White Cup CRM Workflows

A customer relationship management (CRM) workflow is a predefined sequence of actions triggered by specific events, conditions, or time-based criteria. A well-defined CRM workflow can significantly enhance a business process by automating routine tasks and ensuring consistency.

While notifications keep your team informed of key activities — such as how prospects are engaging or how deals are progressing — workflows take specific actions to help you accomplish a goal. A notification might alert a sales manager that a prospect in their territory has opened an email, while a workflow will automatically send that prospect a series of follow-up emails reminding them of their interest in a specific product until they make a purchase.

Components of a CRM Workflow

Every CRM workflow has four main parts:

1. Triggers: Events that initiate the workflow, such as a new lead being created or a quote being updated.
2. Conditions: Criteria that must be met for the workflow to proceed, such as specific deal sizes or customer locations.
3. Actions: Tasks performed within the workflow, such as sending an email, creating a task, or updating a record. Actions can also include automating customer interactions, such as sending follow-up emails or tracking customer communication.
4. Terminations: Conditions under which the workflow should not proceed, ensuring that unnecessary or conflicting actions are avoided, all with the customer experience in mind.

Types of Workflows

Event-Based Triggers

Event-based workflows in White Cup CRM execute actions based on specific events or conditions. For example, a workflow might create an opportunity if a quote exceeds a certain value or assign leads based on geographic location.

Time-Based Triggers 

Time-based workflows execute actions at predetermined times or after specific delays. These can include follow-up emails, scheduled reports, or reminders for sales reps to engage with prospects or customers. For example, a workflow might send a follow-up email one week after a quote is sent, or remind a sales rep to contact a customer one month before their next anticipated order date.

Unlike all-purpose CRM software, White Cup is designed specifically for distributors and includes dozens of default workflows, including workflows to trigger notifications when a specific action takes place.  

White Cup CRM also includes a workflow builder, a powerful drag-and-drop engine that makes it easy to create and manage automated workflows. 

By breaking down workflows into their core components—triggers, conditions, actions, and terminations—White Cup CRM users can build highly customized automation that supports their business processes.

You can select a trigger, such as clicking a specific link within an email. 

Select an action, such as adding that contact to a list. 

And select an action, such as adding that contact to a list that receives a series of follow-up emails providing more educational information about the product associated with the link they clicked on. 

You could also set up a workflow to notify the sales manager of that territory where they are located. If they are not an existing customer, you may have a different set of actions that follows. 

Finally, you can establish terminations that halt the action in certain scenarios. One example may be to avoid sending automated emails to a customer who has made a purchase within the last week. 

Notifications and CRM workflows help your team coordinate your efforts to attract new customers and close more deals. Because White Cup CRM is designed to be used by your entire team, with no additional per-user fees, you can set up different notifications and workflow types depending on role. Here are the most popular types of notifications and workflows in White Cup CRM and how they benefit each team member. 

Workflows and Automated Notifications for Sales Teams

Your sales reps are responsible for many crucial customer touchpoints, from the initial inquiry to placing an order and beyond. Setting up notifications gives them better visibility into customer activities, while CRM workflows automate follow-up and ensure consistent communication to keep deals moving. CRM workflows also play a crucial role in managing and nurturing customer relationships, ensuring consistent and personalized communication. Here are the most popular workflows for sales reps in White Cup CRM.

Web Lead Routing

Your team only has one chance to make a good first impression on a prospect, and that first impression often starts when they fill out a form on your website. You can create a notification for every new lead or form submission and create a workflow assigning them to specific sales reps, ensuring timely follow-up.

Open Email Notification

Each of your sales reps likely has dozens or even hundreds of customers, so it can be difficult to know when to reach out. Sending a notification when a customer or prospect opens or clicks on an email is another way to help your team prioritize outreach. They can personally call or email that contact, increasing the likelihood of receiving a response since that contact has recently engaged with your company. 

