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What is a lead?

A lead is someone who may present a new business opportunity and who does not belong to an account. A lead is different to a contact.

Leads home screen

Select Leads from the main menu.

The Leads home screen lists all the leads you have permissions to view. You can view, edit and delete individual leads from here. 

Filter your view of leads

You can filter by inactive or active leads or by owner or via a text search on the lead name or number. More than one filter can be applied at the same time. Filters remain active until you turn them off. For example, if you apply a filter and navigate away from page and then return, the filter will remain. To clear any filter you have applied, choose 'All' from the dropdown list. 

Show inactive leads

By default, only active leads are displayed. To view your inactive leads, select the Active filter button, and choose 'Inactive'.  

Search for leads

You can search for a lead by name. This performs an 'is like' search on the name and company columns. More about Searching in CRM.

Add a new lead  

  1. Select 'New' from the Leads home screen.

     
  2. Populate the screen that appears (shown below) with as much detail as required, noting that fields marked with an asterisk * are mandatory.
  3. Save. After saving, a new tab will appear, allowing you to add activities to the new lead, if required. Close.  

 


Expand
titleExpand for More Detail: Standard Lead Fields


Lead fields

FieldField typeDescription

Prefix

Drop Down list

The salutation of the lead. Choose from Dr, Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, Prof. 

First Name

Free Text.

The first name of the lead. This field is mandatory.

Middle Name

Free text.

Middle name (or initial) of the lead. 

Last Name

Free text.

Surname of the lead. This field is mandatory.

Company

Free text.

For leads, this field can be used to indicate which company the lead represents. Typically when a lead is converted, this would be the account field.

Job Title

Drop down list.

Typically this field will indicate the lead's area of responsibility, rather than their exact job title. E.g A job title of ‘Northern Region Sales Executive’ could be simply recorded as ‘sales’

Note: this is a customizable field that can be edited by administrators using Edit options in CRM dropdown lists

Owner

Drop down list

May be used to identify the person who normally looks after this lead. Owners are CRM users. 

Is Active

Y/N

Active leads typically include people that are potentially doing business with you. Inactive leads might no longer present an opportunity for future business. Rather than delete the entire lead and all the associated activities, it is often better to mark these leads as inactive. 

Communication fields

Phone

Free text

Direct (landline) phone number of the lead.

Fax

Free text

Direct fax number of the lead.

Email

Free text

Email address of the lead.

Website

Free text

Typically the website of the lead's company

Cell

Free text

Cell phone (mobile phone) number of the lead.

Contact Method

Drop down list

Typically used to record the way that particular person prefers to be contacted – e.g. via phone or email. Note: this is a customizable field that can be edited by administrators using  Edit options in CRM dropdown lists 

Address fields

Street/city

Free text

Street address and city of the lead. 

State

Free text

State in which the lead is based, if applicable.

Postcode

Free text

Zip or Postcode of the lead.

Country

Free text

Country the lead is located in. 

Is Mail Address

Y/N

Choose ‘Yes’ if the mail address is the same as the street address. Choose ‘No’ if the mail address is different, and enter in the details in the section below. 

Mail address fields

Street/city

Free text

Postal street address (or PO box) and city of the lead.  

State

Free text

Postal state of the lead, if applicable.

Postcode

Free text

Postal Zip or Postcode of the lead.

Country

Free text

Postal country the lead is located in.

Custom fields


 

Custom

Any field not listed in this table is a custom field. Administrators can create custom fields, typically from data that already exists in your ERP or other systems. 


View or modify an existing lead

To view a lead in more detail or to edit a lead, click on the lead name to open a lead record. You can do this from Leads home or anywhere else in CRM where the lead name appears in blue as an active link. You can view and edit lead information via two tabs ('Lead' and 'Activities').

Lead tab

Here you can edit basic information about the lead, such as name, owner and address details. The lead owner is the Phocas CRM user responsible for communicating with that lead. Once complete, save and close.

Activities tab

Here you have the ability to edit activities relating to the lead. The process for editing lead activities is similar to viewing or modifying activities. Once complete, save and close.

Convert a lead into a contact

Typically, once the lead becomes a customer, you can use Convert in Phocas CRM to convert leads into contacts.  

  1. Select the lead from Leads home so that the whole line turns blue.

     
  2. Select Convert, choose the appropriate account and Save.

    The lead will then disappear from leads and appear instead as a contact. Any activities assigned to the lead are retained.  

Note. You may need to create a new account prior to converting a lead. This is because contacts, unlike leads, cannot exist in isolation in CRM and must be assigned to an account.  


Delete a lead

To delete, select anywhere on the row (avoiding any links) so that the whole line turns blue. Then choose Delete.

If you do not have delete permissions, the delete button may not appear or you may see a message at the top of the screen indicating you do not have permission to delete. You can talk to your administrator about your permissions.


Note
titleDeleting in older versions of Phocas

In older versions of Phocas, deleting a lead also deletes activities associated with it, so you are deleting the entire history of that lead. An alternative is to mark the lead as 'inactive'.