Marketing and Sales can have a good relationship. Believe the concept, act upon the idea, and it will come true.
After my first few years of Salesforce reporting, I discovered a piece of gold. It’s called the Leads with Converted Leads report. It’s the best report for marketing executives to show lead Salesforce lead lifecycle reporting at a high-level.
Marketing loves the regular Salesforce leads report, their marketing automation reports, and the customized, expensive reporting add-ons. Sales loves the Sales opportunity reports.
Because each is examining its own reports, there is a discontinuity. Marketing becomes solely focused on leads and distrusts Sales, thinking it doesn’t follow up with their hard-earned leads. Sales is solely focused on opportunities and distrusts Marketing and its ability to provide quality leads.
The answer for Marketing and Sales to rebuild a healthy relationship is the Leads with Converted Leads report.
In this post, I’ll be covering the following:
- What is the leads with converted leads report
- What are some practical ways to use it
- Can converted lead values ever be changed
What is the leads with converted leads report
The Leads with Converted Leads report is a Salesforce lead lifecycle report containing both unconverted lead and converted lead (opportunity) information. I call it the lead lifecycle report, because you can conveniently view lead details such as lead name, title, email, source, status, created date and opportunity details such as account, name, stage, amount, created date and close date all on one line.
Marketers can group this report by lead source to see which sources are leading to the largest opportunities. Marketers can also group by lead status to check Sales is following up and converting leads. Sales can see Marketing’s clear contribution to their pipeline, so that it is happy to follow up on future leads.
What are some practical ways to use this Salesforce lead lifecycle report
I believe that a report this good deserves constant visibility. Therefore, I recommend putting it on a combined Marketing and Sales dashboard. I would filter the report to only show quality leads (marketing qualified leads) and those within a shorter, measurable time frame (created this month or this quarter).
Recommended reports:
- Marketing Qualified Leads: show all unconverted and converted leads; one chart summarized by lead source, one chart showing the total number
- Marketing-Influenced Opportunities: shows all converted leads (opportunities; one chart summarized by lead source, one chart showing the total pipeline
- Marketing-Influenced Won Opportunities: shows all converted leads that led to won opportunities; one chart summarized by lead source, one chart showing the total revenue
Can converted lead values ever be changed
During my marketing career, I’ve realized that Lead Source values actually change every few years. While changing the values for future leads is a quick process, making historical reporting reflect this change is not an easy process. Good thing that I recently learned how to change converted lead values.
First a bit of background: An unconverted lead and be freely edited. Once it’s converted, the lead ceases to exist and turns into a contact with information spreading to an account and an opportunity. Normally converted leads can no longer by edited via the interface; however….
As documented by this post in Salesforce Developers, you can import the new lead values through Data Loader by following this process:
- Use Data Loader to export the converted leads
- Input the new values on the CSV file
- Use Data Loader to delete the converted leads
- Use Data Loader to import the new values on the CSV file
Try it with a test batch first!
Learn more about useful Salesforce Marketing Reports
Salesforce champion, Gillian Bruce, wrote a post titled 3 Reports Your Marketing Team Will Love, which shows how to create the following reports: Incoming Leads Over Time, Leads Conversion, and Expected Revenue by Lead Source.
Also, see Digital Marketing Techie’s other Salesforce for marketers resources:
The Complete Guide to Marketo Salesforce Campaign Syncing and Reporting
Cracking the Code on Salesforce Campaign and Multiple Campaign Influence Reporting
Syncing Marketo with Salesforce
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