Agency Setup Guide: Deploying Parsley for a Client

This guide walks an agency through deploying a Parsley card for a client account. Plan 60-90 minutes for a first deployment, 30-45 minutes once you have repeatable templates. Most of this work mirrors a chatbot SOW the agency would already run for any conversational tool: use-case definition, knowledge ingestion, intent taxonomy, conversation mapping, lead routing, CRM field mapping, QA, analytics, training. Parsley collapses several of those steps into a single product surface.

If you have not set up a Parsley card before, skim the Getting Started guide first - this guide assumes you already know the product shape and skips the marketing-page primer.

Before you start

Get the following from the client:

• The rep or rep-team whose card you are building. Parsley is a per-rep surface, not a company-level surface, so you need a named human.
• A LinkedIn URL for that rep. We use it to anchor the card and for the demo-card-in-DM motion.
• 3-5 documents you can upload as the chatbot's knowledge base. Pricing pages, FAQ docs, product one-pagers, persona cheat sheets, ICP definitions. PDFs, Google Docs exports, plain text, Markdown, and URLs all work. See the chatbot training guide for what makes a good corpus.
• Their CRM and the email of whoever owns the integration. You will plug topics, themes, and lead quality into the contact record, so the CRM admin needs to be in the room for at least the integration step.
• A short list of the topics this rep's prospects actually ask about. The fixed-15 taxonomy covers most of B2B SaaS; this list tells you which two or three matter most for this client's reps.

1. Create the client from your agency dashboard

If you have not enabled agency mode yet, do it once: open /agency while signed in to your own Parsley account, accept the agency terms, and the dashboard unlocks. From then on, every client you run lives under that one login.

To add a client, click Add client on the agency dashboard, name the client organization, and invite the client's team by email (their reps get their own logins, cards, and leads - full self-service). Use the org switcher in the top nav to switch into the client; a banner confirms which client you are managing, and everything you configure while switched in - knowledge, agent behavior, CRM - belongs to that client's organization, not your own.

Client accounts you create this way start with zero conversations. All usage across your clients draws from your agency's shared conversation pool, with per-client usage attributed on the dashboard, so fund the pool before QA - on an empty pool the agent stops responding. One conversation covers one visitor talking to the agent, regardless of message count; see pricing for conversation packs. Most agencies simply bundle this platform cost into the monthly retainer.

2. Upload the knowledge corpus

With the client active in the org switcher, open the Chatbot section and upload the documents you collected. Knowledge is shared across the client's organization - anything you upload serves every rep's agent, and the client's own team members can add documents too. Parsley parses them into the embedding store at upload time. Each upload takes 30-60 seconds.

A few things that move the needle for chatbot quality:

• Q&A format outperforms long-form prose. A FAQ doc with 30 well-written questions beats a 30-page playbook.
• Pricing context belongs in the corpus. Whatever the client charges, make sure their pricing strings are in a document. Buyers ask "how much" within the first three exchanges.
• Cover the obvious objections. Compliance, migration, comparison vs the dominant alternative, ROI math, implementation timeline. Each gets its own short doc.

Cap the corpus at around 8-12 documents and 5,000-15,000 words for a first deployment. Bigger is not better; tightly-curated wins.

3. Review the topic taxonomy

Parsley ships a fixed topic taxonomy covering pricing, features, technical, company, comparison, support, integrations, use-cases, security, compliance, onboarding, migration, demo requests, procurement, and other. Each conversation is classified into the relevant subset.

You do not configure the taxonomy per client. You verify two things:

1. The client's most-asked topics are represented. They almost always are - the taxonomy is broad on purpose.
2. The client doesn't have a vocabulary that requires a custom topic. A health-tech client might want "HIPAA-BAA" as its own first-class chip; a fintech might want "FedRAMP." For now those map to the existing compliance topic and surface as free-text in the per-conversation questionTheme. Custom topics are on the roadmap (Topic Intent epic Sprint 5.1) and unlock a per-tenant taxonomy extension; flag any custom-topic need to Parsley directly.

The free-text questionTheme field already captures vertical specificity. A health-tech rep will see "asked about HIPAA compliance for 200-bed hospital" as the theme on the conversation, alongside the compliance topic chip. The agency does not configure the theme; Gemini extracts it on every conversation.

4. Configure the welcome flow

In the Chatbot settings, set:

• Welcome message. Two sentences, written in the rep's voice. Reference the rep by name. Mention the kind of question the bot is best at.
• Suggested questions. Three to five. Frame them as the prospect's voice, not the rep's: "How is this different from a regular lead form?" not "Compare us to lead forms."
• Off-topic handling. Parsley defaults to a soft redirect; you do not need to override unless the client wants a stricter tone.

