Leads is Socket's pipeline for tracking an enquiry from first contact to a signed proposal, with pricing, engagement letters, and onboarding connected to it. It covers new prospects and existing clients alike.
This article is an overview. Each area links to the guide that covers it in full.
The leads board
The pipeline is a set of columns, and each lead is a card moved along as the deal progresses. Four views sit across the top: Active Leads, Won / Lost Leads, Current Activities, and Reporting.
From the board you can:
See the number of deals and total value in each column.
Mark leads hot, warm, or cold.
Search, and filter by lead owner, stage, temperature, source, or prospect and client.
Switch to a list view showing leads as a sortable table.
Create a lead with New Lead, generate one with Generate with AI, or open Settings.
Stages and card content are configured in Setting up the Leads module.
The lead record
Selecting a card opens the lead. A stage bar across the top shows progress through the pipeline.
Summary: owner, deal size, source, and contact details, with a Company tab alongside.
Lead Research: AI research against Companies House, filing history, and the prospect's website.
Notes: context that does not belong in a structured field.
Files: documents attached to the lead.
Activities: calls, emails, meetings, and tasks, each with an owner and due date.
Timeline: an automatic history of everything that has happened to the lead.
Start Proposal, Link to Proposal, and Mark as Lost sit in the top right.
Stage changes can be made from the board, the list view, or the lead record. Using the record day to day is covered in Working your pipeline.
Ways to create a lead
Leads can be created through several routes. Unless the route sets the stage itself, a new lead is created in the leftmost stage.
A form on your website. Embedded Socket forms create the lead with the enquirer's answers attached. One lead capture form is included with Leads.
Manually. Added from New Lead, or from Create New Lead on a pending, active, or won proposal.
Generated with AI. Generate with AI builds a lead from a call transcript, email thread, Slack message, or written prompt, drafting notes and activities for review before saving.
From an AI assistant. Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini create and update leads through Socket MCP.
Zapier and the API. Leads push in from the rest of your stack, and Zaps trigger on lead created, stage changed, won, and lost.
All routes are covered in Creating a lead in Socket.
AI lead research
Research reads Companies House and the prospect's website and writes its findings onto the lead: a company summary, the signals that will drive the fee, flags to check, and questions to ask before quoting. Every finding is tagged with its source, and the run is recorded with an audit trail.
See AI lead research.
Leads reporting
Reporting covers win rate, what is converting, and which leads are drifting. Leads are grouped as fresh, ageing, or fragile according to how long they have gone without activity, against thresholds set per stage.
See Leads reporting.
Related articles
Setting up the Leads module, stages, sources, cards, thresholds, lost reasons, and deal values
Working your pipeline, using the board and lead record day to day
Creating a lead in Socket, every route in
AI lead research, researching a prospect before you quote
Leads reporting, pipeline health and ageing