Agency CRM and AI automation
New-business enquiries wait while the studio delivers, and the pipeline is empty a quarter later. An agency CRM with AI qualification answers every brief at once, books the discovery call, sends the proposal for signature and reports on it all without a Friday spreadsheet.
For agencies with 10 to 250 staff- Referrals
- Website enquiries
- LinkedIn messages
- Ad lead forms
- Pitch invitations
- Past clients
- Partner introductions
- Event follow-up
- Newsletter replies
- Directory listings
Feast, famine and a pipeline nobody owns
Most agencies sell in bursts. When the studio is busy, briefs sit in a shared inbox and proposals go out a week late. When the work ends, the pipeline is empty and the directors start selling from a standing start. An agency CRM is supposed to stop that cycle, but most become a contact list that nobody updates after the first month.
The cost shows up in three places. Directors spend their best hours on first calls with prospects who never had a budget. Proposals go out and are never chased, because the person who wrote them is back on delivery. And nobody can say which source actually produces signed clients, so marketing spend for the agency itself is decided on instinct.
Briefs wait for a free hour
Enquiries that arrive mid-project get a reply after the prospect has already spoken to two other agencies.
Directors qualify by hand
Senior people take every first call, including the ones with no budget, no timeline and no decision maker.
Proposals go quiet
A proposal is sent, nobody chases it, and it is quietly marked lost a month later.
Reports are built by hand
Status updates and new-business numbers are assembled in spreadsheets, so selling comes second.
Every brief answered.
Every proposal chased.
Every source counted.
Every brief qualified before a director picks up the phone
The platform asks the questions that decide fit, scores the answers and sends the enquiry to the right person with a discovery call already offered.
Qualification and routing
- Trigger
Starts when
A new-business enquiry arrives from the website, a referral email, LinkedIn or an ad form
Brief questions answered
The AI agent asks about scope, timing, budget and who signs off, in plain conversation.
MinutesFit and value scored
Answers are scored for fit and likely retainer value and written to the contact record.
SecondsRouted to the right lead
Larger briefs go to a director, smaller ones to the account team, by rules you set.
Instant- High valueScore above your threshold
Senior owner assigned
Unassigned deals only
Discovery call booked
The owner gets the brief, the answers and the booked call on their phone.
InstantCall-back booked
Within 5 minutes, on the owner's calendar
- Done
- StandardGood fit, normal value
Round robin across the team
Shared evenly, unassigned only
Team member notified
With the answers attached
- End
- Poor fitOutside what you sell
Poor fits answered well
Briefs that do not fit get a useful reply and join the agency newsletter list.
Same day- End
- High valueScore above your threshold
- Website chat: rebrand and new site, spring launchnew
- AI agent asks about timing, budget and who signs off
- Budget agreed with the board, launch in four months
- Scored as a strong fit and routed to a director
- Discovery call offered: Tuesday 11:00 or Wednesday 15:00sent
- Prospect chose Tuesday 11:00booked
- Deal opened at discovery call, source: website chatdone
Illustration of a typical enquiry handled after the studio has gone home.
Where new-business enquiries leak before a discovery call
Put in your own pipeline figures. The result is your arithmetic, not a promise.
Based on the figures you entered
This is your own arithmetic on the figures you entered, not a result levelpartner.ai has produced for anyone.
How this is calculated
value of a booked meeting = your close rate × first-year value
low estimate: enquiries with no reply × your conversation rate × your booking rate × value of a meeting
high estimate: the low estimate + enquiries replied to without a conversation × your booking rate × value of a meeting
The low figure counts only enquiries nobody replied to. The high figure adds enquiries that got a reply but never became a conversation. Not every one of them was winnable.
Worked example. 100 enquiries, 80% replied to, 60% of those reach a conversation, 40% of conversations book, 25% of meetings close at 5,000: 20 enquiries get no reply and 32 never reach a conversation, roughly 6,000 to 22,000 of first-year revenue at stake each month.
What an agency CRM needs to do
Six parts of the platform matter most to agencies. The point is not more software: it is that new business keeps moving in the weeks when everyone is on delivery.
A new-business pipeline that updates itself
Stages for enquiry, discovery call, proposal sent, negotiation and signed, each with a value. Booking a call or sending a proposal moves the deal on its own, and a stale-deal rule flags anything that has sat in one stage too long. Set that window per stage: a few days for a small project, longer for a pitch.
AI agents that qualify briefs
An AI agent answers website chat, SMS, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp enquiries from your own information, asks your qualifying questions and books the discovery call. Start it in suggestion mode, where it drafts replies for a person to send, and switch to automatic replies once you trust it.
Proposals that chase themselves
When a deal reaches proposal stage, a workflow sends the proposal from a template, with the client name and fee already filled in. Add an expiry date, a second signer such as the client's finance lead, and a polite follow-up if it is not opened within the days you choose.
Reporting and attribution for your own pipeline
Every enquiry keeps its source, so you can see which channel produced which discovery call and which signed client. Scheduled reports go to the directors by email. One limit to know: long tables are cut short in emailed or PDF reports, so summarise rather than export.
Email marketing to past enquiries
Briefs that were too early, too small or lost on timing go into a segmented newsletter. Show recent work and a point of view every few weeks, and the next brief comes from someone who already knows you.
