If you run a small business, you're likely tackling a huge amount of tasks with a lean team. Not only does it get overwhelming, but essential things like lead follow-up or meeting reminders may fall by the wayside. 

Automation can streamline processes across all departments, making you more efficient and organized. That efficiency means you can scale your small business faster and boost your return on investment (ROI).

Here are three ways automation can help you scale your business.

Table of contents

• Manage leads and customers

• Improve sales workflows and deal management

• Level up team collaboration

Manage leads and customers

The faster you generate leads, the more deals you can close. But when things move quickly, it's hard to reach out to leads while they're still hot—causing you to miss a valuable sale. To turn leads into customers, you need to send the right message at the right time. You can use automation to make sure leads get personalized outreach immediately. Plus, you can automatically add them to the right tool, so you can keep sending the right messages.

Make sure customers get fast replies

Whether it's a quick message after a form submission or a speedy thank you after a payment, it's critical that you send personalized, timely messages. With Zapier, you can send automated messages without adding more tasks to your to-do list.

Route new leads to the right place

Keep track of your leads by making sure they get added to your customer relationship manager (CRM) or email marketing tool—no copy or paste needed. With automation, you can also automatically tag prospects and make sure they're added to the right email campaigns. That way, every lead gets sent to the right place, right away. 

Simplify your client onboarding process

Hooray! You just secured a new client. But now you have to go through the administration process of onboarding them. From creating customer profiles to sending client intake forms, the work can be exhausting. 

Let automation take on the laborious tasks. Instead of manually sending welcome packets, create a Zap that does it for you—saving you valuable time. 

Improve sales workflows and deal management

Everyone wants a smooth sales pipeline. It ensures a positive customer experience and increases sales. But when you're juggling multiple customer accounts and new leads, the administrative tasks (like contracts, outreach, and invoices) can pile up. That's where automation can lend a helping hand. 

Get notified about signed contracts

When your customer signs a contract, it's critical to get back to them ASAP. But signed documents can get lost in emails, apps, and other messages. To help you stay on top of it all, send notifications about signed contracts to the place where you—or the right team member—will actually see them (in your to-do list, CRM, or communication app). That way, you can send prompt responses to your customers. 

Automate your invoicing tasks

So you've made the sale! But that doesn't mean the work is done. You still need to create, log, and send an invoice to your customer. Here are a few ways automation can take on those administrative tasks, so you can get back to closing more sales. 

Instantly update your sales or account management team

To create a seamless customer experience, you need to ensure your team is looped in on sales and invoices. You can do that by integrating your bookkeeping software with your communication tool. That way, your team can send timely follow-ups and thank yous.

Level up team collaboration 

Being a successful business means making sure everyone is on the same page. But regularly updating everyone can become a full-time job. Automation lets you keep everyone on your team informed without having to spend hours typing messages and updating project management tools.

Improve your team communication 

When there are a lot of moving pieces, it's easy to mix up who's supposed to do what. Streamline project management communication by automatically sending tasks to the right tool. That way, everyone can see what they need to do—in the right place.

A team chat channel can also be turned into a command center for project activity, ensuring everyone stays on the same page. 

Pro tip: You can create daily, weekly, or monthly Zaps that share a list of tasks from your project or task management app to wherever your team (or you) will see it. 

Send meeting reminders 

You can also streamline team management by sending automatic meeting reminders. That way, everyone is on top of what's next on their calendar. Plus, automatic meeting reminders can increase the show-up rate for your client or lead calls—helping increase sales conversions.

Take charge of your document management

When you share documents across your team, it's easy for things to get lost in the shuffle—especially when files get sent as attachments in emails. Instead of digging through your inbox, use automation to instantly send email attachments to your file management software. 

Automation can also help you keep track of documents throughout a lead lifecycle. For example, you can make sure notes, contracts, and invoices are all accounted for—whether that's in your CRM or file storage tool. 

Get more done with automation

The longer you run a small business, the more you discover that keeping it operating means maintaining the processes behind the products. Using automation, you can streamline your business processes for improved efficiency—without adding busywork to your to-do list.

This article was originally published in May 2020, written by Nick Moore. It was updated in March 2022 by Ellie Huizenga, and most recently updated in September 2022.