That’s the power of task automation. Instead of juggling data, logging calls, or creating follow-up tasks by hand, you can use CRM integrations to keep your data clean, your pipelines updated, and your team aligned.

We’ll walk through the 10 best Zapier automations for sales teams using Pipeline CRM. These data entry automations streamline your workflows and give your team more time to sell.

Sales Tasks That Can Be Automated on a CRM With Zapier Connection

According to a Salesforce study, sales reps only spend 28% of their time actually selling. When I first heard this, I thought it had to be a mistake. But then I thought back to my own sales days and realized, “Oh… yeah… it’s true.”

I lost countless hours on reporting, tracking performance, and trying to understand why sales in a particular territory or area weren’t working. The biggest culprit? Manual data entry.

Sales reps are asked to meet a specific quota and keep momentum, but repetitive tasks like updating records or logging interactions slow them down. That’s where workflow automation and CRM integrations make all the difference.

Take a look at some of the tasks sales reps are expected to complete in their CRM—some of which could be automated using a CRM Zapier integration.

1. Data Management and Entry: This includes adding, updating, and cleaning customer and lead data, logging interactions (calls, emails, meetings), and documenting notes, requests, and feedback.
2. Lead and Opportunity Management: Sales reps must categorize leads, track their status, and document details related to opportunities, including outcomes and engagement levels.
3. Sales Reporting and Forecasting: This involves entering data for sales projections, updating forecasts based on new information, and preparing performance reports on sales and revenue.
4. Integration and Synchronization: The list highlights tasks related to managing integrations with other tools (like marketing automation) and syncing data from third-party applications to ensure all records are current.
5. Administrative and Document Tasks: This covers scheduling follow-ups and reminders, sending proposals or quotes, and general document management, including attaching relevant files to records.

With task automation in place, sales teams eliminate time leaks, stay on top of opportunities, and boost overall sales productivity.

The best part? You don’t need to know how to code. With Zapier’s no-code automation builder and Pipeline CRM’s flexible deal, contact, and pipeline management tools, you can automate everything from lead capture to task assignment—without writing a single line of code.

TL;DR of Sales Automation Tasks Through Pipeline CRM and Zapier Integration

Let’s take a look at 10 sales automations you can set up using Zapier integrations and Pipeline CRM.

*Note: The results highlighted in these examples are intended to demonstrate the outcomes businesses can achieve when streamlining processes with Pipeline CRM and Zapier connection. Actual impact will vary depending on each team’s workflow, tools, and execution.

See other integration options of Pipeline CRM.

1. Automatic Lead Capture from Web Forms

What the Pipeline CRM and Zapier Integration Automates

This adds leads to Pipeline CRM from webforms like Gravity, Jotform, or Typeform.

CRM Zapier Integration Use Case

Jon is the sales manager at Ace Manufacturing. He works closely with the owner of the business, and there’s no marketing team, so it’s up to him to (1.) Generate leads (2.) Add leads (deals) to Pipeline CRM, and (3.) Qualify these leads.

When a lead came in, there would be a mad dash to contact the prospect, qualify the lead, enter their details into the sales pipeline, and then pass that lead along to the appropriate sales rep. This constant back-and-forth made it difficult to maintain consistent sales productivity.

Related: Audit your sales pipeline and optimize it to boost sales workflow efficiency.

What the Automation Changes

Instead of manually transferring data from his email to his CRM, Jon created a Zap to immediately add prospects and create a new deal as soon as a form is submitted. He automatically tags the lead source (e.g., website form, landing page, channel partners, etc.) so he can tie marketing performance and analytics together.

Instead of manually transferring data from web forms into your CRM, use a Zap to instantly create a new deal and contact in Pipeline CRM as soon as a form is submitted. You can even tag the source (e.g., “Website Form” or “Landing Page”) to better track lead origin and improve pipeline management.

Zapier Trigger Action Example

1. Trigger event: New form submission in Gravity Forms
2. Action: Create new contact and deal in Pipeline CRM

The Result

Jon saw a 34% increase in conversion. Leads were imported into Pipeline CRM and assigned to sales reps faster. This mean that prospects received immediate help from someone on their team, anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Already using Pipeline CRM? Add this ‘Automatic Lead Capture’ Zap to your business.

2. Two-Way Contact Sync Between Tools

What the Pipeline CRM and Zapier Integration Automates

This Zap keeps your records updated and accurate across other platforms, in this case, Google Contacts. If you update a contact in Google Contacts, they’re automatically updated in Pipeline and vice versa.

CRM Zapier Integration Use Case

Rebekah is a realtor. Her clients are always moving, so her contact data is always outdated on one platform or another. If she updates her contacts in Google, she has to update them in a dozen other apps. It’s exhausting, and it generally creates problems when she needs to reach out to these contacts.”Which number’s the right one?” is always a common complaint.

What the Automation Changes

Rebekah created a Zap to ensure that her contacts are updated and in sync. There’s no overlapping contact data or conflicts. With this Zap, she automates two-way syncs; when she updates a client in Pipeline CRM, that client is updated everywhere.

Zapier Trigger Action Example

1. Trigger event: New contact in Pipeline CRM
2. Action: Create/update contact in Google Contacts

The Result

Rebekah saw a 16% increase in repeat business. Her marketing made it to the right people so she saw an immediate conversion lift. She was able to maintain her connection to her clients over time. This was low hanging fruit and an easy (and automatic) win.

Already using Pipeline CRM? Add this ‘Two-Way Contact Sync’ Zap to your business.

3. Automatic Task Creation Based on Deal Stage

What the Pipeline CRM and Zapier Integration Automates

Creates or assigns a series of follow-up tasks when deal stages change in Pipeline CRM.

CRM Zapier Integration CRM Zapier Integration Use Case

Rick ran a design agency. He constantly sent proposals to prospects. The majority of these prospects ghosted him, or worse, he forgot to follow up with important prospects. As a result, the revenue lost from these missed opportunities was high. His agency was trapped in a feast/famine cycle. Once his deals hit the “Proposal sent” stage in Pipeline CRM, he needed to automate a series of tasks in his project management tool (Asana).

For example, when a deal moves to the “Proposal Sent” stage, automatically create a task to follow up in 3 days. You can customize task type, due dates, and assignees.

What the Automation Changes

Rick created a Zap to help his team follow up on the proposals that were sent out. When a deal moves to the “Proposal Sent” stage in Pipeline CRM, a series of tasks (e.g., send out a follow-up email, send out a text message the following day, request a meeting via Calendly, etc.) were created in Asana, notifying his team.

Zapier Trigger Action Example

1. Trigger event: Deal stage changes to “Proposal Sent” in Pipeline CRM
2. Action: Create following tasks in Asana: (1 day after: Request a meeting via Calendly, 3 days after: Send follow up email, 5 days after: Send follow up text message)

The Result

Rick’s win rate shot up by 65%, but here’s what’s interesting: he sent out 40% fewer proposals. He made more money with less work, in less time. Why? This automation gave his team valuable intel, exposing trends indicating that a customer was more (or less) likely to buy. They were about to apply these signals on the front end, spending more time nurturing leads or quickly disqualifying customers.

Already using Pipeline CRM? Add this ‘Pipeline CRM and Asana Task Creation’ Zap to your business.

4. Meeting Scheduling and Sync

What the Pipeline CRM and Zapier Integration Automates

Adds meetings scheduled in third party tools (e.g., Calendly, Google Calendar, or Microsoft Outlook) in Pipeline CRM as activities.

CRM Zapier Integration Use Case

Jenn is a sales manager for an international retailer. She’s responsible for coordinating with multiple client teams (e.g., product, marketing, fulfillment, etc.). Samer, her boss, will frequently schedule meetings for her, meetings he neglects to tell her about. As a result, she occasionally misses meetings. She’s perpetually prepared but it would be nice to know about the meetings she’s expected to attend.

What the Automation Changes

When her boss schedules a new client meeting via Outlook, Jenn is automatically notified and helpful docs, meeting room details, and attendees, etc. are all added in Pipeline CRM. The meeting is automatically logged on the client’s contact record in Pipeline CRM, and a new deal is created if one doesn’t already exist.

Zapier Trigger Action Example

1. Trigger event: New event (meeting) in Outlook
2. Action: Create/update contact and log the meeting in Pipeline CRM

The Result

When Jenn and her colleagues joins client meetings, they’re fully brief and given adequate time to prepare. They know what’s expected, and they know exactly what needs to be done. They understand the full context of their situation so there’s no prep required.

Already using Pipeline CRM? Add this ‘Meeting Scheduling and Sync’ Zap to your business.

5. Instant Notifications for Deal Updates

What the Pipeline CRM and Zapier Integration Automates

This Zap sends real-time alerts when deals are updated or closed.

CRM Zapier Integration Use Case

Steven runs a small logistics company. Transportation bids are a standard part of any business transaction. What’s not standard is that Steven’s company went from winning 84% of the bids it submitted to losing 20 out of the last 31 bids it submitted. Even worse, it’s sometimes weeks before his team notifies him that a deal was lost.

What the Automation Changes

Steven works with his team to create a Zap. This Zap sends notifications to his team in Slack anytime an important deal event occurs (e.g., a deal is assigned, changes stages, or is won or lost). As the company owner, he wants to be notified about specific stages (e.g., won/lost), but he wants his team to be fully briefed on all relevant changes.

Zapier Trigger Action Example

1. Trigger event: Deal stage changes to “Closed Won” or “Closed Lost”
2. Action: Send Slack messages to the assigned sales rep, Steven (the owner), and Ben (transportation manager)

The Result

There’s an obvious benefit here. This Zap keeps Steven and his team in the loop. There’s no need for constant status updates or nagging reps to “see where things are at”. But there’s also a hidden benefit here, too. Steven and his team were able to perform post-mortems on the deals that they lost. They identified four specific issues that cost them opportunities. This led to a 71% conversion rate, not as great as before, but they’re in a much stronger position as a result.

Already using Pipeline CRM? Add this ‘Slack Instant Notifications for Deal Updates’ Zap to your business.

6. Lead Enrichment on New Contacts

What the Pipeline CRM and Zapier Integration Automates

When a contact is added in Pipeline CRM, additional contact details are automatically pulled in from tools like Clearbit, Hunter, or ZoomInfo.

CRM Zapier Integration Use Case

Sam is the sales manager for a mid-sized B2B company. When he receives leads from the company’s web forms or from the marketing team, it’s his job to get additional intel on the prospect and qualify them, before assigning them to sales reps.

In the past, he spent a significant amount of time trolling Google, searching for the details he could find. His company eventually purchased a Clearbit subscription, but he still spent the majority of his time manually adding data from Clearbit to his CRM.

What the Automation Changes

Sam usually receives the following lead information: name, email address, phone number, and a time frame. With this Zap, he can integrate Pipeline CRM and Clearbit, automatically pulling in his contacts’ job title, company size, industry, and more.

Zapier Trigger Action Example

1. Trigger event: New contact added in Pipeline CRM
2. Action: Pull additional contact data using Clearbit

The Result

Sam was able to immediately determine whether the contact he received from marketing was (a.) a decision maker or influencer, (b.) determine whether to add prospects to a lead nurturing campaign or assign them to a sales rep, and (c.) identify whether they were qualified or unqualified.

Already using Pipeline CRM? Add this ‘Lead Enrichment on New Contacts’ Zap to your Business.

7. Email List Segmentation and Sync

What the Pipeline CRM and Zapier Integration Automates

Automatically adds leads from Pipeline CRM to your segmented email lists in Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, or Kit.

CRM Zapier Integration Use Case

Bill’s insurance agency generates a huge number of leads. This sounds like a good thing but in Bill’s case it’s not. Only 3% of those leads are ready to buy. The other 97% are ignored or forgotten. It’s as if he never received their contact information.

It’s a disaster because it decreases Bill’s conversion rate, significantly decreases his Return on Ad Spend (RoAS), and increases his cost per lead. His insurance agency could generate more revenue if they nurtured the leads that weren’t ready.

What the Automation Changes

Bill decided to add deals that have gone cold to a re-engagement sequence. For deals marked “won,” he added customers to an onboarding campaign.

Zapier Trigger Action Example

1. Trigger event: Deal stage marked as “Closed/Lost”
2. Action: Add contact to a “Re-engagement/Winback Campaign” sequence in Kit

The Result

Bill created a re-engagement/winback campaign in Kit (his email marketing tool), but nothing changed for the first six months. Then, out of nowhere, Bill’s conversion rate and revenue doubled. Suddenly, he had more customers than he knew what to do with. He doubled his win rate every month for the next seven months before his conversion rate stabilized. Customers continued to flow into his business month in and month out.

Already using Pipeline CRM? Add this ‘Email List Segmentation and Sync’ Zap to your business.

8. Post-Sale Handoff to Delivery Teams

What the Pipeline CRM and Zapier Integration Automates

This Zap sends closed deals to your onboarding and support teams using third-party project management tools like Trello.

CRM Zapier Integration Use Case

Ashley needed to help her sales reps and onboarding teams. Here sales reps did a fantastic job closing deals but a lack of systems meant that her sales and onboarding teams bungled the hand off. This lead to more customer cancellations within the free trial window.

What the Automation Changes

Ashley created a Zap to make the sales-to-onboarding hand-off smoother. Once a deal is closed in Pipeline CRM, a task card, checklist, or project is automatically created in Trello. Teams are given clear instructions automatically, and the transfer is seamless.

Zapier Trigger Action Example

1. Trigger event: Deal stage is marked as “Closed Won”
2. Action: Create a new onboarding project in Trello and alert onboarding support

The Result

Ashley decreased customer churn by 24% in the first month. Once customers signed on to work with her company they received extensive support and hand holding. As sales reps prepared to transfer customers to the onboarding teams, sales reps took the time to introduce customers to their onboarding rep. As a result, more customers continued on past their free trial period.

Already using Pipeline CRM? Add this Zap ‘Post-Sale Handoff to Delivery Teams via Trello’ to your Business.

9. SMS or Email Reminders to Prospects

What the Pipeline CRM and Zapier Integration Automates

This Zap sends automated reminders before or after an event using third-party tools like Twilio, Gmail, Dialpad, and more.

CRM Zapier Integration Use Case

Kevin runs a marketing agency. He knows that his clients are busy. When he schedules a meeting with them, he knows that sending them a reminder increases the likelihood that they’ll show up. The easier it is to get his prospects to actually show up to his meeting, the easier it will be to close the sale.

What the Automation Changes

Kevin creates a few different Zaps. His first Zap sends out two automated reminders: The first is sent 3 days before their meeting, the second is 24 hours before, and the third is two hours before.

His next Zap sends out an automated follow-up message 24 hours after their meeting. This message sends prospects to a helpful landing page where they’re given next steps and helpful resources. This is done using Pipeline’s CRM activity log and interaction history.

