4 CRM Integrations That Will Keep Your Sales Team Focused

No, they don’t spend all day exchanging memes, Karl. But they do waste approximately 79 percent of their time on tasks that could (and should) be automated. 

And often, you can fix this issue with as little as a few CRM integrations. They will streamline your sales team’s work process and keep them focused.

Fortunately, CRM systems and help desk software have lots of integration options and third-party add-ons that fill the functionality gaps of the software. But which should you choose? 

Allow me to show you Leadfeeder’s favorite CRM software integrations and what we use them for. I hope our experience will help you pick the optimal CRM integrations for your sales team.

What is CRM integration?

Let’s start with some basics. Every CRM solution has different features in its package — some cover more functions, some less. But there’s always room for improvement by connecting third-party integration to extend their functionality.

Basically, a CRM integration enables you to use other tools with your CRM, making your work in the CRM system faster, and more convenient, and also providing more opportunities for data usage. Especially if you use several integrations that cover several needs at once.

“If they’re so useful, why don’t providers add all these CRM features themselves?”

Great question. You see, users might not need them all, specifically if they’re a small business or startup. And you definitely don’t want to pay extra for something you don’t use (except that gym membership since you’ll “definitely start working out next week!”).

That’s why third-party companies create separate apps that users of CRM systems can buy and integrate if necessary. A win-win for everyone, including your sales team.

How do CRM integrations make your life easier? 

Sales teams live to shorten the sales cycle. Part of that involves fixing the issues salespeople often encounter at work. So let's see what concerns them the most and how CRM integrations can fix that. 

Less mundane sales tasks, more marketing automation

Choosing the right integrations helps you automate a large chunk of tasks related to email marketing, marketing campaigns, and sales efforts. 53 percent of employees and 78 percent of business leaders believe they can save up to 2 or 3 hours by automating tasks.

For example, integrations with email services like Gmail and social media platforms like LinkedIn or Instagram allow your sales team to ditch monotonous data entry and messaging. Your CRM platform can retrieve the necessary data automatically through integrations and organize it.

This way, you basically take large, perplexing, multi-version Microsoft Word and Excel documents and spreadsheets away from your employees. And they’ll thank you for that.

Plus, with specific integrations, your CRM will automatically switch lead statuses, moving them to the next sales cycle stage and making lead management more convenient. 

And that’s how you can automate the workflow, optimize the sales pipeline, and shorten sales cycles, improving the sales department’s performance. 

Up-to-date data for better customer support 

Integrations allow automatic updates, so your customer success and support teams will always have up-to-date information at their fingertips. Thanks to this, sales and support reps can provide personalized customer experience using their history of interactions — it’s all stored in a single place they can access with a click of a button. Clients love that.

In fact, companies that use personalization generate 40 percent more revenue than organizations that don't. 

So by simply integrating your sales CRM system with tracking add-ons and platforms like Leadfeeder, you can improve contact management and the retention rate.

Alerts and notifications to catch every opportunity

Research shows companies that respond to prospect requests within five minutes have eight times higher conversion rate than their tardy competitors. But sales agents often miss these requests.

With integrations, you can set up any alerts you need to react to lead actions on time. CRM systems can notify a sales rep via email, WhatsApp, or any other messenger to remind them to take some action. For example, an integrated app will alert them about sending a follow-up precisely one hour after the lead makes it into the CRM software. 

That means no more customers waiting days for sales teams to call and perfect timing for actions at every stage of the sales cycle. 

Effective email management tools

Sales managers spend hours a day writing emails. And let's be honest, most of these emails are pretty similar. The important thing here is not to mess up the customer data and the details of your previous interactions. Which gets hard when many emails look the same.

But CRM integrations with apps like Mailchimp make this process much easier and less error-prone. It provides email templates and customer data that help you quickly pull together a sales pitch.

So managers don't need to jump from one tab to another, checking what they’ve already discussed with this customer. This means less time wasted on double-triple checks and minimal risk of incorrect details in the pitch. 

Performance tracking tools for sales managers

Integrations make it easier to keep an eye on the team members and plan your cooperation.

For instance, integration with Google Calendar or similar apps helps to plan and share schedules with the team and not miss important meetings. A CRM with this kind of integration can even show tasks that were or weren't completed. And the reporting function can show you things like customer interactions and touch points, so you can see which managers are on top of your team's metrics. 

