Lead
A lead is one deal you are working on. It sits in one stage of one pipeline, belongs to one owner, names the customer, and carries one or more lines that say what is being sold, through which vendor and for which principal, and what it is worth. The screen keeps every stage move the lead makes.
What it is for
The lead is the CRM's working document. The pipeline it is on decides which stages it can be in and how it may move between them. The lines decide its revenue and profit. The board of the CRM reads leads for every figure it shows.
The rule people get wrong: a lead's stage is moved with Change Lead Stage on the toolbar, or by dragging the card on the board, not by editing the Lead Stage field. Only those two ways write a line into the stage history, and only Change Lead Stage applies the pipeline's stage rules (see How the stage moves).
Every field in plain words
Lead Information
| Field | What it means | What to put |
|---|---|---|
| Lead | The lead's number | Given on Create |
| Name | The lead's name | Filled in by the screen as Search Name - Lead Project - Start Date once all three are there. Not typed |
| Start Date | The day the lead was opened | Required. Set when the lead is created |
| Close Date | The day the deal is expected to close | Required. Set when the lead is created. It cannot be before the Start Date. Afterwards it changes only through Change Close Date on the toolbar |
| Won Date | The day the lead went into the pipeline's Won stage | Filled in by the system, never typed. Cleared again if the lead moves back out of Won |
| Lost Date | The day the lead went into the pipeline's Lost stage | Filled in by the system, as above |
| Pipeline | The pipeline the lead runs on | Required. Picked when the lead is created. Only pipelines of this company that are not blocked are offered |
| Lead Stage | The stage the lead is in now | Required. Offered from the stages of the chosen pipeline, in pipeline order |
| Lead Source | Where the lead came from | Required. Pick one of the list: Self, Principal, Vendor/Distributor, Email, Events, Calls. A source typed by hand is refused on Save |
| Origin Document | The kind of document the lead came from | Optional. Picked from the lead origins |
| Origin Reference | The document itself | Optional. Once an Origin Document is picked, this offers the campaigns |
Owner Information
| Field | What it means | What to put |
|---|---|---|
| Lead Owner | The person responsible for the deal | Required. Offered from the Responsible records of this company that are ready and not blocked. On New it is filled with your own Responsible record, if you have one. Set when the lead is created |
| Name | The owner's name | Filled from Lead Owner |
| Sales Organization, Name | The sales organization the lead is credited to | Filled on New from your user's sales structure. Change it when entering a lead for someone else |
| Sales Group, Name | The sales group the lead is credited to | As above |
Customer
| Field | What it means | What to put |
|---|---|---|
| Customer | The customer the deal is with | Picked from the customers of this company that are ready and not blocked |
| Name | The customer's name | Filled from Customer |
| Search Name | The customer's search name | Filled from Customer, not typed. It is required, so in practice a lead cannot be created without a customer |
| Lead Project | The project or deal name | Required. The list offers the lead projects already used in this company, and you can type a new one |
Financial
| Field | What it means | What to put |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | The currency the lead's amounts are in | A label only: nothing is converted. A company can default it on Customer Relationship Management Setting. A lead with no currency shows in the company's ledger currency |
| Payment Term | The payment term expected for the deal | Optional |
| Payment Method | The payment method expected | Optional |
The line at the top
Above the fields the screen shows the lead's name, its stage as a coloured tag (won, lost or open, from the stage's type on the pipeline), the customer, and four figures: Revenue, Profit with its percentage, Close Date and Owner. They are read-outs of the fields below and the lines; nothing is typed there.
Vendors, Distributors, Collaborators, Business Area
Four read-only lists in the middle column, built from the lead's lines:
- Vendors: each line's principal, the vendor it is bought through, the sale category, and its deal registration tag (Applied, Approved or Rejected) when the line has one.
- Distributors: the distribution channels on the lines.
- Collaborators: everyone named in the lines' Collaborators, without the owner.
- Business Area: the business areas on the lines.
A company that does not use one of these can hide its heading on Customer Relationship Management Setting; the list goes with it.
Stage History
The right-hand column lists every stage the lead has been in, newest first: from which stage to which, on what date, by whom, after how many days in the previous stage, and the remarks given. The last move is shown on its own line, and the head counts the moves this quarter and in total. The first entry is the stage the lead was created in; it is not counted as a move.
Lead Detail (the lines)
At least one line is required.
| Column | What it means | What to put |
|---|---|---|
| Sale Category, Name | What is being sold | Required |
| Revenue | The line's expected revenue | Cannot be negative |
| Profit Percentage | The expected margin on the line | Cannot be negative. Typing it works out Profit Amount |
| Profit Amount | The expected profit on the line | Typing it works out Profit Percentage. It cannot be more than Revenue |
| Principal, Name | The manufacturer or brand owner the deal is for | Required |
| Brand, Name | The principal's brand | Optional |
| Business Area | The business area the line belongs to | Required |
| Collaborators | The people working the line with the owner | Click the cell to open a small list and add one person per row. The cell then shows their names |
| Vendor, Name | The vendor or distributor the goods are bought through | Optional |
| Distribution Channel, Name | The channel the deal goes through | Optional |
| Deal Register With Vendor | Where the deal registration with the vendor stands | Applied, Approved or Rejected |
The maths
- Line: Profit Amount = Revenue × Profit Percentage ÷ 100, or, when you type the amount, Profit Percentage = Profit Amount × 100 ÷ Revenue. Setting Revenue to zero clears both.
