Recommendations on best use of Leads vs Deals

MC

Hi everyone, I'd love your input on the following question please. 🙏 Thank you in advance!

When using Pipedrive, is it best practice to enter all enquiries a business receives initially as a New Lead so that the conversion of leads to deals can be tracked? Or if a hot lead comes in, is it okay to enter it directly as a deal in Pipedrive? Or would that mean we miss out on having that that lead-to-deal conversion data for that enquiry?

Here's what ChatGPT responded with on that:

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"In Pipedrive CRM, the best practice for handling inquiries depends on how important it is for your business to track lead-to-deal conversion data. Here are the considerations:

1. Using Leads for All Inquiries

• Pros:
  • Allows you to track the full funnel from lead to deal, giving you detailed insights into your conversion rates.
  • Helps in understanding the effectiveness of your lead nurturing process.
  • Centralizes all inquiries, regardless of their initial quality, in one place before they are qualified and converted into deals.
• Cons:
  • May add an extra step to the process for hot leads, which could be seen as unnecessary if immediate action is required.

2. Directly Creating Deals for Hot Leads

• Pros:
  • Speeds up the process for high-potential opportunities, allowing your team to start working on them immediately without additional steps.
  • Ensures quick follow-up on high-priority inquiries, which can be critical for closing deals.
• Cons:
  • You lose the ability to track the lead-to-deal conversion for these inquiries, which might limit your insights into the overall effectiveness of your marketing and lead generation strategies.
  • It could create inconsistencies in how inquiries are processed, making reporting and analysis more challenging.

Best Practice Recommendation:

• If tracking lead-to-deal conversion data is a priority for your business, it’s advisable to enter all inquiries as New Leads initially. This approach ensures that you capture every stage of the process, from inquiry to deal closure, providing comprehensive data for analysis.
• However, if the speed of response is critical for hot leads and you are less concerned about tracking every conversion, entering hot leads directly as deals can be acceptable. You could create a workflow or automation in Pipedrive to quickly convert a lead to a deal for hot leads to maintain some level of tracking.

Hybrid Approach:

• For businesses that need both speed and data, consider a hybrid approach where all inquiries are entered as leads, but hot leads are flagged and immediately converted to deals. This allows you to track the lead-to-deal conversion while ensuring that hot leads receive immediate attention.

The choice depends on your business priorities—whether you value speed and efficiency over comprehensive data tracking or vice versa."
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But I am more interested in what the user community's experience has to say! Thanks!

Michael

Jonathan Gennick

I am a one-man band, so take what I say with that in mind. I prefer to have a "Lead In" stage in my deal pipeline. That way, everything is right there in front of me on the one screen. I find that if I create actual leads that I sort of forget about them, because they are kind of out of sight out of mind.

MC

Thanks for your input @Jonathan Gennick. Thanks for mentioning your context, too. We're a multi-person team where a different person handles the leads to qualify and triage them, and then they go to a sales consultant once they are qualified. Your approach makes total sense for your situation. Thanks for your input! 🙏