Recording your Lead Sources

Did you know that gardening and sales have a lot in common?

In fact, if you think about it, your sales team owes an awful lot to the average gardener.

A garden, no matter how big or small, starts out with seeds. They don't look like much, but with some time, the right planting method, and most importantly, the knowledge and patience to tend to these seedlings, a large and bountiful garden can emerge.

Just like a gardener's seeds, every single sale, no matter how big or small, starts out as a lead. Nurturing that lead is incredibly important, as each one has the potential to grow into a sale.

Why Should You Record Leads?

Every lead is a potential sale.

That sentence is at the very core of a successful business, but only if you know where those leads are generated from.

Very simply put, if you don't know where your leads are coming from, it is impossible to target them effectively. By recording your leads in a manner that makes sense to you, they can become an incredible source of revenue.

Leads come from a variety of sources.

• You may get most of your leads directly from your website.

• Prospective clients might connect with you as a result of your regular mail campaigns.

• Some businesses attend regular trade shows to collect leads.

• Other businesses might gain traction with social media articles and podcasting.

Perhaps the most gratifying source of all lead sources is when an existing client recommends you to one of their friends or associates.

This is the most amazing feeling, because it is confirmation that the service you provide is valued enough by your clients that they want to tell others about you.

Using Keywords to Record Lead Sources

A simple method for recording the lead source in Daylite is to use Keywords.

Start by creating a list of the most frequent sources of leads that apply to your business.

These Keywords could be prefaced with the term Lead Source. In this way the various lead sources will group together alphabetically, thus making it easier to enter a value.

In this case, Keywords are applied to both People and Companies in the screen shot below. This would be applicable if you have both People and Companies that may be separate leads. If however, you ONLY deal with Companies, and subsequently the People within those Companies, then it would be a good idea to just check Applies to Companies.

Pro Tip:

Do not create lead sources for your Opportunities.

This approach will lead to problems later on, because your Client will most likely have several Opportunities with you as you develop your business relationship. The lead source should only be recorded for a Person or Company, as it only happens once, and does not change with each Opportunity.