Leads

Introduction

Following their first contact with a company/individual, the users may wish to create a lead file. Users may also need to import a mass file of contacts, following participation in an event, in order to record them as leads.

The lead is a flexible object often used by marketing or sales services to make an initial qualification. If the lead proves itself interesting, it can be converted into a Partner in the CRM app. A partner can be a prospect, a customer or something else (depending on the app, for example a partner supplier).

note

The lead is an initial qualification. It avoids entering too much data, that is not necessarily relevant on the customer files.

If the lead is of commercial interest, it will be converted into a lead and then into a customer; however, if the lead is not of interest, it may be labeled as ‘Lost’ and the lead will then be archived. This feature makes it possible to manage a large volume of prospecting and to carry out initial qualification.

note

The use of the lead is not mandatory; it is possible to directly create a partner of prospect or customer type.

My leads

Access : CRM → Leads → My leads

In the ‘My leads’ menu you will find all the leads that are assigned to you.

Opened leads

Access : CRM → Leads → Opened leads

Open the ‘Opened leads’ menu to view all the leads that have an ‘Open’ status. When you consult the opened leads in the grid view, you will find all the information about this lead such as the full name, the company, the telephone number, the address, the creation date, who this lead is assigned to, its status (to be treated / nurtured etc) and the lead scoring.

The icons on the right allow you to perform several actions:

• The binder icon: clicking on this icon will allow the user to take charge of the selected lead, i.e. assign the lead to themselves.

• The group icon: clicking on this icon will allow you to schedule an event.

• The envelope icon: clicking on this icon will send an email.

Select the leads (by ticking the box at the beginning of each line or using the Ctrl or Shift buttons) ; click on ‘Tools’, and then click on ‘Assign to me’ in order to assign several leads to yourself.

Check for duplicates in Opened leads

1. From the grid view, select multiple leads to check.

2. In the toolbar at the top, click on ‘Tools’ and then click on ‘Check duplicate’.

3. ‘Check duplicate’ detects the presence of duplicates by verifying the elements (company, name, function, etc.).

4. For example, in the ‘Check duplicates’ window, click on ‘Select’ and then click on the field labeled ‘Company’. All the leads, belonging to the same company, will be displayed.

Kanban view and leads

The Kanban view provides an overview of information for lead files. This view allows you to drag & drop a lead from one status to another. Simply click on a lead and by dragging & dropping, place this lead in the column with the desired status (for example, the lead can change from ‘To be treated’ status to ‘Marketing qualification’ status).

Create a lead

Access: CRM → Lead → My leads → New

1. Create a new lead.

-Enter the necessary information (surname / first name / company).

-In the ‘Industry sector’ field, select an industry.

caution

Create the industry sectors beforehand in the CRM configurations.

2. Create an industry sector. Access : CRM → Configuration → Industry → New. Note, you can import industries via a CSV file. Then, create new industries (Manufacturing / Services / Public sector / etc). Save the changes that have been made.

3. Now you can select an industry sector that you have just created.

4. Next, enter the contact details, e.g. job title and contact details.

5. How to create a new function?

• Unlike the industry sectors, it is possible to create new functions for Job titles directly on the lead file in the ‘Function’ field, by clicking on the +.

• Or, create a new function from the ‘Contact function’ menu entry (Access : CRM → Configuration → Contact function). However, when the user needs to make a query or to do reporting, it is possible to regulate use, and offer only a selection that had been predefined by the administrator.

caution

When you let the user create positions / sectors themselves, there is an inherent risk of creating duplicates (i.e. different names for the same position), which can complicate queries and reporting.

6. Department : define the department. The department can be configured from the ‘Department’ menu entry ( Access: CRM → Configuration → Department).

7. Do not call/Do not email: if the person does not wish to receive calls or does not wish to be contacted via an email, it is possible to tick the boxes ‘Do not call’ or ‘Do not email’.

8. Enter the main address, if necessary (fields are not mandatory).

note

Cities is a repository. It can be accessed from the Cities menu entry (Application Config → Organization → Territories → Cities). You will also find other menu entries such as Countries, Departments, or Regions etc.

Import city : if you can't find the city you're looking for, you can import the data (via CSV files) or import it via the Geonames website (click on the ‘Import city’ button). Cities can be imported automatically or manually (select in the ‘Import type’ field).In the ‘Auto import’ field, select either France, or other countries.

caution

Importing cities can take time.

9. On the lead file, find the ‘Description’ field, which can be useful for noting down information about the lead, such as an exchange report or details of its requirements. This field is an HTML field, so you can also add images and create page layouts.

note

You always have an option of storing documents on the file in document management, by clicking on the paperclip icon at the top of the page.

10. Lead follow-up : still on the lead file, in the space on the right, find information about the ‘Lead follow-up’. Know to whom the lead is assigned, and in particular to which sales team.

• Assigned to : in the ‘Assigned to’ field, select the user to whom this lead is assigned (if you have not configured any filters, it will be possible to select any user).

• Team: in this field, select the team responsible for this lead.

