Every time I set up a new client in Mission Suite, we go through a full set up process that’s pretty hands on. We go through a full two hour consulting session to determine what that client needs in their CRM. As a part of that series of questions, we talk about the ideas of lead tracking and deal tracking.
It’s always part of the conversation and, almost invariably, a part of the conversation that leads to the same question:
What’s the Difference?
Knowing the difference between lead tracking and deal tracking is hugely important and a distinction that needs to be made when you’re deciding how to setup your CRM.
So what is the difference between lead tracking and deal tracking?
I know that lead tracking and deal tracking definitely seem to be the same. When thinking about it from a higher level, it seems natural that a deal associated with a lead would have come from the same source as the lead itself but that’s not always the case.
In fact if you’re doing any outside sales, you’re probably going to see your leads and your deals coming from different sources pretty often.
So what does that mean?
The best way that I can explain it is to give you an example from my own personal experience.
As a Denver based company, we’re involved with the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. They’ve got a bunch of programming that offer different opportunities to connect. Some of those programs cost more than a basic membership so I like to track what sort of results are coming from each of them.
One of my current clients was someone that I met in a mastermind group that I was a part of. She and I got to know each other and each other’s businesses a bit but she didn’t become a client, or even show any interest in doing so. Meeting her in that mastermind group, she became a lead, so I tracked her as such.
Fast forward about 6 months, I joined a leads group of which this lead was also a member. During a one on one that we set up as a result of that leads group, she showed interest in seeing Mission Suite for her organization (becoming an opportunity (or deal)), wanted to see a demo of the system and ultimately became a client.
In the case of this client, she I tracked her as a lead from the mastermind group and then tracked her as a deal from the leads group. Being able to identify the difference between the source of the lead and the source of the deal is an important way to distinguish between which efforts are bringing you the most contacts and which efforts are bringing you the most deals.
If I’m tracking deal sources, why do I need to track my lead sources?
Of course tracking deal sources is important. You need to know where the money’s coming from (more on that in the next section). But knowing where the people are coming from can be just as important.
Think about it – you’ve got limited time and resources. You want to make sure that you’re spending both on efforts that are actually bringing you leads. But more importantly, you want to make sure that they’re bringing you the right leads.
Let’s take your networking efforts, for example. If you’re anything like me, you’re a member of a number of different groups. All of these groups are responsible for introducing you to different people. Some of those people are going to be qualified leads and others aren’t. If you want to know which networking groups are bringing you qualified leads, you need to track your lead sources.
This doesn’t apply just to networking. It’s the same thing for cold calling, canvassing, paid and organic search and social media, too.
Inside of Mission Suite, you can track the networking, cold calling and canvassing leads using a field in your contact record. For your digital efforts, you can create campaign tags that will show you exactly how your campaigns are producing for you. If you’re using a different CRM, you should be able to do the same thing with that.
OK so if I’m tracking lead sources then why do I need to track deal sources?
OK so now on to deal tracking. If you’re seeing where your leads are coming from do you really need to track the source of your deals?
The short answer is…YES!
So you know where your leads are coming from. So shouldn’t you just bail on your nonperforming efforts?
Not so fast!
Let’s go back to the example of the networking groups. Let’s say I’ve got a smaller group that has only been the source of 10 qualified leads (Group A) and a bigger group that has been the source of 100 qualified leads (Group B).
Typically we’d say that I should quit Group A because I’ve met so few people as a result. But if I’m tracking my deal sources, then I might see that that group has produced 25 deals, making it clear that this clearly a high performing group – and one in which I want to remain involved.
Similarly, Group B may have produced a ton of qualified leads but if only 10 deals have come out of it then it’s obviously not as impactful to my bottom line.
Does that mean that I should bail on Group B then?
Not at all – that’s where the lead tracking comes in. If I’ve gotten 100 qualified leads out of Group B and only 10 deals that means that that group has clearly not been tapped well enough and I need to spend some more focused time making sure that I do so.
That’s why we need to track both.
Now back to you.
If you’re tracking both your lead sources and your deal sources already, that’s awesome. If not, what are you waiting for? If you can’t use a system like Mission Suite at least use a spreadsheet of some sort.
If you’re not using a system yet then check out Mission Suite. You can register to see a demo webinar here and let us know how we can help!