Zapier Trigger Action Example

1. Trigger event: Event logged as “Upcoming Meeting” or “Meeting Completed” in Pipeline CRM
2. Action: Send a reminder/follow-up SMS via Twilio

The Result

It’s no surprise that more clients show up to these meetings. These automations add another layer of accountability to the relationship. This is a very good thing because it enabled Kevin to disqualify clients quickly. If they weren’t interested, these automations made that obvious. If they were interested, they continued through the process. It created a virtuous dilemma that allows him to serve those who are interested and disqualify those who are not.

Already using Pipeline CRM? Add this ‘SMS or Email Reminders to Prospects via Gmail’ Zap to your business.

10. SMS or Email Reminders to Prospects

What the Pipeline CRM and Zapier Integration Automates

Exports Pipeline CRM deal and activity data into third-party tools like Google Sheets or Looker Studio.

CRM Zapier Integration Use Case

Michael is a forecaster in a large ecommerce retailer. His job is complex. He’s required to meet with the heads of multiple departments, gather data, and incorporate that data into his reports, which he then uses to create his sales forecasts. This has been a losing battle for Michael because he’s spent (wasted) a significant amount of time trying to stay on top of the changes taking place in each department.

Related: learn how to shorten your sales cycle with sales forecasting.

What the Automation Changes

Michael decided to use Pipeline CRM as his single source of truth. Whenever a deal is updated or a contact is added, a data point is added to his spreadsheet dashboard, which is automatically updated to reflect the KPIs his bosses care about, like total deal value, deal velocity, and win rates.

Zapier Trigger Action Example

1. Trigger event: New or updated deal in Pipeline CRM
2. Trigger event: Deal marked as “Closed Won”
3. Action: Add row to Google Sheets

The Result

This produced an immediate win for Michael. It restored his bosses’ confidence in his ability to perform. Even better, his sales forecasts were more accurate. Because these forecasts were based on hard data, they were difficult to mess up. In time, his forecasts were used to shape major operational changes in his company, all because he did the upfront work of using Zapier and CRM integration to create powerful insights.

Already using Pipeline CRM? Add this Zap ‘SMS or Email Reminders to Prospects’ to your business.

Automate Your Sales Tasks with Pipeline CRM and Zapier Integration

Manual data entry slows your reps down. It creates headaches, bottlenecks, and errors. Your sales reps are forced to document the details that matter when they should be focused on selling. These best Zapier automations for sales teams and CRM integrations can change that, making manual data entry a thing of the past.

Whether you’re flying solo or part of a well-trained team, Zapier can turn your business into a revenue-generating machine through CRM workflow optimization. Use this guide. Put Zapier to work, and you’ll find automated data entry becomes your new normal—boosting sales productivity across your team.

Pipeline CRM helps 18,000+ companies like yours decrease time-to-close, increase productivity by 50% or more, and 10x sales. Let us show you how Pipeline CRM can help you win more customers and deals.

Try Pipeline CRM for free for 14 days!

That’s why most landscapers rely on job management software to keep things running smoothly after a job is booked. These tools are great for scheduling crews, creating invoices, and managing project timelines.

The problem? They rarely help you win the job in the first place. Most fall short when tracking leads, following up on quotes, or staying organized during sales. And as your business grows, you might pay more just to unlock the features you actually need.

Why Landscapers Need More Than Just Job Scheduling Tools

Job scheduling software helps keep things running smoothly once a job is booked: assigning crews, managing calendars, and tracking progress. But for many landscaping businesses, the real challenge isn’t doing the work. It’s getting the work.

To help you decide which software for landscaping to choose, here’s how Pipeline CRM compares to other job management software landscapers often use—Jobber, LMN, and ServiceTitan—across the features that matter most.

What is Pipeline CRM?

Pipeline CRM for landscaping contractors is a sales and deal management platform that helps you keep track of leads, follow up with potential clients, and stay organized during the sales process. With solutions specially designed for landscaping businesses, it helps you stay on top of new business and get the jobs done on time without getting buried in sticky notes and unread emails.

Here’s what Pipeline CRM helps you do:

• Track leads: add new leads, update their info, and see where they are in the sales process.
• Manage follow-ups: set reminders so no one gets forgotten after that first call or email.
• Organize your pipeline: see what’s in progress, what’s on hold, and what’s ready to close.
• Customize your workflow: add stages, tags, or fields that match how you actually work.
• Use geolocation: see where your leads are located on a map and plan smarter follow-ups and service routes.
• See what’s working: get a clear view of where leads are coming from and which ones are turning into jobs with real-time reporting.

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Let’s compare Pipeline CRM with our three chosen job management tools across five essential categories.

1.    Lead Tracking and Sales Pipeline Management

Most job management tools like Jobber, LMN, and even ServiceTitan prioritize operations after a job is booked. Jobber and LMN offer only basic lead capture (usually name, phone, and email), and tend to rely on add-ons or integrations for any kind of structured follow-up or pipeline visibility.

ServiceTitan does a better job managing incoming leads, especially for trade businesses—it can log inbound calls, set follow-up dates, and display a “Service Board” with lead statuses. But its lead management is still more of an operational add-on, not a true CRM-style sales workflow.

Pipeline CRM, by contrast, is built for sales-first visibility. You get lead management features like customizable pipeline stages, drag-and-drop deal management, automatic reminders, and native tracking of where your leads are coming from: referrals, ads, calls, or forms. That means fewer missed follow-ups and better insight into which channels actually drive jobs.

“Pipeline CRM helps you visualize and understand your sales pipeline in order to grow your business.”

– Praveen B, Mid-Market Digital Marketing Specialist (verified G2 reviewer).

2.    Scheduling and Dispatching

Jobber offers a strong scheduling experience for small-to-mid-sized field teams. Its drag-and-drop calendar, automated reminders, and GPS tracking are useful for recurring work and keeping clients informed. LMN includes basic scheduling tools, but lacks robust dispatch capabilities or deeper sales linkage.

ServiceTitan is more advanced in this category, especially for larger, multi-crew organizations. Its higher-tier plans offer intelligent routing, proximity-based crew dispatch, and in-depth dashboards. That said, it’s built for operations, not sales. The dispatch tools are powerful but siloed from your sales process.

Pipeline CRM, by contrast, ties your sales tasks and scheduling together:

• Calendar integration with Outlook/Google lets you schedule follow-ups or site visits directly inside lead records.
• Shared calendar views keep your sales team on the same page with logged meetings, calls, and tasks.
• Map View shows your active leads and clients on a map. You can create optimized routes (up to 10 stops), save them, and send them to mobile.

For field teams that need to sell and schedule, not just assign crews, this kind of integration reduces busywork and keeps deals moving forward.

3.    Quoting and Estimating

Jobber gives service businesses a user-friendly quoting process: you can customize templates, add optional services, and send quotes via email or SMS. Clients can approve and pay online through Jobber’s Client Hub, and the system will follow up automatically if they haven’t responded.

LMN offers simpler tools in this area, while ServiceTitan provides robust quoting for larger teams. However, these features are often geared toward dispatch and field ops and do not include integrated sales conversations.

Pipeline CRM isn’t an out-of-the-box quoting tool. Instead, it integrates with Paycove, automatically turning deals into branded quotes and invoices using CRM data. Because your site visit notes, customer preferences, and sales history all live in one place, quoting is faster, more accurate, and less prone to error.

4.    Reporting and Forecasting

Most job management tools like Jobber, LMN, and ServiceTitan focus on what’s already happened—jobs completed, time logged, and invoices sent. Jobber gives you a decent overview of current financials. ServiceTitan takes it a step further with customizable dashboards and deeper operational KPIs. But these reports rarely give you visibility into your future pipeline or help you forecast what’s coming next.

Pipeline CRM flips the script. It’s built around deal tracking and forward-looking insights. You can create reports based on rep activity, lead source performance, or deal stage. Everything updates live, so your forecast reflects what’s happening today, not last week.

That kind of visibility can be the difference between steady growth and chaotic swings for landscaping businesses that depend on seasonal work, predictable staffing, and long lead times.

5.    Scalability

Most job management platforms like Jobber, LMN, and ServiceTitan look affordable at first, but once your team grows or your needs shift, you often find key features locked behind higher-tier plans. Want automated reminders? Routing? Quote follow-ups? You’ll likely need to upgrade.

Pipeline CRM keeps things simple. All plans include the core features landscaping businesses need: lead tracking, calendar tools, pipeline visibility, and reporting. There are no contact limits, paywalled automations, or required upgrades just to access the basics.

As one G2 user points out:

“One standout feature is the absence of contact limits, providing the flexibility to grow and scale without the constraints often imposed by other CRM systems. This not only accommodates my current requirements but also future-proofs my usage as my needs evolve.”

When to Choose Pipeline CRM Over Traditional Job Software for Your Landscaping Business

If you’re struggling to keep up with leads, follow-ups, or quotes, Pipeline CRM is built to fix that.

Let’s say you get a dozen inquiries in a week: a few yard cleanups, some design projects, and a big commercial lead. You take notes, send a few estimates, and move on. A week later, you realize you forgot to follow up on three of them—one of which could’ve been your biggest job this month.

That’s where Pipeline CRM makes the difference.

It gives you a clear view of every lead and where it stands. You get reminders when it’s time to follow up. You can see your whole pipeline at a glance—and assign deals to team members, share notes, and stay on the same page without endless back-and-forth.

Pipeline CRM is a smart fit if:

• You send lots of quotes, but don’t know how many turn into actual work.
• Your crew handles jobs well, but your sales process feels scattered.
• You want a tool that helps you win jobs—not just schedule them.
  You’re tired of paying more just to add users or unlock basic features.

The Smarter Alternative to Traditional Job Management Software

You can’t grow a landscaping business on booked jobs alone—you need a steady stream of new ones coming in. Most job management tools help once the work is already confirmed. But they don’t help you get the job. That’s the gap Pipeline CRM fills.

With Pipeline, you get full visibility into your sales pipeline, faster quoting with fewer errors, smarter follow-ups, and tools that grow with you—without punishing you on price as your team expands.

It’s a smart switch for landscapers who want more control over their sales process and fewer missed opportunities.

Try Pipeline CRM and see how it fits into your workflow—before, during, and after the job.

Reps want to sell, but most don’t get the chance to spend much time doing it. Instead, they’re buried in manual admin work: typing up follow-ups, logging notes, chasing leads, digging through old emails. Less than 30% of their time actually goes to revenue-generating activities. The rest is just busywork.

Let’s look at how the average sales rep’s time gets used:

Source: Industry surveys and internal CRM usage analysis.

This isn’t just frustrating, it’s expensive. Wasted time leads to missed follow-ups, stalled deals, and lost revenue. But with the right sales automation tools, you can plug these productivity leaks.

That’s where Pipeline CRM comes in. From AI-powered email assistance to task automation, deal routing, and document signing, Pipeline CRM helps sales teams automate the repetitive so they can focus on what really matters: closing.

This guide walks you through 10 sales automation ideas you can set up in Pipeline CRM, complete with practical triggers, actions, and real-world use cases to inspire your setup.

TL;DR: 10 Sales Automations You Can Set Up in Pipeline CRM

1. Inbound lead qualification and routing: assign leads to the right rep instantly.
2. New prospect added → to-do template: auto-assign tasks to kickstart engagement.
3. Time-based follow-up tasks: keep leads warm with scheduled reminders.
4. Lead follow-up sequence: respond faster with automated emails and AI assistance.
5. Deal stage triggered actions: automatically move deals forward based on pipeline status.
6. Stalled deal alerts (pipeline velocity): flag deals stuck mid-funnel.
7. Dormant deal re-engagement: reactivate cold leads with timely nudges.
8. Deal won → customer handoff: smooth transition to onboarding.
9. Win/loss follow-up automation: capture insights, request reviews, or nurture lost leads.
10. Electronic signature workflows: auto-send and track contracts directly from Pipeline CRM.

Sales Automation #1: Inbound Lead Qualification and Routing

Good lead qualification ensures the right rep gets the right deal automatically. With Pipeline CRM, you can create routing logic that assigns leads based on criteria like region, industry, product interest, or deal value.

This kind of automation helps managers allocate talent where it’s most effective. High-value prospects? Route them to your closers. Niche requests? Send them to specialists.

Trigger

A new person (lead) is created in Pipeline CRM.

Actions

• Auto-assign to a rep based on pre-set rules (e.g., deal size, territory, product line).
• Tag as “High Priority” if criteria match.
• Create follow-up task: “Qualify lead within 2 business days.”
• Notify the customer success manager if the company is on a named account list.

Pipeline CRM Features Used

• Workflow Automations for routing logic and task creation.
• Custom fields and tags to filter and flag important lead attributes.
• Internal notifications to alert CSMs or sales managers.

Use Case: Inbound Lead Qualification and Routing

A real estate agency receives two new leads:

• A beachfront property listed at $6M: automatically assigned to a luxury property specialist.
• A $57M commercial deal: routed to the commercial real estate team.

This kind of lead routing ensures each rep gets the deals they’re best equipped to close. It also prevents high-value leads from slipping through the cracks, especially if you’re managing a variety of segments like residential, commercial, and industrial.

Sales Automation #2: New Prospect Added → Apply To-Do Template

What happens right after a new prospect is added to your CRM?

Without structure, reps might skip steps, delay outreach, or forget internal handoffs. But with a prebuilt task template, you can ensure every prospect gets the right follow-up, consistently and quickly.

When a new person record is created in Pipeline CRM, a to-do list can automatically kick in: prospect research, intro emails, scheduling, internal notifications, and more. This brings accountability and visibility across your sales process.

Trigger

A new person (prospect) is added to Pipeline CRM manually or via form/import.

Actions

• Apply a standardized to-do template for new prospects.
• Notify relevant internal teams (sales manager, marketing, support).
• Assign deal to appropriate rep based on source or priority.
• Create immediate tasks:
  • Call lead within 15 minutes.
  • Send intro email with company info.
  • Schedule discovery meeting.
  • Tag interest category.

Pipeline CRM Features Used

• Automations for trigger-based task lists.
• Custom templates to standardize rep workflows.
• Internal notifications and deal assignments based on pre-set rules.

Use Case: Set Up Tasks and Notify Internal Teams

After months of informal talks, a sales rep at a wholesale company adds a qualified buyer to Pipeline CRM. The automation kicks in:

• The rep is immediately assigned.
• A discovery call is scheduled.
• Sales managers and the marketing team are notified.
• Tasks are added to ensure follow-up happens fast.

This keeps everyone aligned and prevents warm leads from going cold due to manual gaps or memory lapses.

Sales Automation #3: Time-Based Task Creation for Follow-Up

Leads age like milk or wine—and it all depends on how fast you follow up.

Timely outreach helps build momentum, trust, and stronger relationships. But when follow-ups are left to memory or buried in sticky notes, things fall apart fast. Pipeline CRM lets you set time-based triggers that automatically schedule tasks or messages, so no prospect gets left behind.

