How to set up an inbound sales process in Trello from scratch
Looking to streamline your team’s inbound sales process? We show you how to build your workflow in Trello from scratch – no complicated CRM software required.
Managing inbound sales efficiently is about keeping track of leads, responding quickly, and collaborating with your team. With Trello, you can build a streamlined sales process that helps you turn leads into customers – without having to migrate your sales team to a complicated CRM tool.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to set up your inbound sales pipeline in Trello from scratch, so that you can manage emails, automate follow-ups, and work seamlessly with your team.
What is inbound sales?
Inbound sales result from a potential customer getting in touch with your business. For example:
An email about your products or services
A message from a lead capture form on your website
An inquiry after seeing a social media post, landing page, or ad
Inbound sales is focused on managing incoming inquiries, whereas outbound sales is about identifying and reaching out to potential customers (like doing cold emails).
How to set up your inbound sales process in Trello
1. Set up the structure of your Trello board
Trello is a powerful and flexible platform for managing inbound sales. Built on the Kanban methodology, Trello’s system of ‘cards in lists’ is a highly-customizable way to build a sales workflow suited to your team.
Give some thought to the steps in your team’s workflow, and set up a list for each stage in the process. For example, here’s how an inbound sales board in Trello could look:
📥 Lead inbox: This is where you receive inquiries. You can use the Email for Trello Power-Up to connect your sales inbox and receive emails as new cards.
💬 Needs Analysis: Reply to potential customers, get input on their requirements and collaborate on the sales pitch with your team.
🗓️ Meeting: Move cards here when you’ve set up a meeting with your lead.
📝 Proposal: Work with your team and prospective client to finalize product pricing, terms and deliverables.
🤝 Closed: Nice work! Onboard your new customer and get ready to do it all again with a fresh lead.
This structure makes it easy to monitor sales progress as cards move from left to right through your workflow.
💡 TIP Get started quickly! Use our sales board Trello template to track leads, close deals and keep your funnel moving.
2. Get your emails into Trello
Inbound sales often start with plain old email. But your inbox is disconnected from where the planning and collaborating actually happen – your Trello board.
With SendBoard’s Email for Trello Power-Up, you can transform your inbound sales process by bringing your emails into Trello.
Here’s how the Email for Trello Power-Up works for inbound sales:
Connect your lead inbox. Connect your email address (like sales@example.com) directly to Trello. New emails come in as Trello cards, so that your team can reply and move leads through your workflow.
Direct contact forms to your Trello board. If you have a contact or demo request form on your website, make sure the responses are coming straight to Trello! Have a look at our tutorial to connect Google Forms to Trello, as well as other common website forms (like Squarespace and Typeform).
Collaborate with your team. With your emails and to-dos in one place, your team can easily engage with leads and collaborate with colleagues without ever leaving Trello.
💡 TIP If you already use Trello for another aspect of your business, like finance or project management, this is a great additional way to use email in Trello. Find out more about how to use Trello for different business functions.
3. Automate your sales follow-ups
Use Trello rules to automatically send out templated sales emails based on custom triggers. Here are a few automation ideas for inbound sales teams:
Send an automatic follow-up email after 48 hours
Send a meeting invitation when you drag a card into ‘Follow Up’
Create your own ‘Thank you’ button to send an email with one click
💡 TIP Keep your automated emails personal by using your lead’s name and other custom data (like company name or sales value). Learn more about how to include variables in your Saved Replies.
4. Collaborate with your team
A shared inbox in Trello is a game-changer for inbound sales because it boosts collaboration. With all your sales tasks and emails inside Trello, your team can:
Share the responsibility of replying to customer emails. With greater visibility across your team, anyone can step in to respond to sales opportunities and keep the momentum going.
Make sure work is fairly distributed. By assigning team members to Trello cards, it’s easy to keep track of who’s busy with what.
Discuss emails with colleagues. Instead of calling a meeting or starting a new email thread, sales teams can discuss customer emails internally with Trello comments.
Prioritize high-intent prospects. Use labels to triage your inbound queries in Trello, so that your team can engage promising leads first – and get to the lower priority prospects later.
💡 TIP Collaboration is a crucial element of sales success. Discover five essential strategies to enhance collaboration in your sales team.
Transform your inbound sales process with Trello
With the Email for Trello Power-Up, you can turn your Trello board into a fully-fledged inbound sales solution. Reply to customer queries, automate emails, and collaborate on team tasks for a smooth sales process from first contact right through to deal closure.
