Part 1 of this blog (show link) discussed the different approaches used by various CRM platforms to deal with leads vs. opportunities. This blog will focus on one CRM platform – Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales – and discuss when to use Leads vs. Opportunities.
Note: In this blog, I’m using Lead (with a capital “L”) to refer to a lead record in CRM. I’m going to use lead (with a lowercase “l”) to refer to a lead generically. I will do the same with other record types. So, remember, a capital letter signifies a CRM record. Also, I lump all types of leads (including basic leads, marketing-qualified leads, and sales-qualified leads) together when I speak of leads.
In Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales (D365), there is a specific record type for leads: people who may want to ultimately buy from you, but you don’t know enough about them to know for sure. These folks – leads – are sometimes referred to as suspects or prospects. In my experience, marketing is often responsible for generating leads, but what do they do with new leads they’ve generated?
If most users are like me, I don’t like re-entering data in the database if it already exists. Complete waste of time, right? Luckily, marketers have several decision points to ensure efficiency for all users. Here are some of them.
Leads Without Corresponding Accounts and/or Contacts
If you generate a lead that doesn’t have a corresponding Account and Contact in CRM, you should enter it as a Lead. Fill out as many of the fields as you can. The great news is that if/when the Lead is qualified, CRM automatically creates a corresponding Account, Contact, and Opportunity (if you choose) by using the data in the Lead record. Voila! No re-typing, and the data ends up in your pipeline. Awesome!
Remember to use your Lead Source and Source Campaign fields to track how leads are generated. This is especially important when it comes time to measure campaign effectiveness and calculate marketing ROI.
Leads with a corresponding Account and Contact
If you find a lead that has a corresponding Account and Contact, I recommend you create an Opportunity from that Contact vs. creating a Lead, and here’s why.
· First, a lot of the lead data (company name, contact name, contact details, etc.) will already be in CRM. It doesn’t make sense to re-type the same data in a Lead record when the data already exists in CRM at the Account and/or Contact level. Do yourself a favor and save time!
· If you create an Opportunity from an existing Contact, all the records should link properly, which is important for reporting and information sharing.
· The other fields in the Opportunity record can be filled in as more information is learned about the Opportunity.
· If a marketing or sales operations resource creates an opportunity on behalf of a sales team member, he/she can assign the Opportunity to the appropriate person. The sales rep can be notified by email this has been done, and the new Opportunity will show in his/her “My Opportunities” list view.
· With Opportunities, remember to use your Lead Source and Source Campaign fields to track how opportunities are generated. This is especially important for measuring campaign effectiveness and calculating ROI from marketing investments.
· If you have a Lead for an existing Account and Contact, and you decide to qualify it and tell CRM you want to use the existing Account and the existing Contact in CRM, then any new information (new phone, new address, new title, etc.) that you entered for the Lead will be lost. The data in the existing Contact will be maintained, and the new Lead data will be lost upon qualification.
It is always a good idea to update existing Contact data with any new information, such as a new title, new phone number, and new email address.
· If you have a Lead for an existing Account and Contact, and you decide to qualify it and DON’T tell CRM you want to use the existing Account and/or the existing Contact in CRM, then you will be creating a duplicate Account and/or Contact.
o In my experience, this is super easy to do, so it is probably the #1-way CRM users end up with duplicates. Duplicates create confusion because no one is sure which record is the best one to use.
o Duplicates can be merged, but very few CRM users have a systematic process for reviewing, cleaning, and merging data.
Duplicates make it challenging to manage marketing campaigns.
o Duplicates also mess with your data analytics and any AI capabilities you are trying to use.
Leads with a corresponding Account but without an existing Contact
If you have a lead that has a corresponding Account but not a Contact, I recommend you create the Contact from the Account and then create an Opportunity from that new Contact.
· Again, if you have Account data in CRM, there’s no need to duplicate (and re-type) that data in a Lead record. Save time and eliminate typos! Double win!!
· If you create a Contact from an Account, the Contact will inherit data (such as phone and address info) from the Account, so you won’t have to re-type it. Triple win!!!
· And as noted above, if you create an Opportunity from an existing Contact, all the records should link properly, which is important for reporting and information sharing.
· New Opportunities can then be assigned to the appropriate person. Notification is via email or in the “My Opportunities” list view.
These tips are pretty basic, but they save a TON of time if consistently used. I have found that a little bit of discipline goes a long way. It’s all about process and consistency.
And remember, these tips apply whether you are importing leads one by one or en masse via a spreadsheet. For importing large quantities of leads, you might need to separate your leads into groups (and ultimately different spreadsheets) – one for those who have Accounts and/or Contacts in your CRM already and one for those who don’t yet exist in your database.
If you need help getting your sales processes in order or simply need some basic user training or a refresher for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales, please reach out to TopLine Results. We can help you and your team save time so you can focus more on your sales than on your database! Contact us at 1-800-880-1960 or info@toplineresults.com.