Search and replace with cross references

I am working on massive standards project and I need to do a search and replace for a lot of terms.

I need to, for instance, search for the term (USB-C) and replace it with the same term but cross referenced to a reference term.

Right now I am making the first cross reference, copy it, and the searching for the term, and replacing it manually with the cross reference on the clip board.

While this works, it is cumbersome, because I have to activate the document every time I want to do the Paste.

There has to be a smarter way for this. Is there a script, plugin or merely a standard FrameMaker way to do it?