CRM integration with G-Suite: how to make it work for you

Integrating your CRM with G-suite tools is an easy way to increase productivity, eliminate destructive data silos, and refocus your sales team from tedious administrative tasks to what they do best - selling.

If you’re in the process of selecting a CRM, it makes sense that full G-suite integration should be a high priority on your requirements list. In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about G-Suite CRM integration, including:

• The business benefits of G-suite in general
• Which type of companies benefit from integrating their CRM with G-Suite
• The key features offered by G-suite CRMs
• A list of CRMs that integrate well with G-suite 

G-Suite and what it can do for you

G-Suite was launched on 28th August 2006 as ‘Google Apps for your Domain’, and now has over 3 million paying businesses. You can still get a free Gmail account, but paying for G-Suite has a number of advantages:

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Covering the key issues faced by businesses selecting and implementing CRM.

• Email account ownership gives you total control over your employee email accounts.
• File ownership means you have ownership of access to your employee files.
• Document sharing and access preferences are easy to set up.
• Group email addresses can be easily re-routed in the company.
• Email aliases mean multiple email addresses can lead to one inbox.
• Option for employees to use Outlook if they prefer.
• More file storage to save documents.
• Two-step verification provides extra security.
• CRM integration to help you manage your business data better.
• Single sign-on to other business applications helps streamline workflow.
• Company branding on the user interface.
• 24/7 customer support via phone, email or chat.

What are the business advantages of G-Suite CRM integration?

Integrating a CRM with G-Suite has a number of advantages. These are the main ones:

• Saving time: because contacts and documents aren’t duplicated across multiple platforms it means that finding, uploading and cross-checking information is quick and easy. Time spent manually uploading or cross-checking different versions of documents is saved. 
• Improving relationships with contacts, whether this is sales prospects, clients or other stakeholders. By syncing your information and having a better handle on business information this should result in quicker and accurate communication.
• Driving more sales activity: whether that is increasing sales or building long term relationships, by syncing information together it will help give teams the ability to work faster and smarter.

Who should integrate CRM with G-Suite?

Integrating G-Suite with a CRM can help any business improve its operations, whether it is a small plumbing contractor or a multinational software service provider. The businesses where it can add the most value will have to work with lots of information. For example, a consultancy which keeps multiple reports that are checked by different people in the company will find integrating G-Suite into its CRM will help with document management.

A large sales brokerage which is managing a large amount of customer data and prospects at different levels of the sales funnel should find the data storage, email integration and automatic data upload useful.

Businesses with large customer service departments which need to access client information quickly will benefit from having all of the data synced and easily accessible. If a customer service rep can see all of the documents quickly in G-Suite and make live changes whilst on a call it can save time and make the customer service team better at dealing with issues.

What features do G-Suite CRMs offer?

Here are some of the key features offered by G-Suite CRMs and how they can benefit your team.

Sync documents between your CRM and Google Drive

This enables users to create, cross-reference and change documents quickly and efficiently; there is no need for constant up- and downloading. There will be one master copy of every document which is up-to-date and accessible to anyone in the organisation.

Use our CRM requirements template to find and prioritize CRM feature ideas

Improve contact management

If you sync your Google and CRM records you’ll generate a master list of contact information. This is helpful because sometimes information may be stored in G-Suite and sometimes in the CRM. Syncing these contact lists regularly will make sure you have the most relevant and up-to-date contact information available.

Manage your schedule

Integration allows you to sync your schedule so that everything is captured in one master list; this is particularly useful for sales teams.

Sync emails

G-suite Integration allows emails to be attached to client records. This means that every conversation between anyone in the organisation and the customer is automatically accessible in the CRM. Additionally, information from your CRM can be displayed in your inbox, again maximising the chances of having a successful call with a client or prospect.

Target setting

Some integration allows you set targets and then track those targets automatically through activity in the G-Suite, like calendar, emails and docs.

CRMs that integrate with G-Suite

There are many CRMs which have G-Suite integrations, and these vary in features and depth of integration. Let’s take a look at a few of the best. Pricing for each of these systems can be found in our CRM pricing guide. 

Find more CRMs that integrate with G-Suite using our interactive CRM comparison tool

ProsperWorks

ProsperWorks was built specifically for G-Suite integration and is Google’s #1 recommended CRM for G-suite.

Features:

• Chrome extension for Gmail
• Same look and feel as G-Suite
• No implementation or training required
• CRM info pushed straight into your inbox
• Integration with Hangouts
• Custom reporting
• No manual entry as contact information is scraped and pre-populated
• All emails attached to the relevant contact record
• Send email from within the CRM
• See alerts when emails are read
• Assign tasks and build an efficient workflow
• Manage permissions and follows Google Cloud’s best practices.

Capsule

Capsule is a standalone CRM but has spent considerable time and effort building G-Suite integrations.

Features:

• Once integrated the CRM can be accessed in Google’s universal navigation bar
• Capsule gadget allows contact details and message in email to Capsule
• Capsule gadget visible on emails to aid workflow
• Access to CRM information through gadget
• Message storage in Capsule
• Create opportunities or cases linked to an email
• Create follow up tasks.

Zoho

Zoho and G-Suite have 70 integrations across 25 different products.

Features:

• Single sign on
• Automatically add leads when visitors submit forms on your website
• Calendar sync
• Import G-Suite contacts into the CRM
• Access Google Drive documents inside Zoho CRM
• View email conversations with customers and reply inside Zoho CRM
• Task integration
• Chrome extension to add contacts and leads to Zoho whilst surfing the internet.

Agile CRM

28% of Agile’s user base uses G-Suite so they’ve spent time building a solid feature set to integrate the two platforms.

Features:

• Upload docs from Google Drive directly to Agile CRM
• Link documents to relevant contacts; sync contacts
• Calendar sync; 2-way sync between Gmail and Agile CRM
• See customer emails within Agile CRM
• Access Google docs within Agile CRM.