The 11 Greatest CRM Benefits and Why Businesses Need a CRM Solution Over Excel

In sales, one critical factor that shapes team structure, operations, and technology investment is the sales cycle. Generally, there are two types: the short sales cycle and the long sales cycle.

Short Sales Cycle

The sales process usually starts and ends within a month, and the product’s value is relatively low. Because of this “short” nature, building a deep customer relationship is not as crucial. Applying a CRM solution for this group is relatively simple.

Long Sales Cycle

This type can take several months or even years to close a deal. Evaluating employee performance (often Relationship Managers, or RMs) becomes much more complex.

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The Challenge of CRM Implementation: Why Do Salespeople "Hate" CRM?

With long sales cycles, managers often lack patience when their staff don't hit sales targets for months. To "know" their employees are "still working," managers require them to log and report the number of interactions (meetings, texts, emails, calls...).

And so, the sales CRM (Sales force automation) was born from this very story.

The B2B Hybrid Sales Model: CRM is Mandatory

The Hybrid Sales Model (combining traditional in-person meetings with digital tools like email, chat, video calls, CRM...) has become a mandatory trend in B2B sales, according to both Gartner and McKinsey. McKinsey states that inputting customer interaction data into a CRM creates the input data for analysis, prediction, and sales optimization.

The Fear of "Being Monitored"

However, RMs are mostly experienced seniors who don't want to be "micro-managed" by having their calls or emails counted to assess performance. They tend to resist and find every reason not to use CRM. This leads to many failed CRM projects.

From a management perspective, the consequences of "not using" CRM are even greater:

• Lack of customer information for optimal care.
• Inability to transfer accounts effectively when an employee leaves.
• Inability to forecast revenue.
• Incorrect assessment of the team's capabilities...

As billionaire Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, said: "I've never met a salesperson who likes using CRM."

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CRM vs. Excel: When is Excel No Longer Enough?

So, what are the real benefits for CRM users? If you're using Excel and still managing sales well, why add CRM software?

This is a very common question. Arguably, the biggest competitor to a professional CRM software is Microsoft Excel. Excel alone can record sales opportunities, customer info, value, stage, etc.

So why use CRM when Excel works?

Answer: Excel is inherently personal software, whereas CRM requires collaboration, consistency, and timeliness.

• Collaboration: Coordination between departments and teams in sharing information, updating statuses, and tracking progress.
• Consistency: The methods of data entry, data formats, and shared understanding of stages, products, or customer information.
• Timeliness: When you need consolidated data for evaluation, analysis, or reports, it's available immediately.

By clarifying these three points, we naturally see the limitations of Excel and confirm the need for a professional CRM software.

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The 11 Real CRM Benefits

We have identified 11 key benefits of CRM, divided into three groups based on who they impact most: Salespeople, Mid-level Managers, and Executive Leadership.

1. CRM Benefits for Salespeople

The goal for salespeople is to sell more and work more efficiently. Every salesperson can be seen as a "startup," and CRM is the tool that helps this "startup":

• (1) Automate repetitive tasks: Reduce time spent on manual data entry, follow-up emails, and creating reports.
• (2) Manage the pipeline effectively: Clearly know which opportunities is at which stage and which to prioritize.
• (3) Increase "real" work time: Have more time to consult, meet, and close deals with customers.
• (4) Increase income: Working more efficiently means meeting and exceeding KPIs, leading to higher income.

2. CRM Benefits for Mid-level Managers

The goal for this group is to manage team performance effectively. CRM helps them:

• (5) Get a clear overview (dashboard): Instead of asking for Excel files and compiling them, managers can view real-time reports anytime.
• (6) Evaluate performance accurately: Consistent data allows for fair comparison and evaluation of each employee's performance.
• (7) Coach the team: Identify weaknesses in the sales process (e.g., a high drop-off rate at the demo stage) to provide timely training.
• (8) Sales Forecasting: Have a database to accurately forecast sales for their department for the coming month/quarter.

3. CRM Benefits for Executive Leadership

Why does a car need a speedometer and a fuel gauge, but a bicycle doesn't? Because the speed and risk are different.

If your business uses Excel, sales information is not updated in real-time. Would you dare to drive a car where the speedometer shows your speed from... a few hours ago?

The benefits of CRM at the leadership level are:

• (9) Data-Driven Decision Making: Get a timely pulse on the "health" of the entire sales system.
• (1T(10) Data Security and Centralization: Customer data is the most critical asset. CRM helps prevent data loss when employees leave. All data is centralized, synchronized, and strictly permission-controlled.
• (11) Process Optimization: Identify "bottlenecks" in the entire process from Marketing -> Sales -> Customer Service.

CRM is a Culture for Sustainable Growth

The benefits of using CRM are clear: cost savings, increased revenue, increased profit, greater customer trust, and a more professional team.

Above all, using CRM builds a habit, a data-driven work culture that helps a business survive and develop sustainably.

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Leverage your Sales Journey with OplaCRM

Opla CRM provides a sales solution that improves sales team productivity and business development for B2B businesses. Specifically, we will bring the following utilities: effectively exploiting leads, improving the winning rate of sales opportunities (Opportunity), managing customers 360° (Account), standardizing the sales process, improving the capacity of the Sales team (Sales Performance)...

From there, it helps businesses stay connected with customers and increase sales.

In particular, Opla CRM specializes in supporting customers who are businesses that follow the B2B (Business to Business) model, which has many characteristics and is completely different from B2C.

With a team of consultants with many years of experience in the field of B2B sales, Opla always strives to bring customers simple, easy-to-use solutions on multiple platforms (Web and Mobile) and bring the highest efficiency.

OplaCRM enables sales teams to interact with customers more intelligently through Healthscore feature. This feature provides a detailed assessment of the health of each customer relationship, helping businesses identify potential sales opportunities and focus on their most valuable customers.

Particularly beneficial for B2B businesses with long sales cycles, OplaCRM supports small and medium-sized enterprises in improving sales efficiency and competitiveness. Discover how businesses like yours have achieved their sales and CRM goals. Dive into our detailed case studies on our dedicated case study page.

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