Why automate your business?

On sale, the phrase «it’s a numbers game» comes up very often. This is probably because it’s true: more qualified leads = more sales. For operations, it’s quite similar: the more tasks completed by your team = more profitability. But still, why should you automate your business?

The main mission of automation is to increase these indicators (thus pushing your efficiency and revenues upward). Often, it can also make the difference between growth, stagnation, profitability, or loss. 

What is automation? 

Automation involves «streamlining» your team's workload to enable the transfer of subordinate tasks to a robot. Your employees will not be replaced, but instead will be able to perform work that requires greater expertise instead of getting bogged down in the repetition of simple and monotonous tasks.

So why automate your business?

There are several schools of thought on automation; however, the principle remains the same: identify repetitive tasks and operations that machines could perform just as well or better than a human and program them to automate via software or code. 

Note: We talk about «Business Process Automation» for the automation of operational and administrative tasks and «Marketing Automation» for creating automation for sales and marketing.

The main challenge of automation

The main challenge is the integration of the different software needed to automate your processes. For example, here are the software used to manage Gro:

Sales Software

• Pipedrive: CRM and sales automations

• PandaDoc: Creation of proposals and contracts

• Autopilot: Emailing & SMS, Marketing Automation

Operations Software

• Monday: Project management and administrative management

Communication Software

• Slack: Private chat

Invoicing and Tracking Software

• Harvest:Time tracking

• Quickbooks: Invoicing and accounting

These 7 software systems must be synchronized to avoid the duplication of tasks and communications. Connecting and synchronizing software together requires access to the software’s API. It is the job of our programmers to connect these software systems together.

Making a plan to automate your business

There are often many more steps than we imagine in the processes of our businesses.

Here is a scenario «User Story» that we would like to automate: 

1. I create a task in the CRM (Pipedrive CRM) to «create a proposal».

2. The proposal in the proposal software (Proposify) is created automatically based on the information in the CRM. It just needs to be double-checked before sending.

3. Sending the proposal → the task in the CRM «create a proposal» is checked off automatically as «DONE»

4. The client electronically signs the proposal → A series of automated actions are executed:

   • The opportunity in my CRM changes to «won»

   • The client receives an email regarding the next steps.

   • I receive an automated notification if the client does not acknowledge the email.

   • The inside sales representative receives the file with all the useful information. 

   • Follow-up tasks are automatically recorded in the CRM for the next quarter.

   • The coordinator receives an automatic message in Slack to notify them of the new project. The main tasks are created automatically in Monday. 

   • A task is automatically created in the CRM «Create Project in Monday» so that the sales department knows when the project begins.

   • An invoice is created in Quickbooks and a deposit request is automatically sent. When the client pays, the sales and administration departments receive a notification.

   • The project is automatically created in Harvest so that the team can «punch» their hours into the right project.

5. When the tasks are done in Monday to start the project, the task is checked off automatically as «Done» in the CRM. The sales department then receives a notification to inform them that the project is underway.

We use Lucid Chart to create the «mapping» of the automations.

With the help of a specialist, creating a «mapping» like this takes 4 to 20 hours (sometimes even more if the business processes are more complex). Each step needs to be evaluated and then the «User Story» can be created. Once the «User Story» is written,   we can begin to draw the «flowchart / mapping.

After completing the «flowchart», the costs of integration, programming, and maintenance of a system like this need to be evaluated and whether you need to implement certain software.  

Where to start? 

With introspection.

Are you at the stage of automating your business? You can take the TEST by clicking HERE. Afterwards, you will receive an email to subscribe to a personalized list. You can choose to request more information and/or receive emails about our «business case» and new gadgets that help automate businesses and marketing!

So, when your friend asks you: why automate your business? Have them read this blog!  

See you soon!