Why Most CRMs Fail Benefits Advisors (And What We Built Instead)

If you’ve ever tried to force a sales CRM to work for your benefits business, you’re not alone.

Most CRMs on the market — Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho — are designed for generic sales cycles, not for the unique workflows of benefits advisors. They can track leads, but not renewals. They support email campaigns, but not claims experience. And they’re often overloaded with features you’ll never use.

That’s the problem we set out to solve.

Why Generic CRMs Fall Short

Benefits advisors don’t sell in one-and-done transactions — they manage long-term relationships, renewals, compliance, forms, reports, and constantly shifting benefits plans. Trying to make a generic CRM fit that model usually means a Frankenstein of spreadsheets, calendar alerts, and workarounds.

You’re constantly toggling between tools that don’t talk to each other. One for task management. One for contact storage. One for client reports. And a separate place to house renewals, plan designs, and claims history. The result? More time organizing, less time advising.

And let’s be honest — most advisors don’t want to become CRM power users. You shouldn’t need hours of training to figure out a platform that’s supposed to make your job easier. You need tools that work with your existing processes, not against them.

You shouldn’t have to hack your own tools just to stay on top of your business.

Introducing Metric: A CRM Built for How Advisors Actually Work

We built Metric from the ground up to give advisors the tools they actually need — and nothing they don’t. Every feature was designed based on real-world advisor workflows and frustrations:

• Track claims experience across groups, years, and benefit types without exporting or formatting spreadsheets

• Manage renewals with custom reminders, notes, and date-based alerts so nothing gets missed

• Build reports in a few clicks — with clean outputs you can share directly with clients

• Organize your sales funnel and keep track of prospects without workarounds

• Centralize client details — notes, tasks, forms, plan documents, and contacts — all in one view

Metric is flexible enough for independent advisors, but powerful enough for teams and growing firms. You don’t have to upgrade platforms just because your business is scaling — we’ve built Metric to grow with you.

The power of simplicity can't be overstated. With Metric, less is truly more. We’ve stripped away the clutter and focused on what matters most: delivering value to your clients while keeping your business organized, efficient, and scalable.

Advisor Personas: Who Metric Is Built For

We’ve designed Metric to work for all types of advisors:

• Solo Advisor: You’re juggling 30–50 groups and doing everything yourself. Metric lets you stay organized, track notes and renewals, and present clean reports to your clients — all without hiring admin help.

• Small Team: You’re managing client service, renewals, and new business together. Metric gives your whole team visibility into what’s happening with each client and lets you coordinate efficiently.

• Growth-Focused Brokerage: You’re scaling fast and need a system that can grow with you. Metric handles the reporting, claims, and sales workflows you’ll need to keep delivering a premium client experience at scale.

Before and After: The Advisor Workflow with Metric

Here’s a look at a typical advisor’s day — before and after implementing Metric:

Before Metric

• 8:00 AM: Check a spreadsheet for upcoming renewals

• 9:00 AM: Copy notes from an email into a Word doc

• 11:00 AM: Jump between a calendar and Google Drive to prep for a client call

• 2:00 PM: Manually assemble claims history in Excel for a renewal proposal

• 4:00 PM: Missed a follow-up with a prospect due to lack of system reminders

After Metric

• 8:00 AM: Open Metric to review all reminders, tasks, and key client notes in one place

• 9:00 AM: Run claims reports and prep renewals in just a few clicks

• 10:00 AM: Follow up with prospects directly from your sales funnel

The rest of your day? Focused on what really matters—building relationships and growing your business.

Real Workflows, Real Results

Here are a few common use cases we’ve seen advisors thrive with on Metric:

• Pre-renewal planning: View historical claims data by benefit type and compare year-over-year to identify trends.

• Sales funnel tracking: Follow up with prospects based on custom stages you define, not forced-fit pipelines.

• Commission reporting: Track projected and collected commissions with per-client transparency.

• Client service history: Centralize past touchpoints, notes, and service items for better relationship continuity.

  
  

These aren't just features — they’re solutions to problems advisors have been dealing with for years.

Common CRM Mistakes Benefits Advisors Make

1. Over-customizing generic CRMs: Many advisors try to “Frankenstein” a standard CRM to fit their workflow. The result? Endless plugins, messy workarounds, higher costs, and an interface that’s more confusing than helpful.
   

2. Neglecting renewal workflows: Most generic CRMs aren’t built to track renewals. This leads to missed opportunities and last-minute scrambling.
   

3. Not centralizing data: Client notes, forms, and claims summaries should live in one place — not scattered across folders and email threads.
   

4. Underestimating onboarding time: Complex systems slow teams down. You shouldn’t need weeks of training just to use a CRM.
   

5. Ignoring reporting gaps: If your CRM doesn’t give you easy access to data like claims history or commission tracking, you’ll waste hours building reports manually.

The Hidden Costs of Inefficient Systems

Time isn’t just money — it’s client experience. When systems don’t work together, things fall through the cracks:

• You forget to follow up on a renewal.

• A key client update gets lost in your inbox.

• It takes 90 minutes to prep for a 30-minute client meeting.

These may seem like minor issues, but they compound quickly. The cost of inefficiency is often invisible — until a client walks away or a renewal deadline passes. With Metric, we help you avoid those cracks altogether.

Advisor-Tested, Purpose-Built

Metric wasn’t created in a vacuum. It was developed in collaboration with advisors who’ve spent years in the industry — advisors who were tired of making tools built for someone else to kind of work for their business.

From day one, we’ve built Metric with real feedback, practical features, and a deep understanding of what actually matters to advisors: simplicity, visibility, control, and time.

We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all CRMs. We believe in systems that adapt to how you work — not the other way around.

And we're not stopping here. Metric is designed to evolve — we're actively building new features driven by advisor feedback, including benchmarking tools, mid-year reporting enhancements, and more robust client intelligence dashboards.

FAQ: Is Metric Right for You?

How is Metric different from Salesforce or HubSpot? Metric is built specifically for benefits advisors. Instead of customizing a generic tool, you get exactly what you need out of the box — claims tracking, renewals, reports, and group-level organization.

Can I use Metric with my team? Yes! Metric supports advisor teams and shared access to accounts. Everyone stays aligned on client history, tasks, and renewals.

Is there a learning curve? No — that’s the point. We built Metric to be intuitive. You can get up and running in minutes, not weeks.

Do I need to commit? You can start with a one-month free trial and explore everything Metric has to offer. It’s easy to get started — and just as easy to continue once your trial ends.

Getting Started Is Easy

You can explore Metric at your own pace. Our one-month free trial gives you full access to the platform with a quick and easy setup. Whether you're a solo advisor juggling everything or part of a growing team, Metric can simplify your day-to-day and help you focus on what matters most.

No long-term commitment — just a simple way to see if Metric is the right fit for your business.

You don’t need to commit. Just test it out. We’re confident you’ll see the difference.

Ready to Try a CRM That Actually Works for Advisors?

Metric isn’t a bloated system you have to figure out — it’s clean, simple, and focused. If you're ready to stop duct-taping tools together and start working from one streamlined dashboard, this is it.

👉 Start your free trial and book a quick demo to see how it works.