How a lead reaches you: the full journey
Form submission to routing to your queue — the whole path, in one place.
WORKING LEADS · LD-01
|
Field |
Value |
|
Category |
Working Leads |
|
Applies to |
Sales, Marketing, Managers |
|
Type |
Concept |
|
Lifecycle |
E — Evergreen |
|
Owner |
Gui |
|
Version |
v1.0 draft |
In one line
A lead is captured, classified, routed to an owner, and worked — and knowing all four steps is what lets you tell a problem from normal behavior.
Who this is for
Anyone who receives leads or sends them. Read it before the lead how-tos — they assume this.
The four steps
- Capture. A lead arrives — usually through a website form, sometimes through an import or an outbound conversation. The form decides what we know about them, which matters more than it sounds: routing can only act on what's on the record.
- Classification. The lead is assessed against the priority triggers — Lead Source, Contact Type, Product of Interest. Any single high-priority trigger is enough. See LD-05.
- Routing. High priority goes to an Account Executive — by geography for Transform, to Gina for ACT Coaching. Everything else goes to the Business Development Specialist for qualification.
- Working the lead. Lead Status moves New → Outreach → In Progress (Qualification). From there it either becomes a deal (Closed — moved to Deal) or it doesn't (Closed — Unqualified, with a reason).
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Where the handoff actually happens A lead becomes an SQL only once Sales has contacted and validated them. Not when the form is submitted, not when they're assigned, not when they look promising. That's the line between Marketing's number and Sales' number, and it's why both teams need the same definition of it. |
What has to be true for this to work
Routing acts on what exists at the moment the lead is created. Three fields do the work — and filling one in later doesn't re-route the lead.
|
Field |
Set by |
What breaks without it |
|
Lead Source |
The form, or the import |
Ambassador and Paid Search leads lose their high-priority status and sit in the standard queue |
|
Contact Type / Role in Practice |
The form, or Sales |
Dentist Owners aren't recognized as high priority |
|
Product of Interest |
The form, or Sales |
Routing loses a trigger, and the deal path has to be chosen by hand later |
What happens next
When a lead is qualified, a deal is created automatically in the pipeline that matches their Product of Interest, and the contact's Lifecycle Stage becomes Opportunity. From there you're in the deal process — see AR-07.
Note that not every lead becomes a deal. That's the deliberate change: deals are created only for qualified leads with confirmed intent, so pipeline measures opportunity rather than activity.
Why we do it this way
Routing exists to protect Account Executive time. AEs are the constraint in the sales motion, so the design gets the leads most likely to become significant deals in front of them quickly, and qualifies everything else first.
Making the three input fields load-bearing is a deliberate trade. It puts a burden on capture — forms have to ask the right questions — in exchange for removing a manual sorting step from every single lead downstream. That trade only pays off if the fields are actually populated, which is why LD-04 exists.
Related articles
- How lead routing works: priority, geography and ambassador (LD-05)
- How to confirm routing inputs are present (LD-04)
- Lead Status: why it's two properties (AR-06)
- Understanding Lifecycle Stages (AR-05)
- Troubleshooting: my lead went to the wrong person (LD-08)