Buying Cycle Notifications 

In addition to being able to trigger workflows off of explicit data attributes captured in White Cup CRM and in the distributor’s ERP, eCommerce, and White Cup BI environment, White Cup CRM also includes predictive, AI-powered recommendations. One example is buying cycle insights, which analyzes individual customers’ buying history to determine when they’re most likely to make a purchase.

You can create pop-up alerts or send a text or email notification to your sales rep when a customer is approaching their anticipated ordering window or after that time has passed. This is another feature that helps your sales team reach out at the right time. 

Create Opportunity From High-Value Deals

You can create a workflow to notify your sales team of orders that exceed a predefined value and likely requires more visibility and follow-up. schedule a follow-up call with them, and develop a more tailored strategy to increase sales based on their needs. You can also add these new opportunities to a pipeline in White Cup CRM so all sales rep have visibility into how high-value deals are progressing. 

No Activity Notifications and Workflows

According to Net Promoter Score survey company CustomerGauge, the average churn rate for B2B wholesale distributors was 56% in 2024 — higher than any other industry the company studied.

Notifications and CRM workflows work together to help your company reduce customer churn. One simple notification you can set up is to alert your sales reps when an account hasn’t been active in a determined period of time, such as 30 days. As they receive these notifications, they can proactively reach out to check in with these customers. They can also set up automated email workflows sharing information about new products or products related to something they’ve already purchased. 

Quote Follow-Up Emails

Many distribution companies rate themselves a 4 out of 5 on quoting, but only a 2 or 3 on quote follow-up, according to CRM implementation specialist Brian Gardner. Having a clear process for following up on quotes and using a CRM workflow to automate this helps distributors avoid lost business and increases conversion rates. 

You can establish a set time period as a trigger, such as three days, and send a follow-up email reminding them of the quote if they haven’t signed it. You can also set up tasks for sales reps to call the customer. Gardner recommends asking questions such as:

• What is your budget, and has it been approved?
• Who else are you accepting quotes from?
• When are you looking to release the purchase order? 

After you’ve won or lost a quote, your team can also create a task to identify the reason and document it in your CRM. This provides the entire team with valuable insights you can use to improve your sales processes. 

Abandoned Cart Follow-Up

If your company has an eCommerce website but you aren’t following up with buyers who add items to their cart and leave without making a purchase, you’re potentially missing out on tens of thousands of dollars in sales each month. Across industries, the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is 70%, according to the Baymard Institute. 

With an eCommerce CRM integration, your sales team can easily see activity from customers  shopping your website. They can create a workflow that assigns tasks to follow up on abandoned online carts to recover these lost sales.

Thank You Emails

At a time when customers have more choices than ever, taking the time to thank them for their business goes a long way toward building a lasting relationship. You can set up an automated email workflow to thank them and have the email come from a specific sales rep. 

Bonus: In your automated thank-you email, encourage the customer to leave a positive review on your website or other social channels to bolster your company’s online presence.

Late Order Notifications and Emails 

Keeping buyers informed about fulfillment is another critical part of improving customer satisfaction. By setting up notifications to your sales reps when a customer will be receiving their order later than expected, they can reach out to let them know the reason for the delay.

Workflows for Sales Leaders

Sales leaders play an important role in identifying new opportunities, monitoring sales performance, and coaching team members to continually improve processes. These notifications and workflows help them focus on areas where their sales team needs the most support. 

Here are a few examples of workflows sales managers can create in White Cup CRM.

New Account Created Notification 

You can create notifications when a new account is added to White Cup CRM and create tasks  to follow up with the assigned sales rep to develop a sales strategy. 

New Opportunity Created

Similarly, you can receive notifications when a new opportunity is created and check in at regular intervals to ensure your sales rep is following up. 

