Work a lead
Goal
Take a lead from somebody got in touch to either a customer or a clear no, with a record of what happened on the way.
Prerequisites
- You have opened Parsware Sales.
Pick up a new lead
- Open Leads and choose the New leads view. The newest are at the top.
- Open one. The form shows who they are (Name, Email, Company, Phone), where they came from (Source: Website, Referral, Event, Partner or Other), when it arrived, and their Message.
- Get in touch: press Call, or use New on the lead's timeline for an email. See Call a customer in Teams and Send an email to a customer.
- Set State to Contacted and save. The lead leaves New leads, so the next person does not pick it up too.
Keep its state honest
State is what the team reads to know where a lead stands:
| State | Means |
|---|---|
| New | nobody has been in touch yet |
| Contacted | somebody has, and it is still being worked out |
| Qualified | a real opportunity: a need, a budget, somebody who decides |
| Converted | they became a customer (see below) |
| Disqualified | not a fit. Say why in a note on the timeline, so nobody tries again |
State does not change by itself. Nothing moves a lead when you send an email or make a call; you set it.
When a lead becomes a customer
- Create the account and the contact they became, or find them if they already exist.
- On the lead, fill in Converted to: its Account and Contact.
- Set State to Converted and save.
The lead's own timeline stays where it is. From now on, log activities on the contact or the account, which is where the customer's history will be read from.