Agencies are brilliant at running other people’s pipelines and often terrible at running their own.
Early accessCubeCRM for marketing & creative agencies
CRM for marketing, design, digital and PR agencies - new business, proposals, retainers and client relationships in one place.
- Agencies
- UK hosted, set up in person
- 01234 672 617
Agency new business tends to arrive in bursts: a flurry of pitches, a win, a period of delivery with no prospecting at all, and then a quiet month.
Retainers renew without a review, pitch documents are rebuilt from scratch, and the account director’s inbox holds the only record of what the client said they wanted. CubeCRM gives the agency a steady view of new business alongside existing clients - enquiries, pitches, proposals, retainers and renewal dates - so prospecting continues while the studio is busy and existing clients get reviewed before they drift.
- Forward
Pipeline visible against capacity
- Reviewed
Every retainer, on a schedule
- Measured
Pitch win rate by sector
What goes wrong
The problems that keep coming up
Not every business has all five. Almost every business we speak to has three.
Feast and famine new business
Prospecting stops when the studio is busy, and the pipeline is empty by the time the big project ends. Nobody notices until the quiet month arrives.
Pitches rebuilt every time
Credentials, case studies and pricing are pulled together from old decks for each pitch, with inconsistent results and a lot of late nights.
Retainers on autopilot
Monthly retainers renew without a conversation until the client gives notice. The review that might have saved it never took place.
Scope promised in email
What was agreed with the client lives in an account manager’s email thread. When the work is disputed, finding the agreement is an archaeology project.
No idea which work pays
The agency knows its biggest clients but not which types of client or project are worth pitching for, because pitch history and outcomes are not recorded.
What we do about it
How CubeCRM is set up for agencies
Configuration, not a separate edition. Everything here is in the same product - it is switched on and shaped during setup.
A new business pipeline
Enquiries, pitches and proposals on one board with values and dates, visible to the whole leadership team - so a thinning pipeline is obvious months ahead.
Proposals from templates
Proposal templates with credentials, services and rate cards, so most proposals are assembled rather than written from scratch.
Retainer reviews and renewals
Renewal dates and quarterly review reminders on every retainer, with notes from each review on the client record.
Client email on the record
Correspondence files itself against the client, so scope agreements and approvals can be found by anybody on the account.
Pitch win rates
Win rates and values by sector, service and source, so the agency can see which pitches are worth the effort.
Prospect lists by sector
Segment prospects and past clients by sector, size and interest for targeted outreach and campaigns.
In practice
Two situations from this sector
Typical situations, anonymised. These are the kinds of problem businesses describe before they change anything.
- Case 1
The quiet month nobody saw coming
Before
A 20-person digital agency finished a large project and discovered it had nothing lined up to replace it. Prospecting had stopped three months earlier while everybody delivered.
With CubeCRM
A weekly pipeline review from CubeCRM now shows forward value against capacity. When the pipeline dips below a threshold, business development time is protected, and the agency has not repeated the gap.
- Case 2
Retainers renewed without a review
Before
A PR agency lost two long-standing retainers in one quarter. In both cases the client had been unhappy for months, but no formal review had taken place.
With CubeCRM
Every retainer now has a quarterly review scheduled with notes recorded on the client. Issues are raised earlier, and renewals are discussed rather than assumed.
How it happens
What getting started involves
The same five stages whatever your sector. Discovery and training can be done at your office, because sitting with the team tells us more than any questionnaire.
- 1
Discovery
A short, structured session on how enquiries arrive, how you quote, and where customer information lives now - the inboxes, the spreadsheet, the old CRM and the notebook in the car. We come back with what works as standard and what needs configuring.
- 2
Setup
Pipeline stages, fields, quote templates, email connection, teams and permissions set up to match how you sell - not a demo account with your logo dropped on it.
- 3
Data import
Contacts, companies, open opportunities and quote history brought across from spreadsheets, inboxes or your previous CRM, with duplicates merged. You check it against what you had before anybody switches over.
- 4
Training & rollout
Short, role-based training so the sales team learns the pipeline and the office learns enquiries and cases - in person where it helps. Guides and screen recordings left behind for new starters.
- 5
Ongoing support
UK support from the people who built the platform, with a named contact, agreed response times, and a product roadmap you can influence.
Questions
What this sector asks first
No. CubeCRM handles new business, client relationships, proposals and retainers. Project delivery usually stays in your project tool, and won work can be passed across through the API or webhooks.
Yes. Deals can carry one-off values, recurring monthly values or both, and pipelines can be split by type of work.
Segments are built in CubeCRM and campaigns sent through Mailchimp, with campaign responses and enquiries tracked back to the contact. We would rather integrate with a mail platform than pretend to be one.
Email and calendar sync does most of the work, and the rest is designed to take seconds. If updating the CRM feels like admin, it has been set up wrong, and we would fix that.
Where to start
The parts that usually matter most here
Sales Pipeline Software
Every opportunity on one board, by stage, with value, likelihood and next step - so the whole team can see what is live and what is stuck.
Client Management Software
For service businesses that manage clients rather than sell products - engagements, contacts, documents, renewals and every conversation on one client record.
Quoting & Proposal Software
Branded quotes and proposals built from your own price list, with every revision kept, automatic chasing and online acceptance that closes the deal.
Lead Management Software
Capture, qualify, assign and nurture leads in one place, so sales spends its time on the prospects most likely to buy.
Related
Sectors with similar problems
- Professional ServicesCRM for consultancies, accountancy practices, surveyors, architects and other firms that win work through relationships, referrals and proposals.
- Technology & IT ResellersCRM for IT resellers, software companies, telecoms providers and technology suppliers - pipeline, renewals, recurring revenue and long B2B sales cycles.
- Events, Venues & HospitalityCRM for venues, event organisers and corporate hospitality - enquiries, proposals, repeat bookers and agency relationships in one place.
If your process really is unusual
Some requirements are specific to one business rather than one sector. Those get built against the same documented API everybody else uses - not bolted on to the side of a database nobody is allowed to look at.
Agencies
Show us how you win work today
Bring one enquiry that went well, one that went nowhere, and whatever you use to track them now. That tells us more about whether this fits than any list of features.
