Weekly Inquiry Report Template: A Four-Part Format for Traffic, Leads, Conversion, and Issues

Four-Part Weekly Inquiry Report Template: Traffic, Leads, Conversion, Issues

Weekly Inquiry Report Template: A Four-Part Format for Traffic, Leads, Conversion, and Issues

Bottom line first: Use a fixed four-part format for the weekly inquiry report: Traffic (visits, top 3 channels, week-over-week change), Leads (new inquiries, qualified rate, median first response time), Conversion (four-stage funnel, deals won, revenue), and Issues (blockers, help needed, next week’s plan). Keep it to one page. Every number needs a week-over-week comparison. Send it by Friday 5:00 PM. Counterintuitive take: the Issues section is the one most often dropped, yet it’s the most valuable part of the report — it’s what tells managers whether to commit resources.

1. Why the weekly report needs a fixed four-part structure

Many teams write their weekly report as a running log: “This week we did A, B, and C; next week we plan to do D, E, and F.” After reading it, you still don’t know how the numbers look or where the problems are. The value of a weekly report isn’t in recording what was done — it’s in letting managers spend 15 minutes deciding whether the week was normal, abnormal, or needs intervention. A fixed four-part format exists to eliminate that randomness.

The four parts answer four questions: Traffic answers “where is the water coming from, and is it enough”; Leads answers “are the fish coming in any good”; Conversion answers “which step is leaking”; Issues answers “what’s stuck, and what resources are needed.” Miss any one part, and the report isn’t complete.

Dimension	Core issues	Fields you must include	Consequence if missing
Traffic	Where visits come from, and whether it’s enough	Visits, top 3 channels, top 3 landing pages, week-over-week change	Can’t tell whether to spend more on ads or fix the website
Leads	Are the inquiries coming in any good	New inquiries, qualified rate, median first response time, spam share	Can’t tell whether it’s a traffic problem or a sales problem
Conversion	Which step is leaking money	Four-stage funnel, deals won, revenue won, conversion cycle	Don’t know what capability to build next month
Issues	What’s stuck	Blockers, items needing help, top three priorities for next week	Managers can’t step in, and problems drag on until they become incidents

These four parts aren’t four separate modules — they’re a causal chain: traffic determines lead volume, lead quality determines conversion rate, and issues determine whether the first three can improve. The order for reading the report should be: start with Conversion to find problems, then Leads to locate the cause, and finally Traffic to judge whether the root cause is at the source. Issues goes last because it’s an action item, not a data item.

2. Traffic: report only the top 3 and week-over-week change

Traffic metrics are the easiest place to write a bloated, catch-all report: list all twenty channels, one row each, and it looks thorough but nobody remembers any of it. The right approach is to report only the top 3 channels and their week-over-week change, then merge everything else into a single “Other” row. A weekly report isn’t a data table, it’s a decision summary.

Field	This week	Last week	Change	Notes
Total visits	8,200	7,500	+9.3%	Normal fluctuation
Channel 1: Google organic search	3,100	2,900	+6.9%	Steady
Channel 2: Google Ads	2,400	2,100	+14.3%	Budget increased this week
Channel 3: LinkedIn	1,200	1,500	-20.0%	No new content for two weeks
All other channels	1,500	1,000	+50.0%	Blog organic traffic up

Example: in the table above, LinkedIn is down 20% week over week, and the note says “No new content for two weeks.” That’s a good weekly report: the number and the reason, together. If you only write LinkedIn 1,200, your manager has to ask “why did it drop?” and that back-and-forth costs you a week. Any channel that moves more than plus or minus 20% must have a reason noted. That’s a hard rule. For long-term channel planning, see Inquiry Source Channel Analysis.

3. Lead metrics: quality rate matters more than volume

The most common mistake with lead metrics is reporting volume only: “We received 87 inquiries this week.” If 40 of those 87 are spam and 20 are competitors fishing for prices, only 27 are genuinely valid, which makes that number misleading. Lead metrics must report both volume and quality rate, with the spam share broken out separately.

Field	This week	Last week	Healthy range	Description
Total new inquiries	87	79	—	Includes spam and invalid
Valid inquiries	52	48	—	Real buyer demand
Quality rate	59.8%	60.8%	50% to 70%	Slightly down this week
Spam inquiry share	23.0%	18.0%	≤20%	High this week, check the form
Median first response time	12 min	15 min	≤15 minutes	Improved this week
Average follow-ups	3.4	3.1	3 to 5	Normal range

A spam share above 20% means something is wrong with your form or your anti-spam setup, so at that point lead metrics point straight to a technical problem, not a sales problem. For how to check form reliability, see Inquiry Form Reliability, and for anti-spam, see Form Anti-Spam. For benchmarks on median first response time and follow-up count, see Key Metrics for an Inquiry Dashboard.

4. Conversion metrics: a four-stage funnel to find your weakest stage

Conversion metrics are the heart of the weekly report. They put every inquiry from the week into a four-stage funnel so you can see which stage leaks the most. That weakest stage is where you focus next week. Don’t try to optimize every stage at once. Attack one point at a time.

