One of the most common issues that crops up during a Microsoft CRM implementation is the confusion around the definition and purpose of the Lead entity, and how it relates to other common terms such as Suspect, Prospect, and Sales Opportunity. Confusion is particularly common among users of ACT!, Goldmine, and other contact managers due to the way these applications are designed.
Let's clear up the confusion once and for all! In this article, I do the following:
- Define a Lead in Microsoft CRM
- Explain how Suspects and Prospects are tracked as Leads in Microsoft CRM
- Explain how a Lead is converted to a Sales Opportunity, as well as an Account and/or Contact
By the end of the article, you should be able to envision how to use Microsoft CRM to track your leads.
Definition of Lead in Microsoft CRM
A lead in Microsoft CRM is either a Suspect or a Prospect:
- Suspect - a person who might be interested in what you sell but who has not yet indicated any interest. An example might be a list of people purchased from a service such as InfoUSA or D&B, or a list of names compiled from a telephone book.
- Prospect - a person who has expressed interest in what you sell, but who has not yet met the criteria to be considered a Sales Opportunity. An example might be a person who registered to download a whitepaper or to attend a webinar, but whom you have not yet qualified.
That's it! That's all a Lead is in Microsoft CRM.
In Microsoft CRM, Leads are separate from Accounts and Contacts. The main benefit of this design is the ease of segregating people who are very early in the sales process from those who are further along. In some organizations, sales people don't work with Leads in Microsoft CRM. Instead, it is the marketing people who work with Leads, and then once the Lead is converted to an Opportunity, the sales folks take over.
Keeping Leads separate from Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities also makes it easier to develop workflow rules, reports, and security access.
How Suspects and Prospects are tracked as Leads in Microsoft CRM
Suspects and Prospects are both tracked as Leads in Microsoft CRM. Since this is the case, and since there is no standard out-of-the-box way to classify a Lead as a Suspect or Prospect (which is very important!), each organization needs to determine how to classify a Lead.
The most common method is to add a custom picklist attribute (done very quickly and easily) with two options: Suspect and Prospect. Another option is to add a bit attribute formatted as two radio buttons, with one button for Suspect and the second button for Prospect. See the screenshot below illustrating both options (click on the image to see a larger version).
How a Lead is Converted to an Account, Contact, and Sales Opportunity
Okay, so your lead was first a Suspect, then became a Prospect, and you have now determined that this is Prospect meets the criteria to be considered a Sales Opportunity, with a defined product or service to purchase and estimated buying timeframe. So what do you do with this Lead?
You click a button and convert it to a Sales Opportunity (or just Opportunity in Microsoft CRM).
Here is the ensuing dialog box. Note that with one click of a button, you can create three different records (Account, Contact, Opportunity) copying data from the Lead.
Once the Lead has been converted, this is what it looks like. Note that the fields are greyed-out (signifying that they are read-only) and that the status of "Qualified" appears in the lower left corner of the form.
Conclusion
And that's how a Lead is tracked in Microsoft CRM! There is a lot more to Lead Management than what this article discusses (capturing leads from a website, automating the assignment of leads, implementing a lead nurturing program, lead qualification criteria, etc.), but I hope that this helps you understand how your organization could start to use Microsoft CRM to manage your leads.
