The definition can be what you want it to be, depending upon how you are
using CRM 3.0. For example, we are using CRM to track our Customer and
Vendor information. So a Lead is:
"An Unqualified potential Customer/Vendor."
'Unqualified' means that all of the infromation needed by our company to
setup a Customer or Vendor Account has not been obtained yet. Once it is,
then we have a review process to see if the Lead record is to be converted
into an Account, Contact, and/or Opportunity record.
If you think of a Lead as "an opporuntiy for something" (ie. a sale, better
purchasing options, etc.), then it stands to reason that every Lead will be
converted to at least an Opportunity record. Since someone has to present
this opportunity to you, there is obviously a Contact...so you should create
a Contact record. And if this person is with a company, then you should
create an Account record, too.
Using this definition (that seems to work for us), then you do not ever
bypass the Opportunity stage, as every lead is converted into an Opportunity,
yet may not be converted into a Contact or Account. Instead, just tie the
new opportunity to a Contact or Account record during Lead conversion.
You could convert a Lead into a Contact or Account only in the case where
you do not wish to create an Opportunity. For example, if creating a Vendor
record yet your company is not interested in creating Opportunity records for
Vendors.
This can be expanded/modified to whatever your intentions are for CRM. So
it depends. Not the most technical of answers, yet it works.
"Pradeep" wrote:
