Converting Leads

Converting Leads

Convert Leads to Other Sales Records

When there is a chance for further negotiations with a lead, it can be converted into an account, contact, and deal. In short, once the lead status has reached a certain stage, it can be qualified as a deal. On conversion, a lead is converted to an account and contact and if required, a deal can be created upon conversion. You can map the lead fields with those of the account, contact and deals so that the details are transferred to the appropriate fields. See Also Map Fields

Note:

  • When a lead is converted, it cannot be reverted.
  • An account will be created on lead conversion if the Company Name detail is available for the lead.

Availability

Permission Required: Users with the Convert Leads permission in profile can access this feature.                                                                                                              

Features Free Standard Professional Enterprise
Convert Leads

While converting a lead to a deal first a new account and contact are created with the relevant lead data, and then a new deal is created. The following table provides description of the various fields converted to an account, contact, and deal during lead conversion. In case of custom fields, you can map them too. See Also Map Fields 

Lead Field Converted To
Salutation Contact: Salutation
First Name Contact Name
Last Name Contact Name
Company Account: Name
Contact : Name
Designation Contact: Title
Lead Source Deal: Lead Source
Contact: Lead Source
Industry Account: Industry
Annual Revenue Account: Annual Revenue
Assigned To Account, Contact, Deal: Assigned To
Phone Account: Phone
Contact: Phone
Mobile Contact: Mobile
Fax Account: Fax
Contact: Fax
Email Contact: Email
Skype ID Contact: Skype ID
Web site Account: Web site
Lead Status User should specify the Deal Stage while converting the lead.
Rating Deal: Rating
No of Employees Account: No. of Employees
Email Opt Out Contact: Email Opt Out
Street Account: Street
Contact: Street
City Account: City
Contact: City
State Account: State
Contact: State
Postal Code Account: Postal Code
Contact: Postal Code
Country Account: Country
Contact: Country
Custom Fields Users can map their own custom field.

To convert leads to other sales records

  1. Click the Leads tab.
  2. In the Leads Home page, select the lead to be converted.
  3. In the Lead Details page, click Convert.
  4. In the Lead Conversion page, choose the appropriate account/contact option.
    The options to create an account/contact or add to the existing account/contact will be available based on different use cases. (Refer to the table)
  5. Select Create a new Deal for this Account/Contact checkbox if you want to create a deal on lead conversion.
    All the mandatory fields for the Deals module will be listed.
    • Specify the Deal Name.
      By default, the Company Name will be populated as the deal name.
    • Specify the Deal Closing Date or select the date from the calendar displayed.
    • Select the Deal Stage from the drop-down list.
    • Select the Contact Role from the drop-down list.
    • Enter the Amount.
    • Choose the Campaign Source from the lookup.
      Note that only the campaigns associated to the lead will be listed. You can associate one campaign which qualified the lead. This details for this campaign source will be available in the deal.
    • Select the Owner of the record.
      This option will be available only if a new record is created.
  6. Click Convert.

Note:

  • All the mandatory fields available for the Deals module will be listed during lead conversion. An exception to this is when you have created page layouts. If you have created multiple page layouts, upon conversion of leads via workflow or mass convert, you will see only the mandatory fields of Deals - Deals Name, Closing Date and Stage.
  • When the Email Address Duplication Check is enabled, you will not be able to convert a lead, if the following conditions are true.
    • Lead is assigned to a User A and User B tries to convert it.
    • User B is a subordinate to User A in the organization's hierarchy.
    • There are duplicates available for the record.

Scenarios - Convert Leads

Here is an example that will help you understand the different scenarios. Let us take for example a lead with the following details:

  • Lead Name - Charles Stone
  • Company Name - Zylker Inc.
  • Email Address - charles.s@zylker.com
Various scenarios If Account/Contact already exists in CRM If Account/Contact does not exist in CRM

Lead Name: Available

Company: Available

Email Address: Available

Use Case 1
If the email address matches with an existing contact then

  1. Add to existing contact
  2. Create a new contact
    • On selecting this option an account will also be created.


Use Case 2

If there is no contact with the matching email address, the system will search for accounts with a matching company name. If the company name matches an existing account, then:

  1. Add to existing account
  2. Create a new account
    • On selecting this option a contact will also be created.

Use Case 3

If Case 2 is not satisfied and there is no account with the matching company name, the system will search for contacts with a matching lead name. If the lead name matches an existing contact, then:

  1. Add to existing contact
  2. Create a new contact
    • On selecting this option an account will also be created.

A new account and a new contact will be created.

Lead Name: Available

Company: Not Available

Email Address: Not Available

Options:

  1. Add to existing contact
    The existing details in the contact will not be changed/overwritten.
  2. Create a new contact

A new contact will be created

Lead Name: Available

Company: Available

Email Address: Not Available

Options:

  1. Add to existing account
  • If the lead name matches with an existing contact in CRM, then you will have the option to add to the existing contact or create one.
  • If the lead name does not match with any existing contact in CRM, then a contact will be created and associated to the account.
  • Create a new account
    • A contact will be created and associated to the account.

A new account and a new contact will be created. The contact will be associated to the account.

Lead Name: Available

Company: Not Available

Email Address: Available

Options:

  1. Add to existing contact
  • If the email address matches with an existing contact in CRM, then you will have the option to add it to that existing contact.
  • If there is no contact with the matching email address, the system will search for contacts with a matching lead name. If it matches with any existing contact in CRM, then you will have the option to add it to that existing contact.
  • Create a new contact
    • A contact will be created and associated to the account.

A new contact will be created

Map Fields

When a lead is converted into an account, contact and deal, field values of a lead are transferred to the mapped account, contact, and deal fields. Only when the fields are accurately mapped with those of the corresponding modules, will data be transferred properly.

