Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
When I started working with this B2B startup, the brief was straightforward: revamp their website. But as I dove deeper into their operations, I discovered something that most businesses overlook - their client operations were scattered across HubSpot and Slack, creating unnecessary friction in their workflow.
You know that feeling when you realize a "simple" project is actually revealing much bigger problems? That's exactly what happened here. Every time they closed a deal, someone had to manually create a Slack group for the project. Small task? Maybe. But multiply that by dozens of deals per month, and you've got hours of repetitive work that could be automated.
Most businesses treat their CRM like an isolated island, missing the massive opportunity to connect it with their entire operational ecosystem. They're sitting on goldmines of data and potential automation, but they're still doing things the hard way.
Here's what you'll learn from my experience automating this startup's operations:
Why I tested three different automation platforms before finding the right fit
The exact workflow that eliminated 15+ hours of manual work per week
How to choose between Make.com, N8N, and Zapier based on your actual needs
The surprising reason why the most expensive option became the most cost-effective
A step-by-step framework for implementing CRM automation workflows that actually work
Real Talk
What everyone says about CRM automation
Walk into any SaaS conference or browse through business automation blogs, and you'll hear the same mantras repeated over and over:
"Automate everything to scale your business." Every automation guru will tell you that manual processes are the enemy of growth. They'll show you fancy flowcharts and promise that the right automation stack will solve all your operational headaches.
"Choose the cheapest tool that gets the job done." The bootstrapper mentality says you should always optimize for cost, especially in the early stages. Why pay premium prices when free or cheap alternatives exist?
"Set it and forget it." The automation dream is building systems that run themselves, requiring zero maintenance or human intervention once they're set up.
"Any developer can build this stuff." The tech community often assumes that if you can code, you can build better automation solutions than off-the-shelf tools.
"Integration equals automation." Many think that simply connecting two systems means you've automated your workflow. Connect HubSpot to Slack, and boom - you're automated, right?
This conventional wisdom exists for good reasons. Automation genuinely can transform businesses, cheaper tools often do provide similar functionality, and technical solutions can be more flexible. The problem is that this advice completely ignores the human factor and the practical realities of running a growing business.
The truth? Most CRM automation projects fail not because of technical limitations, but because of poor planning, wrong tool selection, and forgetting that other people need to use these systems too.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
This B2B startup was generating serious revenue - multiple deals closing every week. But their operations were held together by digital duct tape and good intentions. Every closed deal triggered a manual checklist that someone had to execute perfectly, every single time.
The process looked simple on paper: Deal closes in HubSpot → Create project Slack channel → Invite relevant team members → Set up project documents → Send welcome email to client. Five steps. Should take 10 minutes, right?
Wrong. In reality, it was taking 30-45 minutes per deal, assuming nothing went wrong. And things went wrong constantly. Someone would forget to invite a team member, or create the channel with the wrong naming convention, or forget to update the project status. The CEO was spending 2-3 hours every week just managing these manual handoffs.
But here's the thing that made this even more frustrating - they knew it needed to be automated. The founder had been talking about "streamlining operations" for months. They'd even hired a consultant previously who'd built them a complex Zapier workflow that... broke constantly.
When I suggested we tackle this alongside the website project, the initial response was, "We've tried automation before. It just creates more problems." That's when I knew we had a classic case of automation trauma - they'd been burned by overcomplicated solutions that required more maintenance than the manual process.
The root issue wasn't that automation doesn't work. The problem was that they'd chosen tools and approaches that prioritized technical elegance over practical usability. Their previous automation was built by someone who wouldn't have to maintain it, for users who hadn't been consulted about their actual needs.
This is where most business automation projects go wrong. They focus on what's technically possible instead of what's practically sustainable.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of diving straight into building another complex workflow, I took a different approach. I decided to test the same use case across three different automation platforms to understand which one would actually work for this team long-term.
Phase 1: Make.com - The Budget-Friendly Start
I initially chose Make.com for one simple reason: pricing. For a growing startup watching every dollar, the cost difference was significant. The automation worked beautifully at first - HubSpot deal closes, Slack group gets created automatically, team members added based on deal type, project documents generated from templates.
For about three weeks, everything ran smoothly. Then we hit our first error execution, and here's what the tutorials don't tell you: when Make.com hits an error, it doesn't just skip that task - it stops the entire workflow. Not just for that one deal, but for all subsequent deals until someone manually fixes it.
