Lead: the qualified-inquiry standard

A lead is a contact that passes all five tests of the qualified-inquiry standard. It is Stage 0 of the funnel, and some of our materials call it a qualified conversation. A two-second call is not a lead.

The five tests

A contact counts as a lead only if all five hold. None depends on whether the person later signs.

1. A real conversation. Any one of these: a call with at least 30 seconds of connected talk time and a caller’s voice, or the firm’s higher threshold, set at kickoff from its own call-log audit; a form, chat or text with a working phone number or email; or a Local Services Ads lead that Google records as a call or message.
2. A new matter: not an existing client and not a duplicate.
3. In scope: a practice area the firm takes, from inside its written service area.
4. Not junk: not spam, a silent call, a wrong number, a job seeker, a vendor or a solicitor.
5. Not a test: not a call or form placed by Probative or the firm to check tracking or intake.

Platforms use the same threshold. The ad platforms’ own call conversions are set to the same minimum call length, so both counts start from the same calls; Google lets the advertiser set that minimum (Google).

A missed call isn’t a lead. It counts in the missed-call rate. If the firm calls back and has a qualifying conversation, the lead is created at that moment and keeps the missed call’s source.

Duplicates

• Repeat contacts from the same phone number or email within 30 days of the first qualifying contact merge into the original lead, which keeps its source.
• Intake merges any later contact about the same matter.
• A new matter from the same person is a new lead.

Contacts that are never leads

A “ghost call” in the Standard is a secret-shop call we place to test intake, only with the firm’s written consent. Some call-tracking tools use the term for what we call a silent call.

Disposition codes

Every contact and lead carries one code, and the firm’s own codes are mapped to these at kickoff: X1 spam, X2 silent call, X3 wrong number, X4 job seeker, X5 vendor, X6 outside the practice areas, X7 outside the service area; E1 existing client, E2 duplicate, E3 test call; L lead, Q qualified lead, C consult set, S signed case; D1 to D6 declined by the firm (liability; injury or treatment; coverage or collectability; limitation period; conflict; referred out); P1 hired another firm, P2 stopped responding, P3 never reached.

Why it matters

An agency that counts every ring can report hundreds of “calls” that were never conversations. A written lead definition, applied the same way to the platforms and to the firm’s records, is the first thing to check in any report. Cost per lead built on it is still only a diagnostic; the headline is cost per signed case.

Cite as: The Probative Standard v1.0, Lead. Last reviewed October 24, 2026, by the Probative editorial team.