Lead Reporting
Part of Lead generation reporting
Connecting website enquiries with CRM outcomes
Use a stable enquiry ID, dated CRM decisions and reviewable record matches to report what happened after a website request.
Give each received request a stable ID, record the CRM records it links to, and follow dated decisions about that request. A matching email address can help locate a record, but it cannot prove a later deal arose from that enquiry.
Preserve the received request
Record the enquiry ID, receipt time, form or page context, original request and the source information actually captured. Add linked CRM contact, lead, company or deal IDs as they become known. If one request creates several CRM records, keep those links; do not replace the enquiry ID with a contact ID.
A form retry for the same need can be another submission linked to one enquiry. A separate project from the same person can be another enquiry. Keep any correction available to the responder even if it does not increase the enquiry count.
Link state / Reporting treatment
- Confirmed request-to-record match
- Follow dated outcomes for that enquiry
- Plausible but unresolved match
- Hold for review; do not assign the outcome yet
- No matching CRM record
- Show as a handoff exception
- CRM record without a reliable originating request
- Leave website origin unassigned
Define the outcome before joining records
Record receipt, assessment, sales acceptance, opportunity creation and a verified customer milestone as separate dated events. Assignment is not acceptance; opening a deal is not winning a customer. Choose fields and supporting evidence that demonstrate each milestone in your own process.
HubSpot's default lifecycle stages distinguish a sales-qualified lead, an opportunity associated with a deal and a customer with at least one closed deal. Businesses can customise those stages.
A Customer label alone does not verify the customer milestone chosen for this report. A current status may conceal when a decision changed.
Maintain a reviewable link
Use the enquiry ID as the starting key and store CRM record IDs as links. Record link changes with a reviewer and date. If a contact is merged, keep the original request traceable. If several enquiries relate to one opportunity, document which enquiry, if any, receives acquisition credit while preserving the other relationships.
Keep source fields distinct. HubSpot's Original and Latest Traffic Source properties describe known web interactions; Record Source describes how a CRM record was created. Neither alone proves what caused a sale. A self-reported recommendation can coexist with a tracked search visit.
Check both directions
Sample received enquiries and trace them into the CRM, then sample CRM outcomes and trace them back to received requests. Look for missing handoffs, duplicate contacts, changed stages without a usable decision date, and deals linked to the wrong project. Show unresolved links beside any reported outcome rate.
Group results by the enquiry's received month and state when outcomes were checked. An older enquiry can progress this month without becoming new demand this month. Where the chain is incomplete, label the outcome unknown. A linked record shows an observed path, not proof that the website alone caused the sale.
