Growing a Successful Digital Marketing Agency with OnePageCRM
Company Profile
Name of the company: Success Local
HQ: Lutterworth, Leicestershire, UK
Year founded: 2016
Industry: Web Design and Digital Marketing
Paul Trilk started off his career as a loss adjuster and has years of experience in owning and running successful businesses. In the late 2000s, Paul noticed that many local businesses didn’t have an online presence which is so important for succeeding in today’s market. There was a clear gap, and Paul saw an opportunity. Together with this wife, Maria, they combined their efforts and started the web design company CT Creative.
In 2016, with the growth of the digital marketing industry, Paul and Maria realized there was a need for an all-in-one web and digital marketing agency. And Success Local was born. After a year of trading they bought another web design company and welcomed David Pearson on board as a director and shareholder. This helped to establish Success Local as a leading provider of web and digital marketing services within their local area.
Anchoring the business with the right CRM Software
Paul knew that if he was to grow his digital marketing business, he would need the right CRM. He tried several other CRMs in the past, like Hubspot and Infusionsoft, but was never fully satisfied. There was always too much going on, too many distractions.
Paul mentioned, “It’s like an iPhone app —50 functions but you only ever use 10. And we didn’t want to be distracted, especially when it came to our customers.”
In terms of what they needed, Paul knew exactly what they were looking for from their new CRM:
- A way to track their lead sources (with minimal distractions).
- To log customer/prospect interactions and schedule follow-ups.
- To communicate as a team about jobs or work received.
- And, finally, make sure the customer got invoiced.
When Paul came across OnePageCRM, it was the GTD (Getting Things Done) methodology at the core of the system that caught his attention. Now, years later, it’s still helping him and his growing team stay on top of the sales game.
“I realized quite early on that you can get easily distracted by shiny CRMs with lots of features. But they will take you down the wrong path. Finding OnePageCRM really helped us anchor our business.”
Unlocking a new streamlined sales approach
Not the one to waste time, Paul got straight to customizing his account by managing his statuses, deal stages, tags, and, of course, lead sources. This way, he could immediately see where the new leads were coming from. Whether that was an inbound lead, a referral, or a marketing campaign, the CRM allows him to log it in a couple of clicks.
1. Schedule follow-ups
Being a long-term GTD fan, Paul had no trouble getting used to the concept of Next Action that prompts follow-ups. After having an initial face-to-face Discovery meeting, they follow up with a proposal. Then they make sure to schedule another meeting where the team presents a rough but practical output for their client. For example, a design mock-up. Paul believes in getting the concept right before they start the job. That’s why they offer this service free of charge.
And all these steps are neatly logged and scheduled in OnePageCRM.
2. Qualify leads
Sam Austen, the Operations Manager, believes that the real game-changer for their business is the Split Pane view. It allows them to easily work through their daily Action Stream and, at the same time, update individual and organisation data quickly and efficiently.
“The Split Pane view enables us to move contacts from one stage of the sales journey to the next and, where required, remove any dead leads from the system—although we hope there aren’t too many of these!”
3. Save time with efficient collaboration
Using OnePageCRM also helped their marketing agency save lots of time and improve their team collaboration. Their favorite feature for that is @mentions. Instead of bouncing countless emails back and forth after a meeting, they add the details as a call note and mention another team member in it. This way, the whole team stays in the loop, and they know the message wasn’t lost in an inbox!
“It’s massively helped our accountability in tracking records and keeping us all up to date on where we’re with a particular project.”
4. Push the marketing deal forward in the CRM
As soon as the team has sent a proposal to the prospect, they add a deal to their OnePageCRM Pipeline. This helps them to plan for the future by estimating the predicted amount of new orders and the resources they’ll need to fulfill them.
Once the deal is added, the team works towards having, what they call, a “take back meeting”. Their marketing agency customizes the deal stages in our CRM and assigns this as 75%. That is when they discuss the design brief and any questions the client might have.
“By monitoring any lost deals against won deals, we’re able to see our prospect drop out rate throughout various stages of the sales process. This helps us to identify areas we can improve on.”
5. Get paid (with Xero)
When their marketing agency wins the sale, they mark the deal as Won in our CRM and turn it into an invoice in Xero in just one click. Paul mentioned how much they love the efficiency and speed with which OnePageCRM populates the contact and invoice details in Xero. This helps align their sales and accounting teams. What’s more, time is saved and no invoice falls through the cracks!
“The integration with Xero is critical to keeping our accounts up to date.”
Skyrocketing Productivity and Breaking Sales Targets
Since using OnePageCRM, Success Local has increased productivity two-fold and is more organized and in control of their follow-up process than ever before!
Their communication process has improved as well. Each department, be it Sales, Digital or Accounts, has a complete understanding of what’s happening with the prospect at every step of the way. If one team member is out of the office, another one can easily pick up where they left off, ensuring the customer is always at the forefront.
“We’re delighted that we’ve chosen OnePageCRM to help streamline our sales process and keep us on track with our prospects. Their customer support is exemplary too!”
The CRM pipeline keeps their marketing agency focused on what projects they have ongoing and ensures that they always meet their targets.
We were happy to learn that Paul often recommends OnePageCRM to other SMB’s as an essential tool to grow their business. Here’s the advice he gave…
“If you’re an SMB and are looking to grow and not overcomplicate things, use OnePageCRM. It provides a solid foundation and will help take your business to the next level.”