Whether it’s a quick “just checking in” or a reminder to escalate a stalled deal, you can automate those crucial touchpoints across your pipeline.

Trigger

A specific amount of time has passed (e.g., 7 days in Proposal stage, 10 days of no contact, etc.).

Actions

• Create follow-up task for deal owner (e.g., “Check on proposal”).
• Send personalized email recapping key proposal points.
• Deliver a relevant case study or testimonial PDF.
• Escalate to manager if the deal remains stalled.

Pipeline CRM Features Used

• Workflow Automations for time-based task creation.
• Deal stage conditions and task templates.
• Email templates for follow-up or escalation sequences.

Use Case: Time-Based Task Sequence

Your consulting firm sells complex $25K–$300K packages. Deals typically require multiple meetings, decision makers, and negotiations. Pipeline CRM keeps the sales cycle moving by triggering automated follow-ups:

• After 7 days in “Proposal”, a task reminds the rep to check in.
• A case study is emailed automatically.
• If no activity follows, the deal is flagged for manager review.

With structured, timely touchpoints, deals don’t fall through the cracks and your sales process stays predictable and proactive.

Sales Automation #4: New Lead Follow-Up Sequence

Have you made this common mistake? A new lead comes in. The prospect is a sales-qualified lead; they’re interested and ready to go. But somehow, some way, they slip through the cracks. Before you know it, a week has gone by, and no one has reached out to your prospect yet.

Maybe your rep meant to follow up. Maybe they were in back-to-back meetings. Whatever the reason, the longer you wait, the colder that lead gets.

With Pipeline CRM, you can automate immediate follow-up the moment a new lead enters your system. Paired with the AI Email Assistant, your team can send thoughtful, on-brand messages faster than ever, whether for one-to-one outreach or scaled sequences.

Trigger(s)

• New contact is added manually.
• A website/landing page form is submitted.
• Lead enters from a paid campaign (e.g., Facebook, Google Ads).
• Lead moves to the first pipeline stage.

Actions

• Instantly assign lead based on source, territory, or round-robin.
• Create follow-up tasks:
  • Call or email the lead within 30 minutes.
  • Schedule a discovery call.
• Send thank-you or confirmation email (automated or AI-generated).
• Kick off a short email drip sequence introducing services.

Pipeline CRM Features Used

• AI Email Assistant to generate replies or sequences.
• Workflow Automations for routing, task creation, and campaign triggers.
• Automated Email Campaigns to deliver drip sequences or follow-ups.

Use Case: Automation Follow-Up Sequence

A prospect fills out a form on your financial services website. Pipeline CRM instantly adds them to a 3-step sequence:

• A thank-you email goes out.
• A task is created for the assigned rep to follow up within 30 minutes.
• A short educational email series introduces your services.

With just a few clicks, you’ve made a great first impression and ensured no warm lead goes to waste.

Sales Automation #5: Deal Stage Triggered Actions

The more deals you juggle, the easier it is to lose track of what’s been done — and what still needs doing.

That’s where stage-based automation comes in. With Pipeline CRM, you can trigger custom actions any time a deal moves forward (or backward). Whether it’s sending a recap, alerting a manager, or kicking off onboarding, each action happens right on time.

Trigger

• A deal moves into a specific stage, such as:
  • ○ Qualification.
  • Demo scheduled.
  • Proposal sent.
  • Negotiation.
  • Closed–won/closed–lost.
  • Contract sent.

Actions

• Automatically assign tasks and sequences for each stage.
• Notify managers or team members.
• Trigger email follow-ups or onboarding checklists.
• Log deal notes and update status.

Pipeline CRM Features Used

• Stage-Based Automations tied to your sales workflow.
• Integrated Notifications (email, Slack, etc.).
• Custom task templates for each deal stage.

Use Case: Closed/Won Follow-Up

An advertising agency lands a two-year client contract. The moment the deal is marked “Closed–Won,” Pipeline CRM:

• Sends a welcome email to the client.
• Launches the onboarding checklist.
• Notifies the customer success and fulfillment teams.

On the flip side, if a deal is marked “Closed–Lost,” the system sends a quick feedback request to learn why and possibly recover the opportunity down the line.

Sales Automation #6. Pipeline Velocity: Deal stuck in mid-funnel stage

“I thought you were watching this deal?”

When deals stall in the middle of your pipeline, during discovery, proposal, or negotiation, momentum dies. With Pipeline CRM, you can set up automations that flag these stuck deals before they go cold.

Instead of relying on memory or gut feel, reps and managers get proactive nudges when a deal has lingered too long. This keeps your sales cycle moving, prevents mid-funnel leaks, and  keeps the spotlight on active deals in your pipeline.

Trigger

A deal has stayed in a mid-funnel stage (e.g., “Negotiation”) for 10+ days,

Actions

• Create a task: “Escalate deal to manager for review,”
• Notify rep and sales manager via Slack or email,
• Tag the deal as “Stalled” for easy filtering/reporting.

Pipeline CRM Features Used

• Workflow Automations for stage-duration triggers.
• Slack or email notifications to alert teams in real time.
• Custom tags and filters to track velocity issues.

Use case: Stalled Deal Notification(s)

A manufacturing client says they’ll sign the contract “in the next day or two.” Ten days later and there’s still silence. Pipeline CRM flags the delay:

• A task is triggered to re-engage.
• The manager is alerted.
• The deal is tagged for visibility in the weekly pipeline review.

Momentum is restored before the deal slips away for good.

Sales Automation #7: Automated Re-Engagement for Dormant Deals

If you do the upfront work to qualify your prospects, they meet two important criteria. Your prospects are:

1. Able to buy.
2. Willing to buy.

But sometimes deals go dark for good reasons—budget delays, shifting priorities, or bad timing. But just because they’re cold doesn’t mean they’re dead.

With Pipeline CRM, you can automatically re-engage dormant leads after a certain period of inactivity. A smart reactivation flow with personalized emails, texts, and task sequences can warm up deals without manual effort.

Trigger(s)

• No activity (emails, calls, notes) for 30/45/60+ days.
• Deal has stalled in a key stage (e.g., “Proposal Sent”).
• Deal was marked “Lost – No Response.”
• Manual tag added (e.g., “Re-engage”).

Actions

• Send re-engagement email: “Still moving forward with [project]?”
• Follow up with an offer or relevant case study.
• If no response, create a task for rep to call within 3 days.
• Add to long-term nurture sequence if still inactive.

Pipeline CRM Features Used

• Email Campaigns for time-triggered reactivation.
• Tags and filters to segment cold deals.
• Workflow automation for task creation and escalation.

Use Case: Re-Engaging Cold Deals

A digital marketing agency sells month-to-month retainers to medium-sized clients. It’s common for clients to reach out for a discovery call. Some of these clients will even request a proposal; unfortunately, many disappear after that.

After 45 days of inactivity, Pipeline CRM:

• Sends a friendly: “Have you given up on your campaign?” email.
• Follows up with an exclusive incentive.
• Creates a call task if there’s no reply after 3 days.

Instead of letting a qualified lead slip away, you now have a structured way to revive it.

Sales Automation #8: Deal Won → Convert to Customer

The deal is done, but the work isn’t. If you don’t handle the post-sale handoff with care, buyer’s remorse can creep in fast.

With Pipeline CRM, you can trigger customer onboarding, team handoffs, and upsell follow-ups the moment a deal is marked “Closed–Won.” That way, the customer’s experience continues smoothly—and your internal teams stay in sync.

Trigger

Deal stage changes to “Closed–Won.”

Actions

• Convert the company to a customer in Pipeline CRM.
• Send thank-you/welcome email.
• Add customer to onboarding or fulfillment sequence.
• Notify CSM, support, and marketing.
• Schedule a 30-day follow-up task to check in or offer an upsell.

Pipeline CRM Features Used

• Workflow Automations for stage-change triggers.
• Customer conversion and Contact Management.
• Email templates and internal team notifications.

Use Case: Deal Won/Upsell Prep

A general contractor just secured a major real estate project. Once marked “Closed–Won,” the system:

• Sends a welcome message.
• Triggers onboarding tasks.
• Notifies project managers and finance.
• Schedules a follow-up task in 30 days for relationship-building or upselling.

The momentum from the win carries into long-term success.

Sales Automation #9: Win/Loss Follow-Up

Every deal teaches you something if you ask the right questions.

By automating win/loss follow-up, you gather insights about your sales performance, competitor positioning, and buyer objections. Pipeline CRM can trigger feedback surveys, review requests, and internal reports based on deal outcome.

This closes the loop and helps you improve win rates over time.

Trigger(s):

• Deal is marked “Closed–Won” or “Closed–Lost.”
• A product or service is purchased.
• A contract is signed.
• Deal is marked “Lost – Chose Competitor.”

Actions

• For wins:
  • Send thank-you email.
  • Add task to request review or referral after 30 days.
• For losses:
  • Send “Where did we go wrong?” email.
  • If lost to a competitor, tag deal and log competitor name.
  • Add to long-term nurture or competitor recovery sequence.

Pipeline CRM Features Used

• Custom Tags and Reporting (e.g., “Lost – Pricing”).
• Email automations for win/loss feedback.
• Referral pipeline setup.

Use Case: Capture Deal Win/Loss Insights

An accounting firm is losing more deals than usual. With win/loss automation, Pipeline CRM:

• Sends a feedback email for lost deals.
• Logs competitor mentions in a report.
• Sets a task to follow up in 60 days.

For wins, a customer review request goes out after 30 days and the client is routed into a referral track.

Sales Automation #10: Electronic Signatures

The contract stage is often where momentum dies, especially if you’re manually sending PDFs and waiting days for signatures.

With Pipeline CRM’s eSignature feature, you can send, track, and store contracts directly in your CRM. Automations kick in when a deal hits “Contract Sent”—speeding up turnaround and reducing drop-off risk.

Trigger(s)

• Deal enters “Contract Sent” stage.
• Contract is viewed or signed.

Actions

• Auto-generate and send contract using Instant Docs.
• Notify sales rep when contract is viewed/signed.
• Automatically store signed document in Pipeline CRM.
• Create follow-up task or notification if contract remains unsigned for X days.

Pipeline CRM Features Used

• eSignature and Document Automation.
• Instant Docs for document generation.
• Workflow triggers for contract milestones.

Use Case: Automating Purchase Agreement Signatures

A real estate brokerage needs to move fast on high-stakes offers. When a deal reaches “Contract Sent,” Pipeline CRM:

• Auto-generates the purchase agreement.
• Sends it with a signature link.
• Notifies the rep as soon as it’s opened or signed.
• Stores it instantly under the deal record.

This eliminates friction, saves time, and keeps the deal moving, even on nights and weekends.

Sales Automations Aren’t Optional Anymore

Most sales reps spend more time updating spreadsheets than closing deals. Between data entry, status updates, internal check-ins, and chasing cold leads, only a fraction of their day is spent actually selling.

And the pressure is only mounting. Buyers expect faster responses, personalized outreach, and seamless handoffs without any added friction.

The solution? Automate the busywork.

With the right sales automations in place, your team can reclaim their time and focus on what actually moves the needle: building relationships and closing deals. Pipeline CRM gives you the tools to make that shift from task-based to revenue-driven.

Boost Sales Revenue by 15 – 50%

Pipeline CRM is built to simplify sales. Every day, over 18,000 companies use it to:

• Automate repetitive tasks.
• Route and qualify leads instantly.
• Move deals through the pipeline faster.
• Increase productivity by 50% or more.

Ready to do more with less effort? Compare plans and pricing—and see how quickly you can streamline your sales process with Pipeline CRM.

In this guide, you’ll find:

• How CRM software helps insurance brokers grow.
• How to build effective workflows using a CRM.
• The top CRM platforms for insurance agencies.

Why Insurance Brokers Are Struggling

The insurance industry isn’t just competitive — it’s ruthless.

Brokers are constantly under pressure to hit aggressive sales quotas, stay compliant with shifting regulations, and retain clients in an industry where loyalty is fleeting. As Mike Skiados, CEO of the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA), puts it:

“Trying to meet constant quotas is going to contribute to people feeling that burnout… With insurance agents trying to put the best policy out in front of their clients and prices rising for everyone, it is creating a challenge.”

Add churn to the mix, and it becomes even harder. Clients move, pass away, sell their assets, or switch to a competitor offering a better deal. Even agencies with strong retention rates feel the pain. For example, if you have 200 accounts and retain 80% annually, you’ll lose 40 clients a year. That’s manageable—if you’re a solo agent.

But what if you’re managing 4,000 accounts?

Now, you’re looking at 800 accounts that need to be replaced annually just to maintain the status quo. That’s not growth—that’s survival. Scaling that kind of effort without the right tools or systems in place is nearly impossible.

Here’s what today’s insurance brokers are up against:

• Skyrocketing acquisition costs: some brokers pay over $50 for a single click. Competition for attention is fierce.
• Poaching from competitors: rival brokers actively steal clients and staff, triggering a never-ending talent and account churn.
• Margin-killing price wars: competing on price erodes commissions and reduces profitability.
• Constant regulatory changes: compliance is a moving target, and falling behind can lead to audits or fines.
• Rising client expectations: clients expect personalized service and fast responses—while commissions shrink.
• Inflation and overhead costs: as operating costs rise, claim payouts stretch budgets even thinner.

It may sound like doom and gloom, but it’s not all bad news.

There’s a proven path forward—if you focus on the four pillars of a high-growth brokerage: People, Product, Process, and Performance. The challenge is managing all four effectively as your agency scales.

That’s where the right CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system becomes a game-changer. A good CRM helps you automate tasks, centralize your data, and create repeatable workflows that boost retention, drive new sales, and keep your team aligned

TL;DR: Best CRM Software Tools for Insurance Brokers

We’ve done the research for you. Here are the top five CRMs for Insurance Brokers and their best use cases:

• Pipeline CRM: best insurance CRM software for revenue and sales-driven brokers.
• AgencyBloc: best insurance CRM software for health, senior, and benefits agencies.
• EZLynx: best CRM software for all-in-one agency management.
• Insureio: best CRM software for insurance case management.
• Insightly: best CRM for all-in-one marketing software.

We’ll provide a detailed breakdown, including features, pros and cons, reviews, and pricing for each CRM. Let’s get started!

Pipeline CRM: Best Insurance CRM Software for Revenue and Sales-Driven Brokers

Pipeline CRM is all about sales revenue.

Your accounts aren’t created equal. Our Insurance CRM software enables you to score leads based on a range of performance indicators. With lead scoring, you can (1.) identify the prospects, clients, and accounts that need your attention first. (2.) Determine what you’ll need to close each deal.

