A “Lead” is considered a name of a person or business that is not yet a qualified account. Some companies may use an inside sales team to qualify leads then pass the “hot ones” on to the sales team. Sales people may be doing this task themselves from imported lists, trade show guests or other sources. Having a separate repository of Leads is critical to ensure that your “Ac-counts” lists are not cluttered with hundreds of less-valuable records.
Convert a Lead to an Account within the Lead detail form whenever that record’s qualification criteria meets your compa-ny’s requirements. Review the Accounts related views to deter-mine when that is necessary. In Accounts, you may add oppor-tunities, forecasts, quotes and other functions that are not avail-able in the Leads related view.
How to Import Leads from a List
How To Move Leads Between Lists
How to Manage Lead Qualification