sales-integration

What this skill does

# Connect Sales Tools

Help the user design and implement integrations between sales tools — from choosing the right integration method through trigger/action design, field mapping, and error handling. This skill covers webhooks, Zapier/Make, native integrations, and custom API pipelines.

## Step 1 — Gather context


If `references/learnings.md` exists, read it first for accumulated knowledge.

Ask the user:

1. **What are you connecting?**
   - Source tool (where the event happens): Mailshake, Apollo, Salesloft, Smartlead, Lemlist, Yesware, Groove.cm, Mixmax, Reply.io, Woodpecker, Hunter.io, Seismic, Tomba, Prospeo, Seamless.AI, SafetyMails, Closum, Omnisend, Mailchimp, SendGrid, Postmark, Customer.io, Mailgun, Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign, Outscraper, Enrich.so, Minelead, Lobstr.io, GetProspect, Skrapp, OpenWeb Ninja, Anymail Finder, ZeroBounce, Snov.io, LeadMagic, ZoomInfo, Clearbit, RB2B, 6sense, Brevo, Braze, Iterable, GetResponse, SendPulse, Clay, HubSpot, Salesforce, Qwilr, RudderStack, Boomi, Workato, Celigo, SnapLogic, Jitterbit, Tray, Informatica, TIBCO, other
   - Destination tool (where the action should happen): Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Pipedrive, other
   - Is this one-way or bidirectional?

2. **What should trigger the integration?**
   - A) Email reply received
   - B) New lead captured
   - C) Meeting booked
   - D) Deal stage changed
   - E) Contact created/updated
   - F) Sequence/cadence completed
   - G) Form submission
   - H) Custom event — describe it

3. **What should happen when triggered?**
   - A) Create a record (contact, task, deal, activity)
   - B) Update a record (field change, stage change, owner change)
   - C) Send a notification (Slack, email, SMS)
   - D) Enroll in a sequence/cadence
   - E) Multiple actions — describe

4. **What's your technical comfort level?**
   - A) No-code — Zapier, Make, native integrations only
   - B) Low-code — comfortable with basic API calls, can follow docs
   - C) Code — can build custom integrations with API + webhooks

5. **What's your current stack?** (list all sales/marketing/CRM tools in use)

**If the user's request already provides most of this context, skip directly to the relevant step.** Lead with your best-effort answer using reasonable assumptions (stated explicitly), then ask only the most critical 1-2 clarifying questions at the end — don't gate your response behind gathering complete context.

## Step 2 — Integration architecture

Choose the right integration method based on complexity and technical requirements.

### Decision matrix

| Method | Best for | Technical skill | Cost | Reliability |
|--------|----------|----------------|------|-------------|
| **Native integration** | CRM sync, built-in connectors | None | Free (included) | High |
| **Zapier / Make** | Multi-step workflows, no-code | Low | $20-100/mo | High |
| **Webhooks + handler** | Real-time events, custom logic | Medium | Free-low | Medium-high |
| **Custom API pipeline** | Complex transformations, high volume | High | Varies | Depends on implementation |

### Native integrations — always check first

Before building anything custom, check if a native integration exists:

For a complete lookup table of 240+ native integrations across all supported tools, see `references/integrations.md`.

**Rule**: If a native integration covers your use case, use it. Native integrations handle auth, retry, and error handling automatically. Only go custom when native doesn't support your specific trigger or action.

## Step 3 — Common integration patterns

### Lead/reply → CRM record + notification

**Trigger**: Reply received in Mailshake/Apollo/Salesloft
**Actions**:
1. Create or update contact in CRM
2. Create activity/task on the contact record
3. Send Slack notification to rep

**Implementation options**:
- Zapier: Trigger = Mailshake "Reply Received" → Actions = Salesforce "Create Task" + Slack "Send Message"
- Webhook: Mailshake push event (Reply) → your endpoint → Salesforce API + Slack API
- Native: Mailshake-Salesforce integration (auto-syncs replies as activities)

### Meeting booked → CRM + sequence exit

**Trigger**: Meeting booked (Calendly, Chili Piper, or CRM scheduler)
**Actions**:
1. Update contact status/stage in CRM
2. Remove from active sequence/cadence
3. Create deal/opportunity
4. Notify AE

### CRM status change → sequence enrollment

**Trigger**: Lead status changes to "MQL" in CRM
**Actions**:
1. Enroll contact in outbound sequence (Apollo, Salesloft, Mailshake)
2. Assign to appropriate rep based on routing rules

**Implementation options**:
- **Zapier/Make (no-code)**: HubSpot "Lifecycle Stage Change" trigger → Apollo "Add Contact to Sequence" action. Easiest setup, handles auth automatically.
- **CRM webhook + custom API (low-code)**: HubSpot workflow triggers webhook → your endpoint calls Apollo `POST /contacts/add_to_emailer_campaign`. More control over field mapping, error handling, and conditional logic.
- **Native CRM workflow (if supported)**: Some CRM-to-engagement-tool integrations support enrollment triggers natively — check Settings > Integrations before building custom.

**Error handling for sequence enrollment**:
- **Duplicate contact**: Check if contact already exists in the engagement tool before creating — use "Find or Create" logic
- **Already enrolled**: The API may reject enrollment if the contact is active in another sequence — handle gracefully (log, skip, or queue for later)
- **Sequence capacity / enrollment limits**: Sequences may have max enrollment caps or daily add limits. Monitor the API response for limit errors and implement a retry queue for overflow.
- **Re-qualification**: If a lead was previously disqualified and re-enters MQL, decide whether to re-enroll or skip (prevent spamming the same contact)

### Deal stage change → stakeholder notification

**Trigger**: Deal moves to "Proposal Sent" or "Negotiation" in CRM
**Actions**:
1. Notify relevant stakeholders in Slack
2. Create follow-up task for rep
3. Trigger proposal creation in Qwilr (see `/sales-qwilr-automation`)

### Multi-tool activity sync

**Trigger**: Any activity logged in engagement tool (email sent, call made, meeting held)
**Action**: Sync activity to CRM as a completed task/activity

**Key considerations**:
- Define sync direction (one-way vs bidirectional)
- Map fields between tools (Salesloft "Call" → Salesforce "Task" with type "Call")
- Handle duplicates (check if activity already exists before creating)

## Step 4 — Platform webhook reference

For platform-specific webhook configs, API integrations, and native connector details, see `references/platforms.md`.

## Step 5 — Data sync best practices

### Define source of truth
Before building any bidirectional sync, decide which tool is the source of truth for each field:

| Data type | Typical source of truth | Why |
|-----------|------------------------|-----|
| Contact info (name, email, phone) | CRM (Salesforce/HubSpot) | CRM is the canonical record |
| Activity data (emails, calls) | Engagement tool (Apollo/Salesloft/Mailshake) | Activity originates in the engagement tool |
| Deal/opportunity | CRM | Revenue data lives in CRM |
| Lead score | MAP or CRM | Scoring logic runs in MAP/CRM |
| Sequence status | Engagement tool | Sequence state managed by engagement tool |

### Conflict resolution
- **Last-write-wins**: Simple but dangerous — later update overwrites earlier one
- **Source-of-truth wins**: Designated source always overwrites destination
- **Field-level rules**: Different rules per field (e.g., CRM wins for phone, engagement tool wins for email status)
- **Manual review**: Flag conflicts for human review (safest for critical fields)

### Deduplication
- **Match keys**: Email address (primary), company domain + name (secondary)
- **When to dedup**: Before creating records, during sync, and periodically as maintenance
- **Tools**: Native CRM dedup (Salesforce Duplicate Rules, HubSpot dedup tool), or third-party (Dedupely, RingLe