What is a lead process in Salesforce?

Lead processes define your sales workflow. They establish what happens when someone becomes interested in your product or service, through email marketing, social media, etc., until they become an actual customer. Lead processes should be simple enough for anyone new in the company to follow them without any confusion.

A good example of this would be if you're using an e-commerce platform like Shopify or BigCommerce (more on that below). When users first visit these platforms, there's no way for them to buy anything because everything has been disabled. In order to purchase something, the user must complete some basic registration forms by providing their name, address, phone number, email address, gender, birthday, credit card information, etc. Once this data is collected, it will then go into the system so that the next time the person visits the site, all payment options have been enabled. This means that whenever the buyer revisits the website again, he/she won't have to reenter all of his previous personal details—they'll just click "checkout" instead.

If you own small business with less than 50 employees, chances are that you don't use many different software packages at once. However, most businesses require various levels of engagement between customers and suppliers before becoming loyal clients. The best way to make sure that everyone stays organized while developing leads across multiple departments is with professional services such as Ruler Inc., which allows companies to track each step of the lead generation process within one single application. Here are some ways to set up a lead process in SalesForce.

How do you create a lead process?

The first thing you'll want to do after creating your account is to select whether you'd rather start off with Standard Edition or Professional edition. With either option, you get access to prebuilt templates that contain common components needed to manage your entire lead flow process. You may also choose to customize these templates yourself, but doing so requires more technical knowledge and experience.

Once you've decided which template to pick, head over to Setup & Customize > Process Builder > Create New Process. After choosing the type of process builder you prefer, enter a title and description. Then, add fields based on the types of questions typically asked during the initial interaction stage. For instance, you might include Name, Phone Number, Email Address, Company, Job Role, Date Created, Status, etc.

You can also decide which objects to display the form on, and where the answers should appear. Finally, check out our guide on essential workflows for beginners to learn more about setting up triggers, actions, conditions and variables.

After completing the above steps, you'll receive immediate results since the lead form is already available in the sidebar under My Forms. From here, you'll see that we've included several useful features for tracking your progress throughout the process. Some other notable ones include auto-numbering rows, sending automated reminders via SMS or mailer, exporting reports, displaying current status, adding notes, assigning tasks, and even including attachments. If you ever wish to edit the default settings, simply double-click on the object and change whatever you'd like.

Now that you have created your form, let's discuss its key phases.

What are lead stages?

In general, there are three stages of generating a lead: inquiry, candidacy and evaluation. While some organizations will only use two of these categories, others may combine them together depending upon their goals.

An Inquiry consists of questions sent directly to potential buyers who haven't made contact yet. These emails are designed to collect valuable demographic information about the recipient along with additional contact preferences. It's important to note that inquiries aren't automatically forwarded to salespeople. Instead, the sender receives a confirmation message stating that the request was successfully received. Depending on your preference, you may choose to redirect inquires immediately to sales reps or not. We recommend having both options available so that you can take advantage of whichever approach works better for your particular needs.

Candidacy refers to those individuals who have shown interest in your products but haven't actually requested or purchased anything. Candidates can come from a variety of sources, including direct mailing campaigns, advertisements, referral programs, online ads, etc. As mentioned earlier, the end goal of a lead process isn't always straight forward. Therefore, it's crucial to identify specific objectives prior to initiating the process.

Evaluation entails taking a closer look at candidates with regards to whether they qualify as a qualified prospect or not. It involves evaluating the candidate's capacity to pay or purchase your product(s) or service(s), risk factors involved, etc. Since prospects can range anywhere from low quality to high value, you'll likely encounter varying degrees of complexity during the evaluation phase. At times, it may involve calling or meeting prospective buyers personally. Other times, it could entail analyzing historical data to compare against incoming leads. Regardless of your preferred method, it's advisable to document all activities associated with each lead.

