CRM for agencies running multiple client pipelines
Pipeline CRM is a CRM for marketing, creative, digital and advertising agencies that keeps new business and client work in one place. Run a separate pipeline for each client or service line, track retainers and renewal dates on the account, generate branded proposals and statements of work from your own Word templates, and hand a won pitch straight into a delivery project without rebuilding it in another tool.
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Four client pipelines, one workspace
Renewal Due$336,000
Open fee value across new business and three client accounts
Open value by pipeline
Each client runs its own stages, so delivery work never clogs the pitch list. Verity’s retainer renews in 38 days.
Trusted by over 18,000 users globally
At a Glance
Pipeline CRM is an agency CRM that separates new business from client work, so marketing, creative and digital agencies can pitch, win and deliver from one system. As a CRM for agencies it runs multiple pipelines side by side (one per client, service line or new business stage), holds retainer value, service line and renewal date as unlimited custom fields, generates branded proposals and statements of work from your own Word templates, and turns a won pitch into a delivery project with native Project Management on the Grow plan. Pricing starts at $25 per user per month (billed annually) with US-based live chat support and a 14-day free trial, and Pipeline CRM was named Highest User Adoption by G2 for both enterprise and SMB.
What is an agency CRM?
An agency CRM is sales and client relationship software for shops that sell scoped creative and marketing work: brand and advertising agencies, digital and performance shops, design studios and full-service marketing firms. It has two jobs a generic CRM only does one of. The first is new business: pitches, RFPs and referrals moving through a pipeline. The second is the client base you already have, where the revenue actually lives, and where a retainer quietly ends because nobody was watching the renewal date.
Read more about how agency sales cycles work
Agency new business is lumpy and slow. A pitch can run three months through a review, a chemistry meeting, a scoped proposal and a procurement round, and an agency might pitch ten to win four. Meanwhile the account team is upselling a second service line into an existing client, which closes faster and is worth more over its life than most new logos. Both motions run at once, on different clocks, usually in different tools, and the forecast ends up in a spreadsheet nobody trusts by Wednesday.
Pipeline CRM handles both in one workspace. New business runs in its own pipeline with its own stages, while each client or service line gets a pipeline of its own so an upsell is not competing for attention with a cold pitch. Retainer value and renewal date sit on the account, so the conversation about next year starts before the client starts shopping. When a pitch is won, the same record becomes a delivery project, so the promises made in the proposal reach the people doing the work.
Why a horizontal CRM is not enough
Generic CRMs were built for inside sales reps closing subscriptions in weeks. Agency revenue comes from pitched work, retainers that renew, and service lines sold into clients you already have. Here are four reasons a generic CRM falls short for agencies.
One pipeline for every kind of work
New business, upsells into existing clients, and renewals all behave differently and move at different speeds. Forced into a single pipeline they distort each other, so the forecast is meaningless and a three-month pitch sits next to a two-week upsell as if they were the same thing.
Retainers end without anyone noticing
The client base is where agency revenue really lives, and in a generic CRM a retainer has no renewal date, no term and no owner watching it. The first sign a client is leaving is often the email, not a report that flagged it ninety days earlier.
The proposal lives in a shared drive
An agency deal is a scoped proposal or SOW, revised two or three times before signature. Generic CRMs assume one deal equals one price, so scope drafts, the deck and the client’s feedback scatter across email threads and folders nobody else can find.
Sales stops where delivery begins
The record goes quiet the moment a pitch is marked won, which is exactly when the promises made in it have to be delivered. Without a way to carry a won pitch into a project, scope agreed in the pitch is retold second-hand and the account team inherits a deal they never saw.
Agency CRM software that separates new business from client work
Pipeline CRM is a purpose-built CRM for agencies that handles both halves of the revenue picture. Run new business in its own pipeline with pitch, chemistry meeting, proposal and procurement stages. Give each client or service line a pipeline of its own so upsells are tracked without competing against cold pitches. Track every touch (brief, pitch, scope revision, renewal conversation) on one account record so nothing falls between the new business lead who won the client, the account director who runs it, and the strategist who has to deliver it. Retainer value and renewal dates surface in a report rather than a calendar reminder. The result is a forecast that separates new logos from organic growth, retainers that get renewed on time, and a cleaner handoff from pitch to project, whether you are eight people or eighty.
How agencies use Pipeline CRM
Pipeline CRM bends to the way agencies actually sell. Here are seven ways new business leads, account directors and agency owners put it to work every day.
