Sometimes you can't find exactly what you want at the store; you need something that fits perfectly!
Arthur Lederer is shown modeling an ambassador's uniform for a gala made by Lederer at his tailoring business in Vienna in the 1930s. The Australian National Maritime Museum.

While there are dozens of contact relationship management systems (CRMs) to choose from, there are distinct benefits to choosing a CRM that’s specific to your industry. First, it will serve us well to review CRMS in general, and then to explore why having a quality CRM tool can be an important component in achieving a company’s goals and objectives.

CRM software can be classified as boilerplate, company specific, or industry specific. Generally, CRM systems benefit sales organizations by:

1. Contributing to an enterprise’s ability to enable its sales department to identify and target their best customers, manage relationships through the sales funnel, and maximize return on investment for both the company and its clients.
2. Assisting the sales team in improving sales by providing superior account management, and by giving sales management access to optimized information shared by salespeople.
3. Providing employees with the information and processes necessary to know their customers, understand and identify customer needs, and effectively build relationships between the company and its customer base.
4. Fostering the formation of individualized relationships with customers with the aim of improving customer satisfaction and maximizing profits, identifying the most profitable customers, and providing them with the highest level of service.

Boilerplate CRMs are somewhat generic and can be used by companies across many industries. They typically require a fair amount of customization to a specific company’s needs to be truly functional. Company-specific CRMs are typically found at larger, well-established companies and are usually fully customized to meet that specific company’s needs. Industry-specific CRM solutions use terminology and metrics that are applicable to companies within that industry. These systems require far less customization and can be used by any company in that particular industry.

Here are three great reasons why an industry-specific CRM, such as Efficio, a CRM and sales analytics system built for media sales, or Matrix, provides better ROI (return on investment) than a boilerplate CRM:

• A CRM created especially for broadcasters, for example, includes specific media terminology, sales processes and metrics focused on maximizing media sales revenues.
• Companies that provide them are typically staffed by former media sales managers and/or former industry employees. This industry-centric knowledge and experience can make interaction with your CRM much more productive both strategically and tactically. It is key that the people designing and supporting your CRM understand your industry and are intuitive about what challenges sellers and sales management face.
• A final significant benefit in choosing a media-specific CRM versus a boilerplate CRM is that a media CRM should easily integrate with traffic systems at radio and television stations. There are many traffic systems in use in the media space, and often there are many versions of a single traffic system. This knowledge, experience, and software integration with all versions and systems will save time during implementation, eliminate any customization needs for the most part, and provide easier and quicker training for your staff.

It’s not always cost-effective in the long term to pick up a suit off the rack. Sometimes making an investment in a tailored solution will keep you and your team looking smart and selling smart.

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If you're ready to invest in a CRM and want to make sure you have all your ducks in a row, read 5 Steps to Perfect CRM Implementation, by Efficio Co-president and Director of IT, Matt Longhouse.