Set up Zoho CRM for your sales team

Connecting Zoho CRM takes a few minutes, and most of the value comes from where the alerts land. Here’s the order that works, from connecting the organization to the first week.

Before you start

• Pick who connects it. Freesbe works as the Zoho CRM user who connects it and sees only the records they can see. A Zoho CRM administrator is best: if a sales rep connects it and later leaves, alerts stop when their user is deactivated.
• No need to know your data center. Zoho sends you to your own (the United States, Europe, India, Australia and so on) when you sign in, and Freesbe keeps to it.

Connect the organization

1. In Freesbe, open Workspace settings → Integrations & apps → Integrations → CRM and find Zoho CRM.
2. Click Connect Zoho CRM.
3. Sign in to Zoho as the user you picked and click Accept.
4. Back in Freesbe, Zoho CRM shows Connected, your organization’s name and its data center.

Send alerts where people act on them

Create channels for the conversations alerts should start, then add one alert for each:

Channel	Alerts to post	Smallest deal
#sales	New deals, Deals won, Deals lost	5,000
#leadership	Deals won	50,000
#new-leads	New leads	(leave empty)
#customer-success	New contacts	(leave empty)

Under Zoho CRM alerts, click Add alert, pick the channel and the alerts, and set Smallest deal to post to keep small ones out. Then use Send a test alert from the alert’s ⋯ menu to see where it lands.

Zoho CRM sends Freesbe each change as it happens, so alerts arrive within seconds. They start with what happens after you add them.

Decide on link previews

Previews show a deal’s amount, stage and owner under any Zoho CRM link someone posts. They’re on by default. Everyone in the conversation sees them, guests included, so if your team shares channels with customers, consider turning Show a preview under Zoho CRM links off.

Show your team the two shortcuts

Post this in #sales on day one:

Zoho CRM is in Freesbe. Type /zoho and a name, email or deal to find it without leaving the conversation (only you see the answer). On any message, choose ⋯ → Log to Zoho CRM to save it to a contact or lead as a note, with a link back here.

After the first week

• Ask the team which alerts they skim past, and raise the smallest deal or move those alerts to a quieter channel.
• Check Last alert under each alert: one that never posts usually points at a channel nobody needs or a filter that’s too strict.

See Zoho CRM for every option. Something not working? See Zoho CRM alerts aren’t posting and Zoho CRM won’t connect.