THE ESSENTIALS

Before starting with Leads, let's look at some basic terms used throughout the software.

States

Every Lead has a state reflecting its current situation; the state changes as the Lead progresses through the queue stages, from the moment of creation until completion. The Lead's state is determined by its current queue stage. Possible states that a lead can assume are:

• New - This is the first Stage that a lead acquires upon creation and is automatically set by the system

• In Progress - This state signifies that the Lead is underway

• Won - This is one of two final states a lead can acquire, indicating that the Lead has become a business customer.

• Lost - This is the alternative final state that a lead can acquire and signifies that the Lead has been lost for some reason.

Open

Lead state

Queues & Stages

A queue defines a set of predetermined stages a Lead progresses through during its life cycle. A stage is a point in the queue which a lead will pass through in its course. Multiple queues can be defined to cater for different types of Leads.

Open

A lead queue and its stages

Overdue Leads

When a lead is created, it can optionally be assigned a date by which it's expected to be closed. Once the expected close date has passed and the Lead is still in a state of New or In Progress, it's considered overdue; this is clearly visible on the UI.

Reopened Leads

Leads in Won or Lost state can be reopened. When a lead is reopened, it reverts back to the Stage it was at before being Won or Lost and acquires one of the other states (i.e. New or In Progress).

Getting Started

Navigate to CRM > Leads to see all business Leads.

Leads are visible in either the Kanban view or List view; switch between the views using the respective icon in the top right-hand corner.

Leads in Kanban view are displayed per queue, so select the queue that you want to view the Leads for. Apply a filter to only see Leads in a specific state (e.g. Won Leads).

All Leads irrelevant to the queue are default visible on the List view summary screen. Apply a filter to see Leads in a specific queue or state (e.g. In Progress).

Creating a Lead

Before creating Leads, defining at least one queue and a lost reason is necessary. Refer to settings to set up these configurations.

When a Lead is created, some fields are mandatory, but the majority are optional.

Title

A unique Lead title must be provided. This is how the Lead will be identified in the system.

Queue

Select the queue to determine the stages the Lead will progress through. The queue selection is mandatory.

Description

Provide an optional description regarding the Lead and possibly its line of Business.

Value

Optionally specify the financial value of the Lead for your Business if it's won. This value can be changed at any point in time.

Expected Close Date

Optionally provide an estimated closure date for the Lead; this date can be changed if need be. If a Lead has passed its expected close date, then the set date will appear in red on both Kanban and List view screens and the Lead screen when the Lead is selected.

Owner

Select a system user or a team who will be assigned as the owner of the Lead. The owner is mandatory but can be changed at a later date. If none is assigned, the system automatically assigns the owner as the logged-in user who created the Lead. System users and teams are configured via Security settings.

Tags

Use one or more tags to label Leads using terms meaningful to your line of Business. Tags can also be used to filter leads on the Kanban and List view summary screens too. Refer to the Generic Settings manual for further information about configuring tags.

Custom Fields

Use custom fields to add additional data to Leads not catered for by the system. A back-end system user defines the fields and can be assigned a value when creating or editing a Lead. Custom fields appear under the heading Custom Preferences on the Lead screen.

Refer to the Custom Extensibility manual for further details about custom fields.

Managing Leads

Select a Lead to view from either the Kanban view or List view summary screens. When viewing a Lead, all data can be edited, and additional actions are available which can't be performed when creating the Lead.

Contact

Optionally relate a contact to the Lead. The contact must be an existing contact already registered in the system.

Activities

If the Lead is related to a contact, then an Activity can be created to schedule a task for the Lead. To create an Activity for a Lead, navigate to options (…) > Create Activity.

Notes

Create notes relevant to the Lead for internal use only. Important messages can be pinned to appear at the top of the List of notes.

Attachments

Upload files related to the Lead for easy referencing. Acceptable file types include .png, .doc, .docx, .jpeg, .jpg, .pdf, .json, .log, .svg, .eml, .xls, .xslx, .msg, .txt, .csv. The maximum file size is 4GB.

Progress & Regress

Select one of the following stages in the queue to progress a Lead. Alternatively, to regress a Lead, select one of the previous stages in the queue; the progression and regression history is logged in Events History.

Won Lead

A Lead can be marked as Won after the last Stage in the queue or prior to reaching the final Stage in the queue. A Won state indicates a done deal, i.e. the client is interested in purchasing the products or services of the Business.

Lost Lead

Lost leads are potential clients of the Business who may no longer be interested in purchasing from the Business or may have chosen to proceed with a competitor. When a Lead is marked as Lost, the reason for losing the Lead must be provided; a user can select a reason from the List of configured lost reasons.

Reopen

A Won or Lost lead (which has decided to re-engage) can be reopened, and its Stage will be reverted to the Stage they were in before being marked as Won or Lost.

To reopen a Lead, simply select the Reopen option at the end of the queue; this option is only visible when a Lead is in Won or Lost state.

Delete

A Lead in any state (New, In Progress, Won or Lost) can be deleted; this action is irreversible. To delete a Lead navigate to the options button and select Delete.

Events History

View the main events carried out against the Lead, e.g. when it was created, state and stage changes.

Leads Settings

To configure Leads settings navigate to Settings > Contacts & CRM > Leads.

Queues

Define the different types of queues and the stages of each queue that a Lead progresses through during its life cycle, from start to finish. A Leads queue always starts with a New stage and ends with the Won and Lost stages, these three stages are always included in the queue, and there is no need to define them explicitly; they are also mapped to states of the same name. All new stages the system user adds are mapped to the In Progress state.

Provide a stage name and select a unique colour for each Stage; click on the coloured circle of the corresponding Stage to choose another colour. When viewing a Lead, the Stage's colour must be unique and displayed on the Kanban board and the queue. Choose Add Stage if you want to add more stages to the queue.

Once a queue has been defined and activated, a system user can select and assign it to a Lead upon creation.

Activating a Queue

A queue must be activated in order to be used; activate a queue from the Leads queue summary screen.

Lost Reasons

Define the possible reasons why a Lead may have been lost. The user will be prompted to select one of these reasons whenever a Lead is marked as Lost.

Reference Material

You may also find it helpful to refer to the following manuals for further reading concerning Leads.

Contacts

Contacts

Activities

Activities

Generic Settings

Configure Tags for Leads.

Generic Settings | tags

Security

Configure Users & Teams

Security

Custom Fields

Custom Extensibility | custom fields

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