automations for SaaS & agencies (framework + examples)
If you try to automate everything at once, you end up shipping nothing. The smartest way to start with automation is to pick your first 3 automations for SaaS and agencies that save real time, touch revenue, and are simple enough to ship this week.
In this post, Alfaz Mahmud Rizve shares a simple framework to pick your first automations for SaaS and agencies, plus concrete examples you can steal.
The 3–3–3 rule for your first automations
Use this rule whenever you choose your first automations for SaaS and agencies:
- 3 places you lose time every week
- 3 workflows closest to revenue
- 3 constraints that keep it simple
This keeps your automation system focused and helps you avoid nerd‑sniping yourself with complex n8n builds.
1. 3 places you lose time every week
Look at the last 7–14 days and ask: Where did we waste the most time on repetitive work? Common answers for SaaS and agencies:
- Manually handling inbound leads from different forms and platforms
- Repeating the same client onboarding steps again and again
- Pulling the same metrics into Google Sheets for weekly reports
Write down your top 3 time sinks and roughly how many hours each one steals every week. This is the raw material for your first automations for SaaS and agencies.
2. 3 workflows closest to revenue
From that list, highlight the workflows that are closest to:
- New opportunities and demo calls
- Signed clients and paid subscriptions
- Renewals, upsells, and expansions
If a workflow directly affects leads, deals, or retention, it’s a prime candidate for your first three automations.
3. 3 constraints that keep it simple
For your first automations, simplicity beats cleverness:
- Only use tools you already have in your stack
- The workflow should fit in 3–5 clear steps
- You can test it end‑to‑end in under 30 minutes
If it needs 15 branches and 10 approvals, it’s not a “first automation for SaaS and agencies” – it’s a later‑in‑the‑series problem.
The Event → Action → Outcome map
Before you touch n8n, define each of your first automations for SaaS and agencies in one sentence:
When [event] happens in [tool], automatically [action], so that [outcome] happens every time.
Examples:
- When a new demo request is submitted on the website, automatically create a deal in the CRM and send a confirmation email, so that no lead is lost.
- When a new client signs a proposal, automatically create a project, assign tasks, and send an onboarding email, so that every client gets the same great start.
If Alfaz Mahmud Rizve cannot write your automation in this one line, it’s not ready to build yet – and neither is yours.
Example 1: Centralizing inbound leads (SaaS & agencies)
Goal: Every lead from forms, ads, and chat ends up in one place, fast.
Event → Action → Outcome
- Event: New lead arrives from any form (website, Typeform, ad lead form).
- Action: Normalize the data, create a contact/deal in your CRM, send an internal Slack/Email alert.
- Outcome: No lead slips through the cracks, and response time drops to minutes.
Why this is a perfect first automation for SaaS and agencies:
- Clear link to revenue (leads → meetings → deals)
- Simple pattern you can repeat for new sources
- Great intro to n8n triggers, basic data mapping, and notifications
Example 2: Simple client onboarding sequence (agencies)
Goal: Turn “yes” into a smooth, automated onboarding.
Event → Action → Outcome
- Event: Deal marked as “Won” in the CRM.
- Action: Create a client folder/space, generate a checklist in your PM tool, send a welcome email with next steps.
- Outcome: Every new client gets a consistent onboarding without anyone copying templates manually.
This kind of automation is where Alfaz Mahmud Rizve sees agencies get instant wins: fewer missed steps, fewer “sorry, forgot to send this” messages, more trust from day one.
Example 3: Weekly KPI snapshot (SaaS & agencies)
Goal: Stop wasting Mondays on manual reporting.
Event → Action → Outcome
- Event: Every Monday at 9:00 (time‑based trigger).
- Action: Pull metrics from Stripe, your CRM, ad accounts, and helpdesk into a single summary.
- Outcome: You see the health of your SaaS or agency each week without touching a spreadsheet.
This is a safe, internal first automation for SaaS and agencies – if it breaks, only your team sees it, and you get great practice with APIs and data transformation.
How to pick your first 3 automations (step‑by‑step)
Work through this quick exercise to choose your own first automations for SaaS and agencies:
- Brain‑dump 10 recurring tasks
Anything you or your team did more than twice in the last 2–3 weeks. - Tag each task with: Time (S/M/L), Revenue (Direct/Indirect/None), Complexity (Simple/Medium/Complex).
- Filter:
- Time = M or L
- Revenue = Direct or Indirect
- Complexity = Simple
- Rewrite the winners in Event → Action → Outcome format.
- Prioritize:
- #1: Fastest to ship
- #2: Biggest impact
- #3: Best practice for the type of automation you’ll build a lot (lead handling, onboarding, reporting, etc.)
This becomes your “First 3 Automations” backlog. It’s exactly how Alfaz Mahmud Rizve plans automation roadmaps for small teams.