With Pipeline CRM’s AI tools, you can set daily agendas for your agents; no more guessing about to-dos or action items. Your agency increases revenue and accounts, resulting in a client base built on quality, not just quantity. This leads to a more profitable and sustainable financial services practice.

Pipeline CRM Features at a Glance

Pipeline CRM has all of the standard features you’d expect in a cloud-based CRM, but it also has:

• Custom deal stages to suit the unique steps in your insurance agency.
• Commissions, payouts, and incentive tracking for each of the agents in your firm.
• Track and manage your email campaigns automatically using the email provider you already use.
• Seamless integration with all of the tools you’re already using.
• Automation to automate next steps, activities, reminders, updates, etc.
• A complete and centralized record of the relationship lifecycle.
• Smart agendas that build themselves as your agents work; agents automatically know what needs to be done for each account.
• SuperShare will send data to trusted contacts quickly and securely.
• Open-source APIs that allow you to create custom integrations with the tools you’re already using.
• Native integration with tools like Zapier to customize integrations without developer or IT assistance.

Pipeline CRM: Pros and Cons

• Pipeline CRM is designed to generate sales revenue—it’s built for salespeople, by salespeople.
• A stable sales management automation platform.
• Our award-winning platform comes with best-in-class customer support.
• Key integrations with software you’re already using and thousands more.
• Affordable enough for the small one-person agency, consistent and rock-solid for the enterprise.
• Best for small-to-medium insurance agencies.

Reviews

• 4/5 star rating on G2 (938 reviews total).
• 3/5 star rating on Capterra (624 reviews total).
• 7/10 score via TrustRadius.
• 2/5 star rating via Gartner (42 reviews total).

Pipeline Pricing

• Start plan: $29 per user/mo.
• Develop plan: $39 per user/mo.
• Grow plan: $59 per user/mo.

Learn more about Pipeline CRM’s pricing plan and features.

HubSpot CRM: Best for Prospect Research and Outreach 

HubSpot CRM is an excellent option to identify high-value prospects and reach out to them at scale through personalized email sequences. The platform automatically enriches contact records with info from publicly available resources, while its intent signals let you know of any prospect activity that indicates purchase-readiness, like landing or sales page visits.

Sales reps can then segment their contact lists based on various criteria and move in with an offer through the platform’s personalized email automation sequences—complete with follow-up scheduling, send time suggestions, and email tracking. 

On top of that, HubSpot also includes the option to set up landing pages and lead capture forms, while its form shortening tools make it more likely for prospects to type in their details with no compromise on the amount of data you collect.

HubSpot CRM Features at a Glance

• Lead and deal scoring tools let you know which prospects are most likely to convert into customers and which ongoing deals have the highest closing potential.
• HubSpot also offers tools dedicated to marketing and customer service, which allow you to centralize customer data from multiple departments for hyper-targeted sales campaigns.
• Invoicing and payment processing are possible directly within the platform.
• Ensure accurate prospect data through automatic database enrichment and duplicate management. 
• Built-in meeting scheduler and an omnichannel inbox help you stay in touch with prospects on their preferred communication methods.

HubSpot CRM: Pros and Cons

• Clean user interface that prioritizes ease-of-use and navigation.
• Access to a massive integration library through HubSpot’s app marketplace, and the option to connect the CRM with all the other HubSpot products.
• Report customization may be slightly underwhelming for more data-oriented users.
• Pricing differences between paid packages are rather steep.

Reviews

• 4.4/5 star rating in G2 (13,083 reviews)

• 4.5/5 star rating in Capterra (490 reviews)

• 8.9/10 star rating in Trust Radius (551 reviews and ratings)

HubSpot CRM Pricing 

• Smart CRM Starter: $15 per user per month 

• Smart CRM Professional: $50 per user per month 

• Smart CRM Enterprise: $75 per user per month

• Sales Hub Starter: $15 per user per month 

• Sales Hub Professional: $100 per user per month 

• Sales Hub Enterprise: $150 per user per month

AgencyBloc: Best Insurance CRM Software for Health, Senior, and Benefits Agencies

According to their website, AgencyBloc is “the #1 Recommended Insurance Industry Growth Platform, helping health, senior, and benefits agencies organize their data, ensure compliance, automate workflows, manage clients and policies.”

AgencyBloc is an agency management system. If you’re in the health, senior, or benefits space, AgencyBloc is a comprehensive solution offering a range of insurance-specific solutions for sales enablement, client and policy management, compliance management, quoting and proposals, commissions management, and more.

AgencyBloc Features at a Glance

• With AgencyBloc, you can track commissions for all agents and clients.
• Keep track of client policies, account status, renewal dates, and commissions distributed so far.
• Agents can set alerts for important to-dos (e.g., policy renewals, commissions, client reminders, etc.).
• 24/7 support via phone, email, or live chat.
• Easily sync with other CRM systems if you don’t want to use AgencyBloc’s CRM.

AgencyBloc: Pros and Cons

• Excellent customer service.
• Highly recommended by current customers.
• AgencyBloc comes with a free trial.
• There’s no freemium plan.
• No premium consulting or add-ons.
• AgencyBloc takes time to set up.

Reviews

• 6/5 star rating on G2 (41 reviews total)
• 8/5 star rating on Capterra (130 reviews total)
• 9/10 score via TrustRadius
• 8/5 star rating via GetApp (130 reviews total)

AgencyBloc Pricing

• $109 per mo.
• Setup fee (Call for quote).
• Contact for a quote.

EZLynx: Best CRM Software for All-in-One Agency Management

EZLynx is an all-in-one Insurance CRM Software for startups and small businesses. They have 37,000 customers in 48 states. One thing that sets EZLynx apart is their Rater Engine, a comparative rater that allows agents “to enter an applicant’s data once and then send out quotes to multiple carriers. Those carriers then submit their quotes back to the agency, and the agency can then share them with their customer and recommend which one provides the best coverage at the right price.”

EZLynx’s all-in-one agency management software enables agents to obtain quotes for personal and commercial lines of insurance. Even better, it’s integrated into their entire platform, which is the platform’s strongest selling point.

EZLynx Features at a Glance

• Quotes/estimates management.
• Customer portal and account dashboard where customers can communicate directly with agents.
• Document signing is built into their platform.
• Commission management.

EZLynx: Pros and Cons

• EZLynx offers premium features at no cost.
• Their comparative rater integrates with most carriers.
• Customers prefer live support over email or support tickets.
• Reporting is not as robust as native.

Reviews

• 2/5 star rating on G2 (319 reviews total).
• 7/5 star rating on Capterra (68 reviews total).
• 8/10 score via TrustRadius.
• 5/5 star rating via Gartner.

EZLynx Pricing

• Contact for a quote.
• Estimates are $200 per mo./seat.

Insureio: Best CRM Software for Life Insurance Case Management

Insureio is an email-heavy CMS that agents can integrate with their email marketing platforms to create targeted campaigns and track engagement. According to customers, one thing that stands out about Insureio is the software’s ease of use. Customers repeatedly mention the ease of use and simplicity of their platform.

Insureio takes things further by providing insurance agents with pre-built marketing templates and campaigns they can customize for their business. They make up for what they lack in features, sophistication, or integrations with simplicity, ease of use, and customer support.

With Insureio, agents can generate quotes for term life, whole life, long-term care (LTC), disability, and annuities coverage from over 40 carriers.

Insureio Features at a Glance

• A client portal where customers can view policy details, upload documents, and communicate directly with agents.
• Policy management tools provide customers with detailed policy information, including coverage details and renewal dates, all in one place.
• The Insureio platform integrates directly with insurance carriers for real-time updates and policy processing.
• Helps agents maintain compliance standards with built-in tracking and documentation features.

Insureio: Pros and Cons

• Built-in compliance tracking means compliance with industry regulations is semi-automated.
• Offers pre-built workflows that automate routine tasks such as sending reminders and follow-up emails.
• Lacks the extensive third-party integrations needed for agents to work with tools and providers they’re already using.
• Limited customization options: Insureio’s simplicity means you have fewer customization and flexibility options available to tailor the platform to your specific workflows and processes.

Insureio Pricing

• Basic: $25 per mo.
• Marketing: $50 per mo.
• Agency Management: $50 per mo.
• Marketing + Agency Management: $75 per mo.

Insightly: Best CRM Software for All-In-One Marketing Software

Insightly is a popular option with small-to-medium-sized companies.

Recently acquired by Unbounce, Insightly enables insurance agents to manage all aspects of their sales and marketing campaigns. Agents can manage their sales pipelines via Insightly’s CRM.

They can set up marketing automation campaigns, create list segmentation, manage email marketing, design landing pages, conduct A/B split testing, and optimize your marketing campaigns. Then there’s customer support.  With Insightly, your agents and support teams can manage live chats and messaging, support tickets, knowledgebases, and support/customer portals.

If you’re looking for an affordable, all-in-one option that’s not directly tied to the insurance industry, Insightly may be a good fit for your agency.

Insightly Features at a Glance

• Streamlines territory, workflow, and channel partnership management through automation.
• Provides a wide range of third-party tools and services, such as marketing platforms, accounting software, and data services through native integrations.
• Calculated fields reduce manual work and minimize errors by using formulas for complex calculations on any object.
• Their Opportunity Conversion feature helps convert won opportunities into projects.
• Enhance accuracy in data entry and automation execution with custom validation rules.

Insightly: Pros and Cons

• Insightly centralizes all your customer data—giving your agency a comprehensive view of every customer relationship.
• Many customization options and automation allow you to customize Insightly’s platform to work the way you need it to.
• Affordable pricing options that scale with your Insurance agency as you grow.
• Fewer third-party integrations than their competitors.
• A steep learning curve for new users, especially if you’re looking for a simple and easy-to-use solution.
• Role-based permissions aren’t as robust as their competitors.

Reviews

• 2/5 star rating on G2 (920 reviews total).
• 0/5 star rating on Capterra (660 reviews total).
• 9/10 score via TrustRadius (824 reviews total).
• 4/5 star rating via TrustPilot (7 reviews total).

Insightly CRM Pricing

• Plus: $29 per user/mo.
• Professional: $49 per user/mo.
• Enterprise: $99 per user/mo.

Marketing Automation and Customer Support products are priced separately. If you want each of their products and services to share data, you’ll also need to pay for Insightly’s AppConnect.

How Does CRM Software Help Your Insurance Agency?

Your insurance agency must win three key daily battles to grow and make an impact:

1.      Attract and Convert a Consistent Stream of Prospects

You’ll need to identify your breakeven cost—the most you can spend to win a new client without incurring a loss. Once you have that, use the data gathered by your CRM to acquire more customers at below-breakeven cost.

2.      Maintain a 90% Customer Retention Rate

Use your CRM software to improve your customer support; set up reporting on key metrics and KPIs to track the performance of your sales and service teams. Use this data and your CRM to improve your customer retention rate.

3.      Increase Purchase Frequency

Solve more problems for your existing customers, and you increase your purchase frequency. The better you are at increasing purchase frequency, the more dependent your customers will be on your agency.

You can use nontraditional approaches to do this, but each of these depends on the relationships you build with your prospects and customers. Every interaction you have with a prospect or customer should create value. The more value you make, the easier it is to attract, convert, and retain your customers.

The Insurance Business Is Brutal—But You’re Built for It

You already know that the insurance industry is fiercely competitive, tightly regulated, and constantly shifting. Customers move on. Rates change. Markets evolve. And if your agency isn’t growing, it’s shrinking.

But here’s the good news—growth is possible, and it’s within reach.

The most successful agencies focus relentlessly on the Four Ps: People, Product, Process, and Performance. And the easiest way to bring all four under control? A powerful insurance CRM that turns strategy into action.

With the right CRM system, your agency can streamline sales workflows, improve customer experience, and maximize every lead. You’ll boost client retention, speed up your close rates, and empower your producers to win more high-quality business.

Boost Insurance Sales by 15–50% with Pipeline CRM

Pipeline CRM is built for growth-focused agencies. It’s not just another tool—it’s your sales enablement engine.

Join over 18,000 companies using Pipeline to shorten sales cycles, improve team performance, and close more policies with less effort. If you’re ready to improve insurance sales performance and drive real growth, Pipeline is ready to help.

Compare plans and pricing and start scaling smarter.

Pipeline CRM’s innovative eSignature and Instant Docs features directly address this need by streamlining contract management. Forget the time-consuming process of manually generating and sending contracts using eSign apps like Docusign or Adobe Acrobat. Now, you can create ready-to-send contracts and effortlessly track their progress all from Pipeline CRM.

Why Does Using External eSignature Software Hinder Business Growth?

It can be for two reasons.

For industries heavily reliant on contractual agreements, such as construction, logistics, and manufacturing, the deal isn’t sealed until the contract is signed. And in these moments, you want to maintain momentum while the opportunity is “hot.” However, inefficient contract creation and signing processes often hampered this deal-closing step.

It’s a no-brainer that manually creating contracts or proposals by copy-pasting data from your CRM is time-consuming. Furthermore, importing those documents into an external eSignature tool like Docusign slows down the process even more.

This disjointed approach not only wastes valuable time but also demands additional costs, namely through the eSign tool subscription. It can also increase the risk of human error during the manual data transfer—potentially jeopardizing the entire agreement.

Next comes the uncertainty of whether your prospect received the contract. Relying on standard email for sending contracts leaves you in the dark about whether the customer has even opened or signed the document until they send it back to you.

To overcome these obstacles, Pipeline CRM centralizes your entire contract management process with its integrated Instant Docs and eSignature features, effectively eliminating unnecessary friction and accelerating your deal closures.

eSignature Software vs. Pipeline CRM’s eSignature Contract Management

Beyond the time saved, transitioning from traditional methods to Pipeline CRM’s contract management solution offers other significant advantages.

• Eliminate data errors with auto-fill precision

A single error in the signed contract can have serious financial repercussions for your business. Pipeline CRM mitigates this risk by automatically populating contracts with accurate data pulled directly from your Companies, Deals, and People databases. This ensures information accuracy and upholds your brand’s professional image.

• Leaner sales workflows

Eliminate the complexity of juggling a CRM with third-party signature applications like Adobe Reader, PandaDoc, and Docusign for collecting client signatures. Pipeline CRM streamlines your entire sales process by integrating all essential activities within a single, unified platform.

• Centralized sales data

Avoid the tedious task of manually saving signed contract files when using external eSign applications. Pipeline CRM’s integrated contract management automatically organizes and stores these documents securely within the platform, making them readily accessible whenever you need them.

• Customizable and ready-to-use templates

If you already have proposal and contract templates, you can easily save them to Pipeline CRM. If you don’t know where to start or are looking for inspiration, check out our default templates. You can fully customize them to fit your needs by adjusting the content, fonts, colors, logos, and more to ensure brand consistency and create tailored agreements.