Multiple client pipelines
Run a New Business pipeline for pitches, a pipeline per major client or service line for organic growth, and a Renewals pipeline for retainers coming due. Each has its own stages, fields and reports, so a three-month pitch and a two-week upsell are never averaged into the same forecast.
Retainers and renewal tracking
Store retainer value, contract term and renewal date on the account, then report on everything renewing in the next ninety days and trigger a task so the conversation starts before the client starts shopping. Most agency revenue is retained rather than won, and this is the report that protects it.
Proposals, SOWs and retainer agreements
Generate branded proposals, statements of work and retainer agreements from your own Word templates with Instant Docs. Client and scope details merge into your .docx template automatically, and eSignature closes it without the document leaving the record.
Custom fields for service lines
Track service line, retainer versus project, monthly value, contract term, referral source, industry vertical and account lead as structured fields on the deal and the account. Unlimited custom fields with conditional logic, so a paid media retainer does not prompt for print specifications.
Pitch to delivery handoff
When a pitch is won, turn the deal into a live project with the native Project Management module. Track Projects, Milestones and Tasks in List, Kanban, Gantt and Profile views, linked to the same client record, and give clients Guest access to the work that concerns them. Available on the Grow plan and up.
QuickBooks sync and open API
The native QuickBooks integration syncs clients, invoices and payment status with QuickBooks Online, so finance and account teams share one set of records. For a time-tracking or resource-planning tool such as Harvest or Float, your developer team can build the connection through the open API, and Zapier covers no-code workflows.
New business prospecting and events
Pipe inbound enquiries from Mailchimp campaigns and web forms straight into the New Business pipeline, use Apollo for outbound prospecting into target verticals, and scan business cards at conferences and awards nights into tagged contacts from the mobile app before they end up in a jacket pocket.
How agencies grow with Pipeline CRM
Digital, performance and marketing consulting agencies use Pipeline CRM to keep new business and client relationships in one workspace. Three examples from agency land.
A digital agency goes all in
Wire Stone Digital Marketing went all in on Pipeline CRM, using the full toolset to track outreach, manage client relationships and keep every account moving from one workspace.
Read the Wire Stone storyTen years of growth on one CRM
MGECOM relies on Pipeline CRM to tell its salespeople what to do and when to do it, and credits the system as part of celebrating ten years of growth as a performance marketing business.
Read the MGECOM storyBuilding sales solutions for agency clients
A David Creation, a Washington D.C. based marketing consulting firm, uses Pipeline CRM both for its own practice and to build sales solutions for the contractors and clients it serves.
Read the A David Creation storyAward-winning support
An agency cannot wait three days for a help-desk ticket when a pitch is due Friday. Pipeline CRM’s US-based live chat team has a 97.6 percent satisfaction rate and a one minute median chat response.
Works with the tools agencies already use
QuickBooks is the most-used finance integration for agencies on Pipeline CRM. The native integration syncs clients, invoices and payment status with QuickBooks Online so finance and account teams share one set of records. Connect Gmail and Outlook to log every client email automatically, pipe inbound enquiries from Mailchimp campaigns into the New Business pipeline, use Apollo for outbound prospecting, and for a time-tracking or resource-planning tool your developer team can build a connection on the open API or wire it up with Zapier.
How Pipeline CRM compares to other agency CRM software
Agencies evaluating a CRM usually weigh five options, and they solve different problems: some are marketing platforms, some are project or PSA tools with a CRM attached, and some are sales CRMs. The table below summarises where each is strongest and where to watch out, so you can shortlist quickly.
| Software | Best for | Key strength | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pipeline CRM | Marketing, creative and digital agencies of 5 to 50 people that need new business and client growth tracked separately | ✓Multiple client pipelines side by side, retainer and renewal-date reporting, unlimited custom fields for service line and contract term, branded proposals and SOWs via Instant Docs templates, native Project Management for pitch-to-delivery handoff on Grow, native QuickBooks Online integration, US-based live chat, $25 per user per month (billed annually) | A sales CRM with project delivery, not a PSA: no time tracking, resource planning, capacity forecasting or billable-hours reporting |
| HubSpot | Agencies running a heavy inbound motion, and agencies that resell HubSpot to clients | ✓Marketing automation, landing pages and content tools bundled with the CRM, plus a partner programme | ✗Per-seat and feature-gated pricing climbs quickly; client delivery needs third-party add-ons |
| Copper | Small agencies living entirely inside Google Workspace | ✓Deep Gmail and Google Workspace integration with very little setup | ✗Lighter reporting and fewer options for running many parallel client pipelines |
| Accelo | Agencies that want time tracking, billing and delivery in the same platform | ✓Professional services automation with time, retainer billing and project delivery in one suite | ✗Heavier PSA footprint and a steeper learning curve for teams that mainly need a sales CRM |
| Monday | Project-led agencies that want work management first and CRM second | ✓Flexible boards and workflows the whole agency can adapt | ✗CRM functionality is a layer on a work-management tool; pipeline reporting and renewal tracking are thinner |
Table reflects publicly available product documentation and G2 review themes as of 2026-08-03. Pricing is per user per month and billed annually where applicable.
