The 5-Step Survey-to-Shipped Method

Parent: Sales Methodology

The repeatable process from "we have manual workflows" to "we have a deployed system."

The five steps

1. Survey

Employees describe their three most tedious workflows — programs used, manual actions, time per occurrence, frequency. One-page response per person. Senior leadership doesn't guess at what hurts — frontline staff name it.

2. Score

Each response is rated on:

• Hours per week
• Loaded hourly rate
• Labor value freed per year
• Complexity (1–5 scale)
• Build cost
• Year-1 ROI
• Payback months

Output: the Workflow Scoring Matrix — sortable spreadsheet that compares every reported workflow apples-to-apples.

3. Pick

Senior management selects the workflows to automate first, in priority order — using the scoring matrix. Decision criteria: highest labor recovery first, lowest complexity to break ties, prefer workflows that share infrastructure (so the Foundation tier amortizes faster).

4. Build

Fixed-price, fixed-timeline build. 45 days from kickoff to go-live. Written acceptance criteria signed off before work begins.

5. Operate

It runs on their own systems, in their accounts. They own the code and the data — built to keep running long after we hand it off.

Why this method works

• The survey defuses the "we don't know what to automate" objection
• The scoring matrix makes the conversation quantitative, not opinion-based
• Senior management retains decision power — we're consultants, not deciders
• Fixed price + fixed timeline eliminates the consulting-firm fear ("this will balloon")
• "You own everything" beats every SaaS subscription pitch they've heard

Using this in pitches

If a prospect says "where would we even start?" — walk them through this 5-step method. It positions us as the partner who already has a playbook, not the vendor still figuring it out.

Last updated: 2026-05-24