BuddyCRM has two different types of organisation records – Leads (Blue) and Accounts (Green). Opportunities can only be raised against Account records.
Leads:
Accounts:
Leads can be converted into accounts but accounts cannot be turned back into leads.
The definition and differential of leads and accounts depends on your business. Some organisations only turn a lead into an account when they have started trading because they don’t use the Opportunity (See ‘How to…Create an Opportunity‘) functionality.
However, most customers use the lead record to denote a “suspect” organisation that is either totally unqualified or going through the qualification process.
Once a record is qualified as a bona-fide prospect then it is converted into an account, ready to help generate an opportunity and hopefully turn them into a client. This helps both the account manager properly segment their database and helps the Marketing Department adjust their message to different types of records as communicating to a “suspect” is different as to a past client.
You should think as to what is the best approach for your business and when leads should be converted to accounts.
If this is making your head hurt, don’t worry! It can get a bit daunting but your sales process will be the better for it. If you want to chat it through drop us an email.