In Dynamics 365 Sales, you use leads to keep track of business prospects that you haven't yet qualified through your sales process. A lead can be an existing client who has expressed interest in a new offering, although they are usually used for someone you've never done business with before. You might get leads from different sources, such as advertising, networking, or email campaigns.
1. Fill in Required Fields
- Topic - Title of the lead.
- Many sales organizations opt to create their own naming system. Such as: "Organization/Individual - Product - method of lead procurement"
- Last Name - The main point of contact last name.
- Fill in other non-required fields with the Contact and Company information.
2. Click Qualify underneath the Lead name
In the Lead to Opportunity business process flow ribbon, click the Qualify button and add information as needed.
- Existing Contact? - Contact lookup.
- Existing Account? - Account lookup.
- Purchase Timeframe - Expected close of sale date.
- Estimated Budget - Lead's budget for product or service offering.
- Purchase Process - Will this sales process be through an Individual, Committee, or Unknown source?
- Identify Decision Maker - Check when the decision maker is known.
- Capture Summary - Add any pertinent information about the Lead or Opportunity.
As an aside, the time (in hours or days) next to the Qualify button represents the amount of time the Lead has been in this stage.
3. Set Lead Source, Rating, and Status
- Lead Source - Method of obtaining the Lead.
- Rating - Likeliness that the Lead will become an Opportunity.
- Status - New or Contacted.
4. Disqualifying a Lead
There are a variety of reasons why you or your staff may need to disqualify a lead. Click the Disqualify button in the top ribbon and select the disqualification reason. Setting the disqualification reason accurately each time allows your team to access to better reporting and insights.
- Lost - Lost to a competitor.
- Cannot Contact - Point of Contact(s) have not responded to outreach.
- No Longer Interested - Lead expressed, then retracted interest.
- Canceled - Catch all for other reasonings not covered.
We probably can't create enough buttons to cover every reason why a lead becomes disqualified, so be sure to add plenty of important notes and information.
5. Qualifying a Lead
You can have flexible criteria for what Leads should become Opportunities based on what is most important to your organization's sales team.
Typically, Product Interest, Budget, and Purchasing Timeframe are known and the sales representative has determined that the Lead can be added to your organization's sales pipeline.
When ready, and all required fields are complete, use the Qualify button in the top ribbon to promote the Lead to an Opportunity.
6. Opportunity Record is Created
The system will automatically convert the Lead to a new Opportunity record using information entered on the Lead. The old Lead record still exists; however, it is now inactive; Qualified. See below.
