Workflows in Connectably give a stage-by-stage structure to your sales and project workflows.
If you’ve ever used Trello or other activity management apps, you’ll probably get a sense of what we mean by that.
The training modules below explain the cards method of managing workflows, and how to set up and use workflows and stages in your business.
Workflows, Stages & ‘Kanban’
Connectably uses a popular Japanese method, the "Kanban board". A Kanban board is a work and workflow visualisation tool that enables you to optimise the flow of your work with activity 'cards'.
Physical Kanban boards, like the one pictured below, typically use sticky notes on a whiteboard to communicate status, progress, and issues. Online Kanban boards draw upon the whiteboard metaphor in a software setting.
The Kanban technique emerged in Japan in the late 1940s as Toyota's re-imagined approach to manufacturing and engineering. Line-workers displayed coloured Kanbans – actual cards – to notify their downstream counterparts that demand existed for parts and assembly work. (Kanban is the Japanese word for "visual signal" or "card.").
The system's highly visual nature allowed teams to communicate more easily on what work needed to be done and when. It also standardised cues and refined processes, which helped to reduce waste and maximise value.
Why does this method work in Connectably when managing marketing, sales and delivery workflows?
Well, first of all, it provides a dashboard to your current business priorities. When you log in, you immediately see what's going on in the context of stages of activity that relate to your business (you can edit or create new stage names and workflows).
Secondly, behind each of those cards is a summary of the work activity - you can add notes, tasks, meetings, make contact updates or send communications (one-off or even automated ones).
As you set up your first workflows video, consider these three workflows you could use to add more structure to your business' processes using Connectably:
- Sales and Marketing;
- Service Delivery (perhaps even different workflows if packages you deliver are quite different from one another), and finally;
- Past Client Re-engagement - this is the most overlooked area, but hugely valuable.
Setting Up A Workflow & Stages
The video below describes the process to follow to create a new workflow and the stages within it in your Connectably account:
