Follow one lead start to finish and find where it stalls

A lead count tells you how many came in. It doesn't tell you where they went. When "where did that lead go?" needs a search party, there's usually a handoff nobody owns, or one only one person understands.

1. Pick one lead. A recent, ordinary one. If you'll share your notes or screens, make a clearly labeled sample instead, so nobody's real phone number ends up in a doc.
2. Write down every step it took. In order: what happened, who did it, and where it lives. Inbox, customer system, spreadsheet, somebody's notebook.
3. At every handoff, ask "Who does the next step?" Answer with a job title or a system. If the answer is a person's name, circle it.
4. Keep going after the appointment. Did they show up? Did it sell? Did anything change after the sale? Those answers should land back on the same record, not in somebody's head.
5. Fix one circled handoff. Build the answer into the system: a field, a button, an alert, a written rule. Then follow another lead.

Here's ours, with a sample lead. The agent talks, fills out the form and books the appointment. A reviewer sees nobody confirmed the time. One note, one button, and it's back with the agent. Once it's checked, it goes into the customer system, and the results come back to that same record. The agents and reviewers still do the work. They just don't need a search party to find the details. Otherwise I've built a very fancy way to say, "Let me ask somebody."

Print this and fill it in for one lead:

FOLLOW ONE LEAD
Lead (or SAMPLE): ______________   Came in from: ______________

Step | What happened | Who (job title) | Where it lives
1.
2.
3.
4.

At each handoff: who does the next step?
If the answer is a name, how does the next person find out without asking them?

After the appointment, on the same record:
[ ] Showed up?
[ ] Sold?
[ ] Changed after the sale?

Handoff to fix first: ______________

Lakeview Roofing follows one sample lead, "TEST Jordan Sample," who asked for a roof inspection on the website.

Step 1: the form lands in a shared inbox. Step 2: the office manager calls and books the inspection on the calendar. Step 3: the estimator gets the details in a text from the office manager's phone. Step 4: after the inspection, the result goes into the estimator's notebook in the truck.

Who does the next step after the appointment? "Ask Chris." Circle it. The fix: a result field on the lead record (showed, sold, changed after) that the estimator fills in before the end of the day. Now the office sees it without asking Chris, and Chris gets fewer texts.

• Starting with the totals report. Totals hide where one lead stopped.
• Stopping at "booked." The answers you need most come after the appointment.
• Blaming the person. If one person is the only way to find something out, that's a process problem, not a Susan problem.
• Fixing every handoff at once. Fix one, follow another lead, repeat.

If the answer is "Susan knows," lovely. Susan would also like a vacation someday.