CRM & Sales - Setup Guide

How to set up Close

Otto's honest, no-fluff walkthrough. Every step here is what we'd actually do if we were sitting at your keyboard. Real gotchas first, real steps second, and a link to the personalized version at the bottom.

Read these before you start

• **You grow past 50 sales reps**: Close's Enterprise plan handles up to ~100 users well, but for true enterprise (SSO, RBAC, complex hierarchies, sales engineering teams), Salesforce or HubSpot Sales Hub Enterprise are stronger.
• **Your motion shifts to marketing-led inbound**: Close's strengths become irrelevant; HubSpot wins.
• **You add a customer success or support function**: Close doesn't do CS. You'll need a second tool. At that point evaluate whether a single platform (HubSpot Service + Sales) is simpler than Close + Zendesk + Intercom.

The 7-step setup

1. 1

   Create your Close account

   Sign up at the link below. Card required for the paid tier - most plans include a trial period; check the pricing section on this page first so you know what you're committing to.

   Open Close signup
2. 2

   Complete the initial onboarding

   Skip the marketing questionnaires when you can. Fill only the fields that actually configure the product - name, timezone, your first workspace or project. If Close pushes you into a setup wizard, take it - it usually accelerates the first productive session.

3. 3

   Connect your existing tools

   Wire Close into the rest of your stack. The integrations that most people set up first: - **Gmail / Google Workspace** — native sync. Emails sent inside Close show in Gmail Sent, and vice versa. Critical. - **Calendly / Cal.com** — auto-create leads from booked calls. - **Zapier + Make** — for non-native integrations. - **HubSpot import** — easy migration from HubSpot (one-time). - **S.... Do these before importing data - clean integration first, data second.

4. 4

   Import your existing data (only what you'll actually use)

   Do NOT bulk-import everything. Import the last 30 days of the ONE workflow you're moving over first. Prove it works. Then import more. Big-bang migrations are how Close deployments die in month 3.

5. 5

   Set up your first real workflow

   Pick the single most-frequent task you'll do in Close - the daily-driver workflow. Configure it end-to-end. Use it live for a week. Do not touch any other feature yet. Adoption failure comes from teams trying to use everything on day one instead of the one thing that actually pays.

6. 6

   Add your team (if applicable) and set access

   Once your solo workflow works, invite one teammate at a time. Watch them use it. The friction points you missed are the ones they hit. Fix those before scaling to more users. Never invite 20 people at once - you'll get 20 confused people and 0 useful feedback.

7. 7

   Compound with the right pairings

   > Example: "Your 4-person consulting practice mentioned losing 5 hours a week chasing landscaping clients on quote follow-up. Close's built-in dialer plus email sequences means your team can run 25-30 follow-ups in an hour from one tab. The Startup plan at $19/user keeps the team's first month under $80 and you can move to Professional once you outgrow the 3-user cap. Native Gmail sync means it slots into the workflow you said you already have."