A good welcome flow gets the prospect into a question they care about within two clicks. Test by asking the client's existing customer to use it and watch over their shoulder.

5. Configure lead capture

Lead capture is what makes the chatbot a real intent surface rather than a content engine. Decide:

• Which topics fire capture. Pricing and demo_request are the two that nearly always do. Comparison and procurement are agency calls based on the client's funnel shape. Migration and compliance fire when the client sells to a regulated buyer.
• Custom capture message. "I'd love to get this in front of [rep name] - what is your work email?" beats the generic default.
• Minimum exchanges before capture. Three is the sane default. Lower if the client's funnel is short and high-intent (transactional SaaS); higher if it is consultative and long.
• MEDDIC overlay. Lead capture also fires on detected MEDDIC signals (Decision Criteria, Identify Pain). Leave this on; it catches the buyers who do not happen to ask about pricing but are visibly evaluating.

6. Map fields to the client's CRM

While switched into the client, connect their CRM via OAuth: Attio, HubSpot, Salesflare, Folk, Twenty, Copper. The connection belongs to the client's organization - one connection shared by all their reps, never mixed up with your own agency's CRM - and each connection provisions the Parsley fields automatically on first sync.

What lands on the contact record:

• Topics asked about (parsley_topics first-class multiselect on Attio + HubSpot; tag set on the others)
• The free-text question theme (Theme: ... line in the synced note body)
• MEDDIC signals (parsley_meddic_signals)
• Lead quality score (Hot / Warm / Cold)
• Conversation summary as a note

Two things to brief the client on:

• The contact record will accumulate history across multiple visits. Returning prospects update existing contacts; new prospects create new ones.
• The agency can filter the CRM by parsley_topics ("show me everyone who asked about pricing in the last 14 days") as a native list-builder filter. This is the single most-used reporting motion post-deployment.

7. Apply branding

In hub settings, set the client's logo, colors, fonts, and primary button styles. Because the engagement runs through the agency channel, you can also hide the "Powered by Parsley" mark from the public-facing card - white-label is part of the agency program, not a standalone toggle. For an agency-managed engagement, hide-mark is a good default; the deliverable should look like the client's, not Parsley's.

Branding is per-organization, so if the agency manages multiple client accounts, each gets its own brand palette.

8. QA checklist

Before handing the card to the client:

• Send three test conversations covering pricing, comparison, and demo_request. Verify each triggers the right topic chip on the test contact in the CRM.
• Verify the welcome message renders cleanly on mobile (375px) and desktop.
• Verify the rep gets the lead capture email (or chosen channel).
• Verify the CRM contact carries parsley_topics, the theme line, and a conversation note.
• Spot-check the question theme for specificity. "Asked about pricing" is too generic; "annual pricing for 200 seats with discount" is the target. If themes feel generic, escalate to Parsley.

9. Client handoff

Schedule a 30-minute walkthrough with the client's rep and CRM admin:

• Show the rep where to find their conversations and how to read the topic chips.
• Show the CRM admin the new fields, the filter, and the note format.
• Hand over the Agency Value Brief so the client understands what the agency configured and what it would cost to change. This is the artifact that justifies the setup fee.

If the engagement ever ends, offboarding is built in: from the client's detail page on your agency dashboard, hand ownership to a member of the client's team. Ownership transfers, your agency's access is revoked, and the client buys their own conversations from then on. Nothing is lost in the handover - the data already lives in the client's own organization.

10. Optimization retainer (optional)

A 30-day post-launch retainer covers:

• Weekly review of the question themes - what are prospects actually asking that the corpus does not yet cover?
• Knowledge corpus updates based on those gaps
• Lead-capture threshold tuning if Hot leads are too sparse or too noisy
• CRM workflow review (does the client's sales team actually filter by parsley_topics?)

Most agencies bill this as a flat monthly retainer separate from Parsley's own pricing. See the Agency Value Brief for fee-band guidance.

When to flag back to Parsley

• Custom topic needed for a vertical (Sprint 5.1 trigger)
• A CRM not in the supported list (Close, Freshsales, Nimble, Capsule are on the roadmap)
• You are approaching the managed-client limit on your agency dashboard and need it raised
• Question themes coming back generic across 50+ conversations (prompt-tightening signal)

Email peter@parsley.id with the client's domain in the subject line.