Contacts, organizations, and opportunities are often created as the result of Leads getting qualified. They can also be created from scratch. In this section, we'll learn about the following:
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Understand Contacts
A Contact could be a customer who's ready to formally evaluate your product or service, or a partner or vendor you partner within a business deal. People may be converted from a qualified lead, or you might not use leads at all and just add your contacts directly to coreBOS. You'll access Contacts by clicking in the Sales -> Contacts.
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Understand Organizations
An Organization is a business entity that is ready to formally evaluate your product or service, or a business entity you've worked within the past who you might work with again in the future.
Organization records are often related to contact records, as you need a human contact to speak on the company's behalf and move the business deal forward. Since organization information can contain references to contacts, it is always advisable to enter the organization's information first before you take care of the contact information. When you add a contact to the CRM system later, you will have the related organization information already available. You'll access Organizations by clicking in the Sales -> Organizations.
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Understand the relationship between these records
As we have learned till now, a qualified lead is the one we've decided to do business with. After qualifying a lead, you turn it into a contact record. This contact might stand alone, but more likely, you'll relate the contact to an organization record, an opportunity record or both.
Convert a lead to a contact, organization or opportunity:
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Click a name from the column in your Lead List View.
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Click the 'Convert lead' Action Button on the right.
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If you want to create a company, enter a name in the 'Company' field.
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If you want to create an opportunity, make sure the 'create an opportunity for this contact' box is checked and fill in the 'Opportunity Name' and other details.
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When you're done filling in the person, company and/or opportunity details, click 'Save.'
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Create a contact or organization
On the other hand, there may be cases when you will need to make direct entry of contacts and organizations. In this case for creating new contacts and organizations:
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To create a new organization click on New Organization at the entry Quick-Create menu shown in the figure or go to Sales -> Organizations and click on the plus icon. A new window will open as shown in the figure.
Now you can enter the basic account information. You should only enter information which is relevant to you or to your business. The figure exemplifies already some entries. Non-relevant entry fields can remain empty or should be removed by your CRM system administrator. You may also consider using custom fields. If several users have access to the same entry fields make sure that you agree on a common standard for making entries.
You may add further account information by clicking on the More Information tab.
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If you would like to enter contact information to individuals please click on New Contact at the entry Quick-Create menu or go to Sales -> Contacts and click on the plus icon. A new window as shown in the figure.
The standard fields offered are self-explanatory. Make sure that all CRM users agree on the same purpose for each entry field. Your CRM administrator may remove the standard fields not suitable for your company based on profiles or add additional entry fields If you click on the More Information tab you may add further information to the contact.
While most are self-explanatory the following fields serve special purposes:
| Email Opt-Out: | Contacts that have this checkbox selected will not receive email messages that are sent to them by the CRM system normally. The CRM system will not send automatic emails to these contacts. This helps you, for instance, to respect the contact's wishes when it comes to privacy. |
| Reports To: | Here you may choose the name of the supervisor if the contact has been entered already. |
| Do Not Call: | Use this checkbox to indicate that the contact does not wish to receive calls |
| Reference: | You may use this checkbox to indicate whether this contact is willing to serve as a reference for your business with other customers. |
| Notify Owner: | When you mark this checkbox the owner of the contact will be informed by email whenever the data change. |
| Contact Image: | If available, you may also upload a contact image to the CRM. Please note that this image must be in the *.png, *.jpg or *.gif format. |
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Put it all together: Leads, Opportunities, Contacts, and Organizations
You enter a contact into the system as a lead, then qualify the lead and convert them to a contact. If you're a B2B, that person might have a company associated with it. That contact/organization can have an opportunity associated with it. That opportunity is then moved through the stages of your pipeline.