Follow a lead from creation through closure
Published: May 4, 2007
You can use leads to manage potential sales from the point at which you become aware of a customer’s interest through the successful sale. Lead records in Microsoft Dynamics CRM represent potential customers who must be qualified or disqualified as a sales opportunity.
There are several ways that you can create a lead in Microsoft Dynamics CRM:
After you create the lead, you can convert it into the following three record types:
| • | Account |
| • | Contact |
| • | Opportunity (associated with an existing account or contact) |
If you convert the lead to an account or contact, you can include additional, detailed information about the person. If you convert the lead to an opportunity, you can use the opportunity record to store information about this possible sale to a specific potential customer who already has an account or contact record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Depending on the success of the sale later, you can then close the opportunity as either won or lost. The following figure is of the Convert Lead dialog box that you can use to convert your leads.
The following diagram illustrates how you can create leads several different ways, convert the lead to several different record types, and then shows one method of closure through an opportunity.