How Pipeline CRM eSignature and Instant Docs Solutions Work

Beyond managing contracts, Pipeline CRM’s Instant Docs and eSignature features also cover the creation of invoices and proposals. This comprehensive functionality streamlines your document workflow, from initial proposal generation all the way through to securing a signed contract with an eSignature request.

Let’s start from the very beginning: preparing your proposal templates.

Step 1: Customize Sample Templates or Build Your Own

• Upload your existing document templates directly into Pipeline CRM or take advantage of the readily available sample templates.
• Personalize the documents by adding new content, tweak the formatting and brand colors, and add your company’s logo.

Step 2: Connect the Data Points

• Map the template with the right data points. The template system uses dynamic placeholders designed to automatically pull relevant information directly from your CRM database.
• Leverage the integrated preview tool to confirm that all necessary data points are correctly mapped.
• Once done, your templates are ready to be used.

Step 3: Send a PDF Proposal with Instant Docs

• Go to Instant Docs and select the proposal template you prepared.
• The system automatically populates the relevant prospect data, filling in the missing information on the proposal document.
• This dynamically generated PDF proposal is now ready to be sent.

Step 4: Request an eSign

• Once your prospect agrees with the proposal, it’s time to seal the deal by sending a contract. Go to Instant Docs, find the corresponding accepted proposal/deal, and click the ‘Request eSign’ button.
• Refine the signing process by:
  • specifying which member of your team needs to sign the document (e.g., sales manager, director of sales, etc.).
  • determine the signing order (whether your company signs first or the client).
• Finalize the setup by dragging and dropping the signature fields to the desired locations within the document.

Step 5: Monitor the Document Status

• Check the document status to see whether the prospect has viewed or signed the contract. This provides a clear audit trail and facilitates efficient deal management.

Want to see Pipeline CRM’s Instant Docs and eSignature features in action? Watch this demo video to learn more about how these powerful tools can streamline your sales process.

Supercharge Your Deal Closing Process with Pipeline CRM

Relying on external eSignature applications can fragment your sales workflow and often lead to confusion for prospects. In contrast, Pipeline CRM offers built-in eSignature and Instant Docs features seamlessly integrated with instant document generation, creating a faster and smoother sales process from proposal to signed agreement.

Experience the efficiency firsthand. Sign up to Pipeline CRM today and get a 14-day free trial!

But here’s what most businesses miss: sending emails is only half the battle. The real magic happens when you combine email marketing with lead tracking.

With the right lead tracking tool, you can:

.

• See who opens, clicks, or ignores your emails.
• Automatically follow up with warm leads.
• Score prospects based on behavior.
• Know exactly when and how to engage.

That’s why we’ve put together a list of the six best lead tracking tools with email integrations—so you can stop guessing and start converting.

6 Best Lead Tracking Tools With Email Marketing Integrations

Now that you know why you should get a lead tracking software with email integration, let’s help you choose the best one for your business:

1.    Pipeline CRM (Best Sales CRM)

If you’re looking for a sales CRM that covers everything from lead tracking to follow-up emails, all without bouncing between tabs—Pipeline CRM is built for you.

This all-in-one platform helps you capture, track, and nurture leads at every stage of the sales cycle. You can automate drip campaigns, sync emails with Gmail or Outlook, and monitor every interaction in a centralized dashboard—so no lead falls through the cracks.

Pipeline CRM makes it easy to:

• Map the stages of your sales and assign tasks.
• Score and prioritize leads based on activity.
• Get alerts when deals go cold or need attention.
• Collaborate with your team in real-time.

Whether you’re working solo or managing a growing sales team, everything stays in one workflow—streamlined and organized. You can even customize tools to fit your sales process and automate repetitive tasks like follow-ups or project scheduling.

Key Features:

• Lead management with task prioritization, sales stage mapping, and scoring.
• Automated email drip campaigns tied to lead behavior.
• Centralized dashboard for all lead and email data.
• Sales stage mapping and pipeline automation.
• Real-time alerts and team updates for better communication.
• AI-powered analytics and performance insights.
• Mobile CRM for reps on the move.
• Role-based access for data control and security.

Pros:

• Industry-specific CRM options tailored to your workflows.
• Clean, intuitive interface with a minimal learning curve.

Pricing:

• Start plan: $25/month per user.
• Develop plan: $33/month per user.
• Grow plan: $49/month per user.
• Enterprise: custom.

Visit Pipeline CRM’s pricing page for more information.

Rating:

• G2: 4/5 stars (930+ reviews).
• Capterra: 3/5 stars (620+ reviews).

2.    HubSpot CRM (Best for Inbound Lead Management)

We can’t talk about marketing and lead tracking without mentioning HubSpot CRM. One of the leading names among marketing tools, it offers advanced lead tracking features and integrates with popular email marketing tools.

For those without an existing email marketing solution, HubSpot’s built-in tools allow you to design and send personalized emails directly from the CRM, streamlining your outreach efforts.​

Key Features:

• Lead tracking across web activity, email engagement, and form submissions.
• Automated email sequences triggered by user behavior.
• Lead scoring to prioritize the hottest opportunities.
• Detailed email analytics right inside the CRM.

Pros:

• The free plan is powerful enough to get started with lead tracking and email automation.
• Seamless integration with HubSpot’s marketing, sales, and service tools creates a centralized tech ecosystem for your business.

Cons:

• Premium plans can be costly, potentially posing a challenge for startups and small businesses.
• The extensive feature set may be overwhelming for users seeking a simple CRM solution.

Pricing:

The Sales Hub Professional features start at $90/month per user, and the Marketing Hub Professional starts at $800/month per user.

Rating:

• G2: 4/5 stars (12,200+ reviews).
• Capterra: 5/5 stars (6100+ reviews).

3. Salesforce (Best for Managing Complex, Multi-Stage Sales Processes)

Salesforce is a powerful CRM platform built for teams managing high volumes of leads and multi-stage pipelines. It combines lead tracking with AI insights and email marketing integrations to support complex sales cycles.

Salesforce lets you capture leads from multiple channels, track interactions across email, web, and CRM touchpoints, and build automated workflows that adapt to each lead’s journey. Its AI assistant, Einstein, helps your team prioritize specific leads and tailor outreach at scale.

Salesforce integrates with Gmail and Outlook, and its Marketing Cloud product offers email automation, personalization, and analytics to keep communication on point.

Key Features:

• End-to-end lead tracking with customizable sales pipelines.
• Email marketing and automation via Marketing Cloud or Account Engagement.
• AI-powered lead scoring and predictive engagement insights with Einstein.
• Real-time activity tracking across web, email, and CRM systems.
• Deep integration with thousands of third-party apps via AppExchange.

Pros:

• Ideal for growing businesses that need in-depth customization and scalability.
• Advanced email automation and analytics for smarter decision-making.
• Massive ecosystem of integrations, tools, and extensions

Cons:

• Requires extensive onboarding time due to its complexity.
• Email marketing and automation features are add-ons that increase costs.

Pricing:

• Starts at $25/month per user (Sales Cloud Essentials).
• Email marketing via Marketing Cloud and Account Engagement is priced separately based on usage and contact volume.
• Custom pricing for enterprise setups.

Ratings:

• G2: 4/5 stars (23,000+ reviews).
• Capterra: 4/5 stars (18,000+ reviews)

4. Zoho CRM (Best for Growing Businesses with Limited Teams)

Zoho CRM is designed for small to mid-sized businesses looking for lead tracking and email marketing integrations without the complexity of enterprise-level systems. It enables businesses to capture leads from various channels, automate communications, and maintain organized workflows without extensive IT support.​

With Zoho CRM, you can capture leads from web forms, live chats, social media, and even business card scans. Once a lead is in the system, Zoho allows you to track every interaction and execute automated email campaigns based on lead engagement.​

Key Features:

• Multi-channel lead capture and tracking.
• Email automation with triggers based on user behavior.
• Lead scoring and workflow automation for better prioritization.
• Detailed analytics and real-time email insights.

Pros:

• Mobile app for convenient lead management.
• Intuitive interface with extensive customization options.
• Advanced features at an affordable price point​.

Cons:

• Some users report slower loading speeds.
• Certain advanced functions require additional subscriptions, potentially increasing overall costs​.

Pricing:

• Standard: $14/month per user.
• Professional: $23/month per user.
• Enterprise: $40/month per user.
• Ultimate: $52/month per user​.

Rating:

• G2: 1/5 stars (2700+ reviews).
• Capterra: 3/5 stars (6,900 reviews).

5. Keap (Best for Small Businesses and Solopreneurs)

Keap, formerly known as Infusionsoft, is a CRM platform designed to streamline sales, marketing, and customer management for small businesses and solopreneurs. By integrating lead tracking, email marketing, automation, and e-commerce tools, Keap enables users to manage their customer journey from one platform.

Key Features:

• Smart contact tagging and lead tracking with custom pipelines.
• Automated email sequences and personalized campaigns.
• Real-time email engagement tracking.
• Automated scheduling, invoicing, and SMS tools for full-funnel control.

Pros:

• Intuitive automation templates make it easy to set up workflows without technical expertise.
• Its comprehensive feature set reduces the need for multiple software solutions.

Cons:

• The starting price is higher than some competitors, which could be a consideration for startups.
• Some users report a steeper learning curve due to the platform’s extensive features.

Pricing:

• Lite Plan: $129/month.
• Pro Plan: $199/month.​
• Max Plan: $299/month.

Custom pricing is available for businesses with more than 500 contacts.

Ratings:

• G2: 2/5 stars (1560+ reviews).
• Capterra: 1/5 stars (1290+ reviews).

6. Engagebay (Best AI-Powered Lead Management Tool)

EngageBay is an all-in-one CRM platform that uses AI to streamline marketing, sales, and customer support processes. It offers a suite of tools, including lead tracking, email marketing, automation, and customer service features, all accessible from a single dashboard.​

Key Features:

• Capture leads, assign scores based on engagement, and monitor their journey through the sales funnel.
• Design, automate, and track email campaigns with AI-powered tools.
• Email integration with Gmail and Outlook.
• Free live chat software to engage with customers in real time.

Pros:

• The free pricing plan is generous, with basic features like email marketing and CRM.
• Provides a wide range of features at competitive pricing.

Cons:

• Users have reported occasional lags, particularly during bulk actions and campaign statistics generation.​
• The platform’s email template options are somewhat restricted and may require customization to meet specific branding needs.​

Pricing:

• Basic: $12.74/month per user.
• Growth: $55.24/month per user.
• Pro: $101.99/month per user.

Rating:

• G2: 6/5 stars (470+ reviews).
• Capterra: 7/ 5 stars (880+ reviews).

Now that you’ve seen the top tools out there, let’s talk about why combining lead tracking with email marketing integrations works so well—especially if your goal is to close more deals faster.

Whether you’re nurturing cold leads or capitalizing on warm ones, the real power of these platforms comes from how they work together. Here’s why using a unified system is a game-changer.

Why Lead Tracking Works Better With Email Marketing Integrations

Using separate tools for lead tracking and email campaigns often results in missed opportunities. Combining both in one platform is a faster, smarter way to boost your sales productivity.

Leads Don’t Follow Up on Themselves

A lead is only valuable if you act fast. But jumping between your lead tracking tool, sales CRM, and email platform slows everything down.

When your CRM software includes email marketing integrations, you can:

• Trigger follow-ups right from your lead tracking dashboard
• Automate drip campaigns based on behavior
• Keep your pipeline moving without manual effort

Whether it’s a welcome email, a reminder, or a timely nudge, your platform handles the outreach — so you can focus on closing.

Track Every Click, Open, and Action

With integrated tools, you can see the full picture: who opened your email, what they clicked, and what they ignored.

This kind of insight:

• Helps you score leads with more accuracy
• Shows you who’s ready to buy (and who’s not)
• Gives your team a real edge in pipeline management

A unified system makes it easy to spot and act on high-intent behavior.

Smarter Segmentation Equals Better Results

Not all leads are the same. Some need nurturing. Others are ready now.

With email marketing integrations, you can segment leads based on:

• Opens and clicks
• Interests and past behavior
• Funnel stage

That powers sharper email personalization, more relevant messaging, and better conversion rates — all backed by your lead tracking data.

Automate the Tedious Things

Manually sending personalized emails doesn’t scale.

With email automation built into your lead tracking tool, you can:

• Trigger drip campaigns for new signups
• Re-engage cold leads automatically
• Set sequences once and let them run

It’s not just convenient — it’s a big boost for sales productivity.

One Platform for a Streamlined Workflow

Switching between tools is inefficient and risks letting leads fall through the cracks.

With lead tracking and email marketing integrations in one platform:

• Your lead data, email activity, and engagement metrics stay in sync
• Your sales CRM becomes your single source of truth
• You spend less time managing tools and more time closing deals

It’s a cleaner, more reliable way to stay organized and move leads through the funnel.

The Best Lead Tracking CRM with Email Marketing to Close More Deals

Choosing the right lead tracking software with email marketing integration can make the difference between a bloated contact list and a high-converting sales pipeline. While all six tools offer strong capabilities, the best option is the one that actually helps you work smarter—not harder.

If you’re tired of juggling disconnected tools or manually following up with leads, Pipeline CRM offers a clean, intuitive, sales-focused CRM that brings everything together.

Choose a CRM designed to help you track leads, send better emails, and close more deals—without the busy work. Try Pipeline CRM for free and experience a more productive, less stressful way to manage your leads and email outreach.

Although this thought isn’t completely wrong, unstructured sales processes often lead to chaos and untrackable deals. In contrast, a structured sales process gives more benefits, including better organization (for client onboarding and communication), improved sales forecasting, and faster deal closing time.

In this sales guide, we’ll explore the structured sales process, its benefits, and how to implement it by creating solid sales pipeline management.

What Is a Structured Sales Process?

A structured sales process is a workflow, a series of steps your sales team follows, taking them from initial contact to a closed deal. This is especially important if you aim for consistent, year-over-year gains from your sales team.

How Does a Structured Sales Process Look Like?

The structured sales process varies depending on the company or industry. Each stage in your sales pipeline management has steps that move a prospect from lead to customer. Here are the steps in a typical sales process.

1. Prospecting and first contact

Sales reps and/or marketing receive a prospect’s contact information. They gather initial data (e.g., name, address, phone, problem, need, budget, timeframe). This general data flows naturally into qualification.

2. Prospect qualification

In this step, you verify that your prospect (a.) can buy your product or service at the price point you’ve set and (b.) they value your product or service enough to pay for it; they’re willing to pay for your help.

3. Prospect assessment

The prospect works with you to identify their need. You propose an initial solution to their problem, based on the data they’ve shared with you. You give them important details—budget, timeframe, milestones, results, etc.

4. Sales pitch or demo

If this is applicable, you give your clients a taste; you show them how you’ll address their problem. It’s a close simulation, showing them what they can expect from you.

