If you’re in B2B sales, you know busywork is the enemy. Chasing leads, updating records, nudging team members—most of it’s repetitive and easy to mess up. That’s where automation comes in. This guide is for sales managers, ops folks, and anyone who wants to use Membrain to stop drowning in admin and start closing more deals.
We’ll walk step-by-step through setting up automated sales workflows in Membrain. I’ll call out what’s worth your time, what isn’t, and how to keep it all from turning into a tangled mess.
1. Get Clear on What You Actually Want to Automate
Before you touch Membrain, slow down. Automation is only useful if you know exactly what you want to take off your team’s plate. Otherwise, you’ll end up automating chaos.
Start by mapping your current sales process: - List every step from lead to closed deal. - Mark what’s repetitive, time-sensitive, or often forgotten. (Think: follow-up reminders, task assignments, status updates.) - Talk to your team. Ask what they waste time on or what slips through the cracks.
Pro tip:
Don’t try to automate everything on day one. Pick 1–2 bottlenecks that drive everyone nuts. That’s your starting point.
2. Know What Membrain’s Automation Tools Can (and Can’t) Do
Membrain is built for B2B sales teams, so its automation features focus on process, not just data entry. But it’s not Zapier or Salesforce—there are limits.
What works well: - Triggering tasks, reminders, and emails based on pipeline stage or deal activity - Auto-assigning leads or tasks by rules (region, product, owner, etc.) - Enforcing process steps—making sure nothing gets skipped - Simple, in-CRM email sequences
What doesn’t really work: - Complex, multi-system automations (like auto-creating proposals in a third-party tool) - Deep integrations with every tool under the sun (Membrain’s API and Zapier integration exist, but they’re not plug-and-play)
Ignore for now:
Don’t get sidetracked by advanced stuff like AI recommendations or predictive scoring. Focus on nailing the basics first.
3. Set Up Your Sales Process in Membrain
You can’t automate what you haven’t defined. The backbone of Membrain’s automation is its sales process builder.
How to do it:
1. Go to Admin > Processors & Workflows.
2. Create a new process (or edit your existing one).
3. Lay out your stages:
- E.g., “Discovery,” “Solution Fit,” “Proposal,” “Negotiation,” “Closed/Won”
4. For each stage, add key activities and milestones.
- Calls, meetings, document requests—anything that must happen.
Pro tip:
Don’t cram every possible activity into your process. Focus on the non-negotiables. Too many required steps = annoyed reps who bypass the system.
4. Build Your First Automated Workflow
Here’s where the magic happens: turning boring, repeatable steps into automated actions.
How to set up an automation in Membrain:
- Go to Admin > Automation.
- Click “Add Automation.”
- Set the trigger.
- Triggers can be things like:
- A deal moves to a new stage (“Proposal Sent”)
- A field is updated (e.g., “Budget Confirmed”)
- A certain amount of time passes without activity
- Choose the action.
- Assign a task
- Send an email (templated, from the assigned rep)
- Add a note or update a field
- Change deal owner or status
- Add any conditions.
- E.g., Only run if deal value is over $10k, or if the contact has an email address.
Example: - When a deal moves to “Proposal Sent,” automatically create a “Follow up in 3 days” task for the owner and send a templated confirmation email to the prospect.
Test it out:
Run through the process with a dummy deal. Make sure nothing weird happens. (Automations can be unforgiving if you mess up the logic.)
5. Automate Follow-Ups and Task Reminders
Most sales teams fall down on follow-up. Membrain can take this off your mind.
How to set up follow-up reminders:
- Create a trigger:
- “No activity on deal for 5 business days”
- Set the action:
- Assign a follow-up task to the owner, or nudge them with an email notification
What works:
- Simple, time-based nudges to keep deals from going cold
- Automatic reminders for document requests or contract reviews
What doesn’t:
- Don’t try to automate complex, multi-step sequences with lots of branching logic. Membrain’s automation builder isn’t built for that.
Pro tip:
Keep reminders reasonable. Too many, and your team will ignore them (or worse, turn them off).
6. Use Automated Emails—But Don’t Sound Like a Robot
Membrain lets you send emails automatically based on triggers. Good for confirmations, meeting reminders, or “thanks for your time” notes.
To set up an automated email: - Pick your trigger (e.g., “Meeting Booked”) - Choose “Send Email” as the action - Use a template (with merge fields for names, dates, etc.) - Preview and test—typos and bad formatting look sloppy
Keep in mind: - Don’t overdo it. If every step sends an email, prospects will tune you out. - Automated emails are best for transactional stuff, not for building relationships.
7. Assign Leads and Tasks Automatically
Stop playing traffic cop. Membrain can route deals and tasks based on simple logic.
Set up auto-assignment: - Trigger: “New deal created” or “Deal moves to [stage]” - Action: Assign to owner based on region, segment, or round-robin
Pitfalls: - Overly complex rules get hard to manage. Start simple—e.g., assign by territory or product line. - Make sure everyone knows the rules. Surprises lead to dropped balls.
8. Enforce Required Steps—Without Making Your Team Hate You
One of Membrain’s strengths is nudging reps to follow your process (but don’t go full micromanager).
To require key activities: - In your sales process settings, set certain activities as “mandatory” for moving to the next stage.
What works: - Use for things you really don’t want skipped (e.g., “Qualifying Call Completed”) - Keep required steps to a minimum—use optional steps for the rest
What doesn’t: - Don’t require a dozen checkboxes for every stage. People will find workarounds—or just check boxes without doing the work.
9. Review, Test, and Adjust Your Automations
The first version of your workflow won’t be perfect. That’s fine.
Here’s how to keep it from going sideways: - Test with a handful of deals before rolling out to the whole team - Ask for feedback: What’s helpful? What’s annoying? What did it break? - Check reports: Are deals moving faster? Are tasks getting done? - Tweak triggers and actions: Simplify if you see a lot of ignored tasks or weird behavior
10. Don’t Try to Automate Everything (Yet)
It’s tempting to try and automate every part of your sales process right away. Resist. Start with the basics, see what works, and build from there.
What to focus on first: - Follow-up reminders - Task assignments - Required process steps - Simple, templated emails
What to hold off on: - Multi-system integrations (unless you have a real need) - Anything you can’t clearly explain to your team in one minute
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Keep It Useful
Automated workflows in Membrain can save your B2B team hours each week and help you stop dropping the ball. But don’t fall for the trap of automating for automation’s sake. Start with the boring, error-prone stuff. Get feedback early and often. If something feels more complicated than it’s worth, it probably is.
Keep things simple, and remember: the best automation is the one your team actually uses—and doesn’t complain about.
Now get started, and let Membrain handle the busywork so your team can focus on selling.