Working with Leads

What a lead is

A lead is a prospect you haven't qualified yet — someone from a web form, a cold call, a referral, or an event, before you know they're a real opportunity worth tracking as a full Contact. It has a status (New, Contacted, Qualified, Unqualified, Converted), a source, and free-form notes.

Why it's separate from Contacts

Not every enquiry is worth cluttering your Contacts list with, especially ones that never go anywhere. Keeping Leads separate means your Contacts stay a clean list of real relationships, while your Leads list tracks the "should I bother following up" stage on its own.

How to use leads

1. Go to Leads in the sidebar and click New Lead.
2. Fill in name, contact details, company name, and where the lead came from (source).
3. Update its status as you work it — New → Contacted → Qualified (or Unqualified if it's a dead end).
4. Once it's a real opportunity, click Convert to Contact on the lead's detail page. This creates a real Contact (and a Company too, if you entered a company name that doesn't already exist) and links back to the original lead for history. A converted lead can no longer be edited — the Contact record takes over from there.

Leads aren't counted against your plan's contact limit — only converted Contacts are.