How to Set Up a CRM for Your Landscaping Business (Step-by-Step)

New job comes in.

Your crew gets the address and time — automatically.

The client gets a confirmation SMS — automatically.

You get a follow-up reminder 3 days before the job — automatically.

That’s not a fantasy. That’s what a properly set-up CRM with automation does. And it takes about a day to build.

This guide walks you through exactly how to set it up — from creating your pipeline to connecting it with Make.com to handle the admin that currently lives in your head.

Before you start: if you haven’t picked a CRM yet, read Best CRM for Landscapers (2026) first. This guide is written for Pipedrive, but the same principles apply to HubSpot and Jobber.

Step 1: Set Up Your Pipeline Stages

The first thing you do in any CRM is define your pipeline — the stages a job moves through from first enquiry to invoice paid.

For a landscaping business, a good pipeline looks like this:

1. New Enquiry — someone’s asked for a quote, nothing more
2. Quote Sent — you’ve sent a price, waiting on their answer
3. Job Booked — confirmed, scheduled, crew assigned
4. In Progress — job is underway or coming up this week
5. Completed — Awaiting Invoice — job done, invoice not yet sent
6. Invoiced — invoice out, payment pending
7. Won / Paid — money in, job closed
8. Lost / No Response — went cold, move on

In Pipedrive, go to Settings → Pipelines → Add Pipeline. Name it “Landscaping Jobs” and add those stages. Drag them into the right order.

You’ll also want a second pipeline for Recurring Clients — ongoing maintenance accounts that cycle rather than close. This keeps them separate from one-off jobs.

Step 2: Add Your Custom Fields

Default CRM fields (name, phone, email) aren’t enough for landscaping. You need fields that match how you actually work.

In Pipedrive, go to Settings → Data Fields → Add Field. Add these to your Deal (job) record:

• Job Type (dropdown): Lawn mowing, Garden maintenance, Hedge trimming, Hard landscaping, Irrigation, Seasonal cleanup, Commercial, One-off
• Property Size (text or dropdown): Small / Medium / Large / Commercial
• Access Notes (text): Gate code, dog in yard, call before arriving
• Frequency (dropdown): One-off / Weekly / Fortnightly / Monthly / Seasonal
• Preferred Crew (dropdown): names of your crew leaders
• Quote Value (currency): pre-filled by you when quote goes out
• Last Service Date (date): update this when each job completes

For the Contact record, add:

• Client Tier (dropdown): Residential / Commercial / VIP
• Referred By (text): helps you track where your best clients come from

Step 3: Import Your Existing Clients

If you’ve got clients in a spreadsheet, WhatsApp, or your head — now’s the time to get them into the CRM.

In Pipedrive, go to Contacts → Import Data → Import from Spreadsheet. Map your columns to the right fields. If your data is a mess, just start with name, phone, and email — you can clean it up over time.

Even if you only have 20 clients, do this now. The CRM is only useful when it has data in it.

For each client, also create a Deal (job) in the appropriate pipeline stage. Don’t just add them as contacts — you want them visible in your pipeline so you can see the full picture.

Step 4: Set Up Your Lead Capture Form

The most important automation you can build is this: a form on your website that automatically creates a contact and deal in your CRM when someone fills it in.

No more checking emails, copying names into a spreadsheet, and forgetting to follow up. The lead shows up in your pipeline — automatically — the moment it comes in.

Here’s how to build it:

Option A: Use Pipedrive’s built-in web forms

Go to Leads → Web Forms → Create Form. Add fields for name, phone, email, job type, and address. Pipedrive generates an embed code you paste into your website. New submissions automatically create a Lead in your inbox.

Option B: Use a form tool + Make.com

If you’re using Jotform, Typeform, or a WordPress contact form, connect it to Pipedrive via Make.com:

1. Create a scenario in Make.com: Watch form submissions → Create Contact in Pipedrive → Create Deal in Pipedrive
2. Map the form fields to the CRM fields
3. Test it with a dummy submission
4. Turn it on

Total setup time: 30 minutes. Every new enquiry from your website now lands in your pipeline instantly.

Step 5: Automate Your Follow-Up Sequence

The biggest revenue leak in landscaping is not following up on quotes. You send a price, the client goes quiet, you get busy, and three weeks later you remember — but it’s too late.

Here’s the automation that fixes it:

Automation: Quote sent → 3-day follow-up reminder

Build this in Make.com:

1. Trigger: Deal moves to “Quote Sent” stage in Pipedrive
2. Action 1: Wait 3 days
3. Condition: Check if deal stage is still “Quote Sent” (i.e., they haven’t replied)
4. Action 2: Create an Activity in Pipedrive: “Follow up on quote — call [Client Name]”
5. Action 3 (optional): Send yourself an SMS or email: “Quote to [Client Name] has been open 3 days — time to follow up”

This one automation alone recovers 10–20% of quotes that would have otherwise died quietly. Most clients just need a nudge.

Step 6: Automate Job Confirmation to Your Crew

When a job is confirmed, your crew needs to know: where to go, when to be there, what’s needed, and any access notes.

Right now, you’re probably doing this manually — calling or texting each crew leader individually. Here’s how to automate it:

Automation: Job booked → crew notification

1. Trigger: Deal moves to “Job Booked” in Pipedrive
2. Action 1: Send SMS to the assigned crew leader with: client name, address, job type, date/time, access notes
3. Action 2: Create a calendar event in Google Calendar for the job
4. Action 3: Send confirmation SMS to client: “Hi [Name], your landscaping visit is confirmed for [Date] between [Time]. See you then.”

Set this up in Make.com connecting Pipedrive → Twilio (for SMS) → Google Calendar. The whole flow takes about an hour to build and test.

From that point on, every confirmed job triggers it automatically. You don’t touch it.

Step 7: Set Up Repeat Client Re-Engagement

For maintenance clients — lawn mowing, garden upkeep, regular visits — you need to track when they were last serviced and trigger a re-engagement if they go quiet.

Automation: Last service date → re-engagement after 8 weeks

1. When a job is marked complete, update the “Last Service Date” field on the contact
2. In Make.com, set a scheduled scenario that runs daily: check all contacts where Last Service Date was more than 8 weeks ago and no new deal exists
3. For those contacts, send an email: “Hi [Name], just checking in — has the garden been keeping you busy? We’ve got a slot opening up next week if you’d like us to pop by.”

This is passive revenue. Clients who would have drifted to a competitor get a timely nudge. Your booking rate from existing clients increases without any outbound sales effort.

Step 8: Set Up Your Daily Workflow

Once everything’s connected, your daily CRM routine should take less than 10 minutes:

1. Morning: Check your Pipedrive activity list — any follow-up calls due today? Any open quotes from 3+ days ago?
2. After quoting: Log the quote value in the deal, move to “Quote Sent.” Make.com handles the follow-up reminder from here.
3. When a job confirms: Move the deal to “Job Booked.” Make.com sends crew notification and client confirmation.
4. When job completes: Move to “Completed — Awaiting Invoice.” Update Last Service Date. Send invoice.
5. When invoice is paid: Move to “Won / Paid.” Done.

The CRM is only as good as the data you put in it. If you move deals through stages consistently, everything else runs automatically.

The Bottom Line

Setting up a CRM for your landscaping business isn’t about learning new software. It’s about building a system that handles the admin you’re currently doing manually — or forgetting entirely.

The setup takes a day. The time it saves you is every week after that.

Start with the pipeline stages. Add your clients. Connect your quote form. Build the follow-up automation. The rest follows from there.

→ Get started with Make.com free — 1,000 operations/month included on the free plan.