Managing leads (Classic Leads feature)

NexJ CRM has two ways of managing leads, Classic Leads and Integrated Lead Management. Only one method can be enabled at one time.

In the Classic Leads feature, a lead operates as a separate object that can be linked to a contact.  Classic Leads uses a separate workspace for working with leads and has a reduced ability to leverage activity types.  When a lead progresses to a prospect or a client, it is converted to a contact. This topic contains information about using the Classic Leads feature.

In Integrated Lead Management, a lead is an entity similar to a contact, which can be managed through a list within the Contacts workspace. The experience working with a lead is identical to that of working with any other contact. For example, any activity type can be created for a lead.  Creating a lead and progressing it to a prospect or client is a seamless process. For more information, see Managing leads (Integrated Lead Management).

Use the Classic Leads feature to manage the entire life cycle of a business contact from an unknown entity to a client. A lead is a person who may be interested in purchasing a product or service. 

The Classic Leads feature is enabled by default. It can be enabled or disabled in the NexJ Admin Console, on the Global Application Settings page.

This feature enables you to:

1. Add new leads on the Leads workspace or, with appropriate permissions, import leads in bulk.
2. After you have added leads, you can:
   • Assign owners to leads.
   • Qualify leads by converting leads.
   • Perform batch actions on leads.
   • Archive leads that you do not want to pursue.
   • Delete lead records to remove them from the system.

Leads workspace

The Leads workspace

To access the Leads workspace, your administrator must have assigned you with the ilm:EnableIntegratedLeadManagement privilege.

The leads data table includes the following columns:

• Score - The lead's potential to generate revenue. A lead with a high score is considered more likely to be converted to an opportunity than a lead with a lower score.

  

  You cannot modify the score for a lead. Your administrator can change the rules that determine the scores for leads in the classic UI (released with 8.X) on the Customize workspace.

• Market Segment - Target market that the lead belongs to (for example, Starting Out, Pre-Retirement, Retirement).
• Sales Concept - Type of products or services that the lead is interested in (for example, General Interest, Retirement Income, or Mortgage Needs).
• Source Type - The type of source that generated the lead (for example, a conference, event marketing, or a vendor list).

• Lead ID - A unique number that is assigned to each lead by the system.

• Created By - The user who added the lead to NexJ CRM.

You can select a lead record in the data table and modify or delete it.

The Leads workspace is only visible if you have been granted the ilm:EnableIntegratedLeadManagement privilege by your administrator.

The following screenshot shows an example of the Leads workspace:

The chart cards section at the top of the Leads workspace illustrates the leads in your system, and contains the following charts:

• Lead Source by Month
  Displays the breakdown of leads in your system by their source.
• Leads Converted by Week
  Displays the number of converted leads per week.
• Lead Status by Month
  Displays the status of the leads in your system by month.

The Leads workspace, enables you to:

• Search for and find leads using a text search field and filter chips. For more information, see Searching and filtering the data table.
• Add new leads by clicking the Add button

  

  in the data table toolbar.

• Export all leads into a CSV file for analysis outside of NexJ CRM by clicking Export

  

  in the data table toolbar.
  

  To export the information available in the default columns in the leads list, select Visible Columns in the Export Options dialog. To export the information in all columns available with the Set List Columns option, select All Columns.

• Edit a lead's properties, including the name, and description by clicking the Edit button

  

  for a selected lead.

• Send an email to a selected lead by clicking the Email button

  

  for a selected lead or send batch emails to selected leads (for more information, see Sending batch emails to leads).

• You can perform the following actions for a selected lead record by clicking the More Actions button

  

  , and selecting a menu option:

  • Delete a selected lead record by selecting Delete. You can also delete multiple selected lead records and permanently delete them by clicking Delete in the data table toolbar. If you no longer want to pursue a lead but would like to keep it as a historical record, you should instead archive it.

    

    This action cannot be undone.

  • Convert a selected lead's record by selecting Convert Lead (for more information, see Converting a lead).
  • Archive a selected lead's record that you do not want to pursue but would like to keep as a historical record by selecting Archive.
  • Assign an owner to a selected lead record by selecting Assign Owner. You can also assign owners to multiple selected lead records (for more information, see Assigning owners to leads).
  • Print a DOC, DOCX, or PDF document for a selected lead record by selecting Print Document and providing the required information. You can also batch print documents for selected lead records (for more information, see Batch printing documents for leads).

To view information for a selected lead, click the link in the Name column of the data table to navigate to the detail page. The detail page enables you to:

• View and update the complete information about a specific lead on the detail page, including activities in the Activities tab. You can add, update, or delete activities related to the selected lead on the Activities card. For more information, see Activities. You can also create, view, and edit notes on the Notes card. For more information, see Adding notes.
• View an audit trail that displays a history of actions performed on records. For more information about audit trails, see Audit Trail tab.

The detail page contains a banner at the top with overview information and tabs below the banner that provide access to more detailed information. The banner contains:

• A summary of the selected lead's personal and contact information, including badge icons which visually indicate information about leads. Hover over a badge in an entity's banner to see what information it represents.
  The following screenshot displays two badges:
  

  

• The More Actions button

  

  that you can click to perform quick actions, and select from the following menu options: Edit, Convert Lead, or Archive.

To return to the data table on the Leads workspace, click the back arrow in the toolbar.

Searching and filtering the data table

The search and filter area enables you to use a text search field, filters, and filter chips to search for lead records using different search criteria. In the text search field, you can enter a lead's first name or last name. Use the following filters to find leads:

• All Leads - Filter to display all lead records in the system.
• My Leads - Filter to display lead records that you have created.
• My Recently Added Leads - Filter to display lead records with a status of New or Qualifying that were created in the previous 7 days, and for who the current user is the owner.
  
