Running a pilot
A good pilot proves Keen with real partners and real leads, without asking anyone to give up the spreadsheet first. Most pilots take two to four weeks.
Pick partners
Start with two or three active partners
Choose partners who send leads regularly, so the pilot produces enough activity to judge. A mix works well: one partner who sends leads by email, one who uses a form or spreadsheet, and ideally one technical partner who could connect through the API or Zapier.
Tell them what is changing and what is not. They can keep sending leads the way they do today, and they get a live view of every lead's status in return.
Define success
Agree on what success looks like before you start
Write down a few measures with the people who will decide whether to roll Keen out. Keep them concrete and comparable with how things work today.
- Lead capture: every lead the pilot partners send ends up in your CRM, with no manual copying.
- Time saved: hours spent on data entry, status updates, and reconciliation, compared with the month before.
- Report accuracy: the commission report for the pilot partners matches without corrections.
- Partner experience: pilot partners can see their lead statuses without emailing you.
Set up
Set up channels and CRM sync
Create a channel for each pilot partner. Each one gets its own web form and lead email address straight away. Connect your CRM so leads flow in automatically and status changes flow back to Keen.
Add the reward rules you use today so commissions are calculated from the start, and invite the pilot partners. If you want help with the setup, the Keen team can walk through it with you.
Run side by side
Run Keen alongside your spreadsheet
For two to four weeks, keep your spreadsheet exactly as it is and let Keen run in parallel. Nothing breaks if something is missed in Keen, and you get a direct comparison.
Check in with the pilot partners after the first week. Most questions come up early, and they are usually about where to find lead statuses or how to resend a lead.
Review and decide
Review the results and decide
At the end of the pilot, compare Keen with the spreadsheet against the measures you agreed on. If the numbers match and the time saved is real, the decision usually makes itself.
From there, the migration guide covers moving the rest of your partners and retiring the spreadsheet.