Lead Management in Sugarcrm

Attract. Convert. Retain.
Lead Management in SugarCRM
Written by: Josh Sweeney and Matthew Poer

www.AtcoreSystems.com Atcore Systems, LLC 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or redistributed in any form without the prior written permission of the publishers.
1 | AtcoreSystems.com
PREFACE ........................................................................................................................................ 3 Defining Leads.............................................................................................................................. 3 LEAD STATUS ............................................................................................................................... 4 Status Definitions......................................................................................................................... 4 Lead Status Customization .......................................................................................................... 4 Skipping the Leads Stage.......................................................................................................... 5 VIEWING LEADS ........................................................................................................................... 6 Leads Dashlet ............................................................................................................................... 6 List View ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Search Wildcards ...........................................................................................................................8 Search Persistence .........................................................................................................................9
Reports ......................................................................................................................................... 9 Report Dashlets.......................................................................................................................... 10 My Favorite Reports Dashlet ..................................................................................................... 11 WAYS TO GET LEADS INTO SUGARCRM ................................................................................12 From your Internal Sugar System.............................................................................................. 12 From Outlook ............................................................................................................................. 13 From your Phones Browser ...................................................................................................... 14 From your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad (the SugarCRM App) ................................................... 18 Importing from a List (CSV) ....................................................................................................... 22
CSVs from Business Cards .............................................................................................................22 Use Excel to Create a CSV file........................................................................................................22 Import the CSV into SugarCRM .....................................................................................................23
From your Web Site ................................................................................................................... 26 LEADS AND CAMPAIGNS...........................................................................................................30 Target Lists ................................................................................................................................. 31 LEAD CONVERSION....................................................................................................................33 Field Replication......................................................................................................................... 35 STUDIO CONFIGURATION ........................................................................................................36 Editing Labels ............................................................................................................................. 36 Creating New Fields ................................................................................................................... 37 Configuring the Conversion Process ......................................................................................... 39 LEAD ROUTING THROUGH WORKFLOWS ............................................................................41 Condition .................................................................................................................................... 42 Actions........................................................................................................................................ 44 Detail View ................................................................................................................................. 45 CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................47
Preface
The goal of this document is to help you better understand the various ways to work with leads within SugarCRM. The leads section of any CRM system can be confusing. Users that are new to CRM generally find a lack of definition around what qualifies as a lead. Why cant we just use Contacts? The differences may be subtle, but the impact on the organization of your marketing campaigns and sales teams is significant. The definition of a lead is often dictated by the business, but there are some generalities that can help get us started. Many of the examples and all of the screenshots provided were create using SugarCRM 6 Pro but most of the content is applicable to other versions of SugarCRM.
Defining Leads
In SugarCRM and most CRM systems a Lead is generically defined as unqualified data. Unqualified data could be, for example, a business card that one received from a networking event or conference. In general there is TECH NOTE no deal in the works and the sales or lead qualification A Record is an entry into the CRM team has not identified a revenue amount to associate with (and its database) such as a Lead, the record. The goal of your business is to convert these leads into revenue. In SugarCRM, that means converting the Lead record into records to represent Contacts, Opportunities, Tasks and Accounts.
Account, or Contact. Every individual Contact is a record. Records can be related to one another, as a Quote record can be related to an Account record.
Lead Conversion is the process of converting unqualified data, a lead, to qualified data including an Account, Contact and Opportunity. The lead conversion process determines and defines when a sales person should consider a lead qualified and then convert. It is ultimately defined by the company using the system, but some common examples include: A lead should be converted when the sales person has spoken to the lead and can assign a value to the deal and accurately assign the probability of closing. A lead should be converted after a certain amount of data is identified. This is usually driven by a specific predefined process. A lead should be converted when a certain lead score is met.
Lead Status
The lead status field provides details about where the lead is at in the lead qualification process. Making sure to set the status properly ensures that sales teams or lead qualification teams can filter on the records that are important and dismiss those that are not.
Status Definitions
New Assigned In Process Converted This stage indicates that the lead was just received or entered into SugarCRM. Assigned is the status that is set when the lead is changed from new and assigned to an individual to follow up on. In process means that the user it was assigned to has taken ownership as well as taken the first action to qualify the lead. When a lead is converted the sales person or lead qualification person has determined that there is potential revenue. The conversion process often triggers the creation of a Contact, Account and Opportunity. This is discussed further in the Lead Conversion section. Leads are often moved to the status of Dead for various reasons. Often times the lead is later recycled so that lead nurturing can be conducted. This stage is often the end of a lead and signifies that the lead is no longer of value. This can be decided for a multitude of reasons. The business should have predefined rules for when to convert a lead to dead.
Recycled Dead
Lead Status Customization

