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An agreed, written definition, which most firms do not have. At one firm the agency report said 640 leads and Google Analytics said 78 goal completions in the same year, because website goals, switchboard logs and CRM records were all being counted as leads. Get marketing, BD, the agency, the switchboard team and the CRM owner to agree one definition, such as an enquiry from a tracked digital channel logged in the CRM with a named recipient and a follow-up status, then track it yourself.
Because nobody has agreed what a lead is. The agency report said 640 leads; Google Analytics said 78 goal completions; same firm, same year. Both numbers were technically true and neither was useful. It is the most common opening conversation I have with a marketing lead at a law firm. The gap varies, the numbers always disagree, and the marketing lead is the one who has to explain it in a partner meeting. It is almost never dishonesty.
At least three overlapping things. Website goals: form fills, clicks on an email link and sometimes clicks on a phone number, counted because they are the easiest to count. Switchboard logs: calls routed to a fee earner, paralegal or PA, which rarely reach Google Analytics and are transcribed into a spreadsheet at month end for a different report. And whatever the CRM holds: new contacts, matters opened, or nothing, because a fee earner answered by direct email and never told marketing. Each is a real signal, and most quarterly reports take whichever looks best and call it leads, with no note of what was included.
Three reasons. Agencies report what is easy: form fills are countable and attributable, while switchboard calls, fee earner referrals and conversion to billable matters sit outside their tools and incentives. Marketing leads have too much on, and a measurement framework takes weeks with nothing visible to show. And nobody wants the conversation, because asking the agency what counts as a lead sounds like a challenge, and the answer may be a smaller number that leads to an awkward talk with a partner.
With everyone who counts something in the same room, over about three weeks, which is how I usually run it with a new client. Marketing, BD, the agency, the switchboard team and the CRM owner each write down what they count and how, and the list will surprise you. Agree a single definition; the one I usually push for is an enquiry that arrives through a tracked digital channel and is logged in the CRM with a named recipient and a follow-up status. Write it down, put it on every report that mentions leads, and make the agency adopt it. Then keep a year-on-year tracker against that definition, outside the agency's reporting, and open it whenever someone asks whether the website is working.
The number got smaller and then grew. The incumbent agency had been reporting around 640 leads a year. After the definition was agreed, the audit run and the tracker built, the new figure was about a third of that, but every entry was traceable, attributable and connected to a named fee earner. Eighteen months later, with the agency reporting against the new definition, leads were up 190% year on year against the new baseline. The first number was bigger; the second was real.
Related evidence: How a mid size regional UK law firm grew online enquiries by 190% without rebuilding their website. Earlier in this journey: The website metric that is quietly flattering your numbers.
One that works well is an enquiry that arrives through a tracked digital channel and is logged in the CRM with a named recipient and a follow-up status. The exact wording matters less than having one definition instead of three.
Because a number you have defined and control changes the relationship: you stop being the recipient of someone else's report and become its auditor.
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