What should a small business track for each lead? Record when the inquiry arrived, where it came from, what the customer needs, who owns the response, its current status, and the next action. Add quote and booked-work values when they are known.
Download the blank lead-tracking CSV and open or import it in your spreadsheet tool. It contains column headers only, with no sample customer records. Use one currency consistently for the value columns.
What does one row represent?
Use one row for one sales opportunity. A call followed by a form about the same job should update the existing opportunity rather than become two independent leads. Give each opportunity a stable ID so the team can connect messages, estimates, and results.
A repeat customer asking for a separate job can have a new opportunity. Write that rule down before comparing lead counts. A “lead” that means a phone call in one report and a unique job request in another cannot support a clean comparison.
Which columns are in the template?
| Columns | What to enter |
|---|---|
| lead_id, received_date | A unique opportunity ID and its original inquiry date |
| source, campaign | The known inquiry source and campaign, or unknown |
| requested_service, service_area | What was requested and the relevant coverage area |
| status, owner | The current stage and the person responsible |
| next_action, next_action_due | A specific next step and its due date |
| quoted_value, booked_revenue | The quoted amount and booked work value, kept separate |
| lost_reason | A consistent reason when the opportunity closes without work |
Use a date format such as YYYY-MM-DD and a shared understanding of the time zone for due dates. Keep contact details in your approved customer system where possible and use the opportunity ID to link the records. Limit access to people who need it; a public spreadsheet link is not a good home for customer information.
Which lead statuses should you use?
- New: received but not yet reviewed.
- Contacting: someone owns the follow-up.
- Qualified: the request fits the service and coverage criteria.
- Quoted: an estimate or proposal was actually sent.
- Booked: the customer has confirmed the work under your booking rules.
- Lost: closed without work, with a reason.
Define qualified and booked for your own operation. Do not mark a lead booked merely because someone requested an appointment. Leave a next action on every open opportunity, including one waiting for customer information.
How do you track the marketing source?
Keep the known source and any customer-reported source distinct from guesses. If the source is missing, use unknown rather than assigning the lead to a campaign because it happened to be running that day.
For links you control, campaign parameters can help identify referred traffic. Google's campaign URL guidance describes source, medium, and campaign parameters and notes that values are case sensitive. Agree on consistent names. A tagged website visit still needs a reliable connection to the inquiry before it becomes a lead-source record.
Do not put customer names, email addresses, phone numbers, or other personal details into campaign URLs or analytics events. Google's Analytics privacy guidance explains the risk of collecting personal information through URLs and other fields.
Which numbers should you review each week?
Start with new opportunities, overdue next actions, qualified opportunities, quotes sent, and booked work. Use lost reasons to find patterns such as outside coverage, unsupported service, or a customer who chose another provider.
Illustrative cohort: 40 unique inquiries arrive during a month. After an agreed observation period, 20 qualify and eight book. That is a 50% qualified rate and a 20% inquiry-to-booked rate. The qualified-to-booked rate is 40%. These figures describe different denominators; label them.
Compare opportunities received during the same period and allow time for outcomes. This week's bookings may have come from last month's inquiries. Keep booked work separate from collected payment and from profit.
When should you move from a sheet to a CRM?
Consider moving when ownership conflicts, duplicate entries, access requirements, or missed follow-ups make the sheet hard to maintain. Test that the next system supports your statuses and reporting definitions before migrating. A new tool will not fix a process the team has not agreed on.
Set a short daily review for unassigned and overdue records. The habit is the important part. If an assistant drafts follow-ups, use the email workflow and preserve human approval where needed. If you automate updates, use the ROI guide to count maintenance as well as time saved.