Leads and Contacts

What is the difference between a Lead and a Contact?

A lead is a sales prospect and generally represents the first stage in the sales process. The lead is a person who has not yet been qualified and might be interested in your product or service. When the lead becomes more qualified, you can convert it into a contact.

A contact is your point of communication for an organization (account). Contacts are generally qualified individuals. The contact record contains all relevant information about the person.

How do you convert a Lead to a Contact?

To convert a lead record into a contact record and account, do the following:

1. Click into a Lead record.
2. Click the Options button and click Convert.

Depending on how your administrator has set up lead conversion, you may be prompted to create an Account record as well:

• Name - the account name will automatically populate based on the value of the lead Company Name field. You can overwrite the name if you wish. Click Complete Conversion to convert the lead to a contact and create a new account record.
• Select Account - click the Select Account button to search for and connect the new contact to an existing account record in the system. Click Complete Conversion to convert the lead to a contact and link the new contact to the existing account record.
• Skip Account - if this option appears for you, click the Skip Account link to simply create a new contact record without creating a new account record or without linking it  to any existing account. Click Complete Conversion to convert the lead to a new contact.

When you convert a lead into a contact record, the lead record will no longer appear within the leads module.

 In order to convert a lead, you must:

• have rights to convert Leads.
• have rights to access to the Contacts module.
• have rights to access the Accounts module and create new accounts if the account field is required.