What is Zoho Blueprint & How to Convert Leads Through Blueprint?

16.10.2024 01:32 PM By Karan Sharma
Effective processes are the difference between retaining a strong edge and allowing it to slip. In this blog post, we talk about what Zoho Blueprint is and How it can help you convert leads. We will also discuss best practices around the use of Zoho Blueprint and how companies have used real-world examples to improve their lead conversion efforts.
What is Zoho Blueprint and How to Convert Leads Through Blueprint?

1. ​Introduction to Zoho Blueprint

Managing leads and moving them seamlessly through your sales funnel is important for every business. This is where Customer Relationship Management (CRM) comes into action. One of the most powerful process automation tools available in Zoho CRM, Zoho Blueprint, allows differences, depending on whether it is about very simple workflow automation or a sequential step-by-step guide to an automated process. 

Using Zoho Blueprints ensures that all parts of a workflow are carried out consistently and correctly without any human error or oversight. In effect, a more structured approach becomes important for companies that deal with complex workflows like lead management, involving numerous steps, members, and departments.

Unlike traditional automation, where you just set triggers and actions, Zoho Blueprint creates a comprehensive "process map." It documents all stages of a task-all the way from lead qualification to follow-up emails and finally to deal closure-so that each member knows what he is supposed to do at the next step and when.

If converting more leads is your objective, Zoho Blueprint ensures that the team develops and nurtures it through a standardised process with intuitive efficiency. Guesswork is eliminated, and productivity is enhanced.

Understanding Zoho Blueprint

Credit & Note: The screenshot is taken from the official Zoho Blueprint site.



Key Features of Zoho Blueprint:

  • Step-by-step process guidance: This functionality will make sure that users perform the predetermined procedures concerning every step or task of a lead.

  • Conditional transitions: This determines the leads' progression into another stage given a condition has been satisfied, as well as the condition during which this will be done.

  • Automated notifications and tasks: The platform automatically assigns tasks and sends alerts to the concerned team member based on changes in status within leads.

  • Data validation and integrity: Forces the validation of data rules so that the entered data is complete and accurate at every step.

  • Approvals workflow: Progress approvals to ensure that, at every point, the right people are alerted when their inputs are being called for.

The first positive impact of Zoho Blueprint for your lead conversion strategy is enforcing consistency among the team. With a blueprint, you make sure no lead slips through the cracks, and each prospect gets attention due to which the possibility of getting it converted into a paying customer increases.

2. How Zoho Blueprint ​Differs from Other Automation Tools?

You may already know some other CRM automation tools that help in managing leads; however, Zoho Blueprint has key benefits that distinguish it from other automation systems.

How Zoho Blueprint Different from others

Traditional Workflow Automation vs Zoho Blueprint

Most of the CRM systems enable workflows based on triggers and actions, but, in many cases, they are rather very rigid linear. So you can say, for example, "When a lead is created, send an email," which is quite helpful and does not consider a complex process, where, before moving to the next step, a few steps, with several conditions that have to be met, need to be fulfilled.

 With Zoho Blueprint you can

  • All stages of the process will be automated, based on user actions, criteria, and lead statuses.

  • The user should not allow his teammates to advance a lead to the next stage without any required criteria.

  • Treatments workflow with real-life processes related to sales and marketing.

  • The whole process would be illustrated so that you could easily track where each lead in the pipeline is.

Such control and customisation make Zoho Blueprint a much more effective tool for complex, multi-step processes like lead nurturing and conversion.

3. ​Understanding the Lead Conversion Process

To fully reap the benefits of Zoho Blueprint in lead conversion, you first need to know the standard lead conversion process. Converting a lead to a paying customer is not overnight; it is rather a multi-stage process from lead capturing to deal closing. Every stage is a landmark in the lead's journey and includes different actions by your teams, marketing, and sales.

Understand Sales Cycle
Key Stages of Lead Conversion:
  1. Lead Capture: This is the process of collecting information about a potential customer. There are several sources through which leads can be captured, such as forms on the website, emails, social media, and off-line events

  2. Lead Qualification: After lead capture has been carried out, the lead needs to be qualified. Lead qualification is the process by which it would be precisely evaluated whether or not it is a good fit for your product or service according to their needs, budget, and level of interest.

  3. Lead Nurturing: Not all leads are prepared to make a purchase today. The nurturing process involves effectively reaching out to leads through personal communications, information, and follow-up e-mails. This keeps your brand at the top of their minds as they progress in their buying decision process. Learn how to manage and supercharge leads can help your business a lot.

  4. Sales Engagement: Once a lead displays the intention of making a purchase, the lead is then passed to the sales team, who further engages him or her with answers in direct response to his or her objections or questions and guides him or her to a buying decision.

  5. Conversion: The lead is said to have converted once he or she agrees to buy, and the deal gets closed. This can involve any negotiation and signing of a contract as well as finalising any payment details.

At every step of the process, several team members may be involved; and at each step, specific steps may have to be completed. In that respect, without a structured approach such as Zoho Blueprint, leads can easily fall through the cracks at any step of the process.

Common Challenges in Lead Conversion:

  • Follow-up delay: Late follow-up happens to be one of the most common causes of losing a lead.

  • Lack of visibility: One cannot get an exact idea of where each lead is present in the sales process, therefore confusion.

  • Misalignment between departments: If marketing and sales are not harmonised, leads can slide through the cracks or get misconstrued.

Using Zoho Blueprint minimises all these challenges since it will ensure that all members strictly follow a predefined process.

