How to Manage Your Leads
Within the Leads section of Houzz Pro, you can easily manage your lead information and communication to ensure your business stays on top of all potential clients. With messages, notes, files, estimates/proposals and more, you have the best possible tools available to convert leads to actual clients.
In this article, we will discuss how to view all your leads, edit and delete leads, create new leads, convert a lead to a project, and adjust key lead information like lead source and lead stages.
View All Leads
You can view and access all your existing leads using the Leads icon in your left navigation. If you hover over the icon, you will see a list of Unread and Read leads so you can quickly review and follow up with new leads as they come in.
Click on the Leads icon to see a comprehensive leads list. On this page, your leads are neatly organized so you can quickly see the status of each lead at a glance. You can see information about the lead, and you can also search and filter to find the lead you need.
Within the leads list, you will find:
- Lead Name: You can choose a name based on the type of project or any other criteria.
- Stage: Labeling each lead by stage helps you quickly view its status and recognize the next steps needed to close the job (more about lead stages below).
- Client Name: Name and details about the client connected to the lead.
- Location: Clearly see where each lead is located.
- Task: Related project tasks that are due or overdue.
- Project Type: Specify the type of project to better understand the scope.
- Lead Source: Specify how you received the lead (more about lead sources below).
- Tags: Custom tags used to organize your leads according to your company's workflow.
- Estimated Revenue and Estimated Profit: If you add in financial details about the lead's project, you will be able to see potential revenue and profit numbers.
- Lead Created: The date the lead was created.
- Last Activity: Last day and time when activity occurred with the lead.
- Lead Managers: If you assign a team member as a manager for this lead, their name will appear.
- Calendar Icon: If a meeting has been set with the client through the calendar integration, you’ll see the calendar icon.
- Message Icon: If you have an unread message from the client, you’ll see the message icon.
You can easily customize your lead columns to ensure that you only see information you need. To learn more about customization, read How to Customize the Leads Screen.
Filter Leads and Lead Stages
At the top of your leads list, you can search by keyword or filter by Project Type, Lead Source, Tags, Lead Managers or Messages.
To the left of your leads list, you'll see the various lead stages and how many leads you have in each stage.
The lead stage options include:
- New: Any lead that you have not yet responded to will fall under the New stage.
- Followed Up: Once you’ve responded to the original message, it will be moved to the Follow Up stage.
- Connected: Once the lead corresponds with you, it will be moved to this stage.
- Meeting Scheduled: If you’ve set up a meeting with your client, it will automatically move to the Meeting stage, and your meeting details will appear in the Upcoming Meetings section of the leads list.
- Proposal/Estimate Sent: Once you’ve shared a proposal/estimate with your client, it will be moved to this stage.
- Won: Leads that have been converted to projects will appear in this stage.
As you work, the stages will be automatically updated to reflect your progress. If you’ve made progress outside of the system, you can always update the stage manually in the lead list dropdown or from within the lead itself.
If some of these lead stages aren't relevant for your business, you can hide them or add new ones. To learn more, read How to Customize Your Lead Stages.
View Individual Leads
From the leads list, you can easily click on a specific lead to view more information.
On the overview page, you can communicate with leads by sending them an email or text message. You can also view the lead activity at the top.
On the left side of this page, you can navigate to relevant project features, including project overview details, notes, tasks, files, takeoff, and estimates/proposals. You can also use the Quick Create menu to quickly add a new task, lead questionnaire, meeting, estimate/proposal, 3D floor plan, and more. You can convert to a project if the lead is won, and you can Delete, Archive, Print or Snooze under More Actions.
On the right side of this page, you can view client and lead details, lead stage, and more. From here, you can assign a team member to a lead — just select a team member's name in the Lead Manager dropdown, and they will be marked as the manager for this lead.
Edit or Delete a Lead
If you need to edit or delete a lead, you can easily do this from your leads list. Select the three dots icon to the right of your lead — from there, you can select Edit, Snooze, Archive or Delete.
If you select Edit, a new screen will appear to input more client or project details.
If you select Delete, you will be able to provide details on why this lead isn't moving forward. This is a great place to provide feedback on leads that aren't a fit or that are spam so we can improve connections moving forward.
Edit or Delete from Individual Lead Page
If you prefer to edit or delete a lead from within the specific lead's page, you can do that as well.
To edit a lead, select the pencil icon at the top left of your screen next to the lead name.
To delete a lead, select More Actions from the left menu, then click on Delete.
Create a New Lead
When you’re contacted through Houzz Pro about a potential project, a lead will automatically be added to your New leads stage.
If you have a lead from a different website, word of mouth, or any other source, you can manually add the details to the system.
To do this, simply click the Add Leads button at the top right of your leads list. You can either select to Create New Lead, Import from File, or Import from Email.
Once you create a new lead, it will then appear in your leads list.
Lead Sources
When you are creating a new lead, you have the ability to list the source of the lead to keep track of where your business receives the most traction.
In the Create New Lead screen — or when editing an existing lead — you can select from an extended list of standard lead sources.
You can also add your own custom lead sources by clicking on Manage Lead Sources at the bottom of the dropdown menu.
From there, you can select the relevant category and manually type in the lead source information.
Organize Leads with Tags
With our tag feature, you can customize how your lead list is organized according to your company's workflow and internal process. You can create your own custom tags (e.g. custom stages or statuses) to fit your needs, apply them to relevant leads, then easily filter and sort by tags to find leads more efficiently. Let's take a look at how to create and manage lead tags.
Create and Add Lead Tags
To create new tags or add existing tags to a lead, click on Add Tags in the Tags column on the desired lead in the main leads list, or open the lead details by clicking on the lead name.
Next, locate the Tags section in the right panel on the lead details page. Here you can click on existing tags to add them to the lead. You may apply multiple tags to a single lead. Use the input field to search for tags or create a new one.
To create a new tag, type the desired tag name into the input field and hit Enter/Return or click "Create Tag [name]" to add it to your tag list.
Manage Lead Tags
To edit or delete a lead tag you will need to access the Manage Tags modal. You can open this in the Tags section on the lead details page in the right panel — click into the tags field and select Manage Tags at the bottom of the list.
In the Manage Tags modal you can click the edit icon to change a tag name, or click the trash icon to delete a tag. Deleting a tag will remove it from leads it is currently applied to and cannot be undone.
Filter Leads by Tags
Once you apply one or more tags to a lead, you will see them in the Tags column in the main leads list. To quickly filter your leads by a single tag, click directly on the desired tag and your results will be automatically filtered. You can also use the Tags filter at the top of the list to apply one or more tag filters.
Convert Lead to Project
If a lead has been won and you would like to turn it into an official project, you can easily make the adjustment within the lead overview page.
To do this, click the Leads icon from your left navigation, then select the relevant lead from the menu. Within the lead overview page, select the Convert to Project button in the left menu.
A screen will appear where you can input details on the project, including lead source, estimated start date, estimated revenue and profit. All this information is optional and is used for your lead insights, so you can keep blank if you prefer. Be sure to click Convert to complete.
Your lead will now appear listed as a project. Please Note: At this time, you cannot convert a project back to a lead.