Like all SugarCRM fields, the Lead Status dropdown can be customized to fit your business and represent definitions that increase productivity and accuracy. To change these options, click open the Dropdown Editor from the Administrative panel.
In the Dropdown Editor, select the lead_status_dom.
Should the business decide to change the lead statuses they should also define what each status means, similar to what has been done in the Status Definitions table above. By defining the new statuses and disseminating this information to the sales organization the business ensures that all sales people are on the same page when setting statuses. Without this the reports created will have less accuracy and will negatively affect decision making.
Skipping the Leads Stage

Some situations may have a user skip the Lead and Lead Conversion process altogether. In situations where a sales person receive a business card where the contact is clearly interested in getting a quote for products or services, the information can be entered directly as a Contact record and an Account or Opportunity can be opened for the deal. With a default instance of SugarCRM, there should be no negative consequences of skipping the sales stage, and with situations like the above example, creating and converting the lead would almost certainly take more time than simply entering contact or account information.
Viewing Leads
Users will always be looking to view data in different ways based on the way that they work. Leads as well as other records in SugarCRM can be viewed in several ways, with each offering their own benefits.
Leads Dashlet
A quick and direct way to see leads is through the Leads Dashlet. The main focus of the dashlet is to give users a quick and immediate overview of leads assigned to them without requiring search criteria. The dashlet will be displayed on the Home screen, visible immediately when the user logs into SugarCRM. To create a dashlet, navigate to your Home page and click the Add Sugar Dashlets button in the topright of your Home screen.
Select My Leads from the Modules tab.
Close the Add Dashlet dialog window and you will find the My Leads dashlet has been added to your screen.
List View
Using the List View provides a rows-and-columns account of leads in the system. The main benefit over using the dashlet is the search capability. In a dashlet the user sets filters which determine the data that is automatically shown each time he or she visit the page holding the dashlet. Using the basic and advanced search in a list view users can quickly view lists that fit more specific criteria as well as view more records at once.
Find the List View by clicking View Leads from the Leads menu. This will display your most recent Leads search results or, if you havent searched for Leads, a list of all leads in the system that you have access to.
Note the Name input field to search by toward the top of the screen. If you know a Leads name, enter it there to find it more quickly. If youre unsure, but know some other information about the Lead, click the Advanced Search to search other Lead data.
Now filter Leads by Status, Source, who it is assigned to, or any other available field. Anything you chose will narrow down the list of Leads that are displayed. Enter in the details and click the Search button to show the new list. Search Wildcards While searching and filtering data a user can use the percent character (%) wildcard to assist in finding data. The wildcard tells Sugar that the user is not sure about what is before or after certain characters. 8 | AtcoreSystems.com
One example usage would be searching for names that can have different spellings. Lets say that you spoke to Chris on the phone and you need to look him up in the leads area but dont know how he spells his name. In this instance you could type %ris in the name field and you would any record that contained ris, including Cris, Kris, and Chris. Search Persistence By default, all searches in SugarCRM are persistent which means that if you search in a list view, leave that view and come back, the same search criteria will be filled in as when you left. This can be very helpful at times but can occasionally cause confusion. If at any point during a search you are not receiving the number of records that you know would fit the search, you may want to click the Clear button and start a new search.
Reports
Reports are the next step in searching and filtering to find specific data after using list views. Using reports a user can filter fields in a leads record as well as on other related records. Reports also add the ability to use date range and other criteria not available in the search area of the list view. Along with advanced filtering, a report will give you the ability to run calculations on data, set groupings for visualization and create charts. Reports can be saved to use again another day and can also be easily saved and printed from a PDF file. To use Reports, navigate to the Reports module and click on View Reports.
Youll be presented with the List View of Reports available to you in the system. S elect a report or create a new one. Reports have many functions and features that are outside the scope of this book, but know that the report will show you a spreadsheet-like result of columns and rows of data, and optionally show you a chart or graph of that data.
This report Leads by Lead Source simply shows the number of leads gathered by their sources, e.g. Cold Call, Web Site, Email campaign.
Report Dashlets
Take the above example and turn it into a dashlet on your home screen for easier access, similar to the Leads Dashlet. Do this for the reports you use every day. Add the Reports dashlet the same way as we did the Leads Dashlet: click the Add Sugar Dashlets button and select the Charts tab. Choose a chart category (e.g. My Team Reports) and a report name. Close the Add Dashlet dialog and your chart will have been added to your home screen. 10 | AtcoreSystems.com
My Favorite Reports Dashlet

