Lead Management Guide

Capturing early-stage prospects

A lead represents an unqualified prospect or enquiry, a new contact from a referral, a website enquiry, or someone your team met at an event. Leads are separate from accounts, contacts, and opportunities until they are qualified and converted.

• Structured from first contact

  Leads capture the full details of a prospect before any relationship has been formally established, name, contact info, source, and initial notes.

• Separate from your core data

  Leads live in their own area of CRM until they are ready to become a contact, account, or opportunity. This keeps your core customer database clean and uncluttered.

• Temperature tracking

  Leads can be marked as Hot, Warm, Cold, or Dead, helping your team prioritise follow-up and focus effort where engagement is strongest.

• Full activity history

  Every call, email, task, and note is logged on the lead timeline, giving your team a complete picture of the engagement before making any conversion decision.

Five stages from enquiry to conversion

Every lead in Dove365 CRM — Starter moves through a guided process that ensures consistent handling across your team. The business process flow prompts each step and records what was done.

1. New

   Create the lead record with name, contact details, source, and initial notes. This is the starting point for every new prospect or enquiry.

2. Research

   Check whether the prospect already exists as an account or contact in CRM. If they do, link the lead to the existing records to avoid duplication.

3. Engage

   Log calls, emails, and meetings on the timeline. Set the temperature to reflect how the conversation is progressing. Add notes for important context.

4. Qualify

   When there is enough evidence that the prospect is a genuine opportunity, mark the lead as qualified and record your rationale for the conversion decision.

5. Convert

   Create or link the account and contact. Optionally create an opportunity directly from the lead. All history is preserved and connected to the new records.

Lead management in practice

How Dove365 CRM — Starter helps real sales teams manage leads consistently, regardless of how the prospect first made contact.

• Inbound website enquiryA prospect submits a contact form. Create a lead, note the source as Website, and log the initial conversation as a phone call or email activity. Set temperature to Warm. Schedule a follow-up task for the next working day.
• Referral from a colleague or clientA colleague refers a new contact. Create a lead and note the referral source. Use the Research stage to check whether they already exist as a contact. If yes, link the records. If no, engage fresh and build the relationship from scratch.
• Event or networking contactYou meet someone at a conference or industry event. Create a lead while the conversation is fresh, don’t wait until you’re back at your desk. Log a note with context from the meeting. Set a follow-up task for the next working day.
• Unqualified or unsuitable enquiryA prospect enquires but is not a fit for your services. Progress through the lead process as normal and close the lead using the close process, recording a close reason such as ‘Not a fit’ or ‘Budget insufficient’. This keeps reporting clean and accurate.

Getting the most from lead management

• Create leads early

  Add a lead record as soon as a new prospect is identified, even if you only have a name and an email address. A partial record is better than a lost prospect.

• Always check for duplicates

  Use the Research stage to check for existing accounts and contacts before creating new ones. Duplicate data is one of the biggest causes of CRM quality problems over time.

• Keep the timeline current

  Log calls and emails as activities on the lead timeline. Your colleagues will rely on this history if they need to cover your leads, and it prevents repeated conversations with the same prospect.

• Use temperature to prioritise

  Hot leads should be at the front of your follow-up queue. Review Cold leads regularly, either re-engage or close them to keep your lead list focused and manageable.

• Convert with intention

  Only convert a lead when you have enough information to create a meaningful account and contact record. A lead converted too early creates noise in your core customer data.

• Close leads that don’t progress

  Don’t leave inactive leads sitting in your pipeline indefinitely. Close them with a clear reason. This improves reporting accuracy and reveals useful patterns about why prospects don’t progress.

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