Your customer relationship management platform is a powerful tool in helping you book more gigs and generate even more revenue for your speaking business.
But are you using it to its maximum potential?
If you’re not using Zapier integrations with your CRM, you’re probably only scratching the surface of what it can do for you. And by getting familiar with all the ways Zapier can pair up with your CRM to make your life easier, you can spend more time focusing on what matters: growing your speaking business.
What is Zapier?
Have you heard of Zapier? If not, let’s cover the first thing first.
The simplest way to describe it is like this: Zapier is the glue that connects thousands of web apps so they can work together more effectively.
It’s an automation tool that connects apps like Gmail, Slack, Mailchimp, and even CRMs like karmaSpeaker in a way that helps save you time by eliminating extra steps and streamlining tasks.
How Does Zapier Work?
Zapier automations, known as “Zaps,” can be set up so that they automatically take action when they receive a certain trigger.
For instance, let’s say you get a ton of attachments in your Gmail account and want to save them to Dropbox. Traditionally, you would need to open the email, download the attachment, and upload it to Dropbox. With Zapier, you can set up a Zap that will automate this process, automatically saving attachments to Dropbox when you open the email.
This may only save you 30 seconds at a time, but if you imagine how many 30-second time-savings you get over the course of a workweek, you can literally watch your efficiency skyrocket.
How Can Zapier Simplify Your CRM?
Many CRMs, including karmaSpeaker, make Zapier integrations easy so that you can save time and boost your productivity significantly.
1. Create Contacts from Webform Sign-Ups
Getting new leads through your website is a critical part of your marketing strategy. But when your web apps aren’t working together, it can also be a time-consuming process to manage.
Luckily, Zapier can automatically create contacts from webform sign-ups and upload them into your CRM.
This way, you can save time on manually inputting data and instead focus on marketing to your newly-acquired leads.
2. Pull Data from Your CRM into Invoices and Quotes
Have you ever felt the frustration of having to manually find client information in your CRM and then carry it over to your invoices or quotes?
This can be a massive time-suck. But luckily, Zapier lets you seamlessly integrate this process so you can import client details directly from karmaSpeaker and into your invoice and quoting software.
3. Generate PDFs and Send Them to Your Clients’ E-Signing Softwares
What’s more exciting than sending speaker contracts?
It marks the part of the relationship where you’ve put the hard work into selling yourself and securing a gig. This is the final step before your former presentation preparation can begin.
With Zapier, you can use karmaSpeaker to generate PDFs and then send them to your clients’ e-signing software, making the process simpler for both parties.
And what’s better than making things easy and efficient for your clients?
4. Integrate Your Email Platform with Your CRM
Rather than juggling an email account and a CRM simultaneously, you can just use Zapier to integrate your email directly into your karmaSpeaker dashboard.
When you incorporate an email client into your karmaSpeaker account, you can see your incoming emails in an integrated inbox on your dashboard. For example, if you send an email to a contact from your karmaSpeaker account, you can see that contact’s reply directly in your dashboard.
This makes it easier to stay on top of emails, track customers’ status, and create follow-up reminders that allow you to better track your leads and close more gigs.
How to Integrate Zapier and karmaSpeaker
If you want to begin integrating your apps with karmaSpeaker using Zapier, simply follow these steps:
- Create a Zapier account, if you don’t already have one
- Login to Zapier (we recommend keeping Zapier open in one tab and karmaSpeaker open in another for easy toggling)
- Click on Dashboard
- Search for an app (when you do this, choose the system that does the primary action first and then the system that does the secondary action next — for instance, for email automations, select your email app first and then karmaSpeaker second; on the other hand, if you were integrating a functionality that took contacts from karmaSpeaker and entered them into QuickBooks, karmaSpeaker would be your first system and QuickBooks would be your second)
- Choose a “Trigger Event” (this is what happens in the first system that’s going to make the action happen in the second system)
- Follow the prompts to login to your account for that system
- Test your trigger to make sure it works
- Choose your second system
- Select your “Action Event” (this is what your app does after the Trigger Event)
- Follow the prompts to login to your account for the second system
- Follow the prompts to customize as required
- Activate your Zap
Here’s a pro tip from our support team: go into this process with an idea of what you’re hoping to achieve. It’ll make it easier to activate Zaps. For most actions, you may also be able to get away with a free Zapier account.
For even more details, check out this blog post we wrote.
The best way to get the most out of your day is to eliminate the many minor sticking points that slow you down during the course of your everyday work.
If you’ve got questions about how to use Zapier integrations into your karmaSpeaker account, head to our support page. Or, get in touch with our support team who would be happy to help you out.
And if you’re not using a CRM yet but are interested in learning how it can help you book more gigs, we invite you to start a free trial of karmaSpeaker.
