Turn Leads into Deals

Who it's for and what you get

For managers and sales teams who work lists of prospects: purchased lists, trade-show scans or web forms.

When it is done:

• prospects live as leads, apart from your contacts, so your contact list holds only real customers;
• agents and the dialer call and text leads exactly like contacts, and the outcome moves each lead through your lead statuses;
• a lead that qualifies is converted: it becomes a contact (or merges into one who has its number), joins an account, and can open an opportunity for the deal;
• reports show your lead funnel, which sources and lists convert best, and your pipeline.

Before you start

You need	Who sets it up
The feature Omnichannel CRM (it turns on Omnichannel Management), Content Transfer to import lists, and Reports	Your administrator, in Tools > Features, or with the Omnichannel CRM starter recipe
Content permissions for the lead, contact, account and opportunity types	Your administrator
Convert leads for the people who convert (the Agent role has it); Manage lead statuses and Manage opportunity stages for the manager	Your administrator; see Roles and permissions
To call or text leads: the features for an outbound calling campaign or for texting	Your administrator

Can't find it?

What you see depends on your role. If the menu, a button or a setting on this page is missing, ask your administrator to give you the permission listed above or to turn on the feature. Only administrators can turn features on and change site settings.

Steps

1. Turn it on. The quickest way is the Omnichannel CRM starter recipe under Tools > Recipes. It adds a Lead type that converts into Contact, a Sales Opportunity type, and a starting set of lead sources. See Leads, accounts and opportunities.
2. Review your lists. Under Interaction Center > Management, check the Lead Statuses (open, closed and converted), the Lead Sources (where leads come from) and the Opportunity Stages (with their probability, and which ones are won or lost). See Leads, accounts and opportunities.
3. Import your leads. Import the list under Content > Import with the lead type. Give the rows a list name, a lead source, a status and an owner, and skip numbers that already belong to a contact or an open lead. See Leads, accounts and opportunities and Import and export.
4. Work the leads. Open Interaction Center > Leads to see your open leads. Search them by status, source, list, rating or owner. See Leads, accounts and opportunities.
5. Call and text them. Create an activity load with the lead type as the Record type, and use the Lead filters to pick, for example, one list's hot leads. Use a dialer load for calls, a manual load for agents' lists, or an automatic load for AI texts or calls. See Load activities, Run an outbound calling campaign and Automated AI SMS and voice.
6. Move leads along. On the subject flow, set Set lead status on each action, so a No answer moves the lead to Working - Contacted on its own. See Subject flows.
7. Convert the ones that qualify. Open the lead and click Convert Lead: pick or create the contact, the account, and tick Create an opportunity to record the deal. You can also convert from a disposition with the Convert Lead flow action, or let the AI convert qualified leads on an automatic load. See Leads, accounts and opportunities.
8. Work the deals. Track opportunities under Interaction Center > Opportunities, moving each one through its stages, and see each company's contacts and deals under Interaction Center > Accounts. See Leads, accounts and opportunities.
9. Measure. Use Lead funnel, Lead conversion by source and list and Opportunity pipeline under Reports. See Reports.

Check that it works

1. Import a small test list of two or three leads, with your own number on one of them.
2. Open Interaction Center > Leads and find them by their list name.
3. Convert one lead with Create an opportunity ticked. The lead leaves the Leads list, shows a Converted banner that links to the new contact, and the opportunity appears under Interaction Center > Opportunities.
4. Run the Lead funnel report for today: it counts the converted lead.

Tips

• A converted lead is read-only and never loaded again. Its history and open work move to the contact.
• You cannot convert a lead while a call or message with it is in progress.
• When a number belongs to both a contact and a lead, inbound calls and texts match the contact.
• Keep Skip leads that are already contacts ticked on loads, so customers are not called again as strangers.
• To act when a lead converts, for example to send a welcome email, use a workflow that starts on Lead Converted. See Leads, accounts and opportunities.