5. Quote or proposal

This is a formalized outline listing who does what, what it costs, what will be delivered when, and what your customer will get. It’s a crucial step that should come with specific requirements. It takes time for you to create a proposal. You shouldn’t simply offer this to any prospect who asks. It should be an option provided to qualified candidates with clear purchase intent. They shouldn’t receive a quote or proposal if they’re unwilling to do that.

6. Objections

If you have a structured sales process, you have a list of your customers’ objections. You have an in-depth understanding of their concerns as well as their desires, goals, fears, and frustrations. You have risk reversals in place (e.g., guarantees, warranties, incentives, etc.) to relieve their concerns.

With a structured sales process, you can teach your sales reps how to defuse customer objections instead of arguing with, minimizing, invalidating, or devaluing their objections.

7. Deal closing

You know what needs to be present at closing (e.g., budget confirmation, invoice/payment request, deposits, signed agreements, etc.). You have a list of closing techniques your sales reps can use. Your sales reps know when to use these closing techniques and how to apply them. Sales reps have received decision-maker approval, payment, or financing options (e.g., check, ACH, financing, etc.).

8. Client onboarding and upselling

Sales reps know how to onboard new clients or are skilled at handing the client off to an account manager. They know which products are a relevant fit for clients. Your sales reps have a list of products and services you can use for cross-, down-, and upselling opportunities.

The Benefits of a Structured Sales Process for Project-Driven Companies

Why would I need a structured sales process anyway? My project-driven business (e.g., construction, manufacturing, distribution, etc.) has done fine without a formalized process. What do I have to get from a structured sales process?

If you have a sales process in place and it’s working well, it’s easy to take for granted. If you don’t have a sales process and you’re struggling, it’s easy to be skeptical. How will this make a difference? Let’s take a look.

With a structured sales process, you can gain the following benefits:

A. Identify sales-ready prospects

At a given moment, only 3% of your prospects are ready to buy. Who are they? Are they subscribers, fans, or followers? Have they requested a quote or proposal? With a structured sales process, you can identify the prospects who are ready to buy now.

B. Disqualify poor candidates

your sales process will identify the prospects who are sales-ready. Those who aren’t generally fall into the following categories: (1.) 7% plan on making a change, (2.) around 30% have a need but they’re not ready to buy, (3.) 30% don’t have a need, (4.) and 30% will never buy from your company (even if they have a need). Candidates in the third and fourth categories shouldn’t receive a significant amount of your attention.

C. Close deals properly

Do you need your sales reps to do specific things before closing the deal? Do you need a deposit or earnest money? Do clients need to sign an agreement before the deal is closed? What happens after the deal is complete? You’ll need to properly define the criteria you have set for your deals and the procedure you’d like your sales reps to follow.

D. Make data-driven decisions

If you know the metrics that matter to your business, you can check sales rep performance against those metrics. Key sales and performance metrics (e.g., Average Revenue Per Customer, MRR per sales rep, CLTV, etc.) are helpful metrics you can use to make data-driven decisions.

For example, if your revenue per rep is falling, you know there’s a global problem that sales managers need to address. However, if revenue per rep falls for 3 or 4 reps, you know individual reps need attention.

E. Build strong client relationships

One of the hardest things to do is to build a strong relationship with the right people. You probably don’t want your sales reps to build relationships with predatory customers, perpetual tire kickers, or time wasters. You do want to create a strong relationship with the customers who genuinely need your help.

A structured sales process gives your reps the know-how and specific steps they need to follow; it’s how you build genuine give-and-take relationships with the right people.

F. Create a repeatable process

You can do two very important things with a structured process: (1.) Find areas of your sales process that aren’t working or need improvement and fix them. (2.) Verify that your sales reps are doing the work that’s needed to close a deal. This repeatable process is essential. When problems arise, you can use a repeatable process to determine whether the problem is with your system, sales rep, or customer.

Project management sales is labor-intensive. It tends to be a complex engagement with lots of moving parts. If you need to deliver a consistent customer experience and achieve repeatable results, you need a structured sales process. Need to scale your business, hire more employees, and grow the business? Want to sell your company in the future? Your sales process is an important must-have.

Okay then, how do you create a structured sales process?

How to Create a Structured Sales Process for Construction and Other Project-Driven Businesses

Structured sales processes aren’t difficult to create. They just require some upfront work. Follow these six steps to maximize the results.

Step 1. Define Your Deal Stages

Remember the basic deal stages we mentioned in the “What is a structured sales process” earlier? You can use this as a template to help you get started.

You’ll want to ask the following questions as you define and work with each deal stage.

• What do prospects have to do to get to this deal stage?
• What steps should sales reps follow to guide prospects through this deal stage?
• What must prospects do to get to the next deal stage?
• Which metrics and KPIs are important in this deal stage?

Take the time to define each deal stage carefully. It’s always good to start with a detailed and comprehensive overview of each deal stage. You can always trim or refine things as needed.

Step 2. Create a Framework for Disqualifying Leads

You’ll need to define a sales-qualified lead (SQL) properly. An SQL has been:

• Vetted by your marketing team
• Vetted by your sales team
• Demonstrated a willingness and ability to buy
• Meets your specific qualification criteria (e.g., budget, authority, need, timeframe, and terms)

How do you decide on qualification criteria? Look at your best customers. These are the customers you’d fight to keep. What makes these customers so special to you? For instance:

• Do they spend more than your average customer?
• Is the purchase frequency or the average order value higher?
• Do they treat you like a trusted advisor?
• Do they pay on time?

You’ll need to determine which qualification criteria are most important. It takes some time, but doing this upfront work produces incredible rewards later. You’ll know:

• Which sales and marketing channels are best for your business
• You know who you’re looking for, so you’ll be able to purchase leads at a steep discount
• Your return on ad spend (ROAS) will be consistently higher
• You’ll learn how to market and promote your business to active buyers who are drawn to you

Once you know who you’re looking for, you’ll need to sort customers into buckets. If they’re active buyers, you sell to them. If they’re buyers-in-waiting, you nurture them. Not interested? You refer them to a competitor.

Step 3. Use a CRM as Your Single Source of Truth

CRMs manage your sales pipeline. With a CRM, you can track interactions, automate follow-up, manage leads, automate sales processes, manage your team, and handle contracts.

Then there’s integrations. If you’re using your CRM as your single source of truth, you’ll want to integrate the tools you already use. These tools include: accounting software, email providers, customer support (e.g., HelpScout), phone/dialer integration (e.g., RingCentral), and more.

With two-way integration, you can update apps in these categories. Sales, marketing, and support teams will have the necessary intel to close more deals. Your CRM should be a central hub for your sales, marketing, and support teams. The more integrations you add to your CRM, the easier it will be to close more deals.

Why does this matter?

CRMs improve sales forecasting. It shortens sales cycles, enabling you to close deals faster, even when your projects vary in size, scope, or complexity. For example, if you’re offering roofing, siding, and gutter services, you can use your construction CRM to create a construction sales process for each of these three service categories. You can use the metrics we’ve discussed to optimize your sales pipeline management and improve your conversion rate.

Step 4. Create Quote, Proposal, and Pricing Templates

If you’re using proposal tools like Paycove, BidSketch, or JobNimbus, you’ll want to create reusable templates. Your sales reps should be able to create quotes and proposals quickly, with minimal input from management.

Or if your CRM has a built-in instant document generation, like Pipeline CRM’s Instant Docs and eSignature solutions, you can easily create quotes, proposals, and contracts with just a few clicks.

Why is this important? You need to create specific pricing constraints your reps can use. These constraints should function as boundaries that keep your sales reps on track.

Step 5. Train Your Sales Reps

Sales enablement gives your sales reps the leadership, support, technology, content, and processes they need to close more deals consistently. It’s also how you turn 50% of your average performers into elite sales reps. If you’re looking to turn your sales reps into superstar rainmakers, you’ll want to provide them with the following:

1. Sales technology, e.g., your CRM, lead scoring, email, phone, AI, and automation tools).
2. Sales training: this includes both internal and external data. It’s the A to Z information sales reps need to close deals and meet quota.
3. Sales content: This is bottom-of-funnel (BoFu) content that focuses on one thing, closing.
4. Sales support: this is a broad category support that includes training, workflows, escalation, feedback, and tactical support (e.g., your customer wants to modify the terms and conditions of your deal, and you need management guidance/approval).
5. Sales process: superstar sales reps know what to do and when. There’s no confusion about the tasks that need to be done and no wondering about workflows. If you’re using a tool like Pipeline CRM, your sales reps automatically receive the next steps.

Step 6. Set Metrics and KPIs

Which metrics should you use to track sales rep performance? You’ll want to outline the metrics and KPIs that are most important to your business. Here are a few important metrics and KPIs you can use to start.

1. Average Sales Cycle Length
2. Lead Conversion Ratio
3. Win Rate
4. Sales Velocity
5. Opportunity-to-Win Ratio
6. Customer Acquisition Cost Payback Time
7. Lead Response Time
8. Funnel Drop off Rate

Metrics and KPIs aren’t just about numbers. They give quantitative and qualitative insights into your sales process, team performance, and overall business health. If your sales reps know you aren’t monitoring metrics and KPIs, they have no incentive to perform. If they’re underperforming, you’d never know it.

The more detailed you are about your metrics and KPIs, the easier it will be to monitor, improve, and measure your team’s performance.

A Structured Sales Process Is the Key to Business Growth

If you want consistent, year-over-year gains from your sales team, you need a structured sales process. As we’ve seen, a structured sales process is a workflow, a series of steps your sales team follows. These sales processes take your prospects from initial contact to a closed deal.

Each stage in your sales pipeline has a single purpose: to move your prospect from lead to customer. Many companies know these stages, but their steps are often more informal than formal. For many companies, huge sections of their sales process involve sales reps “winging it” or doing their best to figure things out. Not you.

You know how to build a structured sales process for your business. You’ll know which prospects deserve your time and attention with the right approach and a clear focus.

Accurately track multiple sales workflows for your processes, products, and services with Pipeline CRM. Our customizable sales pipeline management allows you to tailor the deal stages, create custom data fields, and generate sales and sales reps’ performance analysis easily.

Learn more about Pipeline CRM sales pipeline management—and when you’re ready to give it a try, sign up here to get started.

The best way to leverage QuickBooks is by integrating it with your CRM software. This allows automatic data synchronization, ensuring accurate data transfer and accelerating the document creation process (e.g., invoices, estimates, quotes, etc.)

We’ll show you the six best CRM for QuickBooks online based on their features, user reviews, and pricing—helping you find the ideal CRM solution with QuickBooks integration.

Why Do You Need a CRM with Quickbooks Integration?

Before we go to the top QuickBooks CRM list, here are a few reasons why you should choose a CRM that supports QuickBooks.

Streamlined Accounting and Payment Processing

CRM QuickBooks integration eliminates the need to switch between different tools. You can access all QuickBooks data from your CRM—and all data changes you make on the CRM are reflected in QuickBooks.

Additionally, the integration enables you to automatically generate invoices by accessing finance information from the accounting software. This makes creating invoices, estimates, and quotes, as well as processing payments much easier.

Data Accuracy Guaranteed

Scattered accounting data on different platforms is not only hard to track but also can be inaccurate. You risk data fragmentation and miss out on important sales insights.

Since the QuickBooks CRM integration will sync all data between QuickBooks and your CRM, there is no chance of manual errors. Having accounting information organized with client data in real-time ensures your team has the most current information ready.

Improved Team Alignment

Sales teams gain valuable insights into accounting information, allowing them to understand the direct revenue impact of their efforts. Simultaneously, the integration of accounting and sales data empowers the CRM to generate more comprehensive financial insights and forecasts. This shared understanding ensures all departments operate with a consistent view of business performance, facilitating better alignment and a clearer path toward achieving sales objectives.

Best 6 Sales CRMs that Integrate with QuickBooks

After considering ease of use, features, pricing, and reviews, we shortlisted these top six sales CRMs that integrate with QuickBooks.

1. Pipeline CRM: the Best CRM for QuickBooks Online

First, we have Pipeline CRM, one of the best CRMs that integrates with QuickBooks.

Thanks to the seamless connection, Pipeline CRM syncs all deal information on QuickBooks in real time, eliminating the need to switch between the two tools. Now you can track your sales processes, manage customer relationships, and handle invoices and revenue—all from a single sales CRM platform.

Tired of creating invoices manually for each client? Pipeline CRM has got your back. You can convert proposals into invoices for more convenience with just a few clicks.

Want to see it in action? Watch this Pipeline CRM and QuickBooks demo video to learn all the details.

Key features:

• Two-way and real-time Pipeline CRM and QuickBooks integration
• Access control for better data security
• Clean and comprehensive dashboard with all relevant information
• Automated task allocation, project scheduling, and recurring deals
• Automated email drip campaigns and built-in AI email assistant
• Customizable data fields to fit your unique business needs

Pros:

• Customizable sales automation processes beyond follow-up reminders
• A reliable CRM mobile app to manage deals on the go
• Flexible access permission for secured collaboration with internal and external teams
• Customizable dashboards allow you to access key sales data quickly. This includes having specific CRM features (Instant Docs), sales KPIs, and agendas.

Pricing:

• Start plan: $25 per user per month
• Develop plan: $33 per user per month
• Grow plan: $49 per user per month
• Enterprise: Custom

Ratings:

• 4/5 star rating on G2 (936 reviews)
• 3/5 star rating on Capterra (624 reviews)

2. Teamgate

Teamgate is another QuickBooks CRM software. From lead generation to post-sales follow-up, this platform offers impressive features for deal management.

The QuickBooks integration lets you view customer payment histories and send invoices directly from the contact or deal cards on Teamgate. You can sync all client bills to the platform or create new ones.

Key features:

• Contact and invoice import directly from QuickBooks to Teamgate and vice versa
• Invoice generation from Teamgate dashboard
• Sales activity tracking and leaderboard

Pros:

• Direct invoice generation from the deal and contact database
• Real-time insights into sales performance

Cons:

• Some users sometimes deal with bug
• The loading speed can be improved

Pricing:

• Starter: Free
• Team: $39.90 per month per user
• Growth: $59.90 per month per user

Ratings:

• 6/5 star rating on G2 (19 reviews)
• 8/5 star rating on Capterra (155 reviews)

3. Method

The third QuickBooks CRM on the list is Method. It has a two-way data sync with the accounting software and is ideal for small companies.

The highlight feature of Method is that you can use successful workflows as templates and duplicate them for convenience. You can use the tool to track and nurture sales opportunities. Once the leads convert, you can sync them as customers in your QuickBooks account with one click.

