Leads, Accounts and Opportunities

A lead is a prospect you have not qualified yet, such as a row from a purchased list, a trade-show scan or a web form. You can call it, text it, load it as activities and retry it through a subject flow, exactly like a contact. It is kept apart from your contacts, though, so your contact list holds only real customers.

When a lead qualifies, you convert it. Conversion creates a contact, or merges the lead into a contact who already has its phone number or email. Its history moves with it. It can also put the contact in an account, the company or household the person belongs to, and open an opportunity, the deal you are working on.

Menu	Interaction Center > Leads, Accounts and Opportunities
Permission	List and edit permissions for each type. Convert leads to convert (anyone who can manage activities can). Edit converted leads to change a lead after conversion.
Feature	Omnichannel CRM (CrestApps.OrchardCore.Omnichannel.Crm)

If you never turn the feature on, or never use accounts, contacts work exactly as before.

Turn it on (once)

The quickest way is the Omnichannel CRM starter recipe:

1. Open Tools > Recipes and run Omnichannel CRM starter.

2. The recipe turns the feature on and adds three types you can rename or extend:

   • Lead, which converts into Contact;
   • Contact, if you do not have one;
   • Sales Opportunity.

   Lead and Contact both get First name, Last name (required) and Job title fields. Their title is built from the first and last name, so it is not typed by hand. Converting a lead copies these fields to the contact.

   It also adds a starting set of lead sources: Web form, Referral, Trade show, Purchased list, Advertisement and Cold call.

The feature itself adds the Account and Lead Source types, a starting set of lead statuses and a starting set of opportunity stages. It never changes a type you already have.

To use your own types instead, turn on Omnichannel CRM under Tools > Features and attach the parts yourself:

To make a...	Attach	Notes
Lead type	Omnichannel Contact and Lead	In the Lead part's settings, pick the contact type it converts into and the opportunity type offered first.
Opportunity type	Opportunity	Make one type per kind of deal, for example Sales Opportunity and Renewal. In the part's settings, pick the stages this type uses; none picked means every stage.

A type with the Omnichannel Contact part and no Lead part is a contact type, as before.

Work with leads

Interaction Center > Leads lists your open leads. Click New followed by the lead type's name to add one. Besides the name and contact methods, a lead has:

Field	What it is for
Lead status	Where the lead is in qualification, for example Working - Contacted. New leads get the default status.
Company	The company the lead works for. Conversion can find or create an account with this name.
Lead source	Where the lead came from, for example Trade show. Pick one of your lead sources.
List	The list or file it arrived in, so a whole list can be loaded, reported on and cleaned up together.
Rating	Hot, Warm or Cold to start with.
Lead owner	The user responsible for the lead.

Only Lead status belongs to the CRM itself. The other fields are standard content fields of the Lead part, so they use the normal field editors and settings. To change the rating choices, a hint or a required flag, open Content Definition > Content Parts > Lead and edit the field. The same fields show on every lead type. You can add your own fields to the part or to a lead type the same way.

Use these search terms on the Leads list:

Term	Matches	Example
lead-status:	a lead status by name	lead-status:Nurturing
converted:	converted or open leads	converted:true
source:	a lead source by name	source:"Trade show"
list:	a list name	list:"Spring Import"
rating:	a rating	rating:hot
owner:	the lead owner's user name	owner:alex

The phone: terms from Contacts work here too.

Call and text leads

Everything you do with a contact works on a lead: Add Activity, List Activities, calls, texts and automated AI conversations.

• Activity loads. Pick the lead type as the Record type and a Lead filters panel appears right under it, inside Record filters. You can filter by status, list, source, rating and owner.
  • A lead is loaded only when it matches every filter you set, including the other record filters such as the dates, phone number and time zones. Where you tick several statuses or ratings, any one of them matches.
  • List picks from the lists your leads carry, such as the list name given to an import. Type in the box to search them.
  • Lead owner loads only the leads one user owns.
  • With no Lead status ticked, every open status is loaded. Tick a closed status, such as Closed - Not Converted, to load its leads too.
  • Skip leads that are already contacts is on by default, so a customer is not called again as a stranger.
  • Converted leads are never loaded.
  • The load report says how many leads were skipped for each reason. See Load activities.
• Inbound calls and texts. When a number belongs to both a contact and a lead, the contact wins. A converted lead never matches.

