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What is a lead?

A lead is someone who

may

might present a new business opportunity

and who

. A lead does not belong to an account. A lead is different to a contact.

Info

Leads home screen

Leads home is accessed by selecting the Leads icon. Image Removed

The Leads home screen lists

During your Phocas implementation, we often import your Contacts and Leads as a one-time process. However, you might want to re-import these items occasionally, for example, to update custom fields in bulk. You can’t do this task yourself, but you can contact your Customer Success Consultant to arrange for our Professional Services team to do it for you.

View a list of all leads

Click the Phocas menu button > Leads.

The Leads screen displays a list of all the leads you have permissions to view. You can view, edit and delete individual leads from here.

 By default, the leads are listed alphabetically, with the following columns: Name, company, job title, phone, email and owner.

Image Removed

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

 

Image Added

Find a lead

On the Leads screen, you can find a particular lead using the filter and search options above the grid or by sorting the list.

  • Use the Active filter to switch between viewing active and inactive leads in the list.  

  • Use the Owner filter to display only your leads or leads that belong to another user (that you have permissions to view).

  • Use the Team filter to display leads allocated to a specific team to which you belong.

  • Use the Search box to search for a specific lead by name. This performs an is like search on the name column.

  • Click a column heading to sort data into ascending or descending order. 

Filters remain active until you turn them off

. For example

, so if you apply a filter and

navigate

move away from

page

the screen and then return, the filter will remain. To clear any filter you have applied,

 choose '

 select All

'

from the dropdown list. 

Filter by owner

You can select to view:

  • all leads you have permissions to view
  • leads allocated to Teams you belong to (in this example, 'UK' and 'USA', as shown below)
  • leads that belong to other users (in this example, 'Andy Bass' and other individual user names)
    Image Removed
Show inactive leads

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

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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  

Select 'New' from

  1. On the Leads

home

  1. screen, click New.

    Image Added
Populate the screen that appears (shown below) with as much detail as required, noting that fields

  1. Enter the lead’s details as required (items marked with an asterisk * are mandatory). Expand the section below to learn more about each item (field).

    Image Added

  2. Click Save.

After saving,

  1. If successful a new tab

will appear

  1. displays, allowing you

to 

  1. to add activities to the

new lead, if required. Close.  
Image Removed Lead fields

  1. campaign. You can come back to this tab later.

  2. Click Close.

Expand
title
Expand for More Detail: Standard Lead Fields
Standard lead details

Field

Field type

Description

Prefix

Drop Down

Dropdown list

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

First Name

Free

Text.

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

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

Dropdown list

.

Typically this field will indicate the lead's area of responsibility, rather than their exact job title.

E.g A

For example, the job title of

‘Northern

Northern Region Sales

Executive’

Executive could be simply recorded as

‘sales’

Sales.

Note: this is a customizable field that can be edited by administrators using

Add or change a drop-down option

Edit options in CRM

via picklists

dropdown lists

Owner

Drop down

Dropdown 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

who 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

Dropdown 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  

Add or change a drop-down option

Edit options in CRM

via picklists

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. 

Example

In this example, we have just been made aware of a person/company that may be interested in purchasing from us. We have a business card for a company director named 'Albert Einstein' and we need to enter these details into CRM as a lead.

Step 1. Go to Leads home by selecting the Leads icon.

Step 2. Select 'New'.

Step 3. Populate the fields as required. Note that:

  • First name and last name are mandatory
  • The owner field will default to yourself (but this can be changed)
  • The 'Is active' field will default to 'Yes' (but this can be changed)
  • Not all fields need to be populated – only fill in what is necessary and relevant to you.

In this example, we will fill in details as per the image below:

Image Removed

Step 4. Save. A message will appear briefly at the top of the screen to indicate if the lead has been successfully added. After saving, a new tab will appear, allowing you to add activities to the new lead, if required. In this example, we will skip this for now. 

Step 5. Close to go back to the Leads home screen. The new lead will appear in the list, as shown below.

Image Removed

 

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

View and edit a lead

  1. On the Leads screen, click the lead name (blue link) to open the lead record.

  2. On the lead record:

    • Lead tab - View and edit the lead’s details, such as its name, owner, and address, and assign the lead to another owner (CRM user responsible for communicating with that lead

. Once complete, save and close

    • ).

Image Removed

    • 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.

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    • - View and edit the activities assigned to the campaign, or delete (remove) activities from the campaign.  

  2. Click Save > Close.

Convert a lead into a contact

Typically,

once

when 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 from the list 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

convert the lead records into contacts. Contacts, unlike leads, cannot exist in isolation in CRM and must be assigned to an account. 

Example

Example: After a recent new business meeting, 'Rafael' from ACME Racquets has decided to purchase our products, and we have just received a purchase order. He exists in CRM as a lead and want to convert him to a contact (attached to an account).

Step 1. From Leads home, locate Rafael, and select so that the whole line turns blue (avoid clicking on any links)

Image Removed

Step 2. Select Convert.

Step 3. From the Account drop down, choose 'ACME Racquets'. Note: In this example, the ACME Raqcuets Account was automatically pushed into CRM overnight after it was entered in our back end (ERP) system. This will vary by company - check with your administrator.

Image Removed

Rafael is now removed from leads, and will appear as a contact against ACME Racquets. Any activities will also be transferred across.

Delete a lead

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

When you convert a lead to a contact, the lead disappears from the list on the Leads screen and displays in the list on the Contacts screen instead. Any activities assigned to the lead are retained.

  1. Prerequisite: Check the account is in CRM. If not, create a new account.

  2. On the Leads screen, select the lead row (it turns blue) and click Convert.

    Image Added

  3. Select the appropriate account and click Save.

Delete a lead

If you do not have delete permissions, the

delete

Delete button

may

might not

appear

display or you

may

might see a message at the top of the screen indicating you do not have permission to delete.

You can talk

Talk to your administrator about your permissions. Deleted items can be restored by administrators.

On the Leads screen, select the rows of the leads you want to delete (they turn blue) and click Delete.

Note
title
Deleting 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

'

.

 

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titleRelated articles
 Accounts, Adding activities, Campaigns, Contacts
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