Your First 90 Days: The Tech Checklist

At a company with no in-house developer, the website, the phone system and the CRM were usually set up by different people at different times. Some were contractors who have moved on. Some were a friend of the owner. The result is that a new marketing lead inherits results without knowing how they are produced.

The first 90 days are the cheapest time to ask basic questions. Nobody expects you to know yet, and the answers will shape every decision you make after. This checklist is ordered so each step makes the next one easier.

Your only job in the first month is to build a list. Do not change anything yet.

• Write down every system. Website, domain registrar, email provider, phone system, CRM, form tools, ad accounts, analytics, review sites, social accounts. One line each, with who set it up.
• Find out who is the account owner. For each one, is the account in the company’s name or in a former employee’s or contractor’s personal email? This is the most common problem we see, and the easiest to fix early.
• Get admin access to the important ones. Domain, website hosting, CRM, phone system and ad accounts first. If you cannot get in, note who can.
• Ask where a lead goes. When someone fills out the form or calls, what happens in the next five minutes? Follow it with the person who handles it, not just in a diagram.
• Collect the monthly bills. Every tool and subscription, with who pays. You will find things the company no longer uses.
• Ask what has been promised. Open projects, agency contracts, anything a vendor says they are working on for you.

Now use the systems the way a customer does. Do it on your phone, on a normal connection, and write down what feels slow or confusing.

• Search for the company. Search the company name and the main thing you sell plus your city. Look at what shows up, what the listing says and whether the hours and phone number are right.
• Submit your own form. Fill out every form on the site with a test name. Time how long until someone responds, and check that the lead arrived where you expected.
• Call the main number after hours. Then call it during a busy time. Does it ring, go to voicemail, or get answered? Does a missed call get a text back?
• Load the site on your phone. Count how long the first page takes. Try the menu, the form and the phone link. Most of your visitors are on a phone.
• Check how the site is updated. Who can change text on a page? How long does it take? If the answer is “we have to ask someone,” that is worth knowing.
• Look at the numbers once. Pull last year’s leads by source from the CRM or analytics. Do not trust them yet. Just see whether they exist and whether they agree with each other.

By now you know more than anyone who has been there longer. Sort what you found into three piles.

• Fix now, cheap. Wrong phone numbers, forms that go to a dead inbox, accounts in the wrong name, subscriptions nobody uses. These need attention, not budget.
• Fix soon, needs a plan. A slow or hard-to-update website, missed calls with no follow-up, a CRM nobody trusts. Write down what each one costs you in lost leads or wasted time.
• Leave alone. Anything that works. Resist the urge to replace a tool because it is old or because a vendor says so.

Then write one page for your boss: what you found, what you recommend and what it would cost. Keep it short. A clear page with three decisions in it will get a better answer than a long deck.

You can do most of this yourself. Where people get stuck is the middle: deciding whether to rebuild the website, replace the CRM or add automation. Those are the decisions that cost real money and are hard to reverse. A second opinion from someone who does not sell you the answer is worth having before you commit.