Acquisition Sources
Acquisition Sources is a catalog where you define how a customer, prospect, vendor or opportunity found your company (for example: referral, social media, trade show, website, cold call). It's used to classify your contacts and opportunities by acquisition channel, so you can measure which channels are actually bringing you business.
What is it and what is it for?
It's a simple catalog: each record is just a Name (for example "Referral", "Facebook Ads", "Trade Show", "Google", "Cold Call"). Once created, these sources show up as a selection list on Customer, Prospect, Vendor and CRM Opportunity/Lead records, so you can note where that contact or business opportunity came from.
With that information, you can then filter opportunity, customer and close-ratio reports by acquisition source, to see which marketing or prospecting channels are worth continuing to invest in.
How to use it
- Open the catalog. Go to the Acquisition Sources list, where you'll see every source you've created, sorted by name.
- Create a new source. Use the add button and type the name of the channel or means of acquisition you want to register.
- Save. AdmCloud checks that the name isn't empty and that no other source already uses that same name.
- Use it on your contacts and opportunities. From that point on, the new source is available in the Acquisition Source field on Customer, Prospect, Vendor and Opportunity/Lead records.
- Review or edit an existing record. Click its name in the list to open its detail, and use the edit button if you need to correct the name.
Key fields and validations when saving
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Description of the acquisition source. It's required and must be unique: two sources cannot share the same name. |
You can't delete a source that's already in use. If you try to delete an Acquisition Source that's assigned to any Customer, Prospect or Opportunity/Lead, AdmCloud rejects the deletion and shows you the list of records using it, so you can reassign them to a different source first if you still want to delete it.
Where this information appears
- On the Customer and Prospect form, as one more field on the contact's record.
- On the Vendor form.
- On CRM Opportunities and Leads.
- As a filter on CRM and sales reports: Opportunities, Opportunities Without a Quote, Close Ratio by Month and by Sales Rep, and the Customers report.
Availability and permissions
- This feature must be enabled for your company. If it isn't, the catalog screen shows a "not available in this edition" message and the Acquisition Source field doesn't show up anywhere else in the system. If you need it, check with your administrator or your AdmCloud account representative about enabling it.
- To view, create, edit or delete records you need the "Acquisition Source" permission (CRM module) at the corresponding level (View, Add, Edit or Delete).
Tips and common pitfalls
Keep the list short and clear. A handful of well-defined sources ("Referral", "Social Media", "Trade Show", "Website") is more useful than many similar variants: it keeps your acquisition-channel reports easy to read.
"A record with that name already exists." This message appears if you try to create or rename a source with a name another catalog record already uses; pick a different name.
You can't delete it while it's in use. Before deleting a source, check the error message: it tells you which Customers, Prospects or Opportunities have it assigned, so you can give them a different source first.