Admin Guide: CRM & Lead Management (Complete Walkthrough)

This comprehensive guide covers every feature of the built-in CRM. You'll learn how to view, filter, edit, and organize leads through the entire sales pipeline.

What you'll learn:

• Navigating the Leads dashboard
• Understanding the analytics overview
• Viewing and filtering leads
• Editing lead details
• Using pipeline stages
• Managing tasks and activity logs
• Importing and exporting CSV data
• Searching and sorting

Step 1: Accessing the Leads Dashboard

First, navigate to the Leads dashboard:

1. Log in to your account
2. Click "Leads" in the navigation, or go directly to:

https://yourdomain.com/dashboard/leads

Requirement: Your email must be in ADMIN_EMAILS to access this page.

Step 2: Understanding the Analytics Overview

At the top of the Leads dashboard, you'll see key metrics and charts:

Summary Cards

• Total leads — Total number of leads in your database
• Closed won — Leads that converted to customers, plus win rate percentage
• Stage counts — How many leads are in each stage (New, Qualified, Demo)
• Top sources — Where your leads are coming from

Conversion Rates Panel

Shows stage-to-stage conversion rates:

• Qualified / total
• Demo / qualified
• Proposal / demo
• Won / proposal

Visual Charts

• Stage funnel — Bar chart showing leads at each pipeline stage
• Top sources — Bar chart of lead sources
• Last 14 days — Daily lead capture trend
• Conversion over time — Stage distribution by capture date
• Source trends — Daily trends for top 3 sources

Step 3: Viewing the Leads Table

Below the analytics, you'll find the leads table showing all captured leads.

Table Columns

• Email — The lead's email address
• Company — Company name (if provided)
• Source — Where the lead came from (e.g., "homepage", "pricing", "blog")
• Stage — Current pipeline stage
• Tags — Labels for categorization
• Owner — Team member assigned to this lead
• Captured — When the lead was first captured
• Updated — Last modification date

Pagination

The table shows 200 leads per page. Use the pagination controls to navigate between pages if you have more than 200 leads.

Step 4: Filtering Leads

Use filters to find specific leads:

Filter by Stage

1. Click the stage dropdown (shows "All" by default)
2. Select a stage: New, Qualified, Demo, Booked, Proposal, Closed-Won, or Closed-Lost
3. The table updates to show only leads in that stage

Search

1. Type in the search box
2. Search matches across: email, source, persona, owner, company, phone, message, and notes
3. Results update as you type

Sorting

Change how leads are ordered:

• Captured (newest) — Most recent leads first (default)
• Captured (oldest) — Oldest leads first
• Updated (recent) — Recently modified leads first
• Stage — Grouped by pipeline stage

Step 5: Editing a Lead

To view and edit lead details:

1. Click on any lead row in the table
2. A detail panel or modal opens showing all lead information
3. Edit fields as needed:
   • Stage — Move them through your pipeline
   • Owner — Assign to a team member
   • Tags — Add labels for organization
   • Notes — Add internal notes
   • Company, Phone, Message — Update contact details
4. Click "Save" to save changes

Step 6: Understanding Pipeline Stages

The CRM uses 7 pipeline stages to track lead progress:

Stage Definitions

1. New — Just captured, not yet reviewed
2. Qualified — Reviewed and confirmed as a good fit
3. Demo — Scheduled or completed a demo/call
4. Booked — Has a scheduled meeting or appointment
5. Proposal — Sent a proposal or quote
6. Closed-Won — Converted to a paying customer
7. Closed-Lost — Did not convert (rejected, went silent, chose competitor)

Moving Leads Through Stages

1. Open the lead by clicking on it
2. Click the Stage dropdown
3. Select the new stage
4. Save the changes

Tip: When a lead books a call through your scheduling link, they're automatically moved to the "Booked" stage (if configured).

Step 7: Managing Tasks

Each lead can have tasks associated with it:

Adding a Task

1. Open the lead
2. Find the Tasks section
3. Type the task (e.g., "Send follow-up email", "Schedule demo")
4. Press Enter or click Add

Completing a Task

1. Click the checkbox next to the task
2. The task is marked as done

Task Ideas

• Send intro email
• Schedule discovery call
• Send proposal
• Follow up in 3 days
• Add to newsletter

Step 8: Activity Logs

Every lead has an activity log showing what's happened:

What Gets Logged

• When the lead was captured
• Stage changes
• Booking events (when they schedule a call)
• Any updates you make

Adding Activity Notes

You can add manual activity entries to track interactions:

1. Open the lead
2. Find the Activity section
3. Add a note about what happened (e.g., "Had intro call, interested in Teams plan")

Step 9: Exporting Leads to CSV

To export your leads for backup or analysis:

1. Click "Export CSV" button (usually top-right of the table)
2. A CSV file downloads automatically
3. Open in Excel, Google Sheets, or any spreadsheet app

Exported Fields

The CSV includes:

• id, email, company, source, tags, persona
• stage, owner_email, notes, tasks, phone, message
• inserted_at, updated_at

Step 10: Importing Leads from CSV

To bulk import leads:

Step-by-Step Import

1. Download the sample CSV from /public/sample-leads.csv to see the expected format
2. Prepare your CSV with these columns:
   • email (required)
   • company, source, phone, message (optional)
   • tags — Semicolon-separated (e.g., "saas;founder;early-stage")
   • stage — Must be one of: new, qualified, demo, booked, proposal, closed-won, closed-lost
   • owner_email — Email of the team member to assign
   • notes, persona — Free text
3. Click "Import CSV" button
4. Select your file
5. Review the preview — Check that data looks correct
6. Confirm import

Import Behavior

• Duplicates — If an email already exists, the lead is updated (not duplicated)
• Invalid stages — If a stage isn't recognized, it defaults to "new"
• Validation errors — If rows are invalid, you'll see which ones failed

Sample CSV Format

email,company,source,tags,stage,owner_email,phone,message
john@example.com,Acme Inc,homepage,saas;b2b,new,admin@yoursite.com,+1234567890,Interested in demo
jane@example.com,StartupXYZ,pricing,founder,qualified,,,Looking at Teams plan

Step 11: Using Tags Effectively

Tags help you categorize and filter leads:

Tag Ideas

• By industry: saas, ecommerce, agency, fintech
• By company size: solo, small-team, enterprise
• By interest: pricing, demo-requested, newsletter
• By urgency: hot-lead, follow-up, cold
• By source campaign: black-friday, product-hunt, webinar

Adding Tags

1. Open the lead
2. Find the Tags field
3. Type a tag and press Enter (max 5 tags per lead)

Pro tip: If AI enrichment is enabled, tags are automatically suggested based on the lead's email and source.

Troubleshooting

"I can't see the Leads dashboard"

• Your email must be in ADMIN_EMAILS environment variable
• Ask the site owner to add your email

"CSV import failed"

• Check that every row has a valid email address
• Make sure stage values match exactly: new, qualified, demo, booked, proposal, closed-won, closed-lost
• Check for special characters that might break CSV parsing

"Leads aren't showing up"

• Check your current filter (might be filtering to a specific stage)
• Try resetting filters to "All"
• Refresh the page

Best Practices

• Review new leads daily — Qualify or disqualify them quickly
• Keep stages updated — Accurate data = accurate analytics
• Use tasks — Never forget a follow-up
• Add notes — Future you will thank you
• Export regularly — Keep backups of your data
• Assign owners — If you have a team, make sure leads don't fall through cracks