By default, the standard fields are mapped with the corresponding fields of the other modules (Accounts, Contacts, and Deals). With the lead conversion mapping tool, you can easily map other fields that you create. Please note that you need to map a field with a similar type of field as well as field length only. For example,

  • A Text field should be mapped only with a Text field 
  • A Picklist field with a similar type of Picklist field.
  • A single line field of 255 characters can be mapped only with another text field of 255 characters or greater.

To map lead fields with other modules

  1. Go to Setup > Customization > Modules.
  2. From the List of modules, select the Leads module.
  3. Click the Module Settings icon > Lead Conversion Mapping.
  4. In the Map Fields for Leads Conversion page, the fields are listed under Lead Fields column. Fields under corresponding modules - Accounts, Contacts and Deals - are also displayed.
  5. Map the lead fields to the corresponding fields of Accounts, Contacts and Deals.
  6. Click Save.

Note:

  • During lead conversion if you choose to create a deal, the notes added to the lead will automatically be moved to the corresponding deal. A copy of the notes will also be shown in the relevant account and contact. In case you do not create a deals during lead conversion, then the notes will be available only in the corresponding contact.


  • When converting a lead , you have the choice of selecting where you want the attachments to be moved. It can be moved to a Contact or a Deal that is created. In the case of the deal not being created, the attachments will be automatically moved to Contact.
  Map fields based on Page Layouts

Map fields based on page layouts

In case you have created multiple layouts for a module, you can enable conversion of leads across layouts of modules.

For this, you must map fields of one layout with corresponding layouts of another module. For example, you have created a layout called Mobile Service in the Leads module. All the fields of Mobile Service from Leads can be mapped with Mobile Service layout of Contacts, Accounts and Deals as per your requirements.

To map fields based on page layouts

  1. Go to Setup > Customization > Modules.
  2. From the List of modules, select the Leads module.
  3. Click the Module Settings icon > Lead Conversion Mapping.
  4. In the Map Fields for Leads Conversion page, choose the desired layout under the Leads module.
    By default, the fields of the Standard layout of Leads, Contacts, Accounts and Deals are displayed
  5. Choose the corresponding layout under Contacts/Accounts/Deals as required.
  6. For each field under Leads, map the corresponding field under Contacts/Accounts/Deals from the dropdown lists.
  7. Click Save.

Note:

  • By default, the fields from Leads are mapped to the Standard layout of other modules.
  • Upon account downgrade, layout based conversion will not happen as the layouts will no longer exist. However, immediately after downgrade the mapping settings will remain intact until you edit the settings.
  • When you attempt to deactivate/delete a layout that has been associated in lead conversion mapping, you will be prompted to remove the layout from the mapping settings before you can deactivate/delete it.
  • When page layouts have been enabled, if you select the Also Create for Contacts/Accounts/Deals checkbox while creating a custom field for Leads, the auto-mapping of custom fields will not take place.
  • For every field under Leads, the corresponding fields under Accounts/Contacts/Deals will not displayed in the dropdown list for mapping, if their field types and field length do not match.

Close Leads Without Converting

Based on your business requirements, you may want to close the leads instead of converting them. In such a case, you can do the following:

  1. Add a custom value (Closed) for the Lead Status field.
  2. Change the Lead Status to Closed.
  3. Create a List View to filter all the leads that are closed.

By default, some industry standard pick list values are available in the Lead Status field. You can modify the pick list values as per your organization's business process and replace the existing value with new value.

To add a pick list value

  1. Log in to Zoho CRM with Administrator privileges.
  2. Go to Setup > Customization > Modules.
  3. From the List of modules, select Leads.
  4. In the Lead Status pick list field, select the Field Settings icon and select Edit Properties.
  5. In the Pick List Properties popup, click the Add (+) icon beside a value to add a new value below it.
  6. In the Add New Value box, specify Closed.
  7. Click Done.
  8. Click Save Layout.
  Mass Convert
Convert Leads in Bulk

Mass conversion of leads is also possible in the Leads module by selecting multiple records from the list view to convert. You can also use the Mass Convert [Records] option under LeadTools to filter records based on criteria and then convert them in bulk.

To convert leads in bulk

  1. Click the Leads tab.
  2. From the list of leads, select the ones that you want to convert.
  3. Click the Moreicon > MassConvert.
  4. In the Mass Convert  pop-up, do the following:
    • Select the Deal checkbox, if you want to create a deal upon lead conversion.
      The deal fields will be listed. The mandatory fields will be pre-populated based on Conversion Mapping.
    • Fill in the fields for deals. You can either specify a value or use merge fields to add a variable for the deal fields.
    • Click the Change link to select one owner for the contacts, accounts or deals that the leads are being converted to. By default, all the converted contacts, accounts and deals will be assigned to the users who own the respective leads.
  5. Click Convert.

Note:

  • During conversion, if there are records that match the email address of the lead, then the lead details will be merged with the existing record. See Also Scenarios Convert Records
  • Any tags associated with the leads can be carried over to accounts, contacts and deals upon individual as well as mass conversion of leads. See also: Tagging records. 

 FAQ

1. While converting a lead, what happens to the multiple campaigns that are associated?

2. Can I convert a lead without creating a deal upon conversion?

3. Can I convert an Account to a Lead?

4. When can I convert Leads?

5.Why am I unable to see the Lead details after the Lead conversion?

6. What will happen if a field is made unique in the Contacts or Account or Deals module and if I try to convert a lead with duplicate value?

7. Why aren't all the available fields listed in the drop-down in Leads Mapping page?

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