If your business requires manual intervention for each step in your workflow, automating proposals will multiply the inefficiency. Learn about what to do before turning on ProFinder automation.
If you'd like to learn about how we approach ProFinder automation book a free call with us below.
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How to run an automation audit
All businesses have inefficiencies. In fact, Toyota famously made an entire discipline out of identifying and cutting inefficiency.
However, automation isn't a magic fix. In fact, it magnifies both inefficiencies and efficiencies.
Before running a ProFinder automation service like ProAutomatr, ensure that you've identified manual touchpoints in your business.
Common touchpoints are:
Sending client calendars
Sending follow-up details
Sharing contracts with clients
Sending payment links
Notifying your team of a new project
If you spend 8 - 10 hours per week on these tasks (and if you're like other small business owners, you do), with a lead generation automation strategy, you'll spend 24 - 30.
That's just to process your clients, not serve them.
To run an automation audit set aside one representative week and track every detail.
Use a timing app like Toggl to track time spend on each task and log it in a spreadsheet. At the end of the week, you'll have a list of each manual interaction and the time spent on each.
You may be shocked by the number.
Categorize tasks
As you review your audit, you'll be able to categorize tasks.
Common task categories:
Scheduling
Email
Document e-sign
Billing
Applying a category name will make it easy to automate them and rapidly decide what software is needed.
Automate the redundant and predictable
Your customers should be booking with you, rather than sending an email back and forth. We recommend Calendly for the easy-to-use interface and ability to automatically generate a Google Meet room for every booking.
Emails can automatically be send based on any number of event triggers (like a calendar booking, or website inquiry). We recommend Zapier for connecting triggers and simple emails.
Document signing should never be a manual process due to the amount of time involved. We recommend connecting PandaDoc to your client intake form with Zapier. You'll be able to pre-populate standard fields, like name, company, and email.
As you automate each task, make sure to tick it off in your audit sheet. Continue until no repetitive tasks remain.
Now you're ready for ProFinder automation to support your lead generation.