The CRM software itself is very powerful. But in most cases, it is only as good as other software with which it works. It is important to understand how to integrate your CRM with the tools you already use (such as Gmail, Slack, or Trello) and the tools you will use in the future. Therefore, we created this in-depth guide to help you maximize your CRM through integration—connect it with all your other business tools in the right way, the first time.
Why is CRM integration so important
The CRM platform can help companies target new potential customers and maintain strong relationships with existing customers. CRM software gathers all your customer information in one place, including:
- notes
- Indicators and scores
- Documentation
- Previous interaction
- contact information
Whether you are engaged in marketing, sales, customer support, or a combination of the three, the right CRM software can help inform you of all ongoing customer interactions throughout the sales channel. If done well, it can promote short sales cycles, long cycles, and everything in between.
this For every $1 spent, the average return on investment of CRM is $8.71, So there is no reason not to install CRM software.
However, having CRM software is not enough-it also needs to work well and integrate with the tools you already use. If your CRM does not fit your current workflow, your new tool may soon become a tool that no one wants to use. At best, your new CRM becomes a waste of money. Worst of all, it will waste your team’s most precious resource (time) and cause unnecessary frustration for days or even weeks.
But when properly integrated, your CRM can be one of the most powerful tools your company has.
The first step in CRM integration is to understand which integrations are available and which are most important to your business. You can take advantage of all these tools, or you can deliberately exclude certain tools.
Email integration
When your email and CRM solutions work together, you will get everything you need to send ultra-personalized marketing, sales, and after-sales emails. Your CRM system has a gold mine of potential customers and customer data, which you can use to customize marketing campaigns and automated emails based on their preferences, buying behavior, and your previous interactions.
In addition, you can concentrate all these interactions in one place to study what works and which does not work.
Calendar integration
Integrating your calendar may seem like a trivial matter and does not provide an impressive list of benefits. But the fact is far from the case. When your calendar and CRM solution are synchronized, your agents and representatives can call prospects or customers from their calendars, and edit events anywhere through full two-way synchronization, eliminating the trouble of finding the best meeting time back and forth, ensuring you The team never repeats bookings and checks the availability of employees at a glance.
Arranging presentations, sales calls, internal meetings, and training courses with the right representatives is easier than ever.
Social media integration
Chances are, your customers, customers, and prospects are all on some form of social media. Therefore, it makes sense for your business to appear where they hang out online. Not only that, by connecting various social media platforms with your CRM, you can also gain unprecedented insight into what your audience shares, likes, and interacts with.
You will also learn how they interact with your business and others who are similar to you, thus giving you an advantage over your competitors. Connecting the two brings everything together in one place, so you can view social media behavior alongside all other interactions.
Marketing automation integration
Although CRM is generally considered a sales tool, many also come with marketing automation and alignment tools to ensure that marketing, sales, and support are always on the same page.
With the right marketing integration, your marketing team can enhance your CRM and provide itself with all the tools needed to meet your target audience, bring new potential customers into your network, get to know them and connect with them to encourage them to stop nearby .
When marketing and sales are aligned, everyone has access to the same information and reduces the chance of missing opportunities at every point in the funnel.
Quick tips for improving CRM integration today
As with many business tools, the results of CRM implementation and proper integration can take months or even years to begin to be truly measured. But based on our experience, you can now take five quick wins to speed up the process and immediately start taking full advantage of your CRM and its integration.
First of all, choosing the right CRM software is the key.
Our first choice is Hubspot CRM because it has a comprehensive free plan and a modular paid plan that allows you to access exactly what you need without paying for what you don’t need.
Even if you don’t have an internal team to help maintain your CRM, the free version of Hubspot is very intuitive but powerful, and can improve your customer relationships without paying a penny. If you are looking for something simpler or a specific use case, Check out our other top picks here.
No matter which CRM you choose, you may need to try different tools repeatedly until you find the right one. The good news is that most offer free plans or free trials, so you can try before investing.
Once you find the right tool, the remaining tips in this section will help you quickly achieve victory in the next 24 hours.
Choose one person to take the lead in integration
When it comes to CRM integration, there must be too many chefs in the kitchen. The more people involved in this process, the greater the room for misinformation and various errors. This is why your company needs to choose someone who can lead the task.
Those selected to take the lead in integration should do it systematically so that each task in the process is prioritized and completed correctly. This person needs to have power in the company and the ability to approve decisions.
