Deal Automation Guide in Zoho One using Zoho CRM

In this guide, we'll discuss how automations in Zoho CRM can help you sell faster, stay organized, and spend less time on repetitive tasks. Automation reduces manual data entry and makes sure critical actions, like follow-up calls and discount approvals, happen automatically at the right times to keeping deals moving through your sales process with minimal effort from your team. With automation, you can make sure your sales process runs efficiently to close more deals in less time.

Areas covered:

• The Value of Defined Stages

• Types of Automations in Zoho CRM

• Connecting Automations to Your Deal Stages
   

The Value of Defined Stages

Before setting up automations around deals in Zoho CRM, it's important to make sure your deal stages are clearly defined. Each stage should represent a specific point in your sales process and flow naturally into the next so that your automations have a reliable structure to be built on. When your sales stages are well defined, your automations become far more useful, turning Zoho CRM from a simple record-keeping tool into a system that helps you earn more revenue.

As your business grows and your team learns what works best, your deal stages might be adjusted over time. Keeping your stages up-to-date ensures your automations work well with your sales process and continue to reflect how your team actually sells.

Check out this 10 minute video on how to customize your sales pipeline in Zoho CRM.

Types of Automation in Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM gives you a variety of automation tools to help you save time, eliminate manual and repetitive effort, stay organized, and keep your sales process consistent. In this section, we'll look at three specific types of automation:

• Workflow rules

• Blueprints

• Cadences
   

Workflow Rules

Workflow rules are the most common and important type of automation in Zoho CRM. They are built on simple logic that combines triggers and actions, allowing you to automate routine actions like record updates, task creation, sending emails, or notifying users. Because workflow rules are flexible and easy to configure, they are the foundation of automation in Zoho CRM. Nearly every Zoho CRM organization uses them in some capacity to reduce manual work and automate key processes.

Workflow rules always follow an in/then structure: if certain conditions that you've specified are met, then an action occurs automatically. For example, when a deal is marked as closed won, a workflow rule can immediately trigger a thank-you email to send to the new customer and can create a new task for the customer onboarding team.

Check out this 10 minute video on Workflow Rules in Zoho CRM

Blueprints

In Zoho, Blueprints are a process orchestration tool that allow you to guide your team through specific steps that you've defined for them. In Zoho CRM, Blueprints force your sales team to perform specific actions before they can move forward with a deal. This helps standardize how work is done across your organization so that no important actions are skipped or overlooked. A simple blueprint example would be requiring a proposal to be attached to a deal record before a deal is moved out of the "Proposal" stage.

Check out this 9 minute video on Blueprints in Zoho CRM

Cadences

Cadences are automated communication plans that change based on the actions of the recipient. They can send a series of messages or reminders at the times that you've pre-configured. For example, a cadence could be configured so that if the previously mentioned thank-you email is sent but unopened, a follow-up email is sent out after three days.

Check out this page to learn more about Cadences in Zoho CRM
 

Connecting Automations to Your Deal Stages

Once your stages are well-defined, you can start creating automations that make your sales process faster and more efficient. A great way to start is by focusing on a few core automations that most businesses can benefit from. These automations are helpful because they save time, reduce manual effort, and keep deals moving forward consistently.

Here are a few examples to help you get started:

Automate Follow-up Tasks

A simple automation that most users set up is a workflow rule that creates a follow-up task to call someone when a deal moves to an early stage like "Qualification." This ensures that a sales person always calls a prospect to qualify them at the appropriate time.

To create this, navigate to Setup -> Automation -> Workflow Rules. Then create a rule in the Deals module that executes based on a "record action, specifically when the stage field is modified to "Qualification." Have this workflow apply to all deals, and navigate to Activities -> Assign Task to assign the call to the owner of the deal.

Check out this 10 minute video on how to automate lead follow-ups in Zoho CRM

Automate Surveys for Lost Deals

For deals that are closed lost, you can send surveys automatically to learn why the sale was lost so that you can refine your sales process. A workflow rule can send a survey to the prospect asking for feedback on why the deal didn't move forward.

To do this, navigate to Setup -> Automation -> Workflow Rules. Then create a rule in the Deals module that executes based on a "record action, specifically when the stage field is modified to "Closed Lost." Have this workflow apply to all deals, and navigate to Notify -> Email Notification to choose the email with a survey link to send out to the prospect.

Automate a Contract Renewal Reminder

Another useful automation is to create a workflow that automatically schedules a contract renewal reminder. You can create a workflow that sends an contract renewal reminder email to an account manager a set number of days before the contract renewal date.

To do this, navigate to Setup -> Automation -> Workflow Rules. Then create a rule in the Deals module that executes based on a "date/time field", specifically on the "Contract Start" field. Then, define the execution date to be a certain number of days before the contract start date, have the workflow apply to all deals, and navigate to Notify -> Email Notification, and select the reminder email to send to the account manager.

Automate Post-sale Thank You Email

Once a deal is closed won, you can trigger actions that help with post-sale communication. A workflow rule can be configured to send a thank-you email to a customer.

To do this, navigate to Setup -> Automation -> Workflow Rules. Then create a rule in the Deals module that executes based on a "record action, specifically when the stage field is modified to "Closed Won." Have this workflow apply to all deals, and navigate to Notify -> Email Notification to choose the thank-you email to send out to the customer.

Automate Post-sale Handoff

Once a deal is closed won, you can trigger actions that help with post-sale hand-off. A workflow rule can be configured to pass the deal to an account manager to continue the relationship with the customer.

To do this, navigate to Setup -> Automation -> Workflow Rules. Then create a rule in the Deals module that executes based on a "record action, specifically when the stage field is modified to "Closed Won. Have this workflow apply to all deals, and navigate to Assign Owner, and pick who you'd like to have this deal passed to. This automation ensures that new customers are supported on their customer journey with your organization.