Setting up agency CRM software: what to track from lead to renewal
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Agency CRM software is the system an agency uses to keep track of its leads, deals and clients in one place. To set it up, you name the stages a lead moves through, pick the details to record at each stage, bring your contacts in and switch on a few simple automations. Then you decide what happens the moment a deal is won.
How do you set up agency CRM software?
Set it up in the order your work moves: stages first, then the details you record, then contacts, then automations. Each step then has somewhere to land.
- Write down every step a lead takes, from first contact to signed client. Those steps become your stages.
- Pick a few fields for each stage, such as lead source, the service they want, budget range and the date of the next step.
- Clean your contact list before you import it. Merge the doubles and drop old leads you won't contact again.
- Import the contacts, then open a handful of records and check them by hand.
- Switch on a few simple automations to start, such as a reminder when a follow-up is due and a note when a deal changes stage.
- Add the people who'll use it, and agree who updates which stage.
Keep the first version small. You can add fields later, and fields nobody fills in make every record harder to read.
If you haven't chosen a system yet, do that before any of these steps. For picking a CRM, see how to pick a CRM for a small marketing agency.
You don't have to do the setup alone. CRM setup is one of the kinds of work DeskTeam360's team takes on. Its team works inside the CRM and tools you already use, so you don't have to switch CRMs and nothing has to move. It's your call whether the team works in your project tool or in DeskTeam360's, and new tasks still come in through DeskTeam360's request form or by email.
To sort out which setup jobs you'll keep and which you'll pass on, grab the Task Delegation Template. It's a free template for handing off tasks, and it comes with a video on how to use it. You enter your email to get it.
What does an agency track in a CRM, from lead to renewal?
An agency tracks each contact's stage, the next step and the person who owns it, from the first lead right through to renewal. The details change as a lead becomes a client:
| Stage | What to track | Who keeps it current |
|---|---|---|
| New lead | Name, company, where they found you, what they asked about | Whoever spoke to them first |
| Qualified | Budget range, the service they need, who makes the decision, the next step date | The owner or the person who sells |
| Quote sent | The date it went out, the price, the follow-up date | The owner or the person who sells |
| Won | Start date, monthly fee, signed agreement, who'll run the account | The owner or the person who sells |
| Onboarding | Form sent, form back, kickoff call date, logins received | The account lead |
| Active | Monthly fee, open requests, date of the last check-in | The account lead |
| Renewal | Renewal date, any change to the work, the client's decision | The owner |
The moment a deal is won, the work changes hands. DeskTeam360's founder sees the first steps after a yes in this order: send the new client what they'll need, ask them to fill in a form about their business, meet on an onboarding call, then deliver great work. Set up your CRM so a won deal turns those steps into tasks for the person running the account.
The form is where your account details come from. For the questions to ask a new client, see the onboarding questionnaire.
If DeskTeam360 handles part of the work, its account manager decides who does each task, keeps it on schedule and reviews it before it reaches you.
If a new client brings more tasks than you can carry, write down which ones you'd pass to someone else with the free Task Delegation Template, which suits owners who haven't hired anyone yet. Enter your email and it's yours.
More on Choosing and setting up a CRM
Sources
- DeskTeam360, home page, deskteam360.com
- DeskTeam360, white label, white label marketing, CRM and automation, and website care pages, deskteam360.com/services
- DeskTeam360's founder, Jeremy Kenerson, on running an agency, from his own notes (not published)
- DeskTeam360's founder, Jeremy Kenerson, on what the template is for, in his own words (not published)
- DeskTeam360, Ultimate Task Delegation Template page, start.deskteam360.com/ultimate-task-delegation-template
What changed
- : first version.