• Agency: add members on the agency field. Agencies allow you to search for the leads or prospects of an agency in the reporting (it can be of use for a company that has several establishments/agencies).

info

Agencies can be configured via Application Config (Access: Application Config → Users/Companies → Agencies). Activate the feature beforehand in the CRM application configuration (Access: Application Config → Apps Management → CRM, configure → click on ‘Agencies management’ to activate the feature).

• Company: useful in the case of multi-companies, the Company field on the lead record indicates that this lead belongs to a particular company.

• Last event date/Next scheduled event date: these fields are automatically filled in, according to the dates of the next and last events attached to the lead.

Status

On the lead file, there are multiple statuses, each indicating a different stage in the workflow. These statuses are :

• ‘To be processed’ ;

• ‘Marketing qualification’ ;

• ‘Sales qualification’ ;

• ‘Nurturing’ ;

• ‘Converted’ ;

• ‘Lost’.

These statuses are standard and present by default. You can switch the lead form from one status to another by clicking on the desired status. For example, the lead was in ‘To be processed’ status. Click on ‘Marketing qualification’ to change the status of the lead to ‘Marketing qualification’. The only statuses that cannot be selected in this way are ‘Converted’ and ‘Lost’. The statuses can be customized. See ‘Lead statuses’ and ‘Custom statuses’ chapters.

Activity

This section shows all the actions that have been carried out on the lead file. For example, find information about attached opportunities, changing from one status to another, creating an event etc.

Follow-up

Several fields can be filled in on the Follow-up section:

1. Assigned to: this displays the user name assigned to this lead form.

2. Team: you can also assign the lead to a team.

3. Company: assign the lead to a company.

4. Creation date: consult the date on which the file was created.

5. Agency: add members on the agency field. Agencies allow you to search for the leads or prospects of an agency in the reporting (it can be of use for a company that has several establishments/agencies).

Marketing

In the Marketing section, find following information.

1. Lead scoring: add lead scoring. The purpose of lead scoring is to be able to give a five-star rating to a lead in terms of commercial interest (for example, one star means ‘this prospect is of little interest’, and five stars means ‘this prospect is very interesting’). Lead scoring can then be used to quickly identify the most interesting leads visually.

2. Size: this field is about the size of a company. This field allows you to search and query the database to target companies of a certain size.

3. Key account: is used to identify important and strategic accounts from a commercial point of view, for example a large company that the user would like to have as a customer. In this case, this option makes it easy to carry out searches by displaying key accounts quickly. From a marketing point of view, these are the accounts that will be prioritized.

4. Nurturing: ticking the ‘Nurturing’ checkbox can mean multiple things :

• It needs to be nurtured with Marketing content ;

• This lead is not necessarily very active in the buying cycle ;

• Its buying project could be on pause ;

• The lead could be in advanced prospecting ;

• There are no sales actions to be carried out by the sales team. Consequently, the Nurturing lead is most often followed up by Marketing team (for example, the white papers or invitations to webinars could be sent to this lead).

5. Source: this field is used to indicate the origin of this lead (contact form on the website, participation in a webinar, prospecting by a sales rep, etc.). View the source from the ‘Lead Source’ menu entry, or create one (Access: CRM → Configuration → Lead Source).

6. Category: allows you to categorize the lead (for example, Association / small business / Investor etc). The category can be customized. To access Categories from outside the lead file: Application Config → Referential → Configuration → Partner categories.

7. Tags: tags can be created. Tags are used to search for specific keywords. Enter the name of the tag and the color (for example, ‘Open Source’ in red). Tags make it even easier to categorize leads, make queries and search for them.

tip

Shortcuts to Google and Linkedin can be found on the lead file. Note, it’s also possible to download the company logo.

Events tab

Create an event directly on the lead file from the Event tab. For more information, see the documentation on Events.

Email tab

Send emails from the ‘Email’ tab. Simply click on the ‘Create an email’ button. View sent emails in the ‘Sent emails’ area. For more information, see the documentation on how to configure an email.

Marketing campaign tab

The marketing campaign tab shows whether the person, linked to the lead, has taken part in a marketing campaign. View the campaigns in which the prospect, customer or contact have taken part on their files. This tab will only appear if you have installed the Marketing app. Marketing campaigns can be viewed from the Marketing module (Access : Marketing → Campaigns).

Buttons : Take in charge / Convert / Lose

• Take in charge: click on this button to assign the lead to yourself.

• Convert: click n this button to convert the lead into a partner or a contact.

• Lose: click on this button to lose the lead.

Print a report

On the lead file, print a report by clicking on the ‘Reports’ button at the top of the toolbar, and then clicking on ‘Print’. The report will contain the essential information about the lead.

Lead status

On the lead file, find a total of six dynamic statuses (To be processed / Marketing qualification / Sales qualification / Nurturing / Converted / Lost). These statuses can be customized (access: CRM → Configuration → Custom status). In the ‘Custom status’ menu you will find Lead status / Opportunity status / Prospect status (you need to activate the configuration for the Prospect statuses menu entry to appear). To take an example, the new status could be called ‘Qualification call’. The status can be ‘Open’ or ‘Lost’ (tick box).

