This AI Automation System Scaled My Business to $140K/mo

Key Concepts

• Customer Life Cycle: A predictable journey that every client goes through.
• AI Automation: Utilizing artificial intelligence to streamline and automate business processes.
• Workflows: Predefined sequences of actions triggered by specific events in the customer life cycle.
• Lead Qualification: Identifying and prioritizing potential customers.
• Sales Call Workflow: Automating tasks related to sales calls, such as scheduling and contract generation.
• Contract Sign Workflow: Automating follow-up for contract signing and payment.
• Project Management Workflow: Automating task creation, assignment, and progress tracking.
• Split Testing (A/B Testing): Testing variations of messages or workflows to identify the most effective ones.

Business Scaling and AI Automation

The speaker shares their experience of scaling a business to $140,000 per month, noting a significant reduction in their personal working hours from 16 hours daily to just a few logins per month. This transformation was attributed to AI automation and a strong team. The core principle behind this success is understanding and automating the customer life cycle, which is defined as a predictable journey every client undertakes.

The Customer Life Cycle and Automation Strategy

The fundamental idea is that at each stage of the customer life cycle, similar actions are repeated with minor variations. The goal at every step is to move a client from their current stage to the next. By mapping out these touchpoints and identifying manual actions, businesses can then automate them. The speaker spent eight years perfecting this automation, saving personal hours and effectively automating the work of approximately 30 full-time employees with a team of 15. This automation applies to all business functions, including marketing, sales, fulfillment, recruitment, analytics, and bookkeeping.

Breakdown of Automated Systems

The speaker details their automated system, broken down into three main parts: Marketing, Sales, and Fulfillment.

1. Marketing Automation

• Lead Generation: Clients were acquired through various streams like SEO, Google Ads, and social media.
• SEO Example: Tools like Naden were used to generate blog posts that attracted over 1,500 clicks daily.
• Website Funnel: Qualified leads from SEO and Google Ads were directed to a landing page where they were encouraged to fill out a short quote form.
• Transition to Sales: Submitting the quote form marked the end of marketing and the beginning of sales automation.

2. Sales Automation

• New Lead Workflow: Triggered upon form submission, this workflow's primary goal was to schedule a sales call, as sales were closed on calls, not via email or text.
• Rapid Response: Leads were called within 60 seconds or less. A study indicated that calling within 60 seconds can increase conversion rates by up to 391%.
• Follow-up Automation: If a lead didn't answer the initial call, automated text messages and emails were sent until a call was booked.
• Consistent Messaging: Most messages across all stages were identical, with only minor details swapped (e.g., service type like DJ, photo, or video services).
• Sales Call Outcomes:
  • Disqualification: Leads deemed a poor fit were disqualified.
  • Follow-up Call Booking: Most initial calls did not result in an immediate close, necessitating a follow-up.
• Sales Call Workflow: Triggered after a sales call, this workflow automatically generated contracts and invoices, scheduled follow-up calls, and sent thank-you messages.
• Follow-up Call Outcomes:
  • Show Up: The lead attended the scheduled follow-up.
  • No Show: The lead missed the appointment.
  • Cancellation: The lead canceled the appointment.
• Automated Reminders and Cancellation Links: Reminders were sent to both the sales team and the client for follow-up calls. Cancellation links were included in emails to allow clients to reschedule in advance, enabling the team to book other potential clients.
• Re-engagement Workflow: If a lead canceled or no-showed, a workflow was initiated to re-engage them and attempt to reschedule.
• Closing Rates: Approximately 25% of leads closed before the second call, while some (around 6%) required more than 10 calls. The objective of each appointment was to book a follow-up until a definitive decision was reached.
• Contract Sign Workflow: Initiated upon contract signing, this workflow sent follow-up reminders to clients to complete payment, redirecting them to their invoice.

3. Fulfillment Automation

• Transition to Paid Stage: Once a deal was paid, it moved to the "contract paid" stage, initiating fulfillment.
• Automated Tasks: Upon payment, multiple tasks were automated simultaneously, including bookkeeping, notifications, and onboarding.
• Bookkeeping Automation: Each payment updated QuickBooks and Google Sheets automatically.
• Onboarding Automation: A thank-you email with a link to an onboarding form was sent to collect necessary information for service delivery. Reminders were sent at 3, 7, and 10 days post-payment if the form wasn't filled. In rare cases, a phone call was made.
• Project Management Automation: A project management workflow was triggered by payments, using tools like ClickUp to automatically create and assign tasks, manage projects, and track progress.
• Team Synchronization: Automated text messages and emails were sent at regular intervals to keep team members synchronized with event details.
• "Airplane Check-in" System: Contractors were required to check in on the morning of an event, when leaving, and submit a photo upon arrival at the venue.
• Project Complete Workflow: Triggered a day after the event, this workflow sent thank-you emails to clients with a link to a feedback form.
• Feedback and Review Automation: Lower ratings triggered automated filtering, while four or five-star ratings prompted clients to submit reviews on Google.
• Deliverables and Revisions: Editing projects were added to ClickUp, and upon completion, clients received deliverables via email with a link to request changes. These changes flowed back into ClickUp, restarting the revision process until finalization.

What Was NOT Automated and Why

• Core Services: The actual wedding services (DJ, photo, video) were not automated.
• Client-Facing Personalization: Editing, client calls, personal follow-up messages, and one-off tasks that lacked a predictable flow were not automated.
• Reasoning: In the wedding industry, where clients have high expectations and are willing to spend significantly, any hint of interacting with AI could jeopardize a deal and lead to negative reviews. Customer service was paramount, and the opportunity cost of losing clients due to AI interaction outweighed the cost of human staff.

Advice for Implementation

• Start Manually: For new businesses, it's recommended to perform tasks manually first to perfect the system before automating.
• Automate When Time Outweighs Effort: Automate only when the time spent on manual work exceeds the time required to build the automation system.
• Perfect Systems First: Attempting to automate while still figuring things out leads to wasted time and repeated system rebuilding. Automate once the system is ideal and stable.
• Optimization is Key: Continuously optimize by split-testing every text message, email, and workflow (10-30 times) to find the winning variations. This iterative testing is crucial for long-term success.

Conclusion

The speaker emphasizes that a well-tested and optimized workflow, refined through extensive split-testing, is more effective than chasing new shiny objects. This approach enabled them to scale to seven figures and reduce their workload significantly. The speaker offers a free 2-hour course on building basic systems and provides blueprints for advanced implementation in their school community.