What is the Difference Between Sales Leads and Conversions?

When you measure the effectiveness of your website are you looking at sales leads or conversions? Do you know the difference? Many companies are not aware of the separate categories and do not have an accurate measurement of their site’s success. Today we are going to dive into the difference between a lead and a conversion as it relates to your website.

What is a Website Sales Lead? 

A sales lead is when a potential client expresses an interest in buying your product or service via a phone call, email or form submission from your website. They are explicitly saying they want to do business with your company.

What is a Conversion? 

A conversion is a completed action such as a phone call or form submission that was driven by an internet marketing campaign. Activities such as SEO, pay per click, email campaigns and social media posts.

What is the Difference?

Although these may sound very similar, they are actually quite different. Think of a sales lead as someone who is walking through the front door of a shop with money in their hands. They are not only aware of your business, but they have come prepared to purchase. A lead is a person who is ready to become a paying customer.

A conversion is a person who has been informed of the existence of your company through your internet marketing efforts and is reaching out for more information. It may be that they sign up for your email list, fill out a form asking for more information or to schedule an appointment to learn more.

When measuring the success of your website you want to separate out how many sales leads you have versus how conversions. Both are valuable and essential to your sales process, but they are not the same thing. If you are getting a lot of conversions to your site but not a lot of people reaching out to purchase, there should be some evaluation of your sales path. Alternatively, if your internet marketing efforts do not create many conversions to your website, then your marketing content may need some tweaks.

At the end of the day, you want healthy conversion numbers and solid sales leads. The conversions are people just entering your sales funnel and if guides correctly turn into tomorrow’s sales leads. Your current bank of sales leads should be converted to your newest paying customers.