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Developing readiness for AI
The business uses standard cloud tools like HubSpot, Asana, Harvest, and Xero, but relies heavily on spreadsheets and manual data entry. Processes across sales, onboarding, and internal reporting are largely ad hoc and disconnected.
Anonymised Consultancy is a 28-person B2B brand and growth consultancy run by two founding partners. It provides strategy, campaigns, and performance marketing to mid-sized B2B companies.
Based on 8 of the 8 gaps below, using the figures the business gave us.
Sales and lead handling
Manual lead logging and slow response times
Inbound leads from multiple channels are logged manually when staff remember, leading to a two-day response time.
You told us: We get about 40 inbound leads a month... leads are logged manually when someone remembers. We take about two working days to respond
Impact: Prospective clients experience slow replies, risking lost engagement and opportunities.
Opportunity: Automatically capture and assign inbound leads in the CRM instantly.
USD 2,780 to USD 6,070 a year | 4 h/week back
Proposals written completely from scratch
The team manually writes approximately 10 proposals a month from scratch.
You told us: write around 10 proposals a month from scratch
Impact: Consumes valuable partner and business development time on repetitive documentation.
Opportunity: Implement automated proposal generation templates linked to CRM data.
USD 3,710 to USD 8,100 a year | 5.5 h/week back
Customer communication and support
Manual client onboarding and asset collection
Account managers manually send questionnaires and chase brand assets, access, and approvals via email.
You told us: the account manager sends a Word questionnaire and chases brand assets, ad-account access and approvals by email. It takes about two weeks
Impact: Delays the time to first deliverable to two weeks and creates administrative friction for new clients.
Opportunity: Streamline onboarding with automated document collection portals and checklist workflows.
USD 4,770 to USD 10,420 a year | 7 h/week back
Finance, invoicing and collections
Manual timesheet chasing and invoice preparation
Finance staff spend three days at month-end chasing late timesheets and preparing invoices from spreadsheets.
You told us: two finance and operations staff spend about three days at month-end chasing timesheets and preparing invoices from spreadsheets, roughly 48 staff hours a month
Impact: Diverts valuable operations time to repetitive billing administration and delays collections.
Opportunity: Automate timesheet reminders and invoice drafting workflows between time-tracking and accounting tools.
USD 6,550 to USD 12,150 a year | 8.5 h/week back
Manual overdue payment reminders and delayed collections
Overdue payment reminders are sent manually, contributing to an average payment time of 52 days against 30-day terms.
You told us: Overdue payment reminders are sent manually. Clients pay in an average of 52 days against our 30-day terms, which keeps cash tight
Impact: Ties up working capital and keeps cash flow tight despite high project volume.
Opportunity: Automate payment reminder sequences and billing follow-ups.
USD 1,850 to USD 4,050 a year | 3 h/week back
Data, reporting and decisions
Siloed data and lack of consolidated performance visibility
Data is spread across multiple platforms and spreadsheets, preventing founders from having a consolidated view of profitability and utilisation.
You told us: Our data is spread across Google Workspace, HubSpot, Asana, Harvest, Xero, advertising platforms and lots of spreadsheets. The founders don't have one reliable, consolidated view
Impact: Makes it difficult to track profitability across projects and contributes to lower utilisation rates.
Opportunity: Deploy an integrated data reporting dashboard that centralises metrics across tools.
USD 2,120 to USD 4,630 a year | 3 h/week back
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Sales and lead handling2 / 5
Inbound leads are logged manually when someone remembers, response times average two days, and proposals are written completely from scratch.
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Customer communication and support3 / 5
Client communications and asset collection are handled manually via emails and Word questionnaires, taking two weeks to reach the first deliverable.
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Core operations and workflows2 / 5
Project statuses go stale in Asana, relying on a large weekly status meeting and manual Slack updates, with scope changes frequently undocumented.
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Finance, invoicing and collections2 / 5
Timesheets come in late, requiring extensive manual chasing and spreadsheet work at month-end, and payment reminders are sent manually.
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People and administration2 / 5
HR, onboarding, and document management rely on spreadsheets and unstructured Google Drive folders, leading to wasted search time and slow onboarding.
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Inventory, procurement and suppliersn/a
Not discussed in this conversation.
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Data, reporting and decisions2 / 5
Data is scattered across multiple platforms and spreadsheets, leaving founders without a consolidated real-time view of profitability and utilisation.
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Tools, systems and AI readiness3 / 5
The team uses core business platforms like Google Workspace, Slack, HubSpot, Asana, Harvest, and Xero, but integration and adoption consistency are low.
What this report does not include
This report lists the gaps and the value of closing them. It does not put the gaps in priority order, and it does not include a cost estimate for each opportunity. To get those details, contact us and we will take you through them.
Contact us · flex@sdfmgroup.com
Figures are indicative. They come from what you told us in this conversation and from typical results for similar work, not from an audit of your business. Return is a first-year estimate: annual value of the time and revenue recovered against a typical cost of putting the opportunities in place. Priorities and per-opportunity costs are available on request.
