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Getting Started with Workflows

⚙️ What are Workflows?

At the heart of it, a workflow helps you complete repetitive tasks. You set it up once and it runs without your action required. It saves you SO much time and always allows you to truly scale your time.

In more formal terms, a workflow is a chronological list of tasks to be carried out with a “Trigger” that automatically starts the sequence of Actions to take place.

Example: Someone fills out a form and you want a notification sent to you, your team, and the client. Then you want the client to receive a series of emails. All of this and more is powered by Automation!

🔄 There are two main parts to a workflow: Triggers and Actions

🚀 Workflow Triggers

This is the event that adds a new contact to the workflow. The trigger is a circumstance or set of conditions that must be met before the actions listed are performed.

Example: Add a contact to a workflow when they book an appointment on your scheduling calendar. Or add a contact to a workflow when a payment is made. To set this up, you create a trigger like these.

⚡ Workflow Actions

Actions occur after the contact is added to a Workflow. They begin only after a trigger adds a contact.

The Workflow will then execute the actions the user creates.

Example: After a contact fills out a form, you might send a confirmation email with next steps. Or after a purchase, you could send a thank-you message and grant access to what they bought.

In summary, workflows are automated sequences where a triggering event begins one or more actions. They make work life easier by automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks. SalesMFast Dashboard

✅ Tasks Worth Automating

What are tasks worth automating? The simple answer: Anything repetitive or repeatable.

Automations are faster than humans and once set up, rarely make mistakes. They help scale operations and reduce costs. video heare

🔁 Examples of Tasks Worth Automating in SalesMFast

  • Lead Nurturing Campaigns Set up automated email sequences for leads at different stages (welcome, education, product demos, follow-ups).

  • Appointment Scheduling Automate the process of booking appointments through your website or emails. SalesMFast integrates with various scheduling tools.

  • Follow-Up Communications Send automatic emails or SMS messages after specific actions (e.g., visiting a pricing page, downloading a guide).

  • Customer Onboarding Automate onboarding for new customers with welcome emails, setup guides, and helpful tips.

  • Feedback Surveys Send surveys after purchases or service usage to gather feedback and show customers their input matters.

  • Lead Scoring and Segmentation Automatically score leads based on behavior and segment them for personalized marketing.

  • Data Entry and CRM Updates Capture lead data from forms, pages, or integrations and automatically update the CRM — no manual input needed.

  • Event Registration and Follow-Ups Automate registrations, reminders, and post-event follow-ups for webinars, workshops, or events.

  • Abandoned Cart Recovery Send automated reminders to customers about items left in their cart to recover lost sales.

These are just a few examples — the automation possibilities in SalesMFast are extensive and fully customizable to your business needs.

🧩 Workflow Recipes: Pre-Built Templates

Did you know… we have pre-built Workflows ready for you to configure and use? They save you time and reveal the most common use cases of Workflow.

To use recipes:

  • Create a new workflow
  • When prompted, select “Recipes”

💡 We recommend starting here, then editing what’s provided — especially helpful for beginners! SalesMFast Dashboard SalesMFast Dashboard

🛠️ How to Create a Workflow

There are three steps to creating automation in the workflow builder:

✅ Step 1: Choose a Trigger

Triggers add contacts to workflows. The type of trigger determines when and how a contact enters the workflow.

  • Inside the builder, click "Add Trigger"
  • A pop-out Workflow Trigger menu will appear
  • Select your desired trigger

✔️ You're allowed to create many different triggers in the same workflow, bringing contacts into a single workflow from many different sources! SalesMFast Dashboard

🎯 Step 2: Add Trigger Filters (Optional)

After selecting a trigger, consider adding a filter. Filters let you be more specific about what conditions must be met before the workflow is triggered.

Example: Let’s say you’re using the trigger "Call Status" — by default, this applies to all call types.

  • You only want incoming calls
  • You only want calls to your main number

So, you add filters to narrow it down. Now, your workflow will only trigger for inbound calls to your main line.

SalesMFast Dashboard

⚡ Step 3: Add Workflow Actions

Actions are what happens after the trigger.

With actions, you can:

  • Send an SMS or Email
  • Update a contact record or custom field
  • Trigger other automations
  • Assign tags, create tasks, and much more SalesMFast Dashboard Click "Add Action" to open the full Action Menu, which includes every type of operation you can perform inside SalesMFast.

And that’s it!

In simple terms: You have a Trigger, an optional Filter, and an Action.

But this is just the start — now you’re ready to explore even more powerful automations!

🧠 Types of Advanced Workflows

When using workflows, you will soon find that you can do “almost” anything. But as you increase the complexity, you also increase the chance of encountering unexpected issues or errors.

So let’s go over how to get started with Advanced Workflows and Automation in SalesMFast.

🔀 Split Contacts to Different Paths

Within a workflow, you can add an IF/Else condition, allowing you to redirect the flow of contacts to specific paths based on different filter criteria. You can also add a Split, which will randomly divide contacts into different paths.

After adding an IF/Else, you can create branches based on conditions. A contact must match a branch to continue down a unique set of actions.

This enables a split and personalized experience for every contact — a powerful way to customize messages and workflows. SalesMFast Dashboard

🔗 Chaining Multiple Workflows Together

As your automation system grows, you may notice the need to chain multiple workflows to accomplish a single goal — or to keep things clean and easy to manage.

Example: Create a workflow for each stage of your pipeline or sales process.

SalesMFast Dashboard 📌 Click on the image to enlarge.

In the example below, we have 5 workflows (A, B, C, D, and E) working together with a booking and contract pipeline:

  • The goal: Reach out to leads
  • Get them to book on the calendar
  • Deliver a sales pitch
  • Have them sign a contract to begin service

🔁 How These Workflows Work Together:

  • 🧩 One workflow per stage of the pipeline
  • 🛑 The new triggered workflow removes the contact from the previous workflows to avoid duplicate or irrelevant actions
  • 🔄 The opportunity is updated to move to the correct pipeline stage

There are countless ways to build this type of flow. What matters most is that you understand your options and begin to visualize how workflows interact inside SalesMFast.

🌐 Webhooks (Trigger & Action)

Webhooks run the internet and nearly every interaction you have with technology — you just might not notice or see them. You can use webhooks in SalesMFast Workflows to make other non-SalesMFast platforms talk to SalesMFast.

This enables you to further automate your business needs.

Example: If you use another contact management system and want contacts to flow into SalesMFast at a specific time — you can do this (and much more) with Webhooks.

⚠️ Be warned: Webhooks can feel complicated at first. But for those who learn them — you’ll unlock the full power of workflows in SalesMFast.

Webhooks require some advanced know-how, which is why we have a dedicated article and detailed video here: How to Use Webhooks in SalesMFast (Zapier)

🧩 Troubleshooting

There are many reasons why a workflow might fail to work as expected. Here are some primary checks you can do to help troubleshoot issues:

✅ Troubleshooting Checklist:

  • Test with a “Fresh” Contact After testing multiple times with the same contact, unexpected results can occur. → Try deleting and using a new contact when testing.
  • Test with a Contact The "Test Workflow" button in the top right has limitations. → For better accuracy, run a live test by triggering the workflow as a real user.
  • Check Your Filters Filters can be applied at both the trigger and action levels. → Without proper filters, your workflow may trigger at the wrong times.
  • Check Workflow Settings – “Allow Reentry” If Allow Reentry is turned off, a contact can’t re-enter the workflow once they’ve been added. → When testing, this can cause confusion. Enable reentry or use fresh contacts.