4. Step-by-Step ​Guide to Setting Up Zoho Blueprint for Lead Conversion

Now that we have covered the lead conversion process, let's go through how you would configure Zoho Blueprint to highlight this process. Here is your step-by-step guide on how to set this up from the bottom up:

Define Your Lead Conversion Workflow

This means you pre-define your lead conversion process step-by-step in Zoho Blueprint, mapping all the stages of the journey from where the lead was captured till actually closing the deal.

For example:

  • Lead Captured (via website, email, or event)

  • Lead Qualified (lead meets predetermined standards for preparedness for sales)

  • First Contact Made (email or phone call from the sales staff)

  • Observation Planned (arrange a follow-up meeting or provide more details)

  • Proposal Sent (The lead receives a proposal from the sales team.)

  • Deal Closure and Negotiation

These stages form the skeleton of your blueprint.

Create a new blueprint in Zoho CRM
Create a New Blueprint in Zoho CRM

After outlining your workflow, you can follow the steps below to create your blueprint:

  1. Navigate to Zoho CRM Settings: Open your Zoho CRM. Click on the 'Setup' tab.

  2. Select Blueprint under Automation: On the Automation tab, you will notice an option called 'Blueprint'.

  3. Choose Your Module: Then select the 'Leads' module. In this module, you will concentrate on converting the leads.

  4. Define Entry and Exit Criteria: The entry criterion may be 'Lead Captured', and the exit criterion may be 'Deal Closed'.

  5. Stage and Transition Adding: For each step in your workflow, describe a stage in the blueprint. So 'Lead Qualified' could be one step and 'Initial Contact Made' could be another, etc. It can also allow you to set transitions between steps based on some conditions or triggered by the users' actions.

Configure Transitions and Actions

While transitioning on Zoho Blueprint, you can put some specific criteria to be met before a lead moves ahead. This can also be done in the following way below: 

  • Before Transition: Transition this lead only if he is qualified and has a valid email and phone number.

  • At Transition: Automated work such as follow-up emails or meeting scheduling.

  • After Transition: Automatically advance the lead to the next stage and alert the concerned member.

You can also include data validation rules so that all the fields required are completed before advancing the lead in the process.

Automate Task Assignments and Notifications

This will enable automation of such specific activities for each stage, like follow-up email sending, creating a calendar event, or even alerting a team member of the stage. For instance, at the 'Initial Contact Made' stage, the salespeople responsible for scheduling a follow-up call will automatically be assigned a task.

5. Best ​Practices for Using Zoho Blueprint in Lead Conversion

With the best-practice implementation in converting leads via your set-up Zoho Blueprint, you therefore get the most out of it. Here are a few:

  1. Review and optimise your Blueprint regularly: As your business changes, so does the way leads must be converted. Just make sure to check your blueprint from time to time and even change it when necessary.

  2. Ensure adoption by users: The success of an automation tool really lies in adoption. Educate your team on how the blueprint can be used and what benefits are accrued.

  3. Track metrics: Zoho CRM offers a suite of reporting tools that will track metrics such as lead response time, conversion rate, and pipeline movement that will really help to point out what the bottlenecks in the process are.

6. Some ​Case Studies on Zoho Blueprint Success

You can use Zoho Blueprint, and your leads will be converted. Let's see two examples below:

Case Study 1: Tech Solutions Company

Tech Solutions Company is a B2B software company that had irregular lead follow-up, which bring down the conversion rates. With Zoho Blueprint, they structured the lead nurturing process and ensured each lead was actually reached in time and moved correctly down the funnel of sales. Within six months, their conversion rate grew by 30%.

Case Study 2: A Consulting Services Provider

 A Consulting Service Provide can apply Zoho Blueprint to better their lead qualification process. Providing a specific set of criteria, which the lead needed to satisfy to qualify for the sales stage, enabled them to filter out the unqualified leads earlier and get the right prospects to their sales team, thus making it possible to reduce the time spent in the sales cycle by 25%.

7. Common ​Pitfalls to Avoid When Using Zoho Blueprint

This is a very powerful tool, and to avoid some common pitfalls, the usage and effectiveness of Zoho Blueprint can be restricted. Here are some of them:

  1. Overcomplicating the Process: While it is tempting to include as much detail as possible in your blueprint, overcomplication of the process can result in a product that users cannot easily use. Be simple, focus on what is most important, and do the most critical stages of the process first.

  2. Not Defining Specific Criteria: The entry and exit criteria might be quite ambiguous. This can stick a lead at one stage and is then delayed in the process.

  3. Failure to Upgrade Regularly: There are constant changes in your business or markets that force an update in your blueprint based on new priorities

​Conclusion

Zoho Blueprint is something that businesses need to have to acquire an efficient lead conversion process that will ensure handling leads consistently across teams. A proper workflow can eliminate inefficiencies and human error, hence improving overall lead conversion rates. With the perfect implementation and appropriate best practices followed Zoho Blueprint is going to go a long way in boosting your sales performance significantly.

If you are interested in optimising the lead conversion strategy, then there is no better time than now to get started with Zoho Blueprint. It gives every lead a clear roadmap so that they get the attention required to convert into customers who will remain loyal.

If you want to implement any Zoho application or any CRM application in your business then you can connect with IT Solutions Solved for optimum outcome. Thanks for reading this. We hope this kind of information will be valuable for you!

Karan Sharma

Karan Sharma

Social Media Expert IT Solutions Solved
https://www.itsolutionssolved.com.au/

Karan Sharma is a skilled content writer, SEO strategist and social media manager. He crafts compelling narratives, optimises content for search engines and designs engaging social media campaigns.