Key features:

• Billable hours tracking and approval for easy invoice generation
• Work order management, job scheduling, and crew dispatching
• Estimate creation on QuickBooks

Pros:

• Lets you add photos, documents, and special instructions to the work order, keeping teams aligned with project requirements
• Fairly customizable features

Cons:

• The interface is not very intuitive for beginners
• Sometimes it does not sync properly with QuickBooks Online

Pricing:

• Contact Management: $25 per user per month
• CRM Pro: $44 per user per month
• CRM Enterprise: $74 per user per month

Ratings:

• 4/5 star ratings on G2 (297 reviews)
• 2/5 star ratings on Capterra (119 reviews)

4. Insightly

Insightly is another popular CRM for QuickBooks that helps you manage your sales pipeline and process invoices quickly. It lets you access QuickBooks data, such as contact information, sales summary, and accounting information, directly.

Another perk of using Inisightly is that it comes with a lead scoring system, allowing you to focus on closing the leads that matter most to your business.

Key features:

• Quotes generation from opportunity records
• Project tracking from lead acquisition to deal closing
• Sales workflow automation
• Analytics and reporting

Pros:

• Lets you merge variables and workflows
• Identifies risks and human errors through pipeline management and analytics

Cons:

• The price is higher than similar CRM solutions
• The data sync with QuickBooks can be buggy

Pricing:

• Plus: $29 per user per month
• Professional: $49 per user per month
• Enterprise: $99 per user per month

Ratings:

• 2/5 star ratings on G2 (915 reviews)
• 4/5 star ratings on Capterra (660 reviews)

5. GreenRope

Our list of CRMs that integrate with QuickBooks is incomplete without GreenRope. It has an easy plugin for the desktop version of the accounting software. You can track your sales, generate quotes and invoices, and even sequence customer journeys with this CRM.

Key features:

• Turn QuickBooks customers into contacts on GreenRope
• Import invoices from QuickBooks for an organized view
• Create, customize, and send quotes and invoices directly from the dashboard

Pros:

• Customizable deal stages and sales pipeline pipelines
• Robust customer journey analysis and optimization
• Email templates and media libraries

Cons:

• Installing QuickBooks Desktop is mandatory
• Setting up journey sequencing and CRM customization can be challenging

Pricing:

• Starter: $99 per month
• Essential: $199 per month
• Pro: $299 per month
• Premium: $399 per month

Ratings:

• 3/5 star ratings on G2 (222 reviews)
• 3/5 star ratings on Capterra (155 reviews)

6. Keap

Last but not least, we have Keap, a QuickBooks CRM ideal for small businesses and freelancers. New invoices on QuickBooks get synced automatically to your Keap account. Plus, it offers robust lead management, analytics, and business lines for client communication.

Key features:

• Imports invoices, contacts, and quotes from QuickBooks
• Broadcast, 1:1, and automatic emails
• Dedicated mobile numbers to make calls and send text messages

Pros:

• The learning curve to set up automation and integration can be steep
• The list segmentation feature offers lots of options

Cons:

• Old invoices don’t get synced from QuickBooks Online
• Numbers stored outside the “Phone” field on QuickBooks Online are not imported

Pricing:

• Starts at $249 per month (billed annually)

Ratings:

• 2/5 star ratings on G2 (1516 reviews)
• 1/5 star ratings on Capterra (1292 reviews)

Pipeline CRM Offers the Best CRM QuickBooks Integration

Every QuickBooks CRM we listed here has its strengths and weaknesses. Choosing the right CRM that integrates with QuickBooks depends on the major sales challenges you want to tackle and your business goals.

That said, if you’re looking for an easy-to-use CRM with affordable pricing and powerful sales features, Pipeline CRM should be your first choice.

Pipeline CRM lets you use QuickBooks integration for accounting automation, syncing historical and current finance data, customer info, and even invoices. Our platform supports both the online and desktop versions of the accounting software.

In addition to the streamlined accounting process, you also get robust sales automation, accurate performance tracking and sales forecasting, and rich customization options for your entire sales pipeline.

Sign up here to get started with Pipeline CRM.

Can the sales process be fully automated? Technically, yes. But it shouldn’t be.

Right now, most automation tools aren’t mature enough to handle meaningful sales conversations on their own. And when reps take a set-it-and-forget-it approach, prospects end up buried in cold, contextless emails like this:

This happens when sales reps use automation as a shortcut instead of a tool, leaving connection, nuance, and personalization to bots without ever having a conversation. The worst part is you won’t even know it’s happening. Prospects won’t complain. They’ll quietly disappear, shifting their attention to the reps who get their business.

But here’s the good news: sales automation can work in harmony with human connection. Let’s talk about how to strike that balance.

What is Sales Automation?

Sales automation is the use of technology to streamline and simplify time-consuming sales tasks—so reps can focus on what they do best: selling.

It covers a broad range of tools and workflows designed to automate repetitive processes like data entry, lead scoring, follow-up emails, pipeline tracking, and more. Think of it as your digital sales assistant—quietly handling the busy work in the background.

Common sales automation tools include CRM software, chatbots and live chat integrations, email sequencing tools, lead scoring systems, and AI-powered analytics and insights.

Why do We Need Sales Automation?

Because sales reps are struggling.

They’re overworked and drowning in busy work. A recent survey of 7,700 sales reps across 38 countries found that “Reps spend just 28% of their week actually selling.” They spend the rest of their time on administrative tasks like:

• Researching prospects
• Logging customer data
• Creating proposals and quotes
• Scoring leads
• Attending meetings and training sessions

As it turns out, these are the very same tasks that, if automated, will increase the amount of time sales reps spend closing deals. The more you take off your sales reps’ plates, the more time they spend with qualified prospects.

This is why sales automation is so important—it directly impacts your company’s sales revenue.

Sales Automation or Personalization: What’s More Important?

Achieving a balance between automation and personalization in sales is essential. It’s also rare for most sales teams because they generally lean in one direction or the other.

They either:

• Automate everything: they treat prospecting like a numbers game and focus on optimizing their technology stack. For these teams, it’s less about personalization and more about finding the 3% of prospects ready to buy.
• Prioritize personalization: these sales reps do their best to give their prospects the one-on-one attention they need. It’s labor-intensive work, and it’s especially disappointing for sales reps when prospects choose to go in a different direction.

Both approaches are problematic and highlight the need to balance automation and personalization. First, let’s explore the problems with each extreme.

Where Sales Automation Breaks Down

Sales automation is essential for modern teams—but it’s far from perfect. When used poorly or without the right structure, it can hurt more than help. Here are the biggest reasons sales automation often misses the mark.

1. Automation Isn’t Personal (And Often Pretends to Be)

Automation is not personal, and even worse, in the wrong hands, pretends to be human personable. When this happens, it becomes a blunt tool that sales reps use to increase the quantity of their messaging. Then, as automation scales and personalization decreases, the quality of their messages takes a hit. Conversion rates tumble as messages become generic and robotic. Revenue begins to dry up shortly after that.

2. CRM Disconnect Creates Chaos

Your CRM is the memory center of your marketing—it keeps everyone on the same page. With CRM software, your business’s sales reps, customer service, marketing, and fulfillment units all have access to the same information. For example, if your customer has a bad experience with customer support, your sales reps know that going in. If there’s a CRM disconnect, it means you have silos and turf wars. It also means that various sections of your business are disconnected from the customer because no one shares the customer’s experience.

3. Automation is Not Intuitive

When it comes to automation, two assumptions are common. (1.) This is too hard to figure out; we’ll never get it. (2.) This is easy; we’ll figure this out in no time. Here’s the thing: automation needs guidance. A portion of automation should be automated, meaning some elements should be pre-built for your sales reps. If your sales reps have to set automation up themselves, you must provide them with the guidance and support they need to do it properly.

Why Personalization Isn’t Always the Answer

Personalization is supposed to be the holy grail of modern sales—but even it comes with serious challenges. These three stand out the most.

1. Scaling Personalization Is a Struggle

It’s generally viewed as the right approach. Customers prefer; no, they demand personalization. They expect sellers to come to the table clearly, understanding their desires, goals, fears, frustrations, and problems. This expectation is the problem—any time spent on personalization with the wrong prospect is lost revenue.

2. Bad Data Makes Everything Worse

Or worse, the data set you’re relying on is incomplete. Personalization is only as good as the data feeding it. If you have bad data, you’re more likely to send irrelevant or inappropriate recommendations to your customers.

3. Over-Personalization Can Feel Creepy

If personalization depends on AI, the recommendations can be way off course. With AI-driven personalization, context tends to be a problem. When it’s right on the nose, over-personalization feels invasive—prospects wonder if you’re stalking them. How do you know all of this about me? They wonder. When this happens, trust is lost as prospects and customers pull back or move on.

How do You Fix These Problems?

To make automation work with the human touch—not against it—focus on these five principles:

1. Start With Clean, Consistent Data.

Good automation begins with good data. Standardize how you collect, store, and use prospect info. Incomplete or inconsistent data leads to irrelevant messaging and broken personalization.

2. Centralize Everything in Your CRM.

Your CRM should be your team’s single source of truth. Ensure it’s synced with every connected tool so that when customer data changes anywhere, it updates everywhere.

3. Be Relevant, Not Creepy

Personalization works when it’s appropriate. Stick to contextual, surface-level insights—don’t make prospects feel like you’ve been spying on them.

4. Give Reps Automation Playbooks

Don’t assume your team knows how to automate properly. Give clear instructions, templates, and support so reps use automation the way you intended.

5. Pre-Build Key Automation

Set your team up with foundational workflows they can tweak—not build from scratch. That way, they can spend more time selling, not setting things up.

If automation creates friction and personalization is hard to scale, where does that leave us? Somewhere in the messy middle—where the right balance becomes key.

How to Balance Sales Automation with Personalization

Believe it or not, sales automation and personalization can be balanced. You don’t have to sacrifice empathy to scale sales automation. You can communicate with a growing number of prospects, and you can maintain the same human touch you’re applying to your conversations now.

Here’s how you do it.

• Identify automation opportunities. You can automate these routine or repeatable tasks, such as quote and proposal writing, lead qualification, appointment scheduling, email sequences, and customer support requests.
• Map out your automation. Take the time to outline and plan each step and connection in your workflow visually. Define your automated processes completely. Outline your goals, the scope of work, and any required requirements or dependencies.
• Segment customers into groups. Look for commonalities, speak to those commonalities and work with each segment independently. Each segment’s theme should be relevance, context, and value. Every message, every touch point, should hit these three points at a minimum.
• Map out the customer journey. What steps do customers take when they reach out to you for help? Which questions do they ask? What objections do they make? Learn how to personalize sales conversations and use them to create value via the data you collected in the segmentation phase above.
• Build datasets in your CRM. When customers called in last week, what was their experience? Did they get a resolution to their problem? Is their contact information accurate? How did customers feel about your company at the end of the call? Your customer data should be centralized, complete, and accessible to everyone in your company who needs it.
• Show sales reps how to build relationships. At its core, sales pipeline optimization is about relationship building. Relationships are driven by value, fed by communication, and nurtured by listening. Listening can be challenging, especially if your prospects arrive with unrealistic, fuzzy, or implicit expectations. Teach your sales reps how to build, nurture, and maintain relationships with prospects beyond most sellers’ usual “I want money from you” transactional relationship. You’ll need to watch your pipeline, taking note of areas where prospects become confused, stuck, or frustrated.
• Supply sales reps with a mix of AI and templates. Show them how to modify these content pieces quickly so they can connect with prospects and build strong relationships. You can analyze message performance if your email messages are incorporated into your CRM (and they should be).
• Use A/B split tests and analytics. Use your quantitative data to identify the best personalization strategies for your team. Use that data to modify your sales automation processes. Your performance data will give you the clarity you need to improve your automation processes and personalizations.
• Ask customers for feedback. Ask them simple questions about their experiences with you (e.g., did we make you happy? How can we improve our services?) This gives you an inside look at their experience (from their perspective), and it gives you the qualitative data you need to make sense of your customer’s experience.

What Does This Look Like?

Let’s take a look at sales automation with a human touch.

Example #1: AI Assistant to Live Agent

Use a chatbot or AI assistant to initiate conversations with prospects. This is ideal because it allows prospects to gather information in a low-pressure environment. However, once they’re ready to move forward, customers are easily redirected to a live agent or customer support specialist who is ready to help.

This transition should feel easy and natural for the customer.

Example #2: Automated Email Sequences With Human Check-ins

Customers opt-in to a list, request information or ask for a specific resource, and they’re added to your email list. On this list, they receive relevant, contextual, and valuable content. These emails are automatically sent on a schedule (e.g., every three days), but a sales rep checks in once a week to nurture the relationship, offer assistance, answer objections, and look for opportunities to close the sale.

It’s a win/win; customers get the value they need to make a decision, and sales reps nurture leads automatically. These periodic check-ins mean sales reps are ready to close the deal when customers are ready to move forward.

Example #3: Lead Scoring With Manager Review

You can use AI lead scoring tools (e.g., Marketo, Breeze Intelligence, etc.) to qualify prospects. You can then add these customers to segments, sequences, and workflows. Sales managers can then verify that these leads are indeed sales-ready.

Can you see what’s happening?

You can lead with automation, but human touch and personalization can be applied to the back end. The possibilities are endless!

Can the Semi Automated Sales Process Be Fully Automated?

Technically, yes—but it’s not the right move. Without the human touch, automation often misses the mark. Your prospects still want to feel seen and supported. The best sales automation strategies don’t replace people—they enhance them.

You don’t need to choose between efficiency and empathy. When done right, automation delivers relevant, valuable messages while your team builds real relationships with the right prospects. The key is to lead with context, keep personalization appropriate, and always make it easy for prospects to connect with a human when they need to.

Boost Sales Revenue with Pipeline CRM

Pipeline CRM is a sales enablement powerhouse. Every day, we help 18,000+ companies like yours decrease time-to-close, boost productivity, and 10x sales. Let us show you how Pipeline CRM can help you win more customers and deals.

Compare plans and pricing.

Many contractors work on multiple bids and projects at the same time, making it easy to lose track of which bids need to be followed up, who to contact, and when.

Here’s a common scenario:

A prospective customer calls for a quote. You take their information and promise to follow up. But as work piles up, weeks pass before you realize the call was never returned. By then, the customer has moved on, possibly leaving a negative impression that could impact future business.

Many contractors lose potential jobs simply because they lack a system to manage their bids, follow-ups, and client communication. Bids fall through the cracks without proper tracking, leading to missed revenue opportunities.

That’s where a construction CRM comes in. By centralizing bid tracking, automating follow-ups, and providing clear visibility into your sales pipeline, a CRM helps contractors stay organized and improve their win rates. In this article, we’ll explore why a CRM is essential for managing construction bids and how it can streamline your entire sales process.