The breaking point came during their busiest week ever. They closed seven deals in two days, but a small API change in HubSpot caused the workflow to break after the first deal. Six deals went through without any project setup. The manual cleanup took longer than if they'd just done everything manually from the start.
Phase 2: N8N - The Developer's Paradise That Became a Bottleneck
Next, I migrated everything to N8N. More setup required, definitely needed developer knowledge, but the control was incredible. You can build virtually anything - conditional logic, complex data transformations, multiple fallback paths for when things go wrong.
The workflows were robust and handled edge cases beautifully. But here's what I didn't anticipate: the client's team couldn't touch anything. Every small tweak they wanted - adding a new team member to the auto-invite list, changing the Slack channel naming convention, updating a project template - required my intervention.
I became the bottleneck in their automation process. What was supposed to save them time was now dependent on my availability. The interface, while powerful, isn't no-code friendly. For a growing startup that needs to iterate quickly, this was unsustainable.
Phase 3: Zapier - The Expensive Solution That Paid for Itself
Finally, we migrated to Zapier. Yes, it's more expensive. Yes, it's less flexible than N8N. But here's what changed everything: the client's team could actually use it.
Within a week, they were navigating through each Zap, understanding the logic, and making small edits themselves. The operations manager could add new team members to workflows. The CEO could update project templates. The handoff was smooth, and they gained true independence.
More importantly, Zapier's error handling is designed for business users, not developers. When something breaks, it doesn't crash the entire system - it logs the error, continues with other tasks, and sends a clear notification about what went wrong.
Platform Stability
Make.com stops all workflows when one task fails. N8N requires developer intervention for updates. Zapier handles errors gracefully and keeps running.
User Autonomy
N8N trapped the client in dependency on me for every change. Zapier's interface allowed their team to make updates independently without coding knowledge.
Cost vs Value
While Zapier was 3x more expensive monthly, it eliminated the hidden costs of downtime, developer dependency, and manual error recovery from other platforms.
Error Recovery
Zapier's business-focused error handling meant failures were isolated, logged clearly, and didn't break the entire automation chain like Make.com did.
The final Zapier implementation eliminated 15+ hours of manual work per week across the team. But more importantly, it restored their confidence in automation as a business tool rather than a technical burden.
The workflow we built handled everything from deal closure to project kickoff:
Automatic Slack channel creation with standardized naming
Smart team member assignment based on deal size and type
Project document generation from customizable templates
Client onboarding email sequences triggered by project status
Automatic calendar scheduling for kickoff meetings
Six months later, they're still using the same workflows with minimal modifications. The operations manager has built three additional automations using the same principles. Most importantly, they've gone from closing 12 deals per month to 25+ deals per month without adding operational overhead.
The time savings alone paid for the Zapier subscription within six weeks. But the real value was in reliability and team autonomy - they could focus on growing the business instead of managing operational chaos.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After implementing automation across all three platforms for the same use case, here are the hard-learned lessons that actually matter:
Choose based on your constraints, not capabilities. The most powerful tool isn't always the right tool. Your automation needs to work with your team's skills and availability, not against them.
Error handling is more important than features. How a platform deals with failures determines whether your automation becomes a time-saver or a time-sink.
User autonomy trumps cost savings. Paying 3x more for a platform that your team can manage independently is cheaper than paying for constant developer intervention.
Start simple and scale up. Complex workflows with multiple conditional branches look impressive but break more frequently and are harder to troubleshoot.
Test failure scenarios before going live. Every automation will break eventually. Know how your platform handles errors before you depend on it for critical processes.
Document the business logic, not just the technical setup. Your future self (and team members) need to understand why decisions were made, not just how the automation works.
Plan for iteration from day one. Your automation will need updates as your business evolves. Choose tools and approaches that make changes easy, not painful.
The biggest lesson? Platform selection isn't about finding the "best" automation tool - it's about finding the right fit for your team's reality.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups implementing CRM workflows:
Start with deal closure → project setup automation
Integrate customer success tools early in the workflow
Automate user onboarding sequences based on plan type
Build feedback loops into your automation for continuous improvement
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores optimizing CRM integration:
Focus on order fulfillment → customer communication workflows
Automate inventory alerts and supplier notifications
Create abandoned cart recovery sequences integrated with support tools
Build customer lifetime value tracking into your automation