Leads — capture, qualify, track
Every lead carries an owner, source, stage and next-action date. Discipline on those four fields keeps the pipeline honest.
A Lead in Vendly is a person or company who might buy from you but hasn't yet. Each one is open until you mark it WON (converts to a Client) or LOST (with a reason).
The four fields that matter most
| Field | Why it matters | Discipline |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Someone on the team has to chase it. Unowned leads die. | Every new lead has an owner within the day it's created. |
| Source | Tells you which marketing actually generates revenue. | Pick from a fixed list — typos make your reports useless. |
| Stage | Where in the pipeline this lead is right now. | Update at every interaction. A 6-week-old 'Contacted' stage is a sign of a stuck deal, not progress. |
| Next-action date | When the owner promised themselves they'd follow up. | Always set. The day the date passes, the lead surfaces at the top of the owner's queue. |
Activities — what to log
Each lead carries a timeline of activities: calls, emails, meetings, demos, quotations sent, notes. Log everything — even a 'left voicemail' is data the next person picking up this lead will need.
- Calls — outcome (reached / left voicemail / wrong number) + summary.
- Emails — sent / received tag + thread link if it's in Gmail.
- Meetings — outcome, decision-makers met, next steps.
- Quotations — generated from the lead, links to the Quotation in Sales.
- Notes — anything else useful: competitor seen, budget hints, decision timeline.
Common stages and how long they should take
| Stage | What's happening | Time-in-stage red flag |
|---|---|---|
| New | Just landed, not yet contacted | > 2 days = lost-by-neglect |
| Contacted | First conversation done | > 1 week without progress = follow up or close |
| Qualified | Need + budget + timeline confirmed | > 2 weeks without quote = either send the quote or close |
| Proposal | Quote / proposal sent, awaiting decision | > 4 weeks = either escalate or close lost |
| Won | Buyer agreed — convert to Client | — |
| Lost | Buyer said no — record reason | — |
Lost reasons
When closing a lead as LOST, Vendly asks for a reason. Use a SHORT list and stick to it: Price too high, Picked competitor, Budget cancelled, Wrong fit, No response, Internal delay. The reason becomes a filterable field — three months later you can answer 'how many deals did we lose on price?' instantly.
Don't keep dead leads open. A lead with no next-action and no activity for 4+ weeks is closing itself as lost regardless — close it formally so the pipeline reports stay honest.
