I am gearing up for a training for my sales mangers to roll out our newly implemented CRM. Prior we were using Lotus Notes and it was never maintained and therefore a mess. I have taken the last 9 months to set up a solid, information rich, CRM environment.
According to the definition of a LEAD in CRM I am suggesting that we do in fact use leads for "potential customers" or contacts from an industry conference for example. We would not want to set them up as an Account or Contact until they submit an RFQ (the request for quote being the qualifier)
Does this sound like a best practice? IS there a benefit in entering EVERY new person as a Contact, qualified or not?
I also set up views to monitor the accounts and contacts entered over that last 30 days to hopefully maintain this database going forward.
We are in an industry where the time from initial contact to the time of an order can be greater than 6 months.