CRM by industry

Generic CRMs model one deal moving through one pipeline. Most real businesses do not work that way. These pages cover where the standard model breaks per industry, the objects that actually fit, and whether to configure, buy or build.

Mortgage and commercial finance brokers: A generic CRM models one opportunity moving through one pipeline toward one close. A brokered deal is one file submitted to several lenders at once, each returning a different decision, different conditions, and a different offer — and then continuing to matter for two years after funding. That mismatch is why brokerages end up with a CRM that is accurate until approval and useless afterward.

Insurance brokers: An insurance brokerage does not run a sales pipeline. It runs a book that renews, and the calendar is the product. Sales CRMs are built to close a deal once; the whole value of a brokerage is that the deal comes back every twelve months and somebody has to be ready ninety days ahead.

Auto dealers: Dealer CRMs are built around the up: capture the lead, work the floor, log the test drive. On an independent or subprime lot the hard part starts after the customer says yes, when the deal has to survive a lender, three stipulations and a week of silence. That stretch is where the deals die and where most dealer software has nothing to say.

Equipment dealers: A machine sale runs for months, hinges on a monthly payment rather than a price, and involves a trade whose real value is not known until it is reconditioned. Standard CRMs assume a short cycle and a single number, so dealers end up quoting in spreadsheets and financing in email.

Staffing and recruiting agencies: Staffing has two sides and most software only sees one. An ATS tracks candidates, a CRM tracks clients, and the money is made in the middle: the placement, the hours it generates, the credential that has to be valid on the day, and the margin nobody calculates until month end.

Property management companies: Property management software is usually strong on accounting and weak on everything a manager actually does between the first of the month and the next. Maintenance arrives by text, vendors are coordinated by phone, and owner reporting is rebuilt by hand — none of which the ledger knows about.

Builders and construction companies: Construction has two decent software categories and a gap between them. Sales CRMs handle the lead and stop at contract. Project tools pick up at the schedule. The expensive part — selections drifting over allowance, verbal change orders never billed, draws slipping — falls between the two.

Field service companies: If you run ServiceTitan, Jobber or a similar platform, you probably do not need a CRM. You need the two things the platform does not do: answer the calls you are missing, and keep working the quotes nobody sold. Those two numbers decide the year and both are usually unmeasured.

Trucking and fleet operators: Carriers usually have a TMS for loads and an ELD for hours, and still have one person doing everything else by hand. Driver documents expire without warning, settlements get disputed every week, and proof of delivery arrives as a photo in a group chat.

Accounting and bookkeeping firms: An accounting firm does not have a sales problem, it has a collection problem. The same clients are chased for the same documents every cycle by qualified accountants, and the firms that fix it are not the ones with better CRMs — they are the ones that made the chase a system instead of a person.

Law firms: Two things consume a small firm's non-billable time: deciding which enquiries are worth taking, and telling clients what is happening. Practice management software handles neither well, because both sit outside the matter and before the bill.

Manufacturers and machine shops: In custom manufacturing the job usually goes to the first credible quote, not the lowest. Shops lose work they never knew they were competing for, because the RFQ sat behind whoever was estimating and the cost model lives in that person's head.