Master Task Management with CRM: Organize Sales Activities and Boost Productivity

Can a modern-day sales team succeed if it hasn’t mastered task management with CRM? 

The honest answer is probably no.

Keeping track of tasks, follow-ups, and client interactions is no small feat, and you can’t hit ambitious targets if you’re too busy chasing up the basics. 

A well-integrated CRM for sales teams not only organizes sales tasks efficiently but also automates repetitive processes, freeing up valuable time for more activities that earn you the big bucks.

You’ll find yourself managing sales tasks like a pro, knowing exactly when to follow up with leads, having priority tasks highlighted, and assigning activities to team members without the hassle of manual updates.

In this article, you’ll get practical strategies for mastering CRM task management, helping you set up effective task reminders, streamline collaboration, and raise productivity across your team. 

1. Set up automated task reminders and never miss a beat

When you picture a top sales agent, you imagine an expert relationship builder and a clinical deal closer, rarely an efficient scheduler. Automated task reminders take care of repetitive admin tasks and get the most out of those high-value skills that bring in business. 

Yes, missing a follow-up or losing track of a client interaction can result in missed opportunities and cost you dearly. However, good organization alone doesn’t turn a profit, which makes it a perfect candidate for sales task automation. 

Task management with CRM software sends notifications to give your team the information they require when they need it. Whether it’s a reminder to check in with a lead or to prepare for an upcoming meeting, these alerts mean you complete your tasks on time. 

Reminders really come into their own during busy periods when it’s all too easy to forget about an appointment, send a late follow-up, or send an onboarding package. Automating sales CRM tasks keeps activities moving forward smoothly, giving the impression of relaxed professionalism even if you’ve got a to-do list as long as your arm.

2. Assign and track sales activities for task accountability

Organizing tasks with CRM relies on a lot of smart delegation and analysis. You can’t create tasks and hope someone will come along and claim them, and equally, you can’t assign tasks and hope they get done without checking in on their progress. 

Task management with CRM software is simple, as algorithms do so much of the hard work behind the scenes. As a manager, you can scan upcoming tasks in the backlog column of a Kanban board and assign them to the right team members depending on their skill set. To avoid overloading agents, switch to a Gantt chart view to see everybody’s workloads and assign tasks accordingly. 

Once tasks are underway, you’ll have a 360-degree view of your employee performance, leads, and sales funnels to see which tasks are progressing well and which ones need a quick intervention. This is great for managing workloads, but it’s also a smart use of CRM task management to ensure accountability, as everyone has a clear view of individual and team responsibilities.

3. Prioritize tasks based on deadlines and urgency 

With multiple sales tasks in motion, prioritization keeps your momentum going by targeting the jobs that are most likely to secure a deal. Using a CRM for productivity, you can highlight high-priority tasks and assign activities based on each team member’s strengths to complete critical tasks on time. 

In a busy sales environment, everything is important. With so many things competing for your attention, you need a task prioritization matrix to make the decision easier. The Eisenhower Matrix, for example, categorizes sales CRM tasks into four sections:

• Urgent and important

• Important but not urgent

• Urgent but not important

• Neither urgent nor important

On a CRM for sales teams, deal-closing tasks are more important than earlier steps in the pipeline, and communication with high-value prospects takes precedence over low-scoring leads. 

Using deadlines and urgency in your task management with CRM means you can show up to work, open your dashboard, and immediately see which tasks need your attention. Get to work checking off those urgent and important tasks first, before working through the important but not urgent ones. 

4. Monitor progress with real-time updates for proactive interventions 

With your tasks prioritized and assigned, the next step is to automate the monitoring of your CRM for productivity. Sure, you could dip in and out of every task looking for inefficiencies or issues, but that will take you quite a while.

Automated notifications give you an extra boost by flagging if someone is stuck or a task is approaching its deadline. When you see blockages appearing or potential missed opportunities, you can adjust workloads and resources to keep your operation on track. It takes the stress out of sales activity management as you get a real-time idea of your team’s progress and can resolve issues before they snowball. 

This method of organizing tasks with CRM means you don’t have to juggle every element of your projects in your head at the same time. Much like the prioritization of tasks, real-time updates allow you to focus your energy on things that need your immediate attention. When you’ve got all your important information on a single dashboard, you reduce downtime and boost your sales productivity. 

5. Integrate task management with calendars to schedule meetings

Integrations are up there with automations as some of the most powerful productivity tools you can get your hands on. They’re essentially a shortcut between two distinct apps for seamless data flow and more free time to focus on more human-centric sales activities. 

Sales teams always have busy schedules, making CRMs and calendars a natural integration for organization and productivity. At a glance, you have all your meetings and deadlines in one place and a change to your task management with CRM will automatically appear in your calendar. 

Now, when you’re on a high-pressure call and a lead suggests a time they’re free, you don’t have to frantically flick through the pages of your diary. Just check your cloud-based agenda, confirm there are no scheduling clashes, and create a task directly within the calendar. Even better than that, add your lead to the event and send an automated reminder a day or two before your meeting.

6. Generate reports on task completion rates and adjust your CRM sales workflows

A CRM is more than just a tool for organizing and automating tasks — it’s a powerful source of data for evaluating productivity and identifying areas for efficiency. Once a lead comes in, analytics tools get to work tracking time and success rates over a variety of key performance indicators (KPIs). 