Another helpful Dashlet is the My Favorite Reports Dashlet. When viewing a report, a user can flag it as a favorite by clicking the Mark as Favorite button. This will cause the report to show up in the My Favorite Reports Dashlet so that it can be quickly accessed by the user. Another efficiency this adds is the ability to filter reports in the Reports list view by selecting the View My Favorite Reports checkbox.
Ways to Get Leads into SugarCRM

Whether your leads come from purchased call lists, business cards at networking events or any combination of other sources, your business will need to have the ability to easily import leads into the system from various systems. Different situations will likely call for a different method of inputting a lead, so it is important to be aware of multiple methods of getting data into the system to stay efficient with data entry.
TECH NOTE Privileged accounts in SugarCRM can assign leads to other users, such as a manager assigned a lead to a certain member of the sales team. To ensure that users are made aware of being assigned records, a SugarCRM administrator can enable the Assignment Notifications setting under Configure Email Settings in the Administration page.
From your Internal Sugar System

The most common method of lead-entry for the average user will be the SugarCRM web interface. Open SugarCRM and navigate to the Leads module from your computers web browser. This will be easy for employees that have used the SugarCRM system already.
Place your mouse over the Leads button and then click on Create Lead.
In the Leads form, enter all of the information you can for the individual or company. Click Save when youre done to save the Lead in the system.
From Outlook
SugarCRM Professional and Enterprise editions offer customers a Microsoft Office Outlook plug-in to synchronize information between the system and the users desktop application.
From Outlook, the user can synchronize his or her contacts and calendar data with to the SugarCRM system, and individual emails can be parsed to create Leads, Accounts, Bugs, Opportunities, and Cases.
Click on the New Sugar Record button and select Lead. A pop up window will prompt you for more information about the Lead, and offer a list of contacts found in various places in the email.
Fill in the information and click the OK button The Lead will be imported to your SugarCRM instance with the details you specified and will be assigned to your user account.
From your Phones Browser

Travelling staff may use their mobile phones web browser to input a Lead into the SugarCRM system. 14 | AtcoreSystems.com
This is likely the most convenient way for a mobile businessperson to get his or her data into the system. One needs to simply use the web browser on their smartphone be it Blackberry, iPhone, Android, Windows or any other device with a reasonable web browser to access your SugarCRM installation.
In the phones browser (Mobile Safari for the Apple iPhone is depicted), navigate to your SugarCRM instance and login with your normal credentials.
Select Leads from the Module List and click or press the Go button.
Just like the normal web interface, we can search for a Lead by name or Create a new one with the Create button.
Enter in all of the contacts information, then press the Save button at the bottom of the screen.
The new Lead record will be displayed.
From your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad (Sugar Mobile)

Users with iOS Devices can install SugarCRMs official application, Sugar Mobile, and this can be used with all of SugarCRMs modules, including Leads. Lead Entry works similarly to the web-based view and the mobile view.
Open the SugarCRM application.
Click on the Leads button. You will see a list of Leads that are assigned to you in the system. To add a Lead, click the plus button in the top-right corner.
Fill in the Leads information. When youve entered in all of the information, press the Save button in the top right corner.
You are re directed to view the Lead record youve just created.
Importing from a List (CSV)

If you have a list of possible leads in a CSV you can simply import the entire list into SugarCRM with one form. CSVs from Business Cards Business Card Scanners can be used to scan a stack of business cards into a computer, and many of these devices include software to convert the scanned data into a single CSV file. Consult the manual of your device for instructions on exporting your data to a CSV file. Use Excel to Create a CSV file If you dont have a CSV file but you do have an Excel spreadsheet, we can convert the spreadsheet to CSV so we can upload it to SugarCRM.
TECH NOTE CSV is an abbreviation of Comma Separated Value. These files are very similar to spreadsheets, except that the data is stored as text in the file and no formatting information is kept. Because it is flat text, a CSV file can be used and rendered by many software programs and has become somewhat of an industry standard for various types of list data.
Open the file in Excel and click the Office button, mouse-over Save As and select Other Formats.
Select the Save as type of CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv) . Save the file somewhere memorable so that we can import it to SugarCRM.
Import the CSV into SugarCRM
Hover the Leads tab and click the Import Leads button.
If youve just exported the data from Excel, the default settings around Comma delimited file are perfect. The other options are for CSV-like files exported by various other software. There is also the option to Create Records or Create and Update Records. You may want to choose Create and Update Records if you believe your list may contain Leads that are already in your system. Click Next to continue the process.
Browse for the file on your computer. If the CSV has a header row (such as column labels) be sure to leave the Has Header checkbox enabled. Click Next to continue.
SugarCRM will do its best to match the data in your file with field labels in the Leads module. First Name, Last Name, Phone Numbers and other familiar information should be detected and labeled automatically. If you have data in your CSV more specific to you or your organization (e.g. a referrers name) it may not map automatically, and you will have to select the Database Field appropriately. If your mappings will be recurring, you may choose to save them using the Save Mapping As field. Give the mapping a name (e.g. From Jims Lists) before clicking the Import Now button.
When Sugar is done importing the data, you will see a list of the new Leads you have imported.
From your Web Site

