Agency sales process

The agency sales process, built to close without the founder

Last updated: November 2, 2026Published by Tim Kilroy

A working agency sales process is five documented stages with clear entry rules, so your team can close good-fit deals without the founder on every call.

This is the sales process consulting Tim Kilroy does with founder-led digital agencies between $1M and $5M: drag what the founder knows out of their head, turn it into stages and rules, then measure which stage leaks.

The question

How do I build a sales process for my marketing agency?

Define five stages, write down what has to happen for a prospect to count in each one, measure the last 90 days, and fix the stage that loses the most people. That is the whole method. The discipline is in the entry rules.

Most agency owners go shopping for a better closer, a sharper script, or a commission-only rep. Tim Kilroy's view is that their sales chops are usually fine. The issue is that nobody else can access them. Whether you run a digital marketing agency sales process, a creative agency sales process, or a design agency sales process, the fix is the same: turn founder instinct into infrastructure.

Definition

What is an agency sales process?

In Tim Kilroy's framework, an agency sales process is the documented path from first awareness to a signed contract, with an observable entry rule for each stage. It is a measurement device, not a slide. Its job is to show which stage loses the most people so you can fix that one thing instead of throwing money at the top of the funnel and hoping.

Benchmarks

Published meeting lengths in agency sales

From Casey Stillman's systematic agency sales process (opens in a new tab), a published market benchmark, not Tim Kilroy's figures:

20 to 30 min

introductory conversation to meet the contact and learn about their business

45 to 60 min

discovery call or meeting focused on the prospect's goals and challenges first

45 to 60 min

proposal review call to discuss the formal proposal and any questions

The five stages

The marketing agency sales process, stage by stage

Stage names are not the point. Notice how many entry rules depend on what the prospect did, not on what you did. Tim Kilroy says half of all funnel inflation in agencies comes from counting your own activity as their intent.

Tim Kilroy's five-stage agency sales funnel with entry rules
Stage	What it means	Counts when
1. Aware	They know you exist through your work, writing, or a trusted referral.	They could name you unprompted.
2. Interested	They raised a hand: a reply, a form, or a conversation with an actual date.	They took an action, not when you sent something.
3. Qualified	You both agreed there is a real problem, it is worth money, and they decide.	You can name the problem in their words.
4. Proposed	Scope, price, and outcome are in writing and they have it.	They opened it, not when you hit send.
5. Closed	Signed. Not verbally agreed, not waiting on legal.	There is a signature.

Procedure

How to run the 90-day leak test

Pull the last 90 days
Not last year. Ninety days reflects the agency you have now.
Count each stage honestly
Record how many prospects entered each of the five stages. Do not round up.
Calculate stage conversion
Aware to interested, interested to qualified, qualified to proposed, proposed to closed.
Fix the worst stage only
Improve one constraint per quarter. More leads will not fix a leak further down.

Tim Kilroy estimates the test takes about twenty minutes and a spreadsheet. To turn your stage rates into a weekly target, use the agency pipeline math calculator.

You cannot fix a funnel you have never measured. You can only decorate it.

Tim Kilroy

Follow-up

Why follow-up is part of the agency sales process

Most agency sales are lost after the call, not because the solution was wrong but because the follow-up was late or generic. Tim Kilroy's rule is that every follow-up email recaps what the prospect said in their own words, ties your offer to their specific situation without reselling, and guides them past whatever sits between interested and yes.

The other handoff that kills good deals is sales to delivery. A prospect qualified on one set of promises becomes a bad client when delivery never hears them. Document what was sold before kickoff.

Who it fits

Is a custom sales process right for your agency?

It fits best when the agency is past $1M a year, the founder still closes nearly every deal, and referrals are the main source of new business. Below about $50K a month, a group program like Agency Studio is usually the better fit. If you need outsourced reps to do the selling for you, a sales agency is a different kind of service than what Tim Kilroy offers.

Back to the agency consulting overview.

FAQ

Agency sales process questions

What is an agency sales process?: An agency sales process is the documented sequence of stages a prospect moves through from first awareness to signed contract, with clear rules for what counts at each stage. Tim Kilroy uses five stages: aware, interested, qualified, proposed, and closed. The goal is a process your team can run so good-fit deals close whether or not the founder is on the call. In the full FAQ
What are the three major phases of the sales process?: A common way to group it is before, during, and after the sale. Before covers prospecting and qualifying. During covers discovery, the proposal, and the decision. After covers follow-up, the handoff to delivery, and growing the account. Tim Kilroy treats follow-up and the sales to delivery handoff as part of the sale, not an afterthought. In the full FAQ
What is a standard sales process?: Most standard sales processes move from awareness to interest to qualification to proposal to close. What separates a working process from a diagram is the entry rule for each stage. In Tim Kilroy’s version, a prospect only counts when they did something observable, such as opening the proposal, not when you did something, such as sending it. In the full FAQ
Why does nothing close unless the agency founder is on the call?: Because everything the founder knows about selling is trapped in their head. Tim Kilroy calls it Founder Magic: sensing objections early and knowing which deals are real before you can explain why. It is a real skill, but it is limited to one person. The fix is drawing that knowledge out and turning it into a documented process the team can run. In the full FAQ
How do I find where my agency sales funnel leaks?: Run a leak test. Pull the last 90 days, count how many prospects entered each of the five stages, and calculate the conversion from each stage to the next. The stage with the worst conversion is your leak. Tim Kilroy estimates it takes about twenty minutes and a spreadsheet, and says it is the highest return twenty minutes most agency owners have. In the full FAQ
What is the 3 3 3 rule in sales?: There is no single agreed definition of the 3 3 3 rule in sales; different trainers use it for different things, so ask whoever cited it what they meant. If you want a rule that actually moves agency revenue, measure your last 90 days by stage and fix the one stage losing the most people. That is Tim Kilroy’s leak test. In the full FAQ
What do sales agencies do?: Sales agencies are outsourced firms that prospect, pitch, or close deals on behalf of a client business. Tim Kilroy is not a sales agency. He helps agency owners build their own in-house sales process and train their team to run it, so the knowledge stays inside the agency instead of with an outside vendor. In the full FAQ

Read all 49 questions and answers in the agency consulting FAQ