The Lead Page

A lead is a potential new client working through your sales pipeline, and its page is built from sections: labeled panels and tabs. Many are the same sections you’ll see on a case; each is documented in depth on its own page. (New to the idea? See Sections of a record.)

The Head of the Lead

The top of the page captures who the potential client is, where they came from, and what the engagement looks like if you win it. It opens with a number worth knowing: what this lead cost you, computed from the cost-per-lead of the campaigns that produced it.

Who and What

• Short Name: a brief name for the lead; if you run paid consultations, it also appears on the consult invoice.
• Client Names: the potential new client(s). Pick an existing contact from the drop-down, or type a full name to create a new contact on the spot. You can enter the name either way: First Middle Last, or Last, First Middle. Once you’ve named at least one client and chosen a case type, a contact-detail section appears below for each client, editable inline right on the lead page, so you can fill in phone, email, and address while you’re still on the call.
• Case Type(s): the kind(s) of case. Choosing case types does real work: it seeds the Estimated Value from each type’s average price, and decides which red flags and intake questions apply. A lead can carry more than one case type, because one conversation can turn into more than one matter. A case, though, holds exactly one type. So when you convert a lead that has multiple case types, Outlaw asks whether to create multiple cases, one per type. It’s your call whether to run one lead with several case types or a separate lead for each.

Where It Came From

• Referred By: the person or business who sent this client your way. It must be an actual person or company (it creates a contact); for an anonymous referral, leave it blank.
• Campaigns: the marketing campaign that produced the lead. Use them together deliberately: a Google Ads lead is campaign-only; a referral from someone in your networking group is the person in Referred By plus the group as the campaign. Kept separate like this, your analytics can tell you whom to thank and which marketing to fund.

Referred By must be a person or a business. This field creates a contact, so it expects a real name. If you type freeform text like “A Friend”, Outlaw assumes you meant a person and creates a contact named Friend, A., which is plainly not what you wanted. When the referral is anonymous or unknown, leave the field blank rather than typing a placeholder.

Referred By vs. Campaigns, worked through

The reason these are two separate fields is that they answer two different questions: whom do I thank (Referred By) and which marketing is working (Campaigns). You can use one, the other, or both. Some leads come from a campaign with no referrer:

• Google or Facebook Ads: campaign only, no person.
• A lead-generation company: campaign only.
• A directory such as AVVO or Justia: campaign only.

Others come from a campaign that also has a real referrer. In those cases, fill in both:

• Another law firm: Referred By is the person at the firm who made the referral (or the firm’s name if you don’t know the individual), and the campaign is that firm, for example “ABC Law Firm”. Keep a campaign for any firm that sends you work.
• A networking group such as BNI or a Chamber of Commerce: Referred By is the specific person in the group who referred the client, and the campaign is the group.
• A former client: Referred By is the client’s name, and the campaign is a “Former Clients” campaign.

Filling both in this way is what lets the firm owner know whom to thank, and which campaigns are bringing in clients who actually pay their bills, so you can invest in the good campaigns and divest from the rest.

The Money Picture

• Estimated Value: the expected total value of the case(s). The seed comes from each case type’s Average Value field, and you refine it from your conversations with the potential new client. A simple rule of thumb: if this looks like a difficult case, raise the estimated value; if it looks like a simple one, lower it.
• Estimated Close: your best guess at when they’ll sign. Together with value, this is what makes the pipeline forecast meaningful.
• Initial Consult Date: when the consultation is set. Setting it reveals the Paid Consult? checkbox if the consultation itself is billed.
• Who is Paying?: leave empty when the client pays. If someone else is footing the bill (a parent, a benefactor), name them here; they carry over to the case and appear first when you take a payment.
• Retainer Requested / Retainer Received: what you asked for and what actually arrived. The gap is a warning: starting work on a partial retainer is strongly associated with not getting paid later.

The lead also displays its risk flag (the Red Flags score), so a risky prospect announces itself, and like every record it carries its change history.

The Consult Workflow Buttons

Once the lead reaches Appointment Made, the head grows action buttons that walk the consultation through: Add Task for Consult (creates the consult’s task, the time entry, if there isn’t one), Take Payment (for a paid consult that hasn’t been paid), and Create Invoice / Edit Invoice once the consult’s time entry is completed. The payment’s received (or refunded) date shows right here, and if payment arrived but the time entry isn’t finished yet, the page says exactly what it’s waiting for.

The Sales Pipeline

• Milestones: the sales stages this lead has reached, from Awaiting Info through Retainer Funded (Won). This is the heart of the lead page.
• Time Entries: tasks tied to working the lead.

People and Screening

• Participants: everyone involved and their role, by legal or family relationship. Keeping this current powers the conflict check.
• Conflict Checks: screen the lead before you take it on, and again as new people surface.
• Red Flags: the risk checklist, scored. On a lead these often catch problems before the lead ever becomes a case.
• Intake & Custom Fields: your firm’s intake questions for the lead.

Money

• Transactions: any money movement on the lead, such as a paid consultation.
• Payment Methods: stored payment methods for the prospective client.

Calendar and the Rest

• Events & Deadlines: consult dates and other dates, on the Task Calendar.
• Notes & Attachments: notes and files for the lead.
• Private Comments: internal notes.

When a lead reaches Retainer Funded, you convert it into a case, and much of this context carries over.

How This Connects

• Flows in. A lead is born from a campaign (and often a referrer), which records where it came from and what it cost. Its case type(s) seed the estimated value and decide which red flags and intake questions apply.
• Flows out. Win the lead and it becomes one or more cases, carrying its clients, participants, who’s paying, fee arrangement, and the intake answers you kept, so the case starts already filled in. A paid consultation on the lead flows into an invoice and payment like any other work. Win or lose, the lead’s outcome feeds campaign ROI and the red-flag recovery analytics.
• In time. A lead’s red flags answer should we take this case? (the case’s own flags later answer should we withdraw?), and like every record the lead keeps a full Blame Log of who changed what, and when. See How Outlaw Fits Together for the whole loop.