Want to create a new Lead using an existing Contact and existing Account. Any way to avoid extra typing?

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Hi, I am really confused in CRM 2016 about how the Microsoft CRM business flow goes when there is the typical situation that a Contact of an existing Account (either a new Contact or even an existing one) tells the sales person information that for example: "my colleague, Mr. X.Y., told me that they might be interested in purchasing a new Server". As it happens, Mr. X.Y. as well as his Company both exist in our CRM database.
When I open the Lead screen, on top I can select in the Process ribbon an existing Account and Contact, BUT:
I still need in the Summary section type manually First and Last Name of the Contact, AND manually type the name of the Account. I don't get it. Is any sales person going to actually do this in such a complicated way,
or is it just me who hasn't understood that there is a simple and logical way to do this?
Please advice how the process should flow in its simplest way.

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ScottDurow 21 on at

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RE: Want to create a new Lead using an existing Contact and existing Account. Any way to avoid extra typing?

Hi,

Normally Leads are used for quick entry of Company & Contact information first - and then matched to existing Account/Contact before qualifying.

If the Sales Person knows that there is an existing Account/Contact already then they would probably be better off creating an opportunity against that account rather than a lead.

Hope this helps

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Community Member on at

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RE: Want to create a new Lead using an existing Contact and existing Account. Any way to avoid extra typing?

Thanks Scott! Sorry to ask a bit more details, but I am a new MS learner, and I need to find out the basics...

So, how does one match the lead to existing data?

And one remark: I am used to a different process. To me, it is not an opportunity before the lead has been confirmed. You could often have info that there MAYBE is an oppty, but you haven't got confirmation yet. How do you then separate these from the confirmed opportunities? E.g. Oracle CRM handles this part of the sales process differently...

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razdynamics 17,308 User Group Leader on at

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RE: Want to create a new Lead using an existing Contact and existing Account. Any way to avoid extra typing?

Hi Pexi, you are correct that generally an opportunity comes after a lead, The Benefit of creating the lead first is you will be able to easily qualify it to an account / contact and opportunity using the qualify button, in dynamics crm But sometimes accounts and contacts exist without leads so crm allows you to connect a lead to an existing account / contact to prevent the duplication of records during the qualification process .

Hope that helps :)

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ScottDurow 21 on at

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RE: Want to create a new Lead using an existing Contact and existing Account. Any way to avoid extra typing?

One of the things I would like to change about the out of the box terminology is the phrase 'Qualify' - really this button on the Lead is not 'Qualify' but instead 'Convert'. When you 'Convert' a lead, you create an opportunity and optionally an account/contact as you know.

So if you want to keep the leads separate then the benefit of this is that you can specify all your data on a single form - rather than split across 3 (account, contact & opportunity).

A 'confirmed' opportunity is more a product of the sales stage or the % probability if you already have matched it to an existing contact/account.

Use leads for when you don't know anything about the account/contact or you are importing/creating low quality data where you do not necessarily know if its an existing customer.

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Community Member on at

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RE: Want to create a new Lead using an existing Contact and existing Account. Any way to avoid extra typing?

Hi Raz, thanks for your answer, the process is starting to get clearer now. However, in the Lead Screen in CRM 2016, if I directly enter an existing Account and Contact, I still need to enter in the Summary section the Lead name and the Account. They are required fields, at least in the demo environment that I have. How does that work??? When I get clarity to this issue, then my questions have been answered, and I can click the "Yes".

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ScottDurow 21 on at

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RE: Want to create a new Lead using an existing Contact and existing Account. Any way to avoid extra typing?

Yes - the Lead name fields are required because normally a lead would only be created before you identify if it's an existing company/contact or a new one.

Scenarios for when leads are useful:

1. Importing marketing lists by marketing and assigning to sales to 'convert'

2. Automatically creating records from website forms

3. Quickly entering in 'business card' information to be dealt with at a later stage.

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Community Member on at

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RE: Want to create a new Lead using an existing Contact and existing Account. Any way to avoid extra typing?

Hello Scott, This resonates with my thinking on 'When to create a Lead v/s an Opportunity' - Is this a standard/recommended approach not to create a Lead when there is an existing 'Contact /Account' in CRM? Please correct if I misunderstood your post.

best wishes,

harihar

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Inogic 651 on at

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RE: Want to create a new Lead using an existing Contact and existing Account. Any way to avoid extra typing?

Hi Pexi,

We assume that you wish to set the name of the Lead (Contact Name) and Company (Account) on lead record based on the Existing Contact and Existing Account selected from the ribbon.

There is no OOB functionality to achieve this, however you can use Business Rules/ Script to perform the aforesaid action.

Please let us know if it clears your doubt.

Thanks,

Sam

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Community Member on at

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RE: Want to create a new Lead using an existing Contact and existing Account. Any way to avoid extra typing?

Hi Scott, thanks for the answer. I agree with you that the way Lead - Oppty flow has been defined, clearly guides
to the kind of process that you suggest.
It is just quite different from what I am used to seeing.
In Finland many companies consider a Lead to be an entity itself, with possibly a Contact and an Account, or not.
This way, a possibility for a Deal is not personified to a Contact but rather to a Company / Organization.
Contact persons do in reality change along the way, even before the Lead is converted into an Opportunity.
Anyway, now I am satisfied with the replies that I got.
Thanks once again to all who replied.

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Dominic CARVALHO 2 on at

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RE: Want to create a new Lead using an existing Contact and existing Account. Any way to avoid extra typing?

Hi Sam,

Based on your suggestion, I was trying to create a Business Rule for this functionality, but cannot access the 'Existing Account' and 'Existing Contact' fields in the Rules section. I need to access the information from these fields and pass it to the 'Name' and 'Company' fields in the Summary section of the Lead form to avoid extra typing.

Our Scenario:

The 'Existing Account' has a selected value from our CRM DB. The 'Company' field has the same value manually entered, but with a typo. After saving the Lead, a new Account gets created in the DB with the 'Company' field value thus polluting the Accounts DB. We don't want to create erroneous accounts, but want to rely on the 'Existing Account' field selection. If 'Existing Account' is blank, then of course whatever entered in the 'Company' field will be used and we'd have to do a data quality maintenance later on.

Ditto for 'Existing Contact' and 'Name'.

Regards,

Dominic.

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