In order to maximize the efficiency and success of this person, it is recommended that they obtain CRM certification. This will ensure that they understand the software before and after to help the company implement and take advantage of all the features and advantages provided by CRM software.
Appreciate the little victory
Although the real prize is at the end of the integration tunnel, there are still opportunities for positive things to happen in the process, and these little things should be recognized.
Celebrating victory is not only to make a deal. This is for the success of the whole process. When integrating CRM into your company, you may encounter some difficulties, which will force you to celebrate small victories.
But once it is done, the satisfaction you will get from this integration will be different. You will see that CRM can motivate team members, help close more deals, and make people’s work easier.
Understanding the security challenges
Ensuring the security of all information in CRM is one of the important things your company must do. This security starts with the implementation of CRM. Some companies and CRM software use application programming interfaces (APIs) to communicate. API is the middleman between two different applications or software.
In order to maintain strong security, your company needs to have an IP address because it will be used for integration. You also need to grant access to people who perform the integration and use strong passwords that are longer than 120 characters and are a mixture of symbols, numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters.
Tracking performance
It is important to understand how to synchronize during the integration process and whether the software is working properly. Although this can be done manually by signing in with different departments, some CRM software provides a client panel from which you can check the synchronization status.
Proof cost
Implementing a new system is not always cheap. However, in the case of CRM, you get a lot more money than you put in. According to Finances Online, CRM software can increase sales by 29%, Productivity increased by 34%, and forecast accuracy increased by 42%.
It is crucial to carefully choose the right CRM for your company and see what you will get. There are some risks, and your team may not be able to maximize the use of CRM, but this is a leap of faith that you must take (of course, after careful and thorough research). Make sure that this purchase is best for your company.
Long-term strategy for CRM integration
The above points will help you in the very important process of your company’s CRM integration, and will become an indispensable part of CRM success. However, equally important is the long-term game. To truly regard CRM integration as a success, everything that happens before, during, and after the integration needs to proceed smoothly.
To ensure that your company sees all the benefits of CRM integration, read some of the long-term strategies below.
Common goal
Rather than let someone come to your sales and marketing team and notify them that they are implementing CRM, take steps to ensure they play a role in the process. This inclusiveness is the key to successful implementation.
A good way to start this work is to send a company-wide survey on improving the quality of potential customers and allow employees to share feedback on current sales channels.
Once the survey has been collected and the data reviewed, the company’s chief marketing officer can convene a meeting to discuss implementation. The meeting should start with the CMO, with special mention of surveys and other statistics within the sales and marketing team. In this part of the process, the CMO should explain the pain points of the team and how CRM solves these problems. This understanding is the key to successful integration.
Once the team knows what they will gain from the integration, they are more likely to feel positive about the actual integration itself.
Comprehensive training
Current and future members of your team must understand how to use the system. This can be achieved by preparing documents so that anyone can easily access and understand your company’s CRM.
During the initial integration of CRM in your company, it is key to keep a record of what you do in the process. This is what employees will access to execute the system you created. The way you share notes with employees is also important.
The best way to present this information is no Adopt a manual with 200 pages of information. This guarantees that they will close and reject the idea. Instead, use your skilled marketing team to produce training videos, visually stimulating emails and check-ins. In this way, your employees will be more excited about this new system and more likely to succeed. You can also create a document database where employees can search for answers to questions and troubleshoot.
Hire someone dedicated to combining sales and marketing
Instead of choosing a salesperson and a marketer to lead the process, choose someone who has experience and knowledge of both teams. Both teams need to be listened to, and the neutral party ensures that all needs are met.
Many companies are creating a new role to act as an intermediary between sales and marketing. This role is often referred to as “marketing technology expert” or “marketing operations strategist.” It’s best to be filled out by internal personnel to facilitate collaboration between teams and keep goals and processes consistent.
Strong communication
There will be some minor problems in the process of CRM integration, some of which may appear in the form of personnel turnover. Because this is almost inevitable, regular and open communication must be maintained regarding CRM integration. The more communication about the problem from the beginning, the less likely they will become the bigger thing that needs to leave the company.
Have a team dedicated to solving problems
Although you may want to integrate smoothly without problems, there may still be problems in the process. However, if a team and members are assigned to deal with these issues, the bumps on the road will not necessarily cause major damage.