At Leadfeeder, we’ve seen that CRM integrations make our team's work easier and improve performance. But you need to decide what integrations work best for you depending on your industry, product, CRM system, and preferences.

My colleague Phill is happy to tell you about his team’s experience with CRM integrations to give you a general idea of how they work. Phil is responsible for his team’s sales process, and part of that effort is ensuring the team uses optimal sales tools and integrations. 

Leadfeeder sales manager Phil on his favorite CRM integrations

It might seem like a customer relationship management tool needs dozens of integrations to do its magic. But a poll we did showed that 27 percent of respondents use up to four CRM integrations since most of them are customizable and cover similar needs. 

Leadfeeder is no exception, and here are the four CRM integrations our sales team loves and uses the most.  

Aircall

If you use phone calls as a customer support and sales channel, you must integrate a phone system in your CRM, or as we call it, a dialer. For us, it’s Aircall. 

Aircall routes calls for assigned specialists, allows parallel calls, quick transferring, and even whispering calls (when a customer doesn't hear the suggestions of one colleague to another in the same call).

We can also comment and add important notes on each contact during or after a call, record calls, and pause the recording to hide sensitive information. Every sales rep has the necessary information on each customer, even if they haven't communicated before. 

Plus, as data lands in the CRM system, we can quickly analyze it and check reports on each sales rep, customer, or department in general. 

Aircall has dozens of other features, from conference calls to call monitoring software. Or you might use another dialer that fits your needs better. Either way, phone system CRM integration is a must for your sales and support departments. 

Docusign or Pandadoc

Integration with document management tools saves us hours of sales department work. Let me explain how. 

Whether it's an offer, pitch, or final agreement, back-and-forth emailing with comments and edits is almost inevitable if you don't use integrations like Docusign or Pandadoc. They allow real-time editing and commenting on documents and inform parties when others change something. 

Another time-saving thing is the automation of the documents lifecycle — when a sales rep creates a doc, they can send it to the assigned manager or legal department with one click. The same logic is behind the whole contract cycle, from drafting to signing and storing documents in the CRM system. Yes, eSignature is also included.

But the feature we use most is quoting to create proposals for the customer. It works like this: a manager selects the necessary information from the CRM, and the tool organizes it in a document template with a description, price, and more. In the end, everything looks clean, and most importantly, it takes minutes. 

And when you’re done, everything is neatly stored in the CRM, so our managers have no trouble finding documents, checking their statuses, or revising them.

Salesloft or Outreach

Salesloft and Outreach work like magic. They take the guesswork out of prospecting and suggest the exact time for exact actions to your sales reps. 

These cadence tools analyze data on your clients and suggest sending an email, making a phone call, or planning a meeting when they would respond to these kinds of interactions best. It also directs prospects to the right specialist if they have specific requests and offer templates according to the stage of the buyer's journey. 

All data, calls, emails, and SMS are automatically synced back to your CRM, so managers have loads of information on their hands. 

Basically, all the sales department needs to do is check the suggestions on sales activities, adjust them, and make the interaction personalized. The system handles the rest of the prediction-making and mundane organizational work.

Gong

Gong is another one on our list of the best CRM software integration that helps us improve customer service and increase lead generation. It analyzes customer interactions across the web, emails, phone calls, and other channels. That means: 

• We see what works and what doesn't thanks to the in-depth analysis of phone calls, emails, or meeting recordings.

• We use these insights for manager training.

• We can accurately forecast prospects' behavior and act according to their touch points. 

• We have objective data on each rep's performance and know what they need to improve.

• We use the top performers' recordings, insights, and practices to train new employees.

Gong integrates with Salesforce and Hubspot, so if you use Zendesk, Zoho, or other systems, you will have to search for alternatives or check with Gong if it can integrate with your CRM system through a third-party API.  

CRM integrations are integral in driving revenue

CRM software integrations are your key to increasing sales and driving revenue. They enhance the functionality of the CRM system and help your sales team focus on their work — closing deals. 

The best thing is that you don’t need to pay for dozens of integration; usually, two-five third-party solutions cover everything your CRM lacks. One takes care of quality phone call interactions, another enhances sales cadence, the third one gives you information for making data-driven decisions, and the fourth tracks the activity of visitors on your site, helping you convert them into leads.

On top of that, you can use these integrations to optimize and automate the work of all your departments. So, what are you waiting for? Start improving your CRM with integrations now!