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Set up your CRM to scale

Learn how to set up the Partner Center CRM to support scalable growth. This course guides you through the fundamentals—from initial setup to adding team members—ensuring you have a solid foundation to streamline your sales processes. Vendasta's CRM helps you manage your sales cycle and automate the grunt work, all within Partner Center where you're already ordering Marketplace products and services.

Learning Goals
  • Understand Vendasta's CRM significance and core features
  • Learn how to add and manage companies and contacts (individually, bulk import, integrations)
  • Explore how to configure user permissions and add team members
📋What Is a CRM

A CRM is a system for managing customer relationships and closing more deals.

Vendasta's CRM​

Vendasta's CRM helps you manage your sales cycle and automate the grunt work—all within Partner Center, the place where you're already ordering your Marketplace products and services. Your local business clients can access the same great CRM in Business App, with contact and company management features all under your brand.

Attract and close with proven impact​

The CRM is designed to attract and close clients with proven and immediate impact. It's not just a basic upgrade—it's a game-changer for your business operations.

⚡Key Features

Key features of the Partner Center CRM help you monitor, prospect, and automate.

Premium report​

Access accessible, filterable, and downloadable data to monitor and analyze your CRM, sales, and marketing data. Premium Report gives you visibility into performance and trends.

130+ company data points​

Over 130 company data points with integration with Snapshot Report. Customizable lead scores improve sales prospecting—prioritize the right leads at the right time.

AI-assisted web chat & forms​

The AI-assisted web chat widget and custom form automatically capture new leads and add them to your contact and company list in Partner Center. No manual data entry.

Zapier integration​

Build out extensive automation and custom workflows with the Zapier integration. Connect the CRM to your favorite tools and automate repetitive tasks.

💬
In Practice

An agency embeds the AI web chat widget on their website. When a prospect asks about services, the chat captures their info and creates a contact and company in Partner Center. The lead score is populated from Snapshot Report data. A Zapier workflow sends a Slack notification to the sales team and adds the lead to a nurture sequence—all without manual entry.

🏢Companies and Contacts

Set up your Companies and Contacts. The CRM is designed to prevent duplicate information.

Deduplication​

By default, contacts are deduplicated based on their email addresses. Contacts and companies can both be deduplicated based on their unique IDs. This prevents duplicate entries and keeps your data clean as you scale.

Company profile​

Explore the Company profile page to manage company details, activities, opportunities, and more. Each company can have multiple contacts and a full history of engagement.

📊Accounts vs Companies

Understanding the difference between Accounts and Companies is essential for using the CRM effectively.

Accounts​

  • Handle billing details — Payment information, invoices
  • Manage product activations — What's been sold and deployed
  • View payment history — Financial tracking
  • Process orders — Order management

Companies​

  • Manage engagement and sales activities — Tasks, calls, meetings
  • Manage opportunities — Pipeline and deal tracking
  • Create Snapshot Reports — Prospecting and needs assessment
  • Automation — Workflows and sequences

Use Accounts for billing and product lifecycle. Use Companies for sales, engagement, and prospecting.

👥Add Your Sales Team

As an administrator or sales manager, you grant access to salespeople and create accounts for your team.

How to add team members​

Add salespeople by navigating to: Partner Center → Administration → My Team → Invite Team Member. Send an invitation via email; they receive a log-in and can access the platform based on their role.

Role-based permissions​

Access to features in Partner Center differs based on your role (Admin or Sales Person). You can restrict the sections of Partner Center that a user sees based on their role and responsibilities. Customize permissions so each team member has access only to the necessary tools.

Key permissions​

  • Can manage contacts — Create, edit, delete contacts
  • Can manage activities — Create, edit, delete activities and tasks
  • Can manage companies — See company page, create, edit, delete company information

Control who can see new tabs and features—ensuring they only have access to what they need.

Key Resources​

Partner CenterLocation
CRM lives here. Companies, Contacts, Administration, My Team.
Accounts vs CompaniesDifference
Accounts = billing, products. Companies = engagement, opportunities, Snapshot.
Invite Team MemberScale
Administration → My Team. Role-based permissions.

Knowledge Check​

Knowledge Check

Test your understanding with 5 random questions from a pool of 5.

Simplify and amplify your sales process with the Contacts and Companies tab. Start streamlining your sales cycle all within Partner Center. For feedback, share your thoughts via the course forum.