While there are dozens of lead scoring models available, the simplest model uses a scale ranging from 1 to 5. A score of 1 indicates that the individual qualifies as a very poor fit for your organization, whereas a score of 5 represents the highest possible level of qualification. Based on your industry, market research, target audience profile, budget constraints, etc., determine your ideal rating accordingly.

As you can tell, the lead process itself doesn't necessarily dictate what comes next. There are countless possibilities involving every combination of inquiry, candidacy and evaluation. Each case is unique depending on your overall strategy. For example, if you own a startup and plan to sell your product exclusively through Amazon Marketplace, you wouldn't generate leads unless someone places an item in the cart. On the other hand, large corporations usually rely heavily on referrals from existing clients. In addition, your lead process will differ significantly if you conduct your business solely online versus offline.

Depending on your situation, there may be numerous lead flows going simultaneously. So, it's critical to keep track of all interactions and analyze trends to improve efficiency. To achieve this feat, we highly encourage establishing dashboards that aggregate relevant metrics for easy analysis.

It's worth noting that sometimes people refer to inquiries as warm leads. But technically speaking, a warm lead is defined as someone who hasn't contacted you yet, while a cold lead is someone who has expressed interest in your product or service but didn't initiate any action. Hence, we think it's easier to stay consistent when referring to inquiries as leads regardless of their origin.

What are four main stages in lead management process?

Generally speaking, a successful lead management process includes four distinct stages: Capture, Qualification, Relationship Building, Conversion. Here, we briefly describe each of these stages and highlight why they matter in relation to your overall objective. Keep in mind that they may vary slightly depending on your unique circumstances.

Capture: During capture, you begin collecting and organizing information about leads. Start by capturing basic demographics, job role, interests, purchasing history, etc.—anything related to identifying and qualifying leads. Make sure that you assign a lead record ID to each lead and log every activity associated with it. Also, consider using tools like SmartForm Pro or Formstack to automate repetitive tasks and ensure consistency among teams.

Qualification: Nowadays, it's pretty much standard practice to ask for certain pieces of private data upfront—namely full name, mobile phone number, home address, email address, birth date, etc. Although optional, asking for sensitive information helps protect confidential records and prevents fraudsters from accessing them. Furthermore, using third party verification apps like Google Identity Verified™ makes it harder for hackers to steal identities. Use these tools to validate lead information and verify identity.

Relationship building: Your ultimate aim is to build long-lasting relationships with past customers, right? That's exactly what relationship building does! By nurturing positive communication channels, you allow future transactions to happen seamlessly. Most importantly, don't hesitate to reach out periodically, especially during the early stages of your partnership. Send regular newsletters, promotions, discounts, offers, coupons, etc. And remember to respond promptly to messages and comments posted by leads.

Conversion: One of the biggest challenges facing entrepreneurs nowadays is converting leads into paying customers. Unfortunately, statistics show that around 80% of leads fail to convert into real revenue. Thus, it's imperative to devise effective strategies and tactics to increase conversion rates. First things first, try to find out how big your average sale is. Ask yourself, "what percentage of my total leads did I lose?" Next, examine your lead conversion funnel and figure out where you might be losing money. Identifying problem areas gives you a clear path towards improvement.

With that said, we strongly suggest monitoring the effectiveness of your lead process on a weekly basis. Doing so will enable you to identify opportunities for optimization sooner rather than later.

What are five major steps of lead management?

1. Establish a lead process

2. Design the lead form

3. Set up automation rules

4. Automate recurring events

5. Monitor performance regularly

Do you run a multi-channel campaign? Or perhaps you want to engage visitors on social media sites? Either way, these steps should apply to all aspects of your lead management process.

Lead processes are not new. In fact, they have been around for ages. The purpose of lead processes is to create and maintain a pipeline that will eventually convert into revenue or profit. This conversion may be immediate (e.g., selling your product) or it could take time (e.g., building a long-term relationship).