Convert a lead

1. Open the lead and click Convert Lead.
2. Choose the contact:
   • If a contact already has the lead's phone number or email, Merge into is picked for you. The contact keeps its own values and only gains the lead's phone numbers, email addresses and fields it does not have yet.
   • Otherwise pick Create a new contact and its type.
3. Choose the account: an existing account, a new one (named after the lead's company unless you change it), or none. A contact you merge into keeps the account it already has.
4. Tick Create an opportunity to record the deal. Pick its type and optionally enter a name, amount and close date.
5. Click Convert.

What conversion does:

• The lead's finished activities move to the contact. Its open activities move too, unless you chose to cancel them.
• Its message threads, open callbacks and unresolved voicemails move to the contact, so a callback that comes due later calls the contact. Finished callbacks and resolved voicemails stay with the lead as its history.
• Do-not-contact preferences are combined: if either the lead or the contact opted out of calls, texts or email, the contact is opted out.
• The lead takes the Converted status and becomes read-only, with a banner that links to the contact. It leaves the Leads list, which shows open leads only.
• Converting the same lead again does nothing.

You cannot convert a lead while a call or message with it is in progress.

Let the AI convert leads

An Automatic activity load of a lead type shows an AI lead conversion card. Tick Allow AI to convert the lead, and when an automated text or call ends, the AI decides from the conversation whether the lead qualified. If it did, the lead is converted before the disposition's follow-up actions run, so those work on the new contact.

Option	What it does
Allow AI to convert the lead	Lets the AI convert a lead it judged qualified. Off by default.
Also create an opportunity	Creates an opportunity at the same time, with the contact as its primary contact.
Opportunity type	The type of that opportunity. The lead type's default uses the opportunity type set on the lead type; if the lead type has none, pick one here.
When a lead is qualified	Tells the AI what qualified means for this load, for example has a budget and wants to buy within three months. Empty uses the subject goal.

The AI never converts a lead who declined, was undecided, only asked for information, or asked not to be contacted. It merges into an existing contact only when exactly one shares the lead's phone number or email; otherwise it creates a new contact. The account is the one named after the lead's company, created if needed. A retried activity keeps the option.

Convert from a disposition

A subject flow can convert a lead when an activity is completed with a certain disposition. For example, Qualified can convert the lead and schedule a welcome call on the new contact.

1. Open Interaction Center > Subject Flows, and click Manage Flow on the subject.
2. Click Add Action, then Convert Lead, and pick the disposition.
3. Choose what happens to the account, whether to create an opportunity, and what to do with the lead's other open activities.

The Convert Lead action runs before the other actions of the same disposition, so a New Activity action on that disposition schedules its activity on the contact. It does nothing when the activity belongs to a contact.

Every subject action also has a Set lead status field. When the activity belongs to a lead, the lead moves to that status, for example Working - Contacted after a no-answer. It has no effect on contacts.

Accounts

An account is the company or household your contacts and opportunities belong to. Open Interaction Center > Accounts to list them.

• Add a contact or opportunity to an account with the Account picker on its editor, or create it from the account's page.
• See everything in an account. The account's page lists its contacts and opportunities. List Activities shows the activities of every contact in the account.
• Deleting an account leaves its contacts and opportunities in place, outside any account.

Every contact and opportunity type can join an account without extra setup. Leads never join an account; they get one when they are converted.