Invoices and retainers on the same record
Once a client signs, send the first invoice or a payment link from the same record, and keep a card on file for a monthly retainer. Finance stops asking account managers for the latest fee.
- When a new-business enquiry is scored
- If budget is agreed and launch is within six months
- Then assign to a director and offer a discovery call
- Else assign to the account team
- Always log the answers on the contact
The parts agencies set up in the first month
Each of these runs on the same contact and deal record, so a brief, a call, a proposal and an invoice sit in one place.
Reports that send themselves
Build a new-business report once from pipeline, call and ad widgets, then schedule it by email at the time you choose. Recipients do not need a login. Google Ads, Meta and Google Analytics widgets sit beside your pipeline numbers.
Proposals with signatures
Proposal templates pull the deal value and client details in, collect an e-signature with an audit certificate, and can take the first payment on signing.
Discovery calls shared fairly
A round-robin booking page spreads discovery calls across the new-business team, with buffers so nobody is booked back to back with a client review.
Stalled deals flagged
A deal that sits in one stage for the number of days you set triggers a task and a nudge, so quiet proposals surface before they are lost.
The agency's own social
Plan a month of the agency's own posts across networks in one sitting, so marketing yourself does not stop when the studio gets busy.
From a stack of tools to one agency CRM
A typical agency runs new business across a shared inbox, a spreadsheet, a booking link, a proposal tool, an email platform and a reporting tool. Each holds part of the story and nobody has the whole of it.
The usual agency stack
- Enquiries in a shared inbox and in personal email
- A pipeline spreadsheet that is out of date by Friday
- Booking, proposals, signatures and email in separate tools
- New-business reports assembled by hand each month
One platform
- Every enquiry on one contact record, with its source
- Stages that move when calls are booked and proposals sent
- Booking, proposals, signatures and invoices on one record
- Reports scheduled to the directors' inboxes
Consolidating means one licence instead of several subscriptions, with unlimited users, so adding an account manager adds no cost. Delivery tools such as your project tracker stay where they are.
One licence, no tiers
Every feature is available on one licence, with no tiers to climb and no per-seat fees. Usage is billed as used, including WhatsApp, premium workflow steps, local listings sync and AI; implementation and custom work are priced separately and agreed before any work starts.
levelpartner.ai
€7,512
a year, the platform licence
- Every feature is available on one licence, with no tiers
- Unlimited users and unlimited contacts, no per-seat fee
- 30 hours of onboarding included, plus a 30-day check-in after launch
- Implementation beyond the included hours at €85 an hour, scoped and approved first
- Custom builds quoted to scope
- Usage billed as used: email, SMS, calls, WhatsApp, AI, premium workflow steps and local listings sync, at published rates
Guides worth reading first
Sales pipeline: how it works and how to set it up
What a sales pipeline is for and how to build one on the platform, with stages named after what the buyer decided rather than what the salesperson did.
Lead qualification: how it works and how to set it up
Pick a short set of lead qualification questions, ask them the same way on forms, chat or the first call, and route each enquiry to the right person or outcome.
AI agents: how it works and how to set it up
What AI agents on the platform can do, why to start in suggestive mode, and the build order that makes an agent useful in its first week of replies.
The same platform, written for other kinds of business: consultants, mortgage brokers and real estate. If you run a recruitment agency or an insurance agency, there is a page written for you.
Questions buyers ask
What is the best CRM for a marketing agency?
The one your team keeps up to date because it mostly updates itself. Look for stages that move when a call is booked or a proposal is sent, follow-up that runs on its own, proposals with e-signature on the same record, and reporting that ties signed clients back to their source.
How do agencies use AI automation without it sounding like a bot?
Start with new business, not delivery. Train the AI agent on your services, sectors and minimum project size, and run it in suggestion mode for the first weeks so a person approves each reply. Move to automatic replies on the channels where the drafts no longer need editing.
Does it replace our project management tool?
No. The platform runs everything up to and around the signed client: enquiries, calls, proposals, invoices and reporting. Keep the tool your studio uses to plan delivery. Many agencies use a simple delivery pipeline here only for status that the client sees.
Can we send reports to people who do not have a login?
Yes. A scheduled report is emailed to any address you add, at the frequency and time you set. Recipients read it in their inbox or as a PDF. Keep the report to summaries, because long tables are cut short in email.
Can we move our existing pipeline across?
Yes. Contacts, companies, deals and stages come across from a spreadsheet export during onboarding, which includes 30 hours of set-up in the licence. Most agencies are live in two to four weeks, starting with the new-business pipeline.
What should we set up first?
The new-business pipeline and the discovery-call booking page, then the AI agent on the website and the proposal follow-up. Reporting comes last, once a few weeks of deals carry their source. That order means the first gain arrives in week one.
What does it cost for an agency?
The licence is €7,512 a year with unlimited users and contacts. Implementation beyond the included 30 hours is €85 an hour, agreed before any hours are billed. Email and SMS usage is billed as used at the published rates.
Find where your new business leaks
Bring your last quarter of enquiries. On the call we trace where they stalled and tell you plainly which fix would pay first.
Book a strategy call
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Keep new business moving while the studio delivers
One agency CRM, AI qualification, proposals that chase themselves and reports nobody has to build.