Where did my lead come from?

Yesterday I was asked to submit some costs for some consultancy work.

Matt, the marketing director who contacted me, used to be an account director at a PR agency. I met Matt a few weeks ago when the MD of the PR agency, Brian, asked me in for some advice on their digital proposition.

I met Brian a few weeks prior to that at the birthday party of a man named John. He was introduced to me through a mutual friend, also called John, who I met at a networking event a few years ago and have stayed in touch with ever since.

I found out about that networking event from a guy named Mark, who runs a software development company. I met Mark after my wife met his colleague Joe at a Chamber of Commerce event only a few months after we first moved to Manchester, back in 2005. Realising that we might have some shared interests, my wife Monika, made the introductions.

Where did my lead come from? Monika, Joe, Mark, John, John, Brian or Matt?

The answer of course is that the ultimate opportunity for me to do some business came from a connected series of events and influences over the course of more than five years. Because I know all of the steps along the way, I can trace the path of this lead from start to finish. But this is rarely the case in business. How often do we really know where our leads come from?

The analogy holds true for the online world. Sure you can do last click analysis, but what does that really tell you? In my experience above, I never would have met Matt without Brian. In the online world that customer may never have clicked on the Google ad without first reading comments on your Facebook group.

Part of our aim with CANDDi is to help you understand in the digital world how prospects progress and how leads evolve, from the first touch to the last. Give us a shout if you’d like to know more.