CRM Automation: The Key to Efficiency
CRM automation equips growing teams with the tools to work more efficiently, make data-driven decisions, and enhance customer relationships.
The time-consuming, repetitive tasks that plague go-to-market (GTM) team members can be a thing of the past with the right configuration.
So let’s explore what CRM automation is and how you can use it to improve productivity — plus 3 workflows to automate right away.
What Is CRM Automation?
CRM stands for “Customer Relationship Management,” which is all about improving the way your customers interact with your business.
The problem is we tend to have a lot of customers to manage (not a bad problem to have). We can’t possibly have a meaningful conversation with everyone every single day. So, CRM tools, like Salesforce & HubSpot, were born to help us manage our customers effectively.
As this technology got smarter, CRM automation was created to help automate tedious, repetitive tasks that humans had to do by hand — and in today’s Revenue Operations world, it’s an absolute necessity.
With CRM automation implemented, your team can focus on the important priorities that drive revenue growth, while ensuring the day-to-day tasks get completed with accuracy.
CRM Automation Vs. Marketing Automation
CRM automation and marketing automation, while often overlapping in functionality, serve distinct purposes in the management of customer relationships and marketing efforts.
They both help to automate critical business processes, but CRM automation is more generalized for the entire organization.
Marketing automation focuses on sending the correct messaging to the correct prospects to create interest. It includes tools for email marketing, social media campaigns, lead generation, lead nurturing, and segmentation.
Regardless of the use case, automation can be a powerful way to increase productivity across all business functions. Let’s talk about some of the most valuable examples.
Benefits Of CRM Automation
Streamlines Processes
Process improvement and streamlining are key to creating the most efficient customer journey.
CRM automation enables you to move customers through the buying experience faster, increasing Time-to-Value and boosting your CRM ROI. Customers that get to experience your product or service faster, are proven to have higher customer satisfaction and engagement.
Even beyond the sales cycle, automation can help CSMs (Customer Success Managers) identify at-risk customers and put them front-and-center with health scoring (more on that below).
Improves Data Quality
I hate to break it to you, but we are all human and make mistakes.
In the CRM world, these mistakes happen often. Whether it’s forgetting to update a contact’s phone number, misspelling a company’s name, or keeping notes updated for a new deal, CRM automation can help improve CRM data management tremendously.
With higher data quality, you net more accurate data analytics and CRM reporting, which leads to better, more informed decisions. Not only will your data quality improve, but the speed at which it gets updated will increase exponentially.
3 CRM Workflows To Automate Today
Sales Workflow Automation
This automation streamlines various stages of the sales process, such as automatically assigning tasks to sales reps, setting reminders for follow-ups, and updating deal stages, which helps in moving leads through the sales funnel more efficiently.
Example: When an Opportunity in Salesforce has a Quote record associated, the Opportunity Stage is updated to “Proposal/Price Quote,” keeping the sales pipeline current and accurate.
Data Entry Automation
Data entry automation reduces manual work by automatically capturing and updating customer information from various sources, ensuring that customer records are always current and reducing the chances of errors.
While some of this enrichment can come from outside of your CRM (Clearbit, Zoominfo, etc.), keeping information clean across multiple objects within your CRM can be incredibly powerful — especially for CRM analytics.
Example: Let’s suppose we want to keep the Account record updated with a link to the latest won deal. We could create a simple custom field labeled “Most Recent Closed/Won Deal” and set a clickable link when an associated Opportunity’s stage is updated to Closed/Won.
Lead & Customer Health Scoring
Automatically score leads and categorize them based on their interaction with your business with this automation. This helps prioritize high-potential leads, ensuring they receive timely attention.
On the flip side, similar automation can be built to score your existing customers. With proper health scoring in place, Account Managers and CSMs can more easily manage their day with higher-value activity.
Example: We want to make it easier for a Customer Success Manager to manage their book of 350 Accounts. Previously, they would have to comb through hundreds of records to determine which customers to reach out to. With a new “Health Score” field in Salesforce, we can automatically set an emoji or image representing the sentiment/status based on information from the record.
Optimize Workflows with CRM Automation
CRM automation is a transformative tool for any GTM team, providing a critical bridge between managing a growing customer base and maintaining personal, meaningful interactions.
By automating routine tasks, CRM systems like Salesforce and HubSpot empower teams to shift their focus from manual, time-consuming activities to strategic, revenue-driving initiatives.
This shift not only boosts productivity but also enriches the customer experience, ensuring each interaction with your business is impactful and value-driven.
Embracing this technology is not just a step towards operational efficiency; it's a leap towards building a more responsive, customer-centric, and successful business in today's fast-paced Revenue Operations landscape.
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