Continuing the theme of our last couple of posts, we’ve been spending a lot of time understanding what we do often that can be automated. We don’t think all things should be automated, but there are so many mundane tasks that require our attention on a daily basis that where relevant, we look for ways to complete these tasks with as little brain power as possible.
The first step is understanding what features exist within the software being used on a daily basis that can make things easier. Understanding one’s tech stack is extremely underrated and there are plenty of features lying under the hood that can make us better at what we do. For example, we’ve already looked at adding rules within MixMax, our email sequencing software, for triggering events (internal to the software).
A lot of the magic occurs when combining different software and using triggers from one software to generate an action in a separate software. To achieve this we’ve started using Zapier, a no-code software that allows you to connect apps in pre-defined ways. One app will have a list of triggers to choose from - the event that will cause the output event. The other app will have a list of actions to choose from - the event that will occur when the trigger is triggered.
Here are some of the automations we have implemented:
Stripe: New signup → Slack: Notification
We set up a private channel in slack in which a message is sent containing the signup details of the new user as soon as they sign up for Reach. Not only does it motivate the team, but it allows us to quickly intervene and offer “white glove” onboarding when appropriate.
Stripe: New signup → Pipedrive: Deal added to Free Tier stage of pipeline
Automatically logging signups as opportunities within our CRM, Pipedrive, helps us keep track of which conversations we need to focus on. Deals are tied to the individual or company, so if either exists in our CRM then they will be updated accordingly, allowing us to more intelligently engage across the team.
Stripe: Paid subscription → Pipedrive: Deal added/moved to Paid Customer stage of pipeline
Similar to the one above, this moves our opportunities along our sales pipeline stages automatically and makes it easier for the team to keep track of the many updates happening all the time within the CRM. We no longer have to add these opportunities manually and we can just focus on upsell opportunities.
Stripe: New signup → Mailchimp: Email added to mailing list
Automatically adding emails to mailchimp saves us from having to continuously export all new users from the last export. Our list is therefore always up to date.
Gmail: Feature request label(s) applied to email → Pipedrive: Feature request added to custom field related to that person
Rather than having to constantly switch between gmail and pipedrive and manually add feature requests to a contact within pipedrive, we have set up an automation. We have pre-written labels within Gmail containing the most common feature requests we hear. All we need to do is add the appropriate label or labels to the email from within Gmail. The feature request(s) will be saved appropriately to the contact. As soon as a new feature is released we can easily filter our CRM by the people specifically interested in the newly released feature, to reconnect.
There’s a ton of power to unlock using Zapier or other such services. We’re only scratching the surface but the ability to add if/then logic with explicit rules has already improved how we’re working.