In sales companies, there must always be a way to filter out which prospects should go through this particular process. It's important to understand what criteria determine whether someone goes through one specific process or another. For example, when creating an email marketing campaign, it would be beneficial if we knew who exactly our target audience was before deciding on the best lead generation strategy.

Salesforce has its own Lead Process feature to make sure every stage of this funnel runs smoothly. Let us look at some key stages of a lead process in detail.

How do I use lead process in Salesforce?

When using Leads inside Salesforce, they work like any other object. You can add them to your dashboard just as easily as adding contacts or accounts. Once added, these leads show up under "My Activities" section. There is also a handy button labeled with their respective statuses - Active/Unqualified/Interested/Lost etc.

The first thing you want to check once you've added a lead to your Dashboard is that all fields are populated correctly. If there are missing values, then maybe that person hasn't filled those fields yet. On top of that, if none of the rules were applied properly during creation, you'll see warning messages next to each field asking why certain conditions weren't met.

You can also customize many settings by clicking on Manage Rules & Conditions. That means you don't have to worry about accidentally removing or changing anything without knowing better.

For instance, here I'm setting my lead status based on the number of opportunities created. Notice how I set only 50% probability because I only want it to trigger after three chances. Also notice how I chose 'Create' action instead of Update Opportunities since I am going to update more than just Opportunity Name.

Next step is to apply logic to your filters so your leads get automatically routed where needed. Here, I choose to route inactive leads to Contact Builder while active ones stay in My Activity tab.

If you're looking to send followup emails, you'd probably want people who haven't responded within 1 week to end up in Follow Up Automation rather than Contacts Tab. Likewise, if you're planning to call them later on, routing them to Phone Call Lightning Experience might seem appropriate.

This is pretty much everything you need to know about lead process features inside Salesforce. Now let me explain how you actually lead a process.

How do you lead a process?

To start leading a process, click on edit icon next to the name of the current lead. From there, you can select a different option depending upon the type of lead you wish to change.

Here's what happens when you try to lead an unqualified prospect:

Once you pick the right rule, you can adjust further parameters such as priority, description, owner, team member, and even assign to manager. You can also decide to skip the whole process altogether.

Note that you cannot delete rules once you've assigned them. However, you CAN modify them by editing the original condition itself. So for instance, say you wanted to turn off the rule entirely but keep it intact for future reference. Then simply remove the entire condition block and replace it with something else.

By doing this, you can save yourself a lot of confusion and wasted effort.

Also note that you can switch between multiple rules at once by holding down Shift + Click.

How do I manage leads in Salesforce?

After applying rules to your needs, you can now view reports regarding various aspects of your lead process.

On the left side panel, you'll find a list of all activities performed over the duration of your workflow, including incoming and outgoing records. By default, both tabs are open. But if you ever feel overwhelmed by too many details, you can collapse either one.

Likewise, you can expand individual sections to learn more about the inner workings of your system. Each row shows information related to a single record. Below, you can see an overview of all activity history for your selected lead.

Click on View History to access detailed report showing all changes made to this record. This includes actions taken, date and time, users involved, comments, and more.

Another useful tool is ability to export data in CSV format. Just hover over Export Data link located below the table header, and you'll see a small popout menu appear with several options.

Keep in mind that exported file doesn't include names of owners, managers, or members who did the actual processing.

It does however contain all necessary metadata such as source_type, source_id, due_date, id, account_id, closed_ate, contact_status, process_group.

Lastly, if you ever run short of ideas for defining custom lead flow, you can browse available templates or search online resources for inspiration. One good place to start is with SFDC Flowchart Creator website.

What is lead cycle in Salesforce?

A lead cycle begins once a lead becomes interested in your offering and enters Unqualified state. After approximately 7 days, they become qualified. After 30 days, they become Active. And finally, after 90 days, they become Lost.

Each phase lasts 3 months, although the exact length varies per company. If you plan on sending periodic emails, consider tracking progress to avoid losing potential customers.