You can create a form for your companys web site for potential customers to use without having to log into your SugarCRM system. From there visitors can input the desired information and it will be placed in your Sugar database.
The Lead Form is part of the Campaigns module. Select Create Lead Form from the Campaigns menu. 26 | AtcoreSystems.com
Select the fields you would like your form to utilize. Select as few or as many as desired, keeping in mind that you at least need a name and way to contact the Lead.
Simply drag and drop the fields into the first or second column. Click Next when your fields are in the order you want.
Enter some more information about the form the Leads will be filling out. You must relate it to a campaign. Click Generate Form to continue.
Now you will be prompted to use Sugars built-in HTML editor to adjust the form. You can change fonts, colors, and the tables arrangement. You have access to the HTML itself by clicking the HTML button. Click the Save Web to Lead Form button to save the form.
After saving, youll be presented with the markup and scripts necessary to place your form in a website. Paste the code into your site wherever you feel appropriate and commit or upload the changes to your web server(s).
The end result is the form on your web page for your potential leads to fill in.
Leads and Campaigns

Campaigns refer to marketing campaigns created in SugarCRM. If a lead was gained through a campaign, it is useful to create this association in the system so you can track the campaigns success at gather ing leads and, later on, gathering leads that were converted into revenue. Lists of leads that are imported from CSV files can be associated during the import process. An individual Lead record can be associated with a Campaign when it is created or later in the Edit View. The Campaign selector is under the More Information tab.
The advantage of having this association comes in sorting and filtering your lead data in the list v iew. You can also get metrics about campaigns and lead groups by tracking it this way. For example: 1. A lead is entered in the system with an associated campaign. 2. The lead is converted into an opportunity 3. The opportunity status is later changed to Closed/Won. A report can be created to track the campaigns that spawned all Closed/Won opportunities.
Target Lists
Target Lists are mailing lists that are used by Campaigns. A Target List can contain any amount or combination or Targets, Contacts, Users, Accounts and Leads. Use Target Lists to email Leads and attempt to bring them into your revenue stream. To create a new lead-filled target list, mouse-over the Campaigns module and click on Create Target List.
Scroll down to the Leads subpanel. There are a few options to adding Leads. If you want to add a new lead into the system and associate it to the Target List, click the Create button. If you want to select an existing lead, click on Select. If you have a saved report you want to utilize, click on Select from Reports.
Click on Select issues a pop-up that displays all of the Leads that the user has access to. Basic search criteria can be used to narrow down the list.
Alternatively, clicking on Select from Reports issues a pop-up that displays all reports that the user has access to that are reporting on the Leads module.
Either selection process is adequate and results in the same: one more Leads associated with the Target List. When the Target List is associated with an email campaign, all Leads (as well as Contacts, Users, Accounts and Targets) will be sent the desired email or newsletter.
Lead Conversion
Lead conversion is the process of creating a Contact, Account and other optional records after a lead is qualified and the sales person or lead qualification engineer determines that this could generate revenue. To convert a lead in SugarCRM the user clicks the Convert Lead button shown on a Lead record.
Once Convert Lead is clicked the user has the option to create up to seven records from one screen. By default SugarCRM checks the necessary boxes to create a Contact and Account (if the Account name doesnt match an existing Account) . It also automatically fills in all fields that were previously entered into the original lead (see Field Replication for details on this). The records created are used to quickly create data used for the next part of the sales process. All of the records that are created will be related to one another so that users can quickly find the contacts and tasks associated with an account. The records that can be created are Contact, Account, Opportunity, Note, Call, Meeting and Task.
The top portion of the Lead Conversion screen is for the new Contact record.
Enable the various check boxes (e.g. Create Opportunity, Log Call) to create additional records related to the new Contact record.
When you click Save to save the new records, you will see a summary of what youve done. Each of these records is related to one another as well as being related back to the original lead. That means that when viewing the Account record, there are links to easily access the contact, original lead, and the opportunity on the page.
Field Replication
When a lead is converted, SugarCRM automatically copies data from the Lead to the Contact, Account and other records that are being created. This is to avoid your needing to retype or copy-and-paste the information. The data is copied for fields that have the same name, e.g. the Leads Title value will be copied to the Contacts Title. This field replication happens when enabled for the module. See the section Configuring the Conversion Process for details on Leads configuration in the SugarCRM Studio.
Studio Configuration
Like other modules, SugarCRM allows the administrator to configure fields and labels used by the Leads module. Specific to the Leads module, though, he or she can also configure various fields related to the Lead Conversion process. Navigate to the Administration screen and click the link for Studio.
Select the Leads module.
Editing Labels
In Studio on the Leads module, click the Labels component.
You will see an editable list of every field label used by the Leads module. Edit the labels as desired and click the Save & Deploy button.
Creating New Fields

