An enquiry from someone with a real requirement that your company can serve. The definition is simple. Counting by it is where most companies go wrong.
Most monthly reports have a line called “leads”. Ask what goes into it and the answer is usually every form submission and every phone call. That number goes up and the sales team still says it is quiet.
The two are measuring different things. One counts messages. The other is waiting for a buyer.
Three things that must be true
I call an enquiry legitimate when it passes three tests.
- The work is yours. They are asking for a service you provide, and one you want more of.
- The place is yours. They are somewhere you can serve.
- The size is yours. The project or account is one you would take on.
A job applicant fails the first test. So does a supplier pitching to you, and so does a student researching your industry. A buyer in a country you don’t cover fails the second. A request a tenth the size of your minimum fails the third.
None of these people did anything wrong. Your pages invited them.
A form submission is a message. It becomes a lead when you could serve it.
Why the count matters
If every message is a lead, more messages always looks like progress. You can double the number by ranking for a question that only students ask.
Count only the enquiries you could serve and the picture often changes. One service page may bring most of them. Another may bring volume and nothing else. You can’t see that in a total.
A check you can do today
- List your last ten website enquiries.
- Beside each, write what they asked for, where they were and roughly how big the job was.
- Mark the ones that pass all three tests.
- For the ones that fail, note which page they came from.
The pages behind the failures tell you where to look next. Often the page never says who the service is for, where it is available or what size of work you take on.
What this is not
It is not a reason to ignore the enquiries that fail. An unsuitable enquiry still deserves a short, polite reply. And it is not a promise that fixing a page will change the numbers by a set amount. It is a clearer way to see what your visibility is producing.