Funnel stage	This week	Last week	Conversion Rate	Healthy range
New inquiries	52	48	—	—
Qualified conversations	32	29	61.5%	50% to 70%
Reached quote	18	17	56.3%	40% to 60%
Won	4	3	22.2%	20% to 35%
Total won revenue	USD 68,000	USD 45,000	—	+51% week over week

Example: In the table above, new inquiries to qualified conversations is 61.5%, healthy; qualified conversations to quotes is 56.3%, healthy; quotes to closed-won is 22.2%, at the low end of the range. This tells you the problem isn’t sales follow-up ability, it’s the quoting stage — either the quoting strategy is off, or competitors are undercutting on price. Next week’s improvements should focus on quote scripts and competitor comparisons, not on practicing first response. For the quoting strategy framework, see Inquiry Quoting Strategy and Anchoring, and for competitor comparison scripts, see Inquiry Competitor Comparison Scripts.

5. Problem Dimension: The Most Important Part People Skip

The problem dimension is the part most often left out of weekly reports. Many people think “nothing went wrong this week” and skip it. But counterintuitively, the problem dimension is exactly the most valuable part of a weekly report. The first three dimensions describe the current state; the problem dimension asks for resources. A weekly report without a problem dimension leaves managers able to read but unable to help.

Question type	Details	Support Needed	Target Resolution Date
Blocker	A German buyer asked for a VDA 6.3 certificate, not shown on our website	Marketing to add a certificates page	By next Wednesday
Capability gap	3 inquiries stuck with no reply after the quote	A senior salesperson to sit in on one negotiation	By this Friday
Tool issue	20% of WhatsApp messages aren’t syncing to the CRM	Tech team to check the webhook	By next Monday
Three Priorities for Next Week	① Improve quote scripts ② Add the VDA certificate page ③ Fix WhatsApp sync	—	Within next week

The problem dimension has three hard requirements: every problem must be specific (not “sales ability is lacking” but “3 inquiries stuck with no reply after the quote”), must state the support needed (not “needs improvement” but “a senior salesperson to sit in on one negotiation”), and must have a target resolution date (not “as soon as possible” but “by this Friday”). A problem without these three things may as well not be written.

For the final format of the weekly report, use a Feishu doc or online spreadsheet, not a PDF. An online spreadsheet lets managers comment directly on a row, saving back-and-forth. CRM data sync is the prerequisite for an accurate weekly report, see Connecting Website Leads to the CRM.

FAQ

How long should an inquiry weekly report be?

Under one page — one A4 page or one screen of an online doc. More than a page means you didn’t distill it: you moved data into the report instead of writing judgment into it. Every number must have a period-over-period comparison; absolute values alone mean nothing. Send it before 5:00 PM Friday and review it in 15 minutes at Monday’s morning meeting.

What does each of the four dimensions answer?

The traffic dimension answers “where is the water coming from, and is it enough”; the lead dimension answers “are the fish coming in any good”; the conversion dimension answers “which step is leaking money”; the problem dimension answers “what’s stuck, and what resources are needed.” Read them in this order: start with the conversion dimension to find problems, then the lead dimension to locate the cause, and finally the traffic dimension to judge whether the issue is at the source.

How many channels should the traffic dimension cover?

Report only the top 3 channels with week-over-week change; merge the rest into a single “Other” row. A weekly report isn’t a data table, it’s a decision summary. Any channel that moved more than ±20% must have its cause noted. Reporting numbers without explanation just makes managers guess. Long-term channel planning belongs in the channel analysis article, not here.

Why does the lead dimension break out the junk inquiry rate separately?

Because of 87 inquiries, 40 may be junk and 20 may be competitors fishing for prices, leaving only 27 that are genuinely valid. Reporting just the count misleads. Valid rate equals valid inquiries divided by total new inquiries, with a healthy range of 50% to 70%. A junk rate above 20% means the form or anti-spam setup has a problem, so check the tech instead of blaming sales.

How does the conversion dimension find the one thing to fix this week?

Put inquiries into a four-stage funnel: new inquiry, valid conversation, quote sent, deal won. Calculate the conversion rate at each stage and compare it against the healthy range. The weakest stage is where you focus next week; don’t try to improve all stages at once. A low quote-to-win rate points to pricing strategy or competitors, while a low valid-conversation-to-quote rate points to weak needs discovery.

How do I write the issues dimension so it’s actually useful?

Every issue needs three things: a specific description (not “sales skills are weak” but “3 inquiries stalled after the quote with no reply”), the support needed (not “needs improvement” but “a senior salesperson to sit in on one negotiation”), and a target resolution date (not “as soon as possible” but “by Friday”). An issue without these three is as good as not written. The issues dimension is the most valuable part of the weekly report because it’s where you ask for resources.

Final thoughts

For many teams, the weekly report has become a chore: everyone spends two hours on Friday afternoon filling in a template, sends it out, and nobody reads it. The problem isn’t the template, it’s that the template only makes you record what you did, not judge what went wrong. The point of a fixed four-dimension format is to force one judgment every week: is traffic enough, are leads good, where does conversion leak, and what’s stuck.

Three steps to make it work: first, lock the weekly report template to the four dimensions, no adding or removing sections; second, every number must include week-over-week change, and anything beyond 20% must have a stated cause; third, every issue must include a specific description, the support needed, and a target date. Do these three and the weekly report goes from a chore to the most effective communication tool between managers and the team.

One line worth remembering: a good weekly report doesn’t record what you did, it tells managers what they need to know after reading it, whether to give you resources this week, what resources, and by when.