Open: all leads with an “Open” status will appear in the “Opened leads” menu entry.

Lost: all leads with this status will appear in the “Closed leads” menu entry.

Please note that the status can be changed at any time.

Custom status

Custom statuses can be applied to leads, opportunities and prospects. In order to be able to create and apply statuses on lead files, activate the ‘Manage statuses on prospect partner’ functionality (Access : Application Config → Apps management → CRM, Configure → activate the option ‘Manage statuses on prospect partner’).

Access: CRM → Configuration → Custom status → Lead status

In this menu, find the six dynamic statuses present on the lead file (To be processed / Marketing qualification / Sales qualification / Nurturing / Converted / Lost). These statuses are standard and are present by default on all leads. Customize the existing statuses, and add new statuses, if required. Drag & drop each status to change the order in which it is positioned.

1. Click on a status to rename it, and save it.

2. Decide whether these lead statuses are ‘Open’ or ‘Closed’. This will allow to find leads with this status in the ‘Opened leads’ or ‘Closed leads’ menu.

3. Once you have finished rearranging the lead statuses, open the CRM configurations.

4. Access: Application Config → Apps management → CRM, configure. In the ‘Lead Status management’, define what each status corresponds to, for example, which status will be the new default status. New, Converted and Lost statuses are shown in the same fields by default, but they are customizable.

Sequence for statuses

Access: CRM → Configuration → Custom statuses → Lead status

Sequence on the lead file defines in which order the status appears.

1. In the old version of the software, it was possible to add a sequence directly when creating a lead status.

caution

On the old version, instead of indicating the order with numbers 1,2,3, it is preferable to enter the Sequence with tens, such as 10 - 20 - 30 etc, which makes it easier to insert them between 2 existing sequences, when creating new sequences.

2. However, since version 6.5, statuses have been placed directly on the list of all existing statuses (custom status). Therefore, on the lead status page, click on the three-line icon and move the statuses into the correct order. This order will be respected on the lead file.

Access: CRM → Configuration → Custom status → Lead status → click on the icon, and move a new status into the correct order. Save the changes you have made, and refresh the browser page for the changes to take effect. The lead file from now on shows the new status in the workflow.

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Some statuses have processes behind them, such as the ‘Converted’ status. This status is used to convert a lead into a Partner / Prospect / Customer.

Convert a lead into a Partner or a Contact

Convert a lead, with the Manage statuses on prospect partner option deactivated

On the lead file, click on the ‘Convert’ button. A pop-up window opens with two fields:

• Convert lead into partner: in this field, select between ‘Create new partner’ and ‘Select existing partner’. If you select the second option, an additional ‘Select Partner’ field will be displayed.

• Convert lead into contact: in this field, select between the following values: ‘No contact creation’ / ‘Create new contact’ / ‘Select existing contact’. If you choose the last option, a table will be displayed, so you can select the contact(s) to associate with the partner.

• In this example, when the lead was converted, the ‘Create new partner’ and ‘Create new contact’ options were selected.

1. When the lead is converted, all the information from the lead file will be copied.

2. Click on ‘Validate’ to create the lead.

3. Once you have clicked on ‘Validate’, the ‘Generate opportunity? Yes / No’ question will appear(in this example, no opportunity will be generated).

4. Click on ‘Properties’. The lead scoring, previously assigned, will be reflected in this section.

5. In addition, in ‘Properties’, you can view and change the type of partner (Prospect / Customer / Supplier / Internal partner / Factor). Once the lead is converted, the default partner will be set as ‘Prospect’.

Convert a lead with the Manage statuses on prospect partner option enabled

Access: Application Config → Apps management → CRM, Configure → enable the ‘Manage statuses on prospect partner’ functionality. Save and remember to refresh the browser, once this option has been activated.

1. Open a lead file.

2. Click on ‘Convert’.

3. In the ‘Convert lead’ window, a new ‘Partner status’ field has been added, following activation of the ‘Manage statuses on prospect partner’ functionality.

4. Define a status (To be processed / Marketing qualification / Sales qualification / Nurturing / Won / Lost). With the ‘Manage statuses on prospect partner’ feature active, manage the statuses of a prospect in the same way as on a lead file.

5. Find the statuses on a prospect file, identical to those on a lead file, when the ‘Manage statuses on prospect partner’ function is active. You can also switch from one status to another.

6. The lead is considered to be a ‘Prospect’, until it is changed to ‘Won’ status. Once the Prospect has been marked as ‘Won’, it becomes a Customer.

7. Note that in order to change the status to ‘Won’ or ‘Lost’ on a prospect file, simply click on the desired status.

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Customize the statuses for prospects in the ‘Prospect status’ menu (Access : CRM → Configuration → Custom status → Prospect status). In order for that menu entry to appear, be sure to activate the ‘Manage statuses on prospect partner’ feature in the CRM app. Set the default statuses to default in the ‘Lead Status Configuration’ section (Access : Application Config → CRM, configure → Lead status management).

tip

A Prospect automatically becomes a Customer, when their first order is confirmed.