Pomio CRM keeps companies, contacts and deals in one shared place. An administrator manages the list of company categories in the settings, so every company can carry one industry category alongside its owner, labels and linked deals.
Why a category on every company matters
Most small sales teams know their customers by name, not by type. That works until someone asks a simple question: in which industries do we actually win, and where do deals stall? Without a category on each company, the answer means reading through hundreds of records and guessing. With one, it is a filter. A category also helps the next person who picks up the account understand in one glance what kind of business they are dealing with, which matters when company ownership changes.
A fixed list beats free text
Free text looks flexible but splits the same industry into many spellings: “IT services”, “IT-services”, “Managed IT” and “ICT” end up as four groups that should be one. A fixed list chosen from a dropdown removes that problem. Write the list once, in the language the team works in, and review it a few times a year rather than adding a new option every time a slightly different company appears.
How many categories, and how specific
For a small or medium-sized business, 10 to 20 categories is usually enough. Fewer than that and very different customers land in the same bucket; many more and people start picking at random. Name categories after how you sell, not after an official classification code: if accountants and law firms buy differently from you, give them separate categories; if they buy the same way, one category can cover both. Always add an “Other” option, and check it now and then: when many companies pile up there, a category is missing.
One category per company
Allow one category per company. A company with two equally important activities is rare, and letting people pick several makes every count and report harder to read. Use labels for everything that is not the core industry, such as region, size, partner status or a campaign. Labels can overlap; the category should not.
Fill it at the moment a company is created
The cheapest moment to set a category is when the company enters the CRM, by hand or through an import. When importing a list, map the category during the import rather than fixing it afterwards, and check for duplicates first. For existing records, choose the category based on what the company actually does, from its own website or your own knowledge, not on a guess from its name. A wrong category is worse than an empty one, because it quietly skews every list built on it.
Common mistakes
Building a long, detailed list before anyone has used it leads to categories nobody chooses. Mixing industry with other things, such as “Prospect” or “Large customer”, turns the category into a second status field. Leaving the field optional with no habit of filling it means half the companies stay blank. And changing the list every month makes comparisons over time meaningless.
How Pomio CRM supports industry categories
An administrator manages the list of company categories in the settings, and each company can be assigned one category. Companies can be managed in a board or a list, with filterable labels, teams and locations, and live search across deals, companies and tasks. Contacts are linked to their company and deals to the company they belong to, so a category on the company gives context to everything around it. What each person sees follows their role; see own, team and tenant scope.
Go deeper
Should we use an official industry classification code instead?
Usually not for sales. Official codes are detailed and describe the legal registration, not how a customer buys. A short list based on your own sales experience is easier to use and to keep consistent.
What if a company really fits two categories?
Pick the one that best explains why they buy from you, and use a label for the second activity. That keeps counts per category clean.
Can we change the category list later?
Yes, but sparingly. When you rename or merge categories, reassign the affected companies at the same time, so no records are left pointing at an option that no longer means anything.
Does Pomio CRM fill in categories automatically?
No. Your team chooses the category for each company. Pomio CRM provides the category list in settings, labels, filters and search; workflow automation is still in development and not available yet.