Lead Feeds Manager: Every Lead Source in One Inbox

Website forms, third party lead emails, webhooks, CSV lists and LeadLocate's own delivery all land in the same Leads view, each one tagged with where it came from.

Lead Feeds Manager is the control panel for where leads come from. A dealership does not have one lead source; it has a website with three forms, two or three third party providers that send leads by email, a chat widget, a few landing pages, the occasional purchased list and, if it is a LeadLocate subscriber, exclusive local buyer and seller leads delivered by LeadLocate itself. Each of those is a feed. A feed has a Feed Label, an intake method, a rule for who gets the lead, and settings for what happens the moment it arrives.

The point of putting all of that on one page is that the Leads view then becomes the one inbox. A rep does not check a provider portal, a website admin panel and an email account; every lead from every source is a row in the same list, with its feed shown on the row so the rep knows what the customer asked for and where. The manager gets the same benefit in reverse: every source is set up the same way, in the same place, and switching a provider off means removing its feed rather than chasing down which mailbox it was forwarding to.

The general case for source attribution in a dealership CRM is made on the CRM with dealership lead source attribution page and the automotive lead source dashboard page. This page is the tool itself.

An internet director signs a new third party lead provider on a Wednesday. The provider asks where to send leads. In most stores that answer is a group mailbox, and the leads are then forwarded by hand or parsed by a fragile rule. In LeadLocate the director opens Lead Feeds Manager, clicks add feed, gives it a label the team will recognize, and picks how the leads will arrive. The feed shows a Lead Email address, a Lead Form URL and a Webhook URL, so the answer to the provider is whichever of those three the provider supports. Most providers send email; the feed's lead email address is what they get.

The director then sets the assignment. All (Round Robin) spreads the new provider's leads across the floor; a single user sends them to the BDC; Unassigned (Up for Grabs) leaves them open for the first rep to claim. He turns on Instant Push so each lead appears in the CRM as it arrives, turns on SMS Notify so the assigned rep's phone buzzes, and turns on Auto 1st Msg so the feed's first text goes out under the rep's name. If the sales manager wants to see every lead from this provider as well, Allow Manager Copies does that per feed. He saves, sends the provider the address, and the first lead shows up in the Leads view an hour later with the new label on it. The whole exercise took less time than the provider's sales call.

A month later, when the store wants to know whether that provider was worth it, the answer is a filter on the Leads view by feed, and the reporting behind it, rather than a spreadsheet somebody built from forwarded emails.

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Every feed accepts leads by more than one route, and a store can use whichever the source supports. The Lead Email address is for providers and website platforms that send a lead notification by email; the CRM reads the incoming message and creates the lead. The Lead Form is a hosted form at its own Live URL, ready to link from a website, a social profile or a printed card, and it creates the lead directly with no email in between. The Webhook URL is for anything that can post data, and the feed accepts both standard form posts and JSON, so a developer or a website vendor has a clear target. CSV Upload takes a spreadsheet, with a Download Template link so the columns are right the first time, which is how a store loads an event list or a provider's monthly export.

Custom source feeds add a layer for stores that need it. A custom feed carries its own Feed Label, its own Lead Assignment rule (Round Robin, Single User or Unassigned so everyone can claim), and a Default Status for New Leads, so leads from a particular source can land in a particular status the moment they are parsed. A store that treats service drive referrals differently from website leads sets that difference here once and never thinks about it again.

LeadLocate's own lead delivery uses the default feeds, which are permanent. Their labels and settings are editable, and they behave like any other feed in the Leads view, but they are always there, because they are how the exclusive local leads included in the Inbound, Marketplace Acquisitions and Buyers & Sellers Hybrid plans reach the store.

Lead Feeds Manager is under Billing and Admin in the main menu, next to Automated Templates, Follow Up Processes, DNC Blacklist, User Management and Account Settings. That placement is deliberate. The feed defines the source, Automated Templates define the first messages per feed, and Follow Up Processes define the drip per lead type, so the three pages a manager touches when adding a source sit together.

The feed itself is visible everywhere a lead is. In the Leads view each row carries its feed, and the list filters by feed so a manager can look at one provider's leads in isolation. On the phone app the same leads appear in the Leads view with the same source label, and a rep who gets an SMS Notify for a new lead opens it from the notification. Tracking phone numbers are provisioned per source as well, so a feed that represents a print campaign or a third party site can have its own inbound number and the calls attribute to the same source as the forms, as described on the tracking phone numbers page.