Quote Sent Exceeding a Certain Dollar Amount

You may not need to personally review every quote, but you should be aware of high-value opportunities so you can work with your team to develop a plan to close these deals. Set a notification based on a quote generated that exceeds a certain dollar amount so it stays on your radar.

Weekly Account Call List Workflow

Make it easy for your sales leaders to stay on top of key accounts by sending them a weekly email with a list of accounts that had recent sales activity.

White Cup CRM makes it easy to build automated email marketing workflows to achieve specific goals. Users can personalize emails based on criteria such as customer type or recent purchases and monitor key metrics such as email open rates and click-through rates. They can also alert the sales team when a customer or prospect shows intent to buy, such as clicking a product-specific email. This ensures sales reps reach out when that customer is most likely to respond. 

Here are a few examples of automated notifications and email marketing workflows available in White Cup CRM. 

Campaign Interactions

This notification tags contacts based on email interactions, such as clicks and opens, to refine lead scoring and segmentation. Notifications on specific emails can also alert specific sales reps to follow up with a phone call.

You can easily create workflows based on email campaign interactions. For instance, if a customer purchases a specific product, you can create an automated email workflow highlighting other customers’ positive experiences with that product or introducing them to complementary products. 

Encourage Google Reviews 

Research by consumer ratings platform PowerReviews shows 90% of shoppers consider reviews before they buy. 

You may not think to ask your best customers for reviews, but they could have a significant impact on potential buyers. Sending an automated email requesting reviews from customers after a deal is closed and a certain number of days passes is a great way to build up your brand’s online presence. 

CRM workflows and notifications streamline processes for your customer service teams, helping them provide better support more efficiently. 

Notifications can help them prioritize outreach and support so they can address issues before they escalate, while CRM workflows can send personalized emails to keep them informed and engaged. 

Here are a few examples of CRM workflows and notifications your customer service team should be using. 

Service Ticket Assigned to You

Set up a notification to alert customer service agents when a new ticket is assigned, improving response times.

Ticket Closed Notification

Alert your customer service when a ticket is closed to ensure the issue has been resolved. You can also create a follow-up email to the customer, asking them for feedback about the quality of the support to help your team make continuous improvements. 

Account Credit Status Past Due

Alert your customer service team to follow up on accounts with overdue payments. White Cup’s integration with ERP systems makes these notifications possible by relaying critical payment information into the CRM.  

Welcome Email Workflow

Help new customers become familiar with your company and its processes with a series of welcome emails triggered when an account type changes to “customer.” These could include: 

• Helpful information about ordering, shipping, and more
• An email introducing your most popular products
• Where to find resources about your products, such as spec sheets
• How to contact customer support 

Tag Management for Outstanding Issues

Use a workflow to automatically add or remove tags to flag accounts with outstanding service tickets or claims, ensuring transparency across customer-facing teams.

Because it’s designed specifically for distributors and configured to integrate with your existing systems, White Cup CRM makes it easy to set up notifications and create workflows. Your team can choose from dozens of default workflows and templates or build your own. 

Here are a few final tips to consider when designing successful workflows. 

Map Out the Process

Before building workflows in White Cup CRM, it’s helpful to write out the process. You can use a whiteboard or a free tool for building flowcharts, such as Lucidchart, to visualize each step and the corresponding actions, ensuring you’ve considered all possible scenarios.

Consider What Data and Integrations You’ll Need

For workflows to be truly effective, they need to integrate seamlessly with other tools and systems, such as your ERP and eCommerce platforms. This integration ensures that data flows smoothly and that workflows can act on real-time information from across the organization. 

Because ERP integration and business intelligence are standard features within White Cup CRM, you’ll have a significant head start compared to distributors using all-purpose CRMs that require custom integrations. White Cup can also integrate with popular eCommerce platforms, including Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, and others. 

Testing and Optimization

Thorough testing of workflows is essential to identify and rectify any issues. Performance metrics and feedback should be used to optimize workflows continuously, ensuring they remain efficient and effective.