brotherton-erpnext/erpnext/docs/user/guides/CRM/lead.md

To get the customer through the door, you may be doing all or any of the
following:

  * Listing your product on directories.
  * Maintaining an updated and searchable website.
  * Meeting people at trade events.
  * Advertising your product or services.

When you send out the word that you are around and have something valuable to
offer, people will come in to check out your product. These are your Leads.

They are called Leads because they may lead you to a sale. Sales people
usually work on leads by calling them, building a relationship and sending
information about their products or services. It is important to track all
this conversation to enable another person who may have to follow-up on that
contact. The new person is then able to know the history of that particular
Lead.

To create a Lead, go to:

> Selling > Lead > New Lead

<img class="screenshot" alt="Lead" src="{{url_prefix}}/assets/img/crm/lead.png">

ERPNext gives you a lot of options you may want to store about your Leads. For
example what is the source, how likely are they to give you business etc. If
you have a healthy number of leads, this information will help you prioritize
who you want to work with.

> **Tip:** ERPNext makes it easy to follow-up on leads by updating the “Next
Contact” details. This will add a new event in the Calendar for the User who
has to contact the lead next.

### Difference between Lead, Contact and Customer

The difference is that a Lead is a potential Customer, someone who can give
you business. A Customer is an organization or individual who has given you
business before (and has an Account in your system). A Contact is a person who
belongs to the Customer.

A Lead can be converted to a Customer by clicking on the “Create Customer”
button. Once the Customer is created, the Lead becomes “Converted” and any
further Opportunities from the same source can be created against the
Customer.

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