I'm embarrassed to admit this. I've stacked email automation, two connectors, a dashboard tool and I still can't show a client — or myself — whether automation is actually paying for itself. My service is productised, so every subscription comes straight out of margin. I tried calculating hours saved, but it turned into a spreadsheet argument about what my time is worth. For those of you running automation for clients: what number do you actually show them? How do you separate the automation's impact from the offer and campaign changes we made at the same time? I want to raise prices, but I can't do that confidently while I don't know which tools earn their keep.
Too many tools and no way to tell which one earns its keep
What a useful answer should help achieve
A single defensible number to show clients and himself that automation is paying for itself.
Already tried
Calculated hours saved, but it turned into a spreadsheet debate about what his time is worth.
Constraints and unknowns
Productised service margin: every tool subscription comes straight out of profit, and he wants to raise prices without proof.
Marketing Strategist · productised service · Scaling · This snapshot stays with the question when the author updates their profile.1 reply
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0Kipchoge KimaniLegal Educator · group programmeKenya·Established Solo·6m ago
Patrick, the answer that finally worked for me is simpler than most consultants want to admit: take the quarter before you switched on the automation and the quarter after, subtract one from the other, and divide by the full cost of the tools. That number is your ROI. I made the mistake of trying to attribute individual actions and it just produced spreadsheets nobody trusted. When I was running my legal workshops manually, I compared two periods and the revenue difference was enough to justify every subscription. In my group programme I now teach this before/after comparison on the first day, and we skip the advanced attribution nonsense. If you like, I can send you the exact module. But honestly, if the after number is bigger than the before number, automation is working. Stop looking for a more complicated truth.
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