• Stale Leads - Filter to display lead records that were last edited prior to the previous 7 days, for who the current user is the owner, and who do not have a status of Qualified or Archived.

Filter chips include:

• Owner
• Score
• Source Type
• Status

For more information about searching and filtering functionality, see Searching and filtering in NexJ CRM.

For more information about sorting data tables, see Sorting data tables by columns.

Adding leads

When adding a lead, you must include a first name, last name, sales concept, and source type, and either an email address or phone number.

You must add one type of communication method (either an email address or phone number) when adding leads.

When you are adding a lead, phone numbers display using the following international format: + <countryCode> <nationalDestinationCode> <subscriberNumber>. When you enter a new phone number, the phone number will be validated for the country that you have selected. If the number is invalid, you will be prompted that the phone number is invalid, and you must either enter a valid phone number for the selected country or select Unspecified in the Country field in order for your number to be accepted.

Any legacy phone number in the system that has not been bound to a specific country displays as it was entered originally, and the Country field shows as Unspecified. You can choose to make a new selection in the Country field.

When you add a lead on the Leads workspace, the New Lead dialog includes the following fields: 

If your system has been configured to use the B2B mode so you can convert leads to companies instead of contacts to support a business-to-business model, you will also need to provide a name in the Company field when you are adding a lead. The lead who you add is the representative of a company so the lead will be in the form of a contact.

Converting a lead

After a lead has advanced through your qualifying process, you can convert a lead to a contact with an optionally associated opportunity by selecting the lead, clicking the More Actions button

An opportunity represents a potential sale of one or more products to a client. Converting a lead to an opportunity creates a contact record, if one does not already exist, and associates the newly created opportunity with the contact.

When you convert a lead, the lead's status changes to Qualified on the Leads workspace. The lead displays as a contact on the Contacts workspace with as status of "Other".

After you convert the lead to a contact, the lead's communication information (email address, phone) and address information display in the Detail tab on the detail page as part of the contact record on the Contacts workspace. Opportunity information displays in the Opportunities tab on the detail page for the contact on the Contacts workspace.

Your system may also have been configured to use the B2B mode so you can convert leads to companies instead of contacts to support a business-to-business model. When you are converting the lead, if the company is new then the Convert Lead dialog displays a non-editable Create a new Company record with Lead details checkbox.

After you convert the lead to a company, the lead's communication information (email address, phone) is part of the lead's contact record, while the address information for the lead is part of the lead's company record, and this information displays on the detail page on the Contacts workspace. Opportunity information displays in the Opportunities tab on the detail page for the company on the Contacts workspace.

Assigning owners to leads

You can assign an owner to a selected lead by clicking the More Actions button

When a lead is created in NexJ CRM, a user is assigned to the lead as its owner. If you want to change who is responsible for managing the lead, you can specify a different owner. You do this by assigning an owner, or by distributing the lead.

After you have qualified a lead, you will not be able to assign an owner to it.

Sending batch emails to leads

You can send batch emails to deliver personalized emails and documents to multiple selected leads by clicking the Email button in the data table toolbar and providing the required information in the New batch email dialog.

You can use the toolbar at the top of the Body field to format the text as rich text with styles such as bolding, italics, bullet points, and hyperlinks. You can also copy and paste formatted text into the field. You can also click the Image button 

in the toolbar and upload images from your computer to use in email signatures. The images cannot exceed 2MB in size. The images must be in JPG, JPEG, or PNG format. To specify additional image settings, navigate to the Advanced tab. For example, you can specify the size of an image and its alignment.

You can include multiple Microsoft Word, PDF, and CSV documents as attachments in batch emails. You can use tokens in merge fields to personalize documents and emails so that you do not need to create unique versions of each for individual recipients. The following list shows the available lead-specific tokens:

• company - Company name for the lead

• marketSegment - Target market that the lead belongs to

• salesConcept - Type of products or services that the lead is interested in

• source - The name of the source for the lead

• sourceType - The type of source from which the lead was obtained

• emailAddress - Email address for the lead

• phoneBusiness - Business phone number for the lead

• address - Street address where the lead resides

• addressCity - City where the lead resides

• addressState - State where the lead resides
• addressCountry - Country where the lead resides
• addressZip - Zip code for the lead

You can also use the following tokens that are not categorized in NexJ Add-In for leads:

• nameFirst - First name
• nameLast - Last name
• position - Position within a company or organization

Documents created outside of NexJ CRM containing merge fields are populated during batch processes or when they are associated with a contact.

Only PDF, DOC, and DOCX external files can contain merge fields. If you use merge fields in an unsupported file type, merge field names display in emailed documents, rather than merge field values.

For more information, see Batch operations.

Batch printing documents for leads

You can batch print a DOC, DOCX, or PDF document for multiple selected leads by selecting Print in the data table toolbar, and providing the required information in the New Print Job dialog.

Before you batch print Microsoft Word documentation, you must have created the required Microsoft Word document templates and used NexJ Add-In to insert the merge fields into the templates, which will automatically retrieve the leads' information during a print job. NexJ Add-In integrates Microsoft Word and NexJ CRM to allow you to personalize your form documents. 

For more information, see Batch operations.

Related link

• Import contacts and leads data - Import data is typically prepared by a business administrator, who loads it into a staging area in the system. You can then review and correct the information, check to see if it matches any existing leads, and complete the import.