Lead tracking spreadsheet with the two columns that change decisions
A lead tracker with the two columns most spreadsheets miss: whether the lead was qualified, and how long it took to respond. Free CSV.
A useful lead tracking spreadsheet records two things that most leave out: whether each enquiry was worth having, and how long it took anyone to reply. Those two columns turn a log of names into something that tells you where to spend. The file is a free CSV with 16 columns and three sample rows.
Reply time earns its column. A Harvard Business Review study looked at 1.25 million sales leads. It found that firms which tried to contact a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as firms that waited even one hour longer (Harvard Business Review, 2011).
The short version
- A lead tracker needs a Qualified column, filled in yes or no, because cost per lead says nothing about whether the lead could ever have become a customer.
- First response time belongs in the sheet as a real duration, such as 8 minutes or 2 hours, so you can compare close rates at different speeds.
- In a Harvard Business Review audit of 2,241 US companies, 37 percent answered a web lead within an hour and 23 percent never answered at all.
- About thirty rows is enough for a rough read of qualified rate by source. That figure is our rule of thumb, and fewer rows than that is noise.
- The sheet is a diagnostic tool. Once the pattern is stable, the same columns should move into a CRM.
Download the file
Download the CSV. No email address, no gate. Open it in any spreadsheet or text editor.
It is built for a business tracking enquiries in an inbox or a notebook, or running a CRM that nobody fills in. Setting it up takes about five minutes, and each new lead takes about a minute to log.
What columns should a lead tracking spreadsheet have?
The file has 16 columns. Ten of them carry the decisions, and the table shows what each one is for. The other six are Date, Name, Company, Email, Phone and Notes.
| Column | What to record | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Source and Campaign | Where the enquiry came from and which campaign | Which channels behave differently, so you stop reading one average across all of them |
| Landing page | The exact page they enquired from | Which pages produce enquiries, as opposed to traffic |
| Service | What they asked for | Whether a channel brings the work you want |
| Qualified | Yes or no | The gap between cost per lead and cost per lead worth having |
| Reason if not | Out of area, wrong service, no budget, not serious | Which targeting or wording change to make |
| First response time | Minutes or hours until somebody replied | Whether slow replies are costing you jobs |
| Stage, Value and Closed date | Where it got to, what it was worth, when it closed | Cost per customer, which is the figure a margin can be checked against |
This is what three rows look like once they are filled in. They are the sample rows in the file, with made-up names.
| Source | Landing page | Qualified | First response | Stage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | /services/roofing | Yes | 8 min | Quoted |
| Organic | /services/plumbing | No | 2 h | Closed lost |
| Referral | /contact | Yes | 15 min | Booked |
Photo: SHVETS production on Pexels.
Why does the Qualified column matter so much?
Because a channel can look cheap per lead and still bring nobody you could serve. Cost per lead divides spend by every enquiry. Cost per qualified lead divides it by the enquiries you would have wanted, and only that second figure can be compared against what a job is worth.
Fill it in the same way every time, including for referrals. If you would not have wanted the call, it is a no. Write the definition down before you start: in your service area, wants something you sell, has a budget that could work, and is the person who decides. The Source and Campaign columns are easier to trust if your ad and email links carry campaign tags, which Google Analytics reads as source, medium and campaign (Google Analytics Help).
How fast should you reply to a new lead?
Within the hour if you can, and the sheet will show you what your own numbers say. The Harvard Business Review research is the best-known evidence. The study covered 1.25 million leads at 42 US companies. Firms that tried to make contact within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to have a meaningful conversation with a decision maker as firms that tried an hour later. They were more than 60 times as likely as firms that waited a day or longer (Harvard Business Review, 2011).
The same article audited 2,241 US companies with a test enquiry. Only 37 percent replied within an hour, 24 percent took more than a day, and 23 percent never replied. Among those that answered within 30 days, the average reply took 42 hours.
That study is from 2011 and covers companies much larger than a local trade, so treat it as direction and measure your own. Record the time as an actual duration. A bucket such as “under an hour” hides the difference between eight minutes and fifty-five.
Photo: Mikhail Nilov on Pexels.
How to use it
- Fill in Qualified truthfully. The temptation is to mark everything yes, which makes the column worthless.
