Leads & qualifying
Capture unqualified interest, work it down a status path, and convert it into real records.
A lead is the top of the funnel: a single row holding both a person and their company before you know whether there's a real opportunity. Working a lead means qualifying it — and when it's ready, converting it fans the data out into an account, a contact and (optionally) an opportunity.
What a lead captures
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | The person (required). |
| Company | Their organization, as free text. |
| Title | Their role. |
| Email / Phone | Contact details. |
| Source | Where it came from — Website, Referral, Event, Outbound, Partner or Other. |
| Rating | Hot, Warm or Cold — how promising it looks. |
| Estimated value | Rough deal size in dollars, for early forecasting. |
| Owner | Who's working it (defaults to you). |
| Status | Where it sits on the qualifying path. |
The status path
| Status | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| New | Make first contact within a day while you're still top of mind. |
| Working | You're in conversation — find the pain and the timeline. |
| Nurturing | Real fit, wrong moment. Set a dated follow-up so it doesn't go cold. |
| Qualified | Budget, need and authority all check out — convert it. |
| Unqualified | Not a fit. Log the reason before you close it out. |
New → Working → Nurturing → Qualified sit on the linear path; Unqualified is a terminal branch you reach with the "Not a fit" action. Move a lead along by clicking a step on the path bar in the record drawer.
Adding a lead
- 1Open Leads and choose New lead.
- 2Fill in the name and whatever else you have — everything but the name is optional.
- 3Pick a source, rating and owner, then add.
- 4Open the lead any time to log activity, schedule follow-ups, and move its status.
Converting a lead
When a lead qualifies, open it and choose Convert lead. The dialog states plainly what it will create before it happens:
- An account for the company — matched to an existing one or created fresh.
- A contact for the person — again matched or created.
- Optionally an opportunity, where you set the name, amount, starting stage, close date and owner.
Converting can't be undone — it fans out into up to three records at once. The original lead is kept forever as read-only history, with links to whatever it became, so the trail back to first contact always survives.
What happens to a lead after I convert it?
It stays in your leads as a read-only record marked Converted, with a "Converted to" tab linking to the account, contact and opportunity it created. Nothing is destroyed.
Do I have to create an opportunity when converting?
No. The opportunity is an opt-in checkbox in the convert dialog — untick it to create just the account and contact.
What's the difference between a lead and a contact?
A lead is unqualified and holds the person and company in one row. A contact is a real person you've qualified, linked to a proper account record. Converting turns the first into the second.