Adding a lead
A lead is someone who has shown interest but is not yet a customer. Record them as soon as the enquiry arrives, while the detail is fresh — where they came from, what they asked about, and how to reach them.
Status
Every lead carries a status, and it moves in one direction as the conversation progresses:
New → Contacted → Qualified → Proposal → Negotiation → Won or Lost
Keep it current. A list where everything sits on New is a list nobody is working, and it cannot tell you where enquiries are stalling.
Source
Record where the lead came from — website, referral, social media, cold call, email, event, or other.
This is the field people skip and later wish they had kept. It is the only way to answer which channels actually produce customers rather than merely producing enquiries, and that answer decides where the marketing money goes.
Finding them again
Leads can be filtered by status and searched, so a list of everything at Proposal is one click rather than a scroll.
Converting
When a lead becomes real business, convert it rather than retyping the details into a new record. Converting carries the history with it, so the relationship keeps its beginning instead of appearing to start on the day someone bought.
Marking one lost
Mark lost leads lost, with the reason if you know it. A pipeline that only ever grows is not a pipeline, and lost reasons are the cheapest market research you will ever get.