I spend 100% of my professional time working with clients to help them automate their sales and marketing processes. Yesterday I had an “ah ha” moment that I have to admit is an oversight, especially when you consider workflow automation has been a part of my life since 1992.
The internal customer.
For small and medium sized businesses our firm loves Infusionsoft, a great CRM/Sales Automation/Marketing Automation tool. My firm and our consultants get myopically focused on the sales and marketing processes and over look automating processes for the internal customer.
A great example of this would be to use the workflow automation tools to manage any process in the company which requires reminders, follow up, accountability and automated sign off.
Example #1 – Benefits enrollment – Each year most of us are required to re-enroll in our employer’s benefits programs. Without automation, this requires the HR representative to send out countless emails, chase you down at your desk all to make sure you get enrolled.
Why not automate these “internal customers” in a workflow follow up sequence to enroll them? Let the software chase the employees down! Set up an enrollment page, follow up sequences, then set it and forget it.
Example #2 – Training Certifications – Most all of companies require some sort of training for their employees. Again, a manager or HR person ends up being some sort of hunter tracking down people, partners, franchisee partners to enroll and complete these vital processes. Again, this can be tackled with a set of web forms and follow up sequences.
Reminds me of this great clip from a few years back, “Terry Tate the Office Linebacker”. This is a must view, spend a few minutes, you wont regret it, especially if you have a sense of humor.
Maybe you need a Terry Tate office linebacker in your firm but my guess is you will be better off letting the software increase your productivity.
You can leverage your CRM tools to automate your communications and processes for your internal customers.
An Attention Connection™ has no boundaries and for small business, workflow automation can be a life saver on so many fronts.
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