Manual work is the silent tax on every RevOps team. Every hour spent routing leads by hand, chasing reps for forecast updates, or copy-pasting data between tools is an hour not spent on strategy. The good news: most of that work can be automated with tools you probably already own.

How to Prioritize Automations

Not all automations are created equal. Score each candidate on two axes:

  1. Frequency - How often does this task occur? Daily tasks compound savings faster.
  2. Error impact - What happens when a human makes a mistake? Lead routing errors lose revenue; formatting errors in a report are annoying but survivable.

Rule of thumb: If a task happens more than 5 times per week and a mistake directly impacts revenue, automate it immediately.

The 15 Workflows, Ranked by ROI

Here are the workflows grouped into three tiers based on typical return on investment.

Tier 1: Automate This Week

# Workflow Tools Impact
1 Round-robin lead routing Salesforce Flow, LeanData, Chili Piper Cuts lead response time from hours to minutes
2 Inbound lead enrichment Clearbit Reveal, Apollo, ZoomInfo Fills firmographic gaps before SDR touches the lead
3 Deal stage change alerts Slack + CRM workflow Keeps managers informed without requiring dashboard checks
4 Stale pipeline notifications CRM workflow + Slack Flags deals with no activity in 14+ days
5 Meeting booked to CRM sync Calendly/Chili Piper + CRM Eliminates manual activity logging

Tier 2: Automate This Month

# Workflow Tools Impact
6 Lead-to-account matching LeanData, Traction Complete Ensures leads land on the right account, not duplicated
7 Closed-won handoff to CS CRM + Gainsight/Vitally Triggers onboarding sequence automatically
8 Duplicate detection and merge Cloudingo, RingLead, CRM rules Keeps the database clean without weekly manual audits
9 Forecast snapshot capture CRM + data warehouse Creates a weekly point-in-time record for forecast accuracy analysis
10 Contract renewal reminders CRM workflow + Slack/email Alerts CSMs 90/60/30 days before renewal

Tier 3: Automate This Quarter

# Workflow Tools Impact
11 Commission calculations CaptivateIQ, Spiff, Everstage Removes spreadsheet errors from comp
12 Territory assignment updates CRM + territory tool Reassigns accounts automatically when territories change
13 Quarterly business review deck generation CRM + BI + Google Slides API Pulls metrics into a template, saving hours per QBR
14 Win/loss survey distribution CRM trigger + Typeform/SurveyMonkey Sends survey within 24 hours of closed-won/lost
15 Data hygiene scoring CRM + custom formula fields Scores each record’s completeness and flags gaps

Building Your First Automation

Follow this process to ship your first workflow in under a day:

  1. Document the manual process step by step, including every decision point
  2. Identify the trigger - what event starts the workflow? (Record created, field changed, time elapsed)
  3. Map the actions - what should happen at each step?
  4. Build in error handling - what if an API call fails or a required field is blank?
  5. Test with real records - never test exclusively in a sandbox with fake data
  6. Monitor for two weeks - check logs daily, then move to weekly checks

Common Pitfalls

  • Over-automating too early. Automate stable, well-understood processes first. If the process itself changes monthly, automation just locks in a moving target.
  • No ownership. Every automation needs an owner who monitors it and updates it when upstream tools change.
  • Skipping documentation. Write a one-paragraph description of what each automation does, when it triggers, and who owns it. Store this in a shared wiki.

Key Takeaways

  • Prioritize automations by frequency and error impact - lead routing and enrichment almost always come first
  • Use your CRM’s native workflow builder before purchasing an external automation tool
  • Every automation needs an owner, documentation, and a monitoring plan