- Header: Revenue is the total of the lines' Revenue. Profit Percentage is the plain average of the lines' percentages, not weighted by each line's revenue. A lead with one big low-margin line and one small high-margin line shows the halfway figure.
How the stage moves
There are three ways a lead changes stage, and they do not check the same things.
| Change Lead Stage (toolbar) | Drag on the board | Edit the Lead Stage field and Save | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stage Rules of the pipeline (Allowed, Remarks Required, Based on Approval) | Applied | Not applied | Not applied |
| Restrict deals from skipping stages | Not applied | Applied | Not applied |
| Restrict deals from moving backwards, and the stage flag of the same name | Applied | Applied | Not applied |
| A won lead stays won | Applied | Applied | The won lead cannot be edited at all |
| Stage History line | Written | Written | Not written |
| Won Date and Lost Date | Set | Set | Set |
Change Lead Stage opens a dialog with the current stage, a list of the pipeline's stages, a Remarks box and the stage history. When you save it:
- There must be a Stage Rules line on the pipeline from the current stage to the new one, for your user tag or for no tag. Without one the screen says: "No stage rule is configured for ‘Qualified’ → ‘Proposal’. Add that transition on the Pipeline screen."
- That line must have Allowed ticked, or the screen says the transition "is not permitted by system policy".
- If Remarks Required is ticked, Remarks must be filled.
- If Based on Approval is ticked, you are asked to confirm, and a Request Change Lead Stage is created and sent for approval. The lead moves when it is approved.
- Otherwise the lead moves at once, and the message is "Lead Stage has been updated successfully".
Only the first 50 characters of the remarks are kept in the stage history.
Won and lost. Moving into the stage whose type is Won sets Won Date to today and sets Close Date to the same day. Moving into the Lost stage sets Lost Date. Moving back to any other stage clears both. Every Save also brings Won Date and Lost Date back in line with the stage the lead is in; a lead that already has a Won Date keeps it.
A won lead is locked. Edit and Delete are greyed out, and a save is refused with "This lead is won and is locked. A won lead cannot be changed." It can leave the Won stage only by a move the pipeline allows from the Won stage (a Stage Rules line from Won with Allowed ticked).
How to configure it
- Defaults per company, for example the Currency or the Pipeline, and which fields are mandatory, read-only or hidden, are set on the Default Parameters tab of Customer Relationship Management Setting.
- The stages, their order and type, and the rules between them are on Pipeline.
- Who may see which leads: the lead list and the CRM board show a user the leads he owns, the leads of the owners he may see, and all leads if he is an administrator.
Scenarios
- A distributor that resells several manufacturers' products. One lead per customer deal; one line per principal and brand, each with the vendor it is bought through and whether the deal is registered with that vendor. The board then shows the pipeline by principal.
- A salesperson enters his own leads. Owner, sales organization and sales group fill themselves on New.
- A manager enters a lead for a team member. Pick the team member as Lead Owner and correct the sales organization and group.
- The customer pushes the decision by a month. Use Change Close Date on the toolbar. See Ask to change a lead's close date.
- A stage move needs a manager's say. Tick Based on Approval on that Stage Rules line. See Move a lead to another stage.
What it is connected to
- Pipeline - the stages, their type and probability, and the rules between them.
- Request Change Lead Stage and Request Change Lead Close Date - the requests the toolbar raises.
- Customer Relationship Management Setting - the company's defaults for this screen.
- CRM lists, reports and board - where leads are looked at many at a time.
- Customer In Legal Entity - the customers a lead is for. Sale categories are on Sale Category; principals and brands on Principal and Brand.
- Business Area and Responsible in Company setup - the business areas on the lines and the lead owners.
- Lead in Sales - the Sales menu's lead screen, which works on the same lead records.
- Order to cash - what follows when a lead becomes an order.
If something looks wrong
- "Lead Source is required. Pick one of Self, Principal, Vendor/Distributor, Email, Events or Calls." The source was typed, not picked. Pick it from the list.
- "Vendor grid lines cannot be empty." The lead has no line. Add at least one line on Lead Detail.
- "Line ID - 0002 - Revenue cannot be negative." or "... Gross Profit Percentage cannot be negative." Correct the line.
- "Line 0002: Gross Profit Amount cannot be greater than Revenue." A hand-typed profit amount is above the line's revenue.
- "Required date should be greater than Lead Date" The Close Date is before the Start Date.
- "This lead is won and is locked. A won lead cannot be changed." The lead is in the Won stage. See above.
- "This lead is already at Proposal and cannot be moved back to Qualified. Stage movement is forward only on this pipeline." The pipeline forbids moving backwards.
- "Stages cannot be skipped on this pipeline." On the board, a card was dragged more than one stage forward on a pipeline that forbids skipping.
- "The lead was not moved to ‘Proposal’." The lead is already in that stage, or its stage no longer matches the pipeline. Reopen the lead and try again.
- Create refuses with "Please Fill Required Fields" though everything looks filled. Search Name is required and comes only from Customer. Pick the customer.
- The Name stays empty. It is built only once Search Name, Lead Project and Start Date are all filled.