From new business pitch to renewed retainer
Most agencies do not just win clients, they grow and keep them, and the second part is worth more. Pipeline CRM supports both in one workspace. New business leads run pitches, chemistry meetings and proposals in a dedicated pipeline. Account directors work the same client record for upsells and renewals, with retainer value and contract term attached. Marketing and advertising agencies, creative and design studios, digital and performance shops, PR firms and independent consultancies all run this win-grow-keep loop in the same place.
Inside one Pipeline CRM workspace an agency can run a New Business pipeline for pitches, a pipeline per major client for organic growth, and a Renewals pipeline for retainers coming due, each with its own stages, custom fields and reports. When a pitch is won the deal becomes a project with Milestones and Tasks tracked in List, Kanban, Gantt and Profile views, and clients can be given Guest access to just the work that concerns them. New logo revenue versus organic growth, retainers renewing next quarter and win rate by service line all live on the same dashboards, so the managing director and the new business lead read the same numbers on Monday morning. Consultancies and other billable-team businesses run the same building blocks with a slightly different shape, and there is a dedicated page for professional services firms.
Frequently Asked Questions
Find the answer to your question here. If you don’t see it, please feel free to contact us.
What is an agency CRM and why use one?
An agency CRM is sales and client relationship software for shops that sell scoped creative and marketing work. It does two jobs a generic CRM only does one of: it runs new business, where pitches move through a long multi-stakeholder process, and it runs the existing client base, where most agency revenue actually sits and where a retainer can end simply because nobody was watching the date.
Pipeline CRM covers both with multiple pipelines side by side, retainer and renewal-date reporting, unlimited custom fields for service line and contract term, branded proposals and SOWs generated from your own Word templates with Instant Docs, and native Project Management on the Grow plan so a won pitch becomes a delivery project. Pricing starts at $25 per user per month (billed annually) with a 14-day free trial.
What is the best CRM for a marketing agency?
It depends on which problem is costing you more. If your bottleneck is generating demand and you want landing pages, email automation and content tools in the same product, HubSpot is built for that. If you need time tracking, capacity planning and retainer billing in one suite, that is a PSA like Accelo. If your bottleneck is that new business and client growth are tangled in one pipeline and nobody can say which retainers renew next quarter, that is a sales CRM problem.
Pipeline CRM is a strong fit for marketing, creative and digital agencies of roughly 5 to 50 people: multiple client pipelines, retainer renewal reporting, unlimited custom fields, branded proposals from your own templates, native project delivery on the Grow plan and US-based live chat on every plan. It is deliberately not a marketing automation platform or a PSA, and many agencies run it alongside one.
Can I run multiple client pipelines in one CRM?
Yes, and for agencies it is usually the deciding feature. Pipeline CRM lets you run pipelines side by side, each with its own stages, custom fields and reports. The common setup is a New Business pipeline with pitch and procurement stages, a pipeline per major client or service line for organic growth, and a Renewals pipeline for retainers coming due.
The reason it matters is forecasting. A three-month pitch and a two-week upsell into an existing client behave nothing alike, and averaging them into one pipeline produces a number no one trusts. Separate pipelines let you report new logo revenue and organic growth independently, which is the split most agency owners actually want to see.
How do agencies track retainers and renewals in a CRM?
Store retainer value, contract term and renewal date as custom fields on the client account, then build a saved report for everything renewing in the next ninety days. An automation opens a task for the account lead when a retainer crosses that threshold, so the renewal conversation happens on your timing rather than after the client has already spoken to someone else.
This matters more in agencies than in most businesses because retained revenue usually dwarfs new business, and it churns quietly. Keeping the retainer history, scope changes and past renewal conversations on the same record is what lets an account director justify a rate increase with evidence instead of hope.
Does Pipeline CRM handle agency project delivery as well as sales?
Yes, within a defined scope. Pipeline CRM includes a native Project Management module, so when a pitch is won you turn the deal into a Project and break it into Milestones and Tasks. Projects, Milestones and Tasks link to the same client, deal and contacts, you can view work in List, Kanban, Gantt or Profile views, and clients can be given Guest access to the work that concerns them. It is available on the Grow plan and up.