Why Many Construction Bids Disappear in Sales Pipelines

Ignoring customers is rarely done with bad intentions. Most of the time, the reasons have nothing to do with the customer. When contractors overlook a customer, it usually comes down to one of the following issues:

• You’re too busy with current projects: you have all the customers you can handle right now and can’t take on another project.
• You’re overwhelmed with customer inquiries: you’re becoming well-known for being a dependable contractor and suddenly receive a spike in customer demand.
• A potential project is too small: saying no to a high-effort, low-reward project could lead to a negative review, so it’s easier not to respond.
• You don’t want to work with problem customers: you’re not getting back to this customer as their reputation precedes them.
• Organization is a challenge: you’re a small team, and it’s difficult to keep up with the avalanche of information from customers.

If you’re an experienced contractor, none of this is new. You can probably think of at least one instance where these reasons applied to you.

The bad news is that it’s not good enough anymore. If your construction company is going to survive, you’ll have to track construction bids and consistently follow up using a construction CRM. This ensures no lead falls through the cracks by helping you track, organize, and follow up effectively.

How CRM Bid Management Improves Construction Deal Stage Tracking

At any given time, only 3% of your prospects are ready to buy. This is what’s happening with the rest:

• 7% plan to make a change soon.
• 30% have a need but aren’t ready yet.
• 30% don’t have a need right now.
• 30% will never buy from you.

This means most leads require consistent follow-up to convert. Without a structured approach, you risk wasting time on bad-fit prospects or losing qualified leads due to poor tracking.

A strong bid management process ensures:

• Pre-qualified prospects only: sending bids to the wrong prospects drains time and resources.
• Clearly defined deal stages: knowing where bids succeed or fail helps you improve your sales process.
• A two-way qualification process: prospects should meet set criteria before moving forward.
• Follow-up expectations are set upfront: scheduling follow-ups before submitting a bid keeps the process on track.

Ignoring follow-ups means losing potential revenue, but a CRM ensures no bid falls through the cracks and helps you manage the process efficiently.

To further enhance your bid management process, consider exploring our dedicated Construction CRM solutions. Tailored specifically for the construction industry, these solutions can help streamline your sales pipeline and improve overall efficiency.

How to Use Pipeline CRM to Keep Track and Follow Up on  Construction Leads

Let’s explore how a CRM can help you set up, manage, and track construction bids efficiently, using Pipeline CRM as an example.

Step 1: Customize Deal Stages

Remember the deal stages we mentioned earlier?

We’re going to use those here to set up our examples. Before using them in your business, you’ll want to customize these deal stages. Let’s use the following deal stages:

1. Contact
2. Lead qualification
3. Site visit/needs assessment
4. Proposal/quote
5. Negotiation
6. Contract signing
7. Project start

Deal stages allow you to track a project from beginning to end. With deal stages, you’ll be able to:

• Qualify/disqualify prospects
• Shepherd customers through your pipeline
• Identify problem areas or gaps in your sales process
• Identify areas where sales reps need more training
• Assign data-driven values to each stage

Your customers should earn their way to the next stage. For example, if a contact reaches out to you and requests a quote, you’ll need to qualify the customer or project. You’d want to ask the following questions:

• What’s your budget?
• Is their project in your service area?
• What’s their time frame?
• How will they pay for the project?
• Who will be the project point of contact?

If these prospects give you the needed information, they can move to the needs assessment stage. If you’ve done an assessment and their project is a fit, and they’re willing to agree to your proposal/bid terms, they’ve earned a bid or proposal.

Don’t move customers forward in the process if they haven’t earned it.

Step 2: Record All Bids and Opportunities

Many companies make the mistake of putting all the responsibility in their sales rep.

They expect their sales reps to enter all the bids and opportunities from start to finish. This approach works if your sales reps aren’t overloaded or already juggling a lot.

This is where integrations save the day. If you semi-automate the process and automatically enter contact data, you’ll find getting employees to record all opportunities is much easier.

Here’s a list of the integrations you’ll need.

• Webform integration: if you integrate your CRM and web forms, you can automatically transfer data from your website forms and landing pages to your CRM directly.
• BCC tracking: if your CRM has BCC tracking, your CRM should add prospects to contact lists whenever you send a copy of the email to your CRM. Your sales reps spend zero time on manual data entry, which enables you to set up deals immediately.
• Email integrations: your CRM should integrate with your email tools, especially if you use popular tools like Outlook or Google Workspace. These CRM integrations should help you find, track, and add new contacts. You can also send trackable email messages showing whether your messages were opened or unread.
• Accounting integrations: your CRM should offer two-way integration with popular accounting software and tools. What does this mean? You should be able to sync contacts across both apps (e.g., Pipeline and Quickbooks) and create and view invoices in both apps; you should also be able to send invoices from your CRM (Pipeline in this case) without needing to open Quickbooks.

• Proposal and contract integrations: your CRM should integrate with the tools you’re using to create proposals and contracts. Sales reps should be able to pull these docs into your CRM automatically without switching from one app to another. For example, you should be able to attach a PDF of your proposal or estimate for the appropriate deal to your account. Any activity or change made in one app should be reflected in the other.

Source: PaintScout.com

All the stages in your pipeline that require data entry can be automated or semi-automated. You can pull in all the needed data, consistently recording bids and opportunities. This means sales reps and project managers spend their time working on the portions of deals that actually require their attention.

So, looking at the deal stages in our example:

1. Contact
2. Lead qualification
3. Site visit/needs assessment
4. Proposal/quote
5. Negotiation
6. Contract signing
7. Project start

Automated sales processes can (and should) address the areas in bold.

When you set these integrations up, you automatically import all contact data into your business. This is important because it tells you (a.) that the contact or data exists, so an opportunity should exist for it as well, and (b.) dramatically reduces data entry errors.

Step 3: Create Follow-Up Cadence

When it comes to follow-up, there are two behaviors you should avoid becoming:

• Beggar: this type of salesperson evokes feelings of pity, directly or indirectly. Customers often find begging off-putting, thinking, “Your offer can’t be very good if you have to beg for business.” If they make a purchase, it’s often accompanied by resentment, such as, “I only bought because I felt sorry for you.”
• Pest: while many sales representatives neglect follow-up, some go to the other extreme. They never stop contacting you, bombarding you with incessant, unhelpful messages like, “Got time for a quick call?” or “I’m just checking in to see where things are at.” These salespeople are relentless and never let potential deals fizzle out.

Both of these behaviors become more harmful over time. The problem is that sales reps are easily tempted to engage in these behaviors without a predetermined follow-up system.

How should you follow up on bids? We recommend using a 1:3 email cadence. We’ve provided some email templates in the next section.

You can leverage Pipeline CRM’s email scheduling feature to streamline the lead nurturing process. You can customize the scheduling options based on sales activity triggers (e.g., leads move to SQL stage) or a certain date and time (e.g., one week after sending a proposal). Learn more about how to set up a construction email cadence on Pipeline CRM here.

Need help writing a follow-up email to your construction leads? We provide several email templates that you can steal right away, or use Pipeline CRM’s built-in email writing assistant (powered by OpenAI technology) to help you craft meaningful emails.

Step 4: Monitor Bid Status and Progress

If you’re using a CRM, you should receive a mix of alerts on the status and progress of each project.

• Real-time alerts or notifications: these notifications tell you when activity related to a lead or deal in your pipeline occurs. This includes when tasks are assigned, a call is logged, an email is opened, or a deal stage changes.

• Activity alerts: your CRM should guide your sales team and set meaningful objectives for each of your sales reps. You should be able to track the work your sales reps do every day. Your CRM should provide you with a high-level overview of the historical account of your pipeline, won or lost deals, your active pipeline, deal stage status, and more.

• Deal status updates: you should be able to track the health of each project or deal at a moment’s notice. You should be able to see if the deal is healthy, has slowed, or stopped. This shows you the deals that need immediate attention.

These alerts, trackers, and notifications give you the precious intel you need to track your construction bids. If progress has slowed, stalled, or stopped, you’ll know immediately. These are essential must-haves if you’re shopping for a CRM.

Step 5: Collaborate With Your Sales Team

Using this data, you can have conversations.

If you picked the right CRM and have done the upfront work, you have lots of data to use to make decisions. It’s a straightforward process—the details in these alerts give you the action steps you need to make important changes in your sales process.

If you’ve done this properly, you should know:

• What it takes to pre-qualify your customers
• Which customers are qualified
• Which deals/projects you’re willing to take on (or not)
• How to communicate your decision to customers
• What your sales reps are doing (daily, weekly, monthly)
• How to send fewer proposals but close more deals
• What each project is worth to your construction company
• The steps you need to follow consistently to close deals

These questions come from tracking and monitoring performance and outcomes. If you know the role of a CRM and you’re using it to monitor the performance and outcomes of several groups, you should be looking at:

• Prospects
• Customers
• Sales reps
• Project managers
• Vendors

Each person has a role to play. By tracking performance and outcomes, you can quickly identify the source of any problems in your pipelines.

Step 6: Analyze Performance Reports and Make Changes

There are lots of things you can analyze.

What’s important is focusing your attention on the right reports. When it comes to closing deals, sales managers need to focus their attention on these specific areas:

• Number of SQLs (sales-qualified leads): are we getting enough qualified leads? How many of these prospects lead to revenue?
• Customer engagement: are customers willing to engage with us and provide us with the information and support we need to help them with their projects?
• Deals by stage: which projects have bids out? How many of these projects are moving to negotiation or closing? Which deals have stalled? Why?
• Win/loss ratios: how many of our projects do we win? More than half? Less than half?
• Reasons for win/loss: why did we win, and how can we win more? Why did we lose, and how do we fix the problems or reasons for our loss?
• Bid value: are the projects we win profitable to our construction company? Can we afford to take on more of these projects over time?
• Sales forecasts: are we bringing in more profitable customers/projects or less? Are we on track to meet or exceed our sales quotas?

If we’re focused on these areas, we can drill down to identify the causes of each of our outcomes. What if you’re looking for different categories or types of data?

Your CRM should show you the following:

• Who’s doing what and when (activity tracking)
• How much potential revenue is in your pipeline (deal stages)
• How much revenue you’re on track to close (sales forecasting)
• Which deals are on track
• Which deals need immediate attention (deal insights)

These are simple reports that you can customize. Sure, there is CRM reporting you can analyze, but these are essential if you’re relying on your CRM to help you track, follow up with, and close your construction bids.

Follow-Up Email Templates on Construction Bids (1:3 Email Cadence)

A 1:3 cadence ensures consistent follow-ups without overwhelming prospects. This approach helps qualify leads throughout the follow-up process while keeping communication structured.

How the 1:3 cadence works:

• For every one message or offer sent, follow up at least three
• Space each message appropriately, giving prospects time to respond.
• If a prospect stops responding, send a direct check-in to confirm their interest.
• If they remain unresponsive, move them to a lead nurturing
• If they explicitly decline, remove them from active outreach.

Here’s the 1:3 cadence in action.

Construction Email Template 1: Request for Proposal

Subject: We’ll send you a proposal in 48 hrs. or less.

Hi [Customer],

Appreciate you taking the time to iron out the details of your project. As soon as it’s ready, I’ll send you a link to the proposal. It’ll have all of the details and important next steps. Before I do, when are you free to go over the proposal?

Best,

[Signature]

Construction Email Template 2: Proposal Follow-Up 1

Subject: Who gets to see your proposal?

Hey [Customer],

Who should get a link to your proposal? Is it just you, or are there others who should receive access to this?

Let me know,

[Signature]

Construction Email Template 3: Proposal Follow-Up 2

Subject: Never heard back. What do you want to do?

Hey [Customer],

Haven’t heard from you about a time to go over the proposal. Are you still interested in moving forward with this project?

Let me know,

Construction Email Template 4: Proposal Follow-Up 3

Subject: Have you given up on this project?

Hey [Customer],

Have you given up on this project? If your situation has changed, please let me know so we can update things on our end.

Let me know,

[Signature]

If customers continue to ghost you at this stage, place them on a lead nurturing campaign.

The 1:3 cadence works whether you’re sending out email campaigns, making phone calls, or sending out text messages to your customers. It’s an important point of balance that helps to maintain the quid pro quo nature of selling.

Not sure what to say about each of these deal stages? You can customize these templates for your construction business.

Follow-Up Email Templates for Leads in Various Deal Stages

Construction Email Template for ‘In Contact’ Stage

Hi [Customer],

You mentioned that you’re looking for a team to help you with your [project]. We can help you with that. Can you tell me more about what you’re looking for?

[signature]

Construction Email Template for ‘Lead Qualification’ Stage

Hi [Customer],

Thanks for the details on your [project]. We’ve worked with several other [customers] in the past on a similar project in your area. Before we continue further, we typically [expectation] before we can get started on your project.

Is that okay?

[signature]

Construction Email Template for ‘Site Visit or Needs Assessment’ Deal Stage

Hi [Customer],

We’ll need to come to your location to finish our assessment. Here’s a link to our calendar—please choose a date and time that works well for you.

Talk soon!

[signature]

Construction Email Template for ‘Proposal or Quote’ Stage

Hi [Customer],

I appreciate you taking the time to iron out the details of your project. As soon as it’s ready, I’ll send you a link to the proposal. It’ll have all of the details and important next steps. Before I do, when are you free to go over the proposal?

Best,

[Signature]

Construction Email Template for ‘Negotiation’ Stage

Hi [Customer],

Do the terms laid out in our proposal or agreement work for you? Please let me know if I can clear up any questions or concerns before we move forward.

Best,

[Signature]

Construction Email Template for ‘Contract Signing’ Stage

Hi [Customer],

Thanks for trusting us to take care of your upcoming project! It’s been a genuine pleasure working with you so far, and I look forward to doing great things together. Take a look at the agreement and sign it when you’re ready.

We’ll be all set from there!

Best,

[Signature]

Construction Email Template for ‘Project Start’ Stage

Hi [Customer],

Welcome aboard! We’re excited to show you what we can do. Our crews will be set to start work on [date/time]. Please make sure that you have someone on hand to provide our crews with the access they need.

Let’s get to work! 🙂

[Signature]

You can add three follow-up messages to each of the deal stages messages above. If you want your sales reps to be seen as equals during the sales process, you’ll need to maintain a healthy balance between giving and receiving.

With a CRM, these emails can be automated so no lead is forgotten, automatically triggering follow-ups at the right intervals. This approach keeps prospects engaged and increases the chances of closing the deal.

Contractors Using Pipeline CRM Never Overlook Their Customers

A prospective customer calls, texts, or emails to request a quote. Your CRM automatically imports their information and assigns tasks to the right sales reps. Customers are immediately greeted and acknowledged. Your sales team has coordinated around your CRM—two weeks later, you’re working on negotiating terms and moving to close the deal.

Now, this deal is yours forever. 

Tracking bids and following up consistently is the key to winning more construction projects. The right CRM ensures every lead is captured, every follow-up is timely, and no opportunity is lost due to disorganization. With Pipeline CRM, you can automate follow-ups, manage bids efficiently, and keep your sales pipeline moving.

Don’t let potential deals slip away—try Pipeline CRM today.