CRM, Sales and Customer-Service Systems

About Course

Startups often keep customer information across inboxes, spreadsheets, personal notes and disconnected applications. Leads receive inconsistent follow-up, sales forecasts become guesses and support issues disappear between team members. This course helps founders build one practical customer system connecting marketing, sales, onboarding, service, retention and management reporting. You will map the customer lifecycle and turn business requirements into a platform-selection decision. You will design contacts, companies, leads, deals and service records before configuring qualification, pipeline and lead-routing rules. The course then covers disciplined sales activity, forecasting, tickets, service levels, knowledge, onboarding, retention, automation and integrations. Every section produces a practical asset, including a lifecycle map, CRM scorecard, data dictionary, pipeline design, service workflow and KPI dashboard. By the end, you will become a CRM and customer-operations leader: able to create reliable customer records, establish disciplined sales and service processes and make performance visible. You will leave with a configured CRM blueprint and a 90-day implementation roadmap. Successful learners receive a Scalelab Academy certificate, lifetime course access, future updates and access to course-specific AI tools for lifecycle design, qualification rules, pipeline review, service knowledge and CRM reporting.

Map the complete customer lifecycle and operating handoffs.
Define CRM requirements and select an appropriate platform.
Design reliable customer, deal and service records.
Build lead qualification and sales-pipeline stages.
Capture, attribute, qualify and route leads.
Manage sales activities, pipeline health and forecasts.
Configure customer-service cases, queues and service levels.
Build knowledge, onboarding and customer-success workflows.
Automate and integrate the customer system safely.
Apply permissions, privacy and customer-data controls.
Measure CRM data quality, adoption and performance.
Build a 90-day CRM implementation and improvement roadmap.

Course Content

Section 1: Design the Customer Lifecycle before Choosing a CRM
Map how people move from awareness to enquiry, sale, onboarding, support, renewal and advocacy. Learners will define lifecycle stages, touchpoints, ownership and handoffs so the CRM reflects the business rather than unsuitable software defaults.

Map the end-to-end customer lifecycle
Define marketing, sales, onboarding and service stages
Identify customer touchpoints and channels
Assign ownership and handoff responsibilities
Identify information needed at each stage
Create a customer-lifecycle operating map

Section 2: Define Requirements and Select the Right CRM
Determine what the startup genuinely needs from a customer system. Learners will define users, processes, channels, reporting, integrations, security and budget requirements; compare platforms; assess setup and migration effort; and create a selection scorecard.

Section 3: Build the Customer Data Structure
Design reliable records for contacts, companies, leads, deals, products, activities and support requests. Learners will define fields, relationships, categories, ownership, identifiers and standards while avoiding duplicate, incomplete and unnecessary information.

Section 4: Build the Lead and Sales Pipeline
Translate the sales process into visible, measurable stages. Learners will define lead statuses, qualification criteria, deal stages, entry and exit rules, expected values, probabilities, next actions and loss reasons, then create a pipeline supporting execution and forecasting.

Section 5: Capture, Qualify and Route Leads
Connect forms, campaigns, referrals, events, email and other channels to the CRM. Learners will establish consent and source tracking, prevent duplicates, qualify leads, assign ownership and create service expectations for timely follow-up.

Section 6: Manage Sales Activities, Deals and Forecasts
Turn CRM records into disciplined sales execution. Learners will manage calls, emails, meetings, tasks, proposals and follow-ups; maintain deal quality; identify stalled opportunities; calculate weighted forecasts; and run useful sales reviews.

Section 7: Build the Customer-Service System
Create a structured process for receiving, assigning and resolving customer enquiries, feedback and problems. Learners will configure tickets or cases, categories, priorities, queues, service levels, escalation and closure rules across relevant channels.

Section 8: Create Knowledge, Self-Service and Customer Success Workflows
Reduce repeated support work while improving customer outcomes. Learners will build internal and customer-facing knowledge, define onboarding and adoption activities, track account health, manage renewals and create proactive customer-success workflows.

Section 9: Automate and Integrate the Customer System
Connect the CRM with marketing, email, calendars, websites, payments, e-commerce, communication and reporting tools. Learners will automate routine updates, reminders and routing while preserving approvals, exception handling, security and a clear interaction history.

Section 10: Govern, Measure and Improve CRM Performance
Make the CRM a trusted operating system rather than an abandoned database. Learners will establish roles, permissions, privacy controls, data-quality routines, dashboards, adoption indicators and change-management practices, then create a 90-day implementation roadmap.

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About Course

What Will You Learn?

Course Content

Map the end-to-end customer lifecycle

Define marketing, sales, onboarding and service stages

Identify customer touchpoints and channels

Assign ownership and handoff responsibilities

Identify information needed at each stage

Create a customer-lifecycle operating map

Identify CRM users and operating processes

Define essential records, workflows and reports

List channel and integration requirements

Assess security, privacy and access needs

Compare cost, usability, flexibility and scale

Complete a CRM selection scorecard

Define the core CRM record types

Create fields, categories and valid values

Relate contacts, companies, deals and cases

Set record ownership and unique identifiers

Define required and optional information

Create a CRM data dictionary

Separate leads, qualified opportunities and customers

Define practical lead-qualification criteria

Design deal stages with entry and exit rules

Set values, probabilities and expected close dates

Standardise next actions and loss reasons

Configure and test the sales pipeline

Section 5: Capture, Qualify and Route Leads Connect forms, campaigns, referrals, events, email and other channels to the CRM. Learners will establish consent and source tracking, prevent duplicates, qualify leads, assign ownership and create service expectations for timely follow-up.

Map every important lead-capture channel

Configure forms and source attribution

Record consent and communication preferences

Prevent and merge duplicate records

Score or qualify leads using explicit criteria

Route leads and set follow-up expectations

Test the complete lead-capture flow

Record customer interactions consistently

Plan tasks, meetings and follow-up sequences

Maintain next steps and deal-stage quality

Identify ageing and stalled opportunities

Calculate weighted pipeline and sales forecasts

Create pipeline health indicators

Run an evidence-based sales review

Section 7: Build the Customer-Service System Create a structured process for receiving, assigning and resolving customer enquiries, feedback and problems. Learners will configure tickets or cases, categories, priorities, queues, service levels, escalation and closure rules across relevant channels.

Define support channels and case intake

Create ticket categories, priorities and statuses

Route work through queues and ownership rules

Set response and resolution expectations

Design escalation and exception procedures

Define resolution, communication and closure standards

Identify repeated questions and knowledge gaps

Create useful internal knowledge articles

Develop customer-facing self-service content

Map onboarding and product-adoption activities

Define customer-health and renewal indicators

Build proactive success and retention workflows

Prioritise CRM integration requirements

Connect email, calendars and website forms

Link marketing, payment and commerce systems

Automate assignment, reminders and record updates

Add approval and exception paths

Monitor integration errors and ownership

Configure roles, permissions and sensitive-data access

Establish duplicate, completeness and ageing checks

Define sales, service and customer-success KPIs

Build CRM dashboards and review routines

Measure user adoption and process compliance

Manage changes, training and system ownership

Create the 90-day CRM roadmap

Student Ratings & Reviews

Section 5: Capture, Qualify and Route Leads
Connect forms, campaigns, referrals, events, email and other channels to the CRM. Learners will establish consent and source tracking, prevent duplicates, qualify leads, assign ownership and create service expectations for timely follow-up.

Section 7: Build the Customer-Service System
Create a structured process for receiving, assigning and resolving customer enquiries, feedback and problems. Learners will configure tickets or cases, categories, priorities, queues, service levels, escalation and closure rules across relevant channels.