Ruler allows you to track lead cycles across different periods. Say you currently have two campaigns running simultaneously. Both of them share same lead qualification rules. When you enable Ruler, you can choose to define separate lead cycles for Campaign A and B.

With this setup, whenever a user signs up, he gets categorized according to whichever campaign she registered for. As soon as that period ends, the lead moves to corresponding other campaign.

Using Ruler, you can also set deadlines for each phase of the funnel. To do this, just drag and drop dates onto existing columns until desired results appear.

As a last resort, you can manually override automatic lead categorization. But be warned that you won't receive updates regarding transition times anymore.

Check out this video tutorial from Salesforce on How to Use Ruler Feature With Leads:

Still confused about what lead process really is? Or perhaps you still have questions relating to the functionality of Ruler, please leave a comment below! We'd love to hear back from you.

Salesforce has become one of the most popular CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions for small businesses. With its many features, it's easy to see why so many companies are turning towards this solution as their primary hub for customer data. But what exactly is Lead Process in Salesforce? And more importantly, How do I use it? In order to answer these questions we will first have to understand what leads actually represent. Leads essentially refer to any prospect that expresses an interest or inquiry into your products or services. This means if someone calls your company asking about purchasing something then they would be considered a lead. The key here though is not just who makes contact but rather where the contact comes from. If the call came directly through your sales team than that person would be a direct lead however if the call was made by some other department such as marketing or advertising then technically that person could still be classified as a lead. For our purposes today, let us assume that the caller did come from your own internal staff thus making them a direct lead. Now that we have established what a lead represents lets take a look at what happens after they make contact. After receiving a phone call from a potential client or customer all you really want is to follow up on their request quickly and efficiently. Therefore once they reach out to inquire about something specific you should immediately send them over to another employee within your organization specifically designated to handle those types of inquiries. Of course before doing anything else there needs to be certain information available to whoever takes care of those leads. To ensure proper handling of each case, every new lead must go through several steps including being created, filtered, assigned, followed-up upon, etc...This entire process is called the "lead" process and below we'll explore everything involved in creating a successful lead process using the tools already provided in Salesforce.

So without further ado, Lets get started!

1.) First things first, create your lead form. On the home page under Setup - Company > Create | Forms select New Form. From here you will be able to customize your lead form however much you like. Here you can add fields pertaining to your business such as Contact Name, Phone Number, Email, Website URL, Address, City, State, Zip Code, Notes & Messages. Once done click Save and name your form appropriately. Then give your newly created form a unique ID number which helps identify it when sending emails later on down the line. You may also choose to display this field publicly if you wish.

2.) Next step is to set up your email notification settings. Under Setup - Administration - Email Notification Settings select Send AutoEmail Notifications. A pop-up window will appear automatically. Select Yes, Start Automatically. Also check off Show Me When Creating Opportunities. Finally, enter the details needed for setting up auto-emails.

3.) Next, we're going to assign roles to people responsible for following-ups. Go to Setup - Users & Roles > User Role Assignments and find the role labeled Follow Up Person. Click Edit Permissions and then Add Action. Choose either Open Case/Opportunity Record or Call Prospect. Either way, now whenever anyone creates a lead record in Salesforce, a copy will automatically be sent to whomever you've selected as follows:

Open Case: Your chosen user(s) will receive an email containing a link to open the given lead. They can then begin interacting with the lead as necessary.

Call Propect: Your chosen user(s) will receive an email containing a link to call the given lead. They can then begin interacting with the lead as necessary.

4.) Now that you have the basics covered, it's time to start building your pipeline. Go to Setup - Companies > Develop | Pipeline Viewer. We recommend starting off with adding only 1 source per industry type since too many sources can slow down your system significantly. It is important to note that even though you won't be able to edit your list currently, you can always switch around different industries next time you log back into your account.

5.) Now that you have your basic pipeline built, click +Add Source and search for your desired Industry Type. You can also simply browse through pre-built lists found right above the search bar. Once located, click Set Default List and finally hit OK.

6.