The old way is a mailbox and a habit. Leads from six providers arrive in one inbox, someone reads it, someone forwards each lead to a rep, and someone else keeps a tally of which provider sent what so the store can decide at renewal time whether to keep paying. Every step depends on a person, and every person has days off. The failure modes are familiar: the lead that was read but never forwarded, the provider that was cancelled but kept sending to a mailbox nobody checked, and the renewal decision made on a feeling because nobody had the tally.

Some stores solve this with a third party automation tool that catches the email and pushes it into the CRM. That works until the provider changes its email template, at which point the automation silently breaks and leads disappear for a week. LeadLocate replaced those per dealer automations with in-house Intake Process Automation, which sits on the feed itself and has an intake hook for anything custom. The feed is the integration. When a provider is added, the store gives it an address; when a provider is dropped, the store removes the feed; and the tally exists automatically, because every lead has always carried its source.

There is also the cost nobody puts on the invoice, which is the rep who worked a lead from a provider the store had stopped paying for, or the lead that was worked twice because two providers sent the same customer. The feed label on the row makes the first obvious, and merge duplicate leads handles the second.

Where a lead came from is the first thing a store needs to know when a customer asks why they were contacted. A lead that carries its feed carries its answer: this customer submitted this form, on this date, through this source, and here is the first message the store sent in reply. Because the feed and its Automated Templates are configured together, the first text and email a customer receives are the ones written for that source, with the right identification and the right context, rather than a generic blast.

Assignment on the feed also means a lead is never worked by two reps who both think they own it, and the communications log ties every call, text and email to the lead and the rep who sent it. Blacklisted contacts are hidden from every CRM view regardless of which feed they arrived through, so a customer on the store's do not call blacklist stays off the floor even when a provider sends them again. And when a lead is bad, it goes through the replacement review workflow rather than being deleted, so the record of what the source sent stays intact for the renewal conversation.

Lead Feeds Manager is on from the day an account is created, with the default feeds already in place. To add a source, open Billing and Admin, choose Lead Feeds Manager, click add feed, type a Feed Label your team will recognize on a lead row, and choose the assignment. Copy the Lead Email address or Webhook URL to the provider, or link the Live URL of the lead form from your site. Turn on Instant Push and SMS Notify, decide whether Auto 1st Msg should fire, and save. Then open Automated Templates and write the first text and email for that feed, so the moment a lead arrives the customer hears from a named salesperson.

For a source that needs something the page does not express, such as a provider with an unusual format or a website platform that posts in its own structure, the intake hook on Intake Process Automation covers it, and anything beyond that is available on request; our team puts it in production for your dealership. The contact page is the place to describe the source.

Lead Feeds Manager defines the source. Round robin lead assignment is one column of it, and the page on that feature explains how rotation works per feed and per user. Automated Templates are the per feed first messages, and a feed without a template is a lead without a first text. Follow Up Processes pick up after the first message with a multi step drip per lead type. The reports dashboard is where the by source tally lives once the feeds have been running for a month.

Lead Feeds Manager is part of the LeadLocate CRM in every plan, including CRM Only for a store that wants to bring its own lead sources without LeadLocate lead delivery. Plans are month to month and listed on the pricing page. The all features list shows where feeds sit among the rest of the platform.

What is a lead feed in LeadLocate CRM?

A feed is one lead source defined on the Lead Feeds Manager page: a Feed Label, an intake method (Lead Email, Lead Form, Webhook URL or CSV Upload), an assignment rule and settings such as Instant Push, SMS Notify, Auto 1st Msg and Allow Manager Copies. Every lead from that source arrives in the Leads view carrying the feed.

How do I get a third party lead provider into the CRM?

Add a feed, then give the provider the feed's Lead Email address or Webhook URL. Their leads create records in the Leads view automatically, labeled with that feed, and the feed's Automated Templates send the first message.

Can different sources go to different people?

Yes. Each feed has its own assignment: All (Round Robin), a single user, or Unassigned (Up for Grabs). Custom source feeds add a Default Status for New Leads so a source can land in a specific status.

What are the default feeds?

They are the permanent feeds through which LeadLocate delivers the exclusive local leads included in the Inbound, Marketplace Acquisitions and Buyers and Sellers Hybrid plans. Their labels and settings are editable and they behave like any other feed.

Do I need a developer to connect my website?

Usually not. Most website platforms send lead emails, which the feed's Lead Email address accepts. A site that can post data uses the Webhook URL with form or JSON payloads, and the hosted Lead Form's Live URL works with no integration at all.

Is Lead Feeds Manager included in CRM Only?

Yes. It is part of the LeadLocate CRM in every plan, so a store can bring its own lead sources without LeadLocate lead delivery. Plans are month to month and listed on the pricing page.

Lead Feeds Manager is part of every LeadLocate plan, month to month. Bring your website, your providers and your lists into one Leads view where each lead carries its source.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.