Find CRM Automation Opportunities with Sales Team Surveys

Use the survey examples to uncover opportunities for the sales team to save time and make execution easier.

By Brandon Powell

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Table of Contents

Why a Discovery Process Matters

A structured discovery process lays the foundation for successful CRM automation. By systematically gathering input from those on the front lines—your sales reps—you ensure that any automation you build addresses real pain points, rather than hypothetical ones. This approach:

  • Aligns Stakeholders: Ensures leadership, sales operations, and end users share a common understanding of goals.
  • Prioritizes Impact: Helps you focus on automations that will save the most time and reduce the most errors.
  • Reduces Rework: Minimizes wasted development cycles on features nobody uses.
  • Increases Adoption: Engages users in the process, making them more likely to embrace the final product.
  • Validates Assumptions: Tests your ideas against real-world workflows before committing resources.

Sales Team Surveys Uncover Automation Opportunities

Surveys give every team member a voice in shaping your CRM's future. Key benefits include:

  1. Quantifiable Feedback: Score issues by frequency, complexity, and frustration level.
  2. Pattern Recognition: Aggregate responses to spot high-impact opportunities—like repeated data entry or manual follow-ups.
  3. Qualitative Insights: Open-ended questions surface context around why a task is painful, guiding solution design.

Surveys are a low-effort, high-impact way to gather input from your sales team. They can be distributed via email, integrated into your CRM, or even conducted in person during team meetings. The key is to ensure that the survey is easy to complete and that the results are actionable.

Short Survey Example

Here's a short sample survey that can uncover low-hanging opportunities quickly. Feel free to adapt it to your specific needs:

  • What are the 5 tasks you repeat every day?
  • Which tasks feel most error-prone or time-consuming?
  • What reminders or follow-ups do you wish you never had to remember?

Download a template for this survey here.

In-Depth Survey Example

For a more comprehensive survey, download the template here. This version includes sections for both quantitative and qualitative data, allowing you to gather a more complete picture of your team's needs.

Here's a sample of the in-depth survey questions:

Repetitive Actions

  • What are 3 tasks you perform identically for every new lead or deal?
  • How do you currently trigger each of these (manually clicking a button, copying/pasting, etc.)?

Rule-Based Decisions

  • Describe any steps you take that always follow the same criteria (e.g., “If Deal Amount > X, I…”).
  • Could that decision be encoded as “If [property] meets [condition], then [action]”?

Data Copying & Entry

  • Which pieces of information do you copy from one system or record to another (e.g. from email to HubSpot, from HubSpot to Google Sheets)?
  • About how many minutes per day do you spend on this data copying?

Follow-Up Triggers

  • What follow-up emails or tasks do you currently schedule manually after:
    • A call?
    • A meeting?
    • A stage change?
  • What rules govern who gets what, and when?

The questions above are a sample of the in-depth survey template. The full template includes additional sections, such as: time-based reminders, template and snippet usage, notifications and alerts, deal-stage updates, lead routing and assignment, reports and exports, and more.

This format allows you to gather both quantitative and qualitative data, giving you a clearer picture of where automation can have the most impact. Download the full template here.

Turning Survey Insights into Automated Workflows

Once survey responses are in:

  1. Analyze the Data: Identify tasks with high frequency and frustration scores.
  2. Map Existing Processes: Document the current steps and handoffs for each top-ranked task.
  3. Propose Automation Solutions: Leverage CRM capabilities—workflows, sequences, property updates—to address specific pain points.
  4. Pilot and Iterate: Test automations with a small group, gather feedback, and refine before full deployment.
  5. Measure Impact: Track time saved, user adoption, and error reduction to validate ROI and inform the next discovery cycle.

By embedding this survey-driven discovery into your sales operations, you create a continuous improvement loop that ensures your CRM automation always delivers maximum value—streamlining workflows, boosting productivity, and keeping your team focused on selling.