Be clear about the boundary: it is project tracking, not resource management. There is no time tracking, no capacity or utilisation forecasting and no billable-hours reporting, which agencies often expect from the word “project”. Agencies that need those run a dedicated time and resourcing tool alongside Pipeline CRM, connected through the open API or Zapier.
What is the best CRM for advertising and creative agencies?
Advertising and creative shops have a specific shape: long pitch cycles with several stakeholders, work that is scoped rather than priced off a list, and revenue concentrated in a handful of large accounts. The CRM has to hold a pitch open for months without it going stale, keep the proposal and its revisions on the record, and make the health of each major account visible.
Pipeline CRM fits that with multi-stage new business pipelines, stalled-deal reporting so a pitch that has gone quiet resurfaces, unlimited custom fields for service line and account detail, and branded proposals generated from your own Word templates. For agencies whose main need is inbound demand generation rather than pipeline discipline, a marketing platform may be the better first investment.
Can Pipeline CRM track new business and existing client growth separately?
Yes, and keeping them separate is the point. Run new business in its own pipeline with its own stages, and give existing clients their own pipelines for upsells and renewals. Because reporting is per pipeline, you can answer how much revenue came from new logos versus organic growth without exporting anything to a spreadsheet.
Custom fields make the split sharper still: tag each deal as new business, upsell or renewal, and by service line, then report on win rate and average value for each. Most agencies discover their organic growth is both larger and higher margin than they assumed, which changes where the new business effort goes.
Does Pipeline CRM integrate with QuickBooks and time-tracking tools?
Pipeline CRM integrates natively with QuickBooks Online, syncing clients, invoices and payment status, so finance and account teams work from one set of records. The QuickBooks integration is available on all plans, including the Start plan at $25 per user per month (billed annually). Note the native integration is with QuickBooks Online, not QuickBooks Desktop.
For time tracking and resource planning tools such as Harvest, Toggl or Float there is no pre-built native integration, and it would be misleading to suggest otherwise. Pipeline CRM exposes a documented open API your developer team can build against, and Zapier handles lower-volume workflows without code. A common first connection pushes a won retainer into the time-tracking tool as a project or client.
How much does agency CRM software cost?
Pipeline CRM pricing is $25 per user per month for Start, $33 per user per month for Develop, and $49 per user per month for Grow. All three are billed annually, and enterprise pricing is custom. Every plan includes the QuickBooks Online integration, the mobile app with business card scanner, unlimited custom fields and US-based live chat support.
Most agencies choose Grow because it adds the native Project Management module for turning won pitches into delivery projects, alongside higher automation and custom-field caps. Agencies also tend to license the client-facing team rather than everyone, which keeps it well below the per-seat cost of bundling a marketing platform. You can try it on a 14-day free trial with no credit card.
Is Pipeline CRM a CRM agency or CRM software?
Pipeline CRM is software, not a services firm. If you are looking for an agency to implement, migrate or administer a CRM on your behalf, that is a different kind of provider and this is not it. This page is about using Pipeline CRM as the CRM your agency runs on.
That said, agencies do use Pipeline CRM in both directions. Some run it as their own new business and client system; some are marketing consultancies that recommend and configure it for the clients they serve, which is what A David Creation does. If you want help with setup, onboarding packages start at $750 and include a dedicated specialist.
How do agencies handle proposals and statements of work in a CRM?
Generate them from templates you already own. Instant Docs merges client, scope and pricing details from the deal record into your own .docx template, so the proposal or SOW comes out branded and consistent without anyone rebuilding it from the last one. Built-in eSignature closes it, and the signed document stays attached to the deal.
What it does not do is build the proposal for you: there is no pricing-table builder or interactive proposal tool. The template and its structure remain yours, which most agencies prefer because their proposal format is part of how they sell. Scope revisions live on the deal alongside the client’s feedback, so the version that was actually signed is never in doubt.
How long does it take to roll out Pipeline CRM in an agency?
Most agencies are live within one to three weeks. The fastest rollouts follow a simple sequence: import existing clients, contacts and open pitches from a CSV, set up the New Business pipeline plus one pipeline per major client, add the handful of custom fields that describe your service lines and retainers, connect QuickBooks Online and the team’s email, then train the client-facing team in a single one hour session.
Pipeline CRM’s standard CSV and Excel import handles most migrations in about three business days, and it is worth importing retainer renewal dates first because that report starts paying immediately. US-based live chat support is available throughout setup at a 97.6 percent satisfaction rate. Onboarding training packages start at $750. Plan tiers are on the pricing page.