CRM automation is like upgrading from a paper map to GPS navigation for your business. Sure, you could manage without it, but why waste time when you can automate and speed up your sales and marketing processes? From a startup founder to an owner of a sales team or a small-to-medium business (SMB) owner, the automation of the CRM process can be very helpful and increase the volume of sales you are making.
In this comprehensive article, we’ll see how various CRMs operate to fuel your business. Ready? Now let’s investigate five CRM automation tips and tools aimed at giving you more time and helping you drive your sales.
Why CRM Automation Is Essential for Your Business
CRM automation is not a luxury; it is an opportunity to change the company’s performance for the better. Ultimately, it lets you automate routine work, communicate with prospects more efficiently, and make your team not waste time on routine tasks but focus on high-value activities that matter most. A study by Nucleus Research revealed that, on average, organizations that implemented CRMs received a return on investment (ROI) of 8.71 times the amount they spent.
Still on the fence? Here’s a thought: Would you prefer to invest your time in clerical data entry or closing deals? That is what automation is all about, it helps you and get the results in the shortest time possible.
5 Powerful CRM Automation Hacks/Tools You Need to Know
1. Automate Day-to-Day Tasks
Here is the truth: HubSpot and Zoho CRM are two friendly tools that will suit SMBs and startups perfectly. These CRMs automate lead assignments, send timely follow-ups, and keep your database updated — all actions that streamline your sales process and ensure that no opportunity is missed.
How They Work:
HubSpot:
When a visitor submits a form on your website, HubSpot can do the following:
- Register the lead into the company’s CRM.
- Send it to the appropriate salesperson either by area of specialization or area of residence.
- Send an email to the lead as soon as he contacts you to thank him.
Zoho CRM:
Likewise, the features of Zoho CRM include the following automatic actions:
- Automatically assigning new incoming leads from various sources.
- Allocating leads to the proper salespeople depending on certain criteria set in advance.
- Continuing engagement leads to regular emails sending.
Why They’re Perfect for SMBs: The integration of automation is possible in both platforms with HubSpot giving its users a free plan where they can start with, while Zoho is quite flexible with its prices enabling companies to expand further.
Stat to Know:
According to McKinsey & Company, automating repetitive tasks can reduce operational costs by 30% to 50%. Imagine what you could do with that saved time and money — reinvest it into more strategic sales efforts, of course!
2. Lead Management with Personalized Drip Campaigns in Active Campaign & Mailchimp
Let’s face it: Manually chasing every single lead is not a scalable approach. But the good news is you don’t have to. Organic engagement through drip email campaigns using CRMs like Active Campaign or via MailChimp will help keep your audience engaged on auto pilot.
What It Does: Active Campaign and Mailchimp are two distinctive CRM tools that are primarily designed to assist you in running sequences of e-mail marketing campaigns to leads.
How It Works: When a potential client downloads a case study from your website, Active Campaign or Mailchimp can automatically trigger a series of personalized emails:
- Day 1: A thank you email with links to other articles related to the content of the message.
- Day 3: A referral from a customer who has been served in the same business as the one offering the recommendation.
- Day 7: A friendly gentle prodding to remind them of an event or an invite for a free sample on your services.
Why It’s Ideal for Startups: These CRMs will enable you to engage leads in communication, which is important when nurturing trust and ensuring that your company continues to be on the mind of your staff even if you’re a start-up company.
Stat to Know: Campaign Monitor was able to find that even using a simple method such as segmenting, personalized email marketing and in particular email campaigns can lead to an increase in revenue of 760%.
3- Make Work Easier by Linking Applications to Salesforce
Why It Matters: If your CRM is not integrated with the other solutions your team is using, you’re losing productivity. Having your Salesforce CRM connected with other apps such as Slack, Gmail, or Shopify means all your systems are connected, making productivity sweeter.
How Salesforce Works:
For instance, when a lead comes in through Facebook Ads, Salesforce automatically:
- Creates a record in the CRM.
- Informs the sales team using Slack.
- Analyzes the lead’s journey by using Google Analytics.
Why It’s Perfect for Sales Leaders:
Salesforce is great for scale, which means that it can be used effectively by a growing team. It is a way of managing your sales process that assists in uniting your organizational system to make work easier for your sales team.
Stats to Know:
According to Forrester Research the companies that implement Salesforce get a performance boost of 38% since the applications of Salesforce are to manage workflows and integrate critical sales tools.
4. Keep Data Clean and Organized with Zoho CRM
Why It Matters: Such a situation means that your business is stuck with old or irrelevant information which it wouldn’t be able to use to its advantage. For example, when you forward several follow-ups to the same client, you will appear disorganized. Data cleansing is another feature that comes with Zoho CRM in a bid to keep your database credible and current.
How It Works With this hack:
Zoho CRM uses AI to:
- Detect duplicate contacts or accounts.
- Validate email addresses and phone numbers.
- Flag incomplete or outdated entries.
Why It’s a Winner for SMBs:
A clean database not only reduces errors but also ensures better segmentation, enabling SMBs to target the right prospects and improve campaign performance, leading to more successful sales efforts.
Stat to Know:
Poor data quality costs businesses an average of $12.9 million annually, according to Gartner, making Zoho CRM’s data-cleaning tools essential for avoiding these costly mistakes.
5. Anticipate Customer Needs with AI in Microsoft Dynamics 365
Why It Matters: How wonderful would it be if you could forecast exactly what your customers would want before they expressly inform you? This is made possible by means of artificial intelligent CRMs such as Microsoft Dynamics 365. This tool utilizes Artificial Intelligence and analysis to predict and provide information on customer trends.
How It Works:
If a client frequently visits your pricing page, Microsoft Dynamics can:
- Mark the lead as priority.
- Suggest the best follow-up action.
- Forecast the chances of selling a product by relating it to past records.
Why It’s a Game-Changer for Sales Teams:
Microsoft Dynamics makes guesswork a thing of the past and allows your team to pursue the warmer leads that are more likely to buy, thus boosting your closing ratio.
Stat to Know:
Data-driven organizations find that the use of predictive analytics enhances the lead conversion rates by 25%, as revealed by McKinsey & Company.
Bonus Tip: Automate But Monitor and Constantly Improve the Flows
It’s also important to perform a CRM audit to ensure that the various automations being done are effective. Are your open rates low? Is there lead leakage where leads are not converting?
Why It Matters:
It’s essential to monitor your automations and fine-tune them as you go to optimize your CRM and develop your sales strategies more effectively.
Pro Tip:
Seek opinions from your team and assess other relevant measures such as the conversion rate for leads, rate of click through on emails and win rates of deals. Utilize these ideas to give the last touches to the business processes for optimizing their performance.
Conclusion: Automate, Optimize and Thrive
Whether you’re upgrading your current CRM or completely overhauling your sales management processes, implementing a new CRM can seem daunting. We’ve had clients who were overwhelmed by the prospect. That’s why we have developed our CRM training and implementation services to help you choose the right CRM and empower your team for company-wide adoption.