Task management with CRM allows sales teams to access detailed reports on task completion rates, time to sale, and client waiting times, offering a snapshot of individual and team productivity. These reports provide a breakdown of how tasks are handled, from initial assignment through to completion, highlighting potential bottlenecks and opportunities for process improvements.

Reports from your CRM reveal trends and patterns in task management that can shape future strategies. They give sales managers a clearer view of factors that affect productivity, such as the average time needed to complete different types of tasks or the peak times for sales activities. With these insights, managers schedule high-priority tasks during the most productive hours, adjust task priorities based on completion data, and set ambitious but attainable benchmarks.

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7. Collaborate with team members on shared tasks with communication apps and shared documents

In sales processes, collaboration is key. Whether team members are working together on a large client or sharing responsibilities for follow-ups, CRM systems with collaborative features enable smooth communication and coordination. 

Classic collaboration tools to use in your task management with CRM include instant chat, emails, and video calls. From your CRM, you can fire up these communication apps instantly and get aligned, whether you’re in the office or working remotely. 

However, advanced sales activity management incorporates less obvious collaborative tools such as collaborative documents, file storage, and task cards. 

Let’s say you’re working to create standardized best practices. Rather than everybody writing up separate files and Frankensteining them together, save yourself time, effort, and confusion by editing the same document simultaneously. When you’re done, save it in a cloud-based drive and set it as view-only to avoid unintentional edits. This gives you a single source of truth that makes your team more consistent. 

Task cards are for more dynamic work. You might be passing a lead to a colleague who specializes in their market. Instead of writing out all the contact details and interaction history in an email that is likely to get buried, make a task card with a link to the lead’s CRM file and extra instructions so nothing falls through the cracks. 

8. Create custom workflows to set repetitive tasks to autopilot

Every sales team has routine processes: sending welcome emails, scheduling follow-ups, or collecting feedback. Wherever there’s repetition, there’s room for sales task automation, and custom workflows are a great example of that. 

There’s nothing overly technical going on here. A custom workflow is simply a string of related tasks that you have to do for every lead that comes in. 

For example, when a lead converts to a potential sale, workflows can initiate the next steps automatically. In this case, you might send thank-you emails, set follow-up dates, or notify relevant team members to take over. Custom workflows come with all the tasks already integrated so you never have to waste valuable headspace checking and double-checking that you’ve done everything you need to. 

To further streamline your task management with CRM, you can set triggers to automate the workflow. When a new lead fills in a contact form, the workflow immediately jumps into action. Taking things one step further, complex task management software can distribute tasks evenly to each sales agent, or target the person with the lightest workload at a given time. 

9. Sync task data across multiple devices and platforms for faster, more accurate dataflows

In the age of information, sales teams need the flexibility to access their CRM tasks from any device, whether they’re in the office, at a client meeting, or working remotely. By syncing task data across multiple devices, task management with CRM allows team members to stay connected to their tasks and deadlines no matter where they are. 

CRMs with impressive mobile versions are becoming ever-more popular as they regain valuable working hours that would otherwise be lost to commuting. For example, you can update a client follow-up on your phone from the train, with the changes instantly reflected in your CRM to keep the entire team up-to-date. 

In addition to maximizing your working hours, mobile apps give you more accurate information closer to the meeting time, not hours after the fact. When your team can get their work done on the go instead of spending extra time in the office catching up, they’re less likely to burn out, which translates into higher productivity for your organization. 

Bitrix24: Fully integrated task management with CRM software

Mastering task management with CRM can be a game-changer for sales teams aiming to streamline their workflow, improve productivity, and hit their targets consistently.

Bitrix24 provides the tools you need to stay organized and focused on closing deals, with features to simplify task management, enhance team collaboration, and provide data-driven insights. 

• Automated reminders to never miss a deadline or follow-up with timely alerts

• Task assignment and tracking to delegate tasks and monitor progress

• Calendar sync to keep schedules aligned and deadlines in view across devices

• Team collaboration tools to work together seamlessly on shared tasks

• Task reports to gain valuable insights into task completion rates and productivity

Sign up for Bitrix24 to see the impact of a powerful CRM on your team’s efficiency and productivity.

FAQ

How can CRM help in managing sales tasks?

A CRM helps in managing sales tasks by: 

• Pulling customer information directly from your CRM

• Automating reminders in calendars to never miss a meeting or follow-up

• Providing a clear view of priorities and deadlines for simple tracking

• Analyzing performance data to improve your sales workflows

What are the best practices for using CRM to boost productivity?

The best practices for using CRM to boost productivity are: 

• Automating repetitive tasks 

• Integrating the CRM with calendars

• Using collaboration features to streamline teamwork

• Regularly reviewing and analyzing task completion reports

• Keeping your CRM mobile-friendly 

What features should a CRM system have for effective task management?

For effective task management, a CRM should offer: 

• Automated reminders 

• Task assignation and tracking

• Deadline and urgency prioritization

• Real-time progress updates

• Calendar integrations

• Automated performance reports

• Task collaboration tools

• Custom workflows

• Mobile synchronization