If you are getting acquainted with your CRM software and are impressed with how it functions independently, allow us to introduce you to your new favorite feature — integrations.
While CRM software is powerful on its own, integrating your CRM with other tools across your sales stack makes your job so much easier. Ideally, your CRM should serve as the core hub to all of your sales activities, and integrations serve as the supporting cast making your central software even more powerful.
Have you ever felt frustrated working through tedious processes that require you to go back and forth between multiple systems? Now that you have implemented a CRM, are you ready to expand its functionality, and have it work directly with the other tools and systems you use?
If you answered yes to these questions, it’s time to start using CRM integration.
Your CRM is not only essential for communicating with customers, it should also create alignment and streamline communication within your company. Here are 15 key integrations to connect to your CRM and other business processes.
1. Email Integrations
As a sales rep, you spend a lot of time in your inbox. Whether you are sending cold pitches, sharing data with your internal team, or answering prospect questions, email is your go-to tool.
By integrating your Gmail or Outlook inbox and CRM you’re able to log all of your emails, access productivity tools you love including templates and sequences and see all of your CRM contact data without leaving your inbox.
2. Calendar Integrations
Stay on top of key tasks by syncing your Google or Outlook calendar with your CRM. Using two-way integration with your CRM and Google or Outlook calendar, you can instantly log a meeting in your CRM, create meeting notices, and send invites to meeting guests.
For HubSpot CRM users, you can integrate the HubSpot Meeting Scheduling App, which allows prospects to book a meeting with you based on your real-time calendar availability — eliminating back and forth coordination.
3. Connector Integrations
These integrations connect your CRM to a variety of applications to expand functionality. You can create custom integrations to facilitate specific tasks to create automated workflows. Some of our favorite connector integrations include Zapier, which automatically transfers information between your CRM and over 1,000 third-party apps, and Automate.io.
With Automate.io, you can connect your CRM to over 100 tools to automate repetitive tasks. You can even use Automate.io to sync your CRM with systems such as Quickbooks and PayPal to manage invoicing or to connect to collaborative tools such as Trello and Asana to integrate project management with your CRM.
4. Social Media Integrations
Social media is an essential sales tool for nearly every business. Integrating your company’s social media accounts with your CRM can help you gain valuable insight about your social audience — providing valuable data letting you know what content they share and engage with most.
Social media integrations also help streamline and automate posting. You can connect popular platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to your CRM.
5. Prospecting Software Integrations
If you use a third-party tool to help you identify and engage with prospects, you definitely want to integrate it with your CRM to streamline communication. By integrating a prospecting system such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator with your CRM, you can engage leads with personalized outreach using features like InMail, related leads, and ice breakers within your CRM.
6. Team Communication Integrations
Using a communication tool such as Slack, you can improve team coordination and accessibility. When you integrate Slack with your CRM, you can use chat functionality within Slack directly, or within your CRM so you don’t have to go back and forth between applications.
7. Forms and Data Collection Integrations
Learn more about your leads and contacts through custom forms and surveys using tools like Survey Monkey and Typeform. Any lead data you receive through your forms can be synced with contact data in your CRM to easily reference and analyze later on when preparing for sales meetings.
8. Calling Software Integrations
Whether you regularly host conference calls with your colleagues or need to organize calls with prospects, calling integrations streamline the planning and execution of phone and video calls for sales reps. When you integrate your calling software with your CRM, your call details and contact’s information will be logged in your CRM for future reference and visibility. Some of our favorite calling software integrations include:
- Zoom — Meeting software that easily integrates into your calendar software of choice and CRM for one-click meetings.
- Uber Conference — System that allows you to schedule calls from directly within your CRM.
- Aircall — Cloud-based phone system that allows sales and support teams to manage their calls and call workflows directly within their CRM.
- CallRail — Call tracking software that automatically syncs call and text message activity with CRM.
9. Customer Success Integrations
If your customer service organization uses a customer success software tool such as Zendesk or Service Hub, integrating it with your CRM can provide useful information for future sales. With access to customer help ticket data, you can sync service activity to contact information in your CRM to stay up to date with the service needs of your prospects and customers.
10. Proposal and Document Integrations
By integrating a document and proposal software tool such as PandaDoc with your CRM, you can send proposals and contracts in one central interface. Get contracts signed and automatically synced with your contact information within your CRM. You can also pull CRM data directly into your documents.
11. Live Chat Integrations
Having a live chat integration connected to your CRM ensures prospects who engage with chat software on your website are captured as leads.
Intercom, a popular live chat tool, can capture website visitors as leads when connected to your CRM. Easily capture contact information and conversation history so you are prepared when engaging with those leads.
12. Ecommerce Integrations
For sales reps working for ecommerce companies, integrating your online shopping cart platform with your CRM is critical to understanding your customers. If your company uses a Shopify store to sell products, integrating the platform with your CRM can automatically sync products, contacts, and orders so you have access to pertinent shopper information.
If your company uses Stripe to manage online payments, integrating it with your CRM allows you automatically add new contacts who receive quotes, and makes it even easier for customers to pay invoices and purchase orders directly without back-and-forth.
13. Web Form Integrations
To save time on manual entry, the lead generation forms on your website and your CRM should be automatically synced. Integrating your CRM with web form software such as WordPress, Unbounce, or Mailchimp captures viable leads and ensures that your contact list is always up-to-date — no manual uploads required.
14. Event Integrations
If your company facilitates in-person or virtual events as part of your sales strategy, integrating your CRM with event management software is a helpful way to understand how event ticket sales and attendance impact your sales funnel.
If you use Eventbrite for live event ticketing, integrating this system with your CRM provides insightful data about which contacts are attending your events, and how you can better connect with them in the future.
For sales reps who focus on selling at virtual events such as webinars, integrating your CRM with a system such as GoToWebinar can be a time-saving activity. By connecting your webinar system with your CRM, you can easily send registration event reminders to your contact list, create targeted follow-up campaigns, and create robust funnel reports to understand your event ROI.
15. Video Integrations
If your marketing team uses video as part of their strategy, integrating a video platform such as YouTube with your CRM can provide valuable insights about your leads. Within your CRM, you will be able to access data about what videos and messages are most successful with your audience, giving you leverage as you engage with potential customers.
Integrations are powerful resources that can help you save time manually working with systems and data. With a powerful CRM at the center of your processes and integrations helping systems run smoothly, you can focus on doing what you do best — selling.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
