healthcare, real estate, automotive and, as we'll see in a detailed example at the end of this article, retail.
A business CRM is a software application designed to meet the specific needs of a particular sector or industry. Unlike general-purpose solutions, a business CRM is equipped with customized functionalities and modules to meet the unique needs of a company's business processes and environment. This may concern the environment in which the activity is carried out (working at height, nomadic use, offline work, etc.), the distribution channel (customized sales cycle, multi-stakeholder), or even the type of information to be filled in (customized forms).
Business CRM aims to optimize customer relationship management in a specific business context. That's why it's also known as vertical, sectoral, specific or specialized CRM. In all cases, it's a genuine customer relationship management (CRM) tool.
Finally, we should point out that a vertical CRM can be developed at the express request of a project owner who can't find a solution adapted to his or her business issues, but there are also companies who specialize in a single industry-specific solution, responding by default to any player evolving within it. Such is the case with Sidely, a SFA (sales force automation) software application dedicated to mass retail brands.
Let's take a look at the benefits to be expected from a business CRM :
📚 Also read : Why invest in a CRM
But choosing the wrong business CRM can also entail constraints and limitations.
⚠️ This is particularly the case with specific developments. To secure your future investment, here are the points to watch out for:
To avoid these pitfalls, opt for a leader in its vertical market, such as Sidely for sales performance in the retail sector.
For some, the question also arises of whether to opt for standard sales software. These tools are often referred to as horizontal or transversal CRMs, as they address all industries without distinction. However, these solutions can be relatively adaptable, for example by modeling the sales pipeline. However, their initial structure does not allow for the specific circumstances of certain very specific industries, and the customization effort often proves to be either impossible or very costly for the client.
With hindsight, companies often realize that they have invested in tools that are ill-suited to their business. In this case, the cost can be assessed at different levels:
Switching to a new CRM can be a complex operation, as it involves cleansing and formatting all data without sacrificing the company's sales and marketing history.
Finally, a cost that is often poorly estimated by companies is the cost ofnot using CRM: users are reluctant to use applications that are not adapted to their day-to-day reality. As they gradually abandon the CRM's ability to fill in the gaps, the value of their sales and marketing activities diminishes proportionately. Conversely, an application that solves business problems is immediately and unconditionally adopted by its users, as it enables them to improve their daily lives and their results. That's why we talk about team inclusiveness when drawing up specifications!
In short, as you may have guessed, it's best to make the right choice at the outset!
B2B2C sales is undoubtedly the case that best illustrates this trend towards CRM verticalization.
Let's take the example of a brand that sells its products to supermarkets. Selling its products is a more complex process than it might seem, with two sales phases: annual negotiations (agreements) once a year, and additional sales (picking) as the year progresses.
In many cases, agreements between brands and retailers commit the latter to purchasing a certain volume from the central distribution network, and to carrying out a number of product listing, display and promotional activities.
But in practice, how do you know whether contractual agreements are being respected at the point of sale? Faced with this dilemma, manufacturers generally send their sector managers to visit supermarket shelves to record all the elements and measurement indicators specific to supermarkets: number of facings, good merchandising presence, digital holding, price displayed on the shelf...
This process proves tedious, regularly generates omissions or data entry errors, and tends to amplify the pre-existing problems of traveling sales reps (updates to the mobile crm application, poor connection, need for synchronization, data entry time in supermarkets, unsuitability of data entry forms for items to be reported in real time, etc.). But beyond that, many CRMs don't allow them to carry out all these actions, because... they're not adapted.
What's more, in regular sales with a recommender system, where the majority of sales CRMs follow a single "sales pipe", tracking sales and customers can prove difficult.
That's why many brands tinker with generalist CRMs, at the risk of missing out on important data or wasting a considerable amount of time. In this case, we can see how crucial the choice of a gms business CRM is in this industry, since it fulfills all the objectives that can be expected of such a solution:
Of course, if such a custom development had to be carried out for a single customer, the ensuing cost would be prohibitive.
Sidely is a CRM / SFA solution designed for brands that sell their products in supermarkets. All the above-mentioned functionalities are already included in the default SAAS solution. All that's left is for you to try Sidely free of charge and see how easy it is to set up any field or form without any knowledge of code!
