There are tasks running inside most businesses right now that a well-configured automation could be handling instead of a person, according to Dr. Connor Robertson, founder of Elixir Consulting Group and host of The Prospecting Show. He identifies seven processes that appear most consistently across service businesses and growing companies, each of which he says can be automated with tools most businesses already have access to.
1. Lead Routing and Initial Follow-Up
In Robertson’s view, every minute a new lead sits uncontacted is a minute a competitor has to reach them first. Automated routing assigns a lead to the right team member based on defined criteria and sends a personalized initial response within seconds of form submission, with no human involvement required until the lead responds.
2. Invoice Generation and Payment Reminders
Robertson describes manually generating invoices and following up on outstanding payments as automatable technology that has existed for over a decade. A CRM can know when a project reaches a billing milestone, an invoicing platform can generate the document and send it automatically, and a payment reminder sequence can fire on schedule until the invoice is paid.
3. Client Onboarding Sequences
The welcome email, the intake form, the kickoff link, and the first check-in can all be triggered by a single pipeline stage change when a contract is signed, in Robertson’s framework. That gives clients a smooth onboarding experience while the team handles none of the manual coordination.
4. Internal Reporting and KPI Delivery
If anyone on a team is spending time weekly pulling numbers and formatting a report, Robertson considers that an automation waiting to happen. Connecting data sources, defining the format, and scheduling delivery lets the report build itself and distribute to the right channel automatically.
5. Meeting Follow-Up and Action Item Distribution
After every meeting, someone needs to capture decisions and assign tasks. Robertson points to AI transcription tools paired with a structured summarization prompt as a way to handle this automatically, generating the summary, extracting and attributing action items, and delivering each owner their tasks before the next meeting.
6. Contract and Document Management
Contracts waiting for signatures get lost in inboxes, in Robertson’s account. An automated workflow can send the contract, follow up at 24 and 48 hours if unsigned, notify the team when executed, and file the signed version in the correct folder automatically, removing the need for anyone to remember to follow up.
7. Review and Testimonial Collection
Most businesses collect testimonials reactively, Robertson notes. He describes an automated review collection sequence triggered 30 days after a project closes as generating a consistent stream of social proof without anyone remembering to ask, with a message that is warm, specific to the work completed, and includes a direct link to wherever the review should be posted.
Starting Point, Not a Checklist to Finish in One Weekend
Robertson does not recommend tackling all seven processes at once. He suggests picking whichever one currently costs the most hours or produces the most visible friction (a backlog of unsent invoices, a pile of unsigned contracts, a testimonial page that has not been updated in a year) and building that automation first. Each one solved, in his framing, frees up attention and credibility for the next, which is part of why he considers this list a sequence rather than a single project. Businesses that treat it as a full rebuild tend to stall. Businesses that treat it as seven separate, small wins tend to actually finish.
About Dr. Connor Robertson
Dr. Connor Robertson is an entrepreneur, author, and strategic advisor based in Pittsburgh. He is the founder of Elixir Consulting Group, host of The Prospecting Show, publisher of The Pittsburgh Wire, and founder of The Grant Finder. He is also a six-time published author, with titles including Built to Run, available at drconnorrobertsonbooks.com. More on his work is available at drconnorrobertson.com.