Opportunities

Interaction Center > Opportunities lists your open opportunities. Each one has a Stage, Probability and Campaign, plus the Amount, Close date, Primary contact, Opportunity owner and Lead source fields, and can belong to an account. The fields are standard content fields of the Opportunity part; edit them under Content Definition > Content Parts > Opportunity. The Primary contact picker lists your contact types. An opportunity created by conversion takes the lead's owner and source. The stage decides whether the opportunity is open, won or lost. A new opportunity starts with its stage's probability, and a closed stage always sets it.

Use stage:, closed:, won: and account: on the Opportunities list, for example closed:false.

Lead sources

Lead sources are ordinary content items of the Lead Source type. Open Interaction Center > Management > Lead Sources to add, rename or remove one. You need the usual content permissions for the Lead Source type.

The Lead source fields of leads and opportunities are content pickers of this type. Activity loads and imports pick from the published lead sources too. Unpublishing or deleting a source removes it from the list, and leads that already have it show (Unknown source) in the conversion report.

Lead statuses and opportunity stages

Manage both lists under Interaction Center > Management. Unlike lead sources, these lists are part of the CRM itself, because their settings decide how leads and opportunities behave.

• Lead Statuses (permission Manage lead statuses): each status has a name, a description, an order and a Type:
  • Open: leads in it are still worked and loaded. Only an open status can be the one a new lead starts in.
  • Closed: leads in it are finished without being converted, and activity loads skip them unless a load asks for them.
  • Converted: the status conversion gives a lead. Only one status has this type, and you cannot pick it by hand.
• Opportunity Stages (permission Manage opportunity stages): each stage has a name, a description, an order, a probability from 0 to 100, and whether it is closed and won. A stage can only be won if it is closed.

Import and export leads

Import and export leads the same way as contacts, through Bulk Import and Bulk Export. This needs the Content Transfer feature.

When you import a lead type, the import screen adds:

Option	What it does
Skip numbers that already belong to a contact	Leaves out rows whose number a contact already has. On by default.
Skip numbers that already belong to an open lead	Leaves out rows that duplicate a lead you are still working. On by default.
List name, Lead source, Lead status, Lead owner	Given to every new lead whose row does not set its own.

The file can also carry LeadStatus (by name), LeadSource (by name; a name that matches no lead source is ignored), LeadList, Company, Rating and LeadOwner (by user name) columns. Download the template from the import screen for the full list. A converted lead in the file is left unchanged.

With the Do-not-call registry option on, you can also choose what happens to a number found on a registry:

• Skip the row leaves it out of the import.
• Import it marked Do not call keeps the record, so the number is recognised if it is bought again, and Do not call keeps it out of every call.

When an import checks the Do-not-call registries, each lead it imports records when its numbers were checked.

When you export a lead type, Leave out converted leads is on by default, because a converted lead lives on as its contact. The export includes IsConverted, ConvertedUtc, ConvertedContactItemId and LastScrubbedUtc (when the numbers were last checked against a registry).

Automate with workflows

With the Orchard Core Workflows feature on, the CRM adds two activities under Omnichannel CRM:

Activity	What it does
Lead Converted (event)	Starts a workflow whenever a lead is converted, from the Convert screen, a subject action or a workflow. The workflow's content item is the contact, so content tasks such as sending an email act on the customer. Workflow.Input also carries LeadContentItemId, ContactContentItemId, AccountContentItemId, OpportunityContentItemId and ContactCreated.
Convert Lead (task)	Converts a lead, for example when a web form or an outside system says it qualified. By default it converts the workflow's content item. Choose the account handling, whether to create an opportunity, and what happens to open activities. It merges into an existing contact only when exactly one shares the lead's number or email. Its outcomes are Converted, with the contact's id as the result, and Failed.

Reports

Three reports appear under Reports in the CRM and campaigns category. Each one is filtered by date range.

Report	Shows
Lead funnel	The leads created in the period, by their current status, with the share converted.
Lead conversion by source and list	Leads, conversions, conversion rate and average time to convert, by lead source and by list.
Opportunity pipeline	Open opportunities by stage with their amount and weighted amount, and the win rate of those closed in the period.