- Record first response time as a duration. Write 8 min or 2 h, never “fast” or “same day”.
- After about thirty rows, sort by source. Compare the qualified rate, and leave volume for later. A source with a low cost per lead and a low qualified rate is costing more than it looks.
- Then sort by Reason if not. If the disqualified leads share one reason, the fix is in the targeting or the wording, and more budget will not help.
- Move it into a CRM once the pattern is stable. Take the Qualified, Reason and First response time columns with you.
Where it earns its keep
- Working out which channel produces customers before you raise any budget.
- Showing the people who answer the phone what slow replies cost, with your own rows as the evidence.
- Setting a baseline before hiring an agency, so their reporting can be checked against something. If you want help turning the pattern into a plan, that is what our lead generation service starts from.
The bottom line
A lead tracker is only as useful as its two least comfortable columns. Whether the lead was any good and how long it waited for a reply are the facts that change where the money goes. Thirty truthful rows will tell you more than a year of totals.
Questions people ask about this
Why not just use a CRM?
Use one if you have one that people fill in. The reason this exists is that a great many businesses have a CRM nobody updates, so the honest answer to “where do customers come from” is still nobody knows. A sheet somebody maintains beats a CRM nobody does.
What counts as qualified?
Whatever you decide, written down before you start. Usually: in service area, wants something you sell, has a budget that could work, and is the person who decides. The important thing is that the definition does not move once you begin.
How many rows before this tells me anything?
Roughly thirty for a directional read on qualified rate by source. Fewer than that and you are looking at noise, and the sheet will happily let you draw a confident conclusion from six rows.
Who should fill in the sheet each day?
Whoever answers the phone or the inbox first, because they know the source and the time. The qualified column and the stage column can be updated later by whoever handles the enquiry. Make one person responsible for checking it weekly so gaps get filled while memory is fresh. A sheet filled in at the end of the month from memory is a guess dressed as data.
How do I find the source of a phone call?
Ask, every time, and write down the exact words. “Google” is not enough, because it could be an ad, the map listing or an organic result. If calls are a large share of enquiries, put a different tracking number on the ads, the profile and the site. Until then, the question at the desk is the only source column you have, so make it a habit.
Should I log enquiries that never replied to me?
Yes, with a stage of no response and a reason if you know it. Those rows tell you whether a channel produces people who go quiet, and whether your own reply time is the cause. An enquiry that came in on Friday evening and got an answer on Monday belongs in the sheet with its full response time recorded.
What do I do if response time is slow everywhere?
Fix that before touching any marketing budget. The sheet will show your close rate at eight minutes against your close rate at two hours, and that gap is often worth more than any change to the ads. Decide who answers first, route enquiries to their phone, and set a target in minutes. Then watch the qualified rows convert at a higher rate without spending more.
How should I record value before a job is quoted?
Leave it blank until there is a real number, then fill in the quoted value and update it if the job closes at a different figure. Do not estimate at the enquiry stage, because guessed values make the cost per customer look better than it is. A blank cell is honest. An average job value written into every row hides the pattern you are looking for.
Can I share this sheet with an agency?
You should. A clean thirty rows with qualified marked truthfully is the best briefing an agency can receive, because it shows which sources produce customers rather than clicks. It also gives you a baseline to check their reporting against. Ask them to add their own source and campaign labels so the two sets of numbers match column for column.
What if most of my leads are referrals?
Track them exactly the same way, including the qualified column. Referrals usually convert well, and that sets the benchmark every paid channel has to beat. If referrals are most of the volume, the question the sheet answers is which paid or organic source comes closest, and whether it is worth growing. Ask which customer referred each one, because that tells you who to thank.
How do I use the landing page column?
Sort by it after thirty rows and compare the qualified rate per page. A service page that produces fewer enquiries but a higher qualified rate is doing more for you than the homepage. Pages with traffic and no enquiries are the ones to rewrite first. Record the exact path, including the slug, so the column can be matched against analytics later.
When should I move from the sheet to a CRM?
When the pattern is stable and somebody has to follow up more enquiries than they can hold in their head. That is usually a few months in. Take the same columns with you, especially qualified, reason and first response time, because most CRMs do not have them by default. If the CRM drops those, keep the sheet running beside it.
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