If your company tracks Lead information that isnt displayed in the Lead module by default, you can add extra fields. From Studio, click the Fields component.
Click on the Add Field button to add a custom field.
Label your new field appropriately. If you want to ensure users are forced to fill in the field, enable the Required Field checkbox. Once the field has been set up as desired, click the Save button.
Configuring the Conversion Process

The Conversion Process can be configured to include (or not include) other modules. Click on the Layouts component.
Open the Convert Lead layout.
The default modules are displayed. Other modules can be selected by choosing them from the dropdown box and clicking the Add Module button. The Copy Data checkbox will copy the Leads field values to the new modules field values where the field names are the same (e.g. the Leads First Name and the Contacts First name). Click on the Edit button Conversion page. for any module to edit the field arrangement of that module on the
Click the Save button when you are finished.
Lead Routing through Workflows

A Lead can be routed through a workflow when it is saved in the SugarCRM system. For example, suppose that all new Leads in California should be first assigned to a particular user. Workflows can also be used to send alert emails and can be configured to execute over a time period (instead of waiting to be saved or updated). To accomplish this sort of automated task an administrator must define a new Workflow. Workflows are a very powerful tool in SugarCRM. For simplicity, here we will create the very simple and specific workflow mentioned above: assigning all new leads from California to a particular user. Navigate to the Administration page and select Workflow Management from the Developer Tools section.
This will take you to the Workflow Management modules List View. We want to create a new workflow, so place your curser over the Workflow Definitions button and click on Create Workflow Definition.
Name the new Workflow. Select the Leads module from the Target Module field. For the purpose of this module, we want to set the Applies To field to New Records Only.
Click Save to save the workflow and you will be presented with the form to set the workflow conditions. There are three sets to configure: Conditions, Alerts and Actions.
Condition
Our only condition for this workflow is that the Leads State be California. Click the Create button beneath the Conditions label.
A pop-up window will prompt you for when to check for the condition. We want to select When a field in the target module contains a specified value .
We are presented with a link to pick our specified field. Click the specific field link and you will be prompted to pick the field.
Choose the Billing State as the field then enter CA as the value we want to match. Click the Save button on the top-most pop-up, then again on the next pop-up to save the condition.
Actions
The action of the workflow is what actually takes place when the conditions are met. In this case, the action will be updating the Assigned To value of the Lead record. To set this up, click the Create button under the Actions section.
You will be presented with a pop-up requesting the nature of the action. We want to simply update a field, so select Update fields in the target module . Click Next.
Enable the checkbox for Modify the field: Assigned User. Click the Assigned User link that appears to select which user to assign the module to.
Select the user you would like these leads assigned to from the drop-down selector, here we will be using Jim Brennan. Click the Save button here, and again in the underlying pop-up.
Detail View
This screen capture shows the completed Workflow Definition record as configured from the above instructions.
Conclusion
Now that you know nearly all of the ways to work with leads in SugarCRM you must map out a crucial process, the lead flow process. No CRM system available will help a business properly manage leads if the sales people do not have a process to follow. By mapping out a process of when and how to use each lead section identified in this book you will ensure that each and every sales person understand the business process around lead management.

Lead Management in Sugarcrm

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Attract. Convert. Retain.

Lead Management in SugarCRM

Written by: Josh Sweeney and Matthew Poer

Lead Status Customization

In the Dropdown Editor, select the lead_status_dom.

Skipping the Leads Stage

Select My Leads from the Modules tab.

My Favorite Reports Dashlet

Ways to Get Leads into SugarCRM

From your Internal Sugar System

From your Phones Browser

The new Lead record will be displayed.

From your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad (Sugar Mobile)

Open the SugarCRM application.

Importing from a List (CSV)

Import the CSV into SugarCRM

From your Web Site

Leads and Campaigns

Select the Leads module.

Creating New Fields

Click on the Add Field button to add a custom field.

Configuring the Conversion Process

Open the Convert Lead layout.

Click the Save button when you are finished.

Lead Routing through Workflows

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