If you’re investing in a CRM and email automation, great. You’re already ahead of the curve. But I’ve worked with enough teams to know that tech isn’t the problem. It’s how people use it. Below are five of the most common CRM and email nurture mistakes I see inside organizations of all sizes.
And they’re all fixable.
1. Treating your CRM like a database instead of a relationship tool
Too many teams treat their CRM like a digital filing cabinet. Contacts go in, notes sometimes get logged, boxes get checked – and that’s about it. But your CRM should actually help you build stronger relationships, not just track them. If it’s not helping guide your next move with a lead or show you where a conversation left off, it’s not doing its job.
Make it a rule that every contact in your CRM should show what’s actually going on — has someone talked to them recently? Are they waiting on a proposal? Have they gone cold? If it’s unclear, that’s a problem. You don’t want to forget a lead, and you definitely don’t want two people reaching out at once with no context. Clean up your statuses, log the convos, and make sure there’s always a clear next step or note. Your CRM should tell the story, not hide it.
2. Over-automating to the point of sounding robotic
Automation is powerful, but if your emails feel like they were written by a robot for a robot, they won’t work. People can tell. Whether it’s stiff copy, bad personalization fields, or “just checking in” emails with no value, automation gone wrong will actually hurt your brand.
Fix it: Before sending, read your sequence out loud. If it doesn’t sound like something you’d say on a Zoom call, rewrite it. You can still automate without sounding automated.
3. No clear strategy behind your nurture emails
A lot of companies build email nurture sequences just to check the box; one touchpoint after another with no real purpose. Staying top of mind is great, but if your emails don’t help someone move forward or answer what they’re already thinking, they’ll just tune out. Nurture emails should feel relevant, not random.
Fix it: Start by looking at what’s actually happening in your sales cycle. What questions do people ask before they book a call? What hesitations do they bring up? Your nurture emails should speak to those moments and offer something useful along the way. A quick video, a checklist, a short guide, even a podcast episode. It doesn’t have to be long, but it should help your lead take one step forward. Nurture content should make people feel smarter, more confident, or more ready to act, not just more aware that you exist.
4. Ignoring segmentation and timing
You can’t treat every lead the same. Someone who downloaded a whitepaper six months ago isn’t in the same mindset as someone who requested a discovery call yesterday. And your existing clients? They’re not even in the same category, yet I still see people sending the same emails to everyone. That’s how you land in spam folders, or just get tuned out altogether.
Fix it: Break your list into segments based on behavior, recency, and relationship. At the very least, separate active from dormant leads. And don’t forget your former and current clients; they aren’t just leads, they’re your biggest advocates. The way you communicate with them should reflect that. They’re more likely to send referrals, share content, and vouch for you, so speak to them like insiders, not strangers.
5. Not tracking the source of your leads (down to the sneeze)
If you don’t know where your leads are coming from, you’re guessing, and guessing doesn’t scale. I’ve worked with companies that track everything down to the sneeze. And that’s not an exaggeration. Did a lead come from Google Ads? Great, but which campaign? Which keyword? What landing page did they hit? This is where UTM parameters come in.
UTMs let you tag every link you share (email, ad, social post), so you can see exactly how they got to you when someone clicks. Want to know if it was your “April Offer” ad on Facebook or the link in your newsletter footer? UTM tracking tells you that. Even Google Ads gives you a gclid – a unique ID for every single ad click. When you connect that with your CRM, you’re not just tracking leads; you’re tracking behavior, intent, and ROI.
Fix it: Use UTMs consistently across all outbound links. Connect your CRM and Google Analytics. Make sure gclid data is being passed through your forms and stored in the CRM. The more granular your tracking, the smarter your decisions are, and the easier it is to double down on what’s actually working.
If you’re not sure where to start, I’m happy to take a quick look at your current setup and give you a few pointers. Just reach out.
You probably don’t need to switch platforms. You just need to make the one you have actually work for you. Pick one of these fixes and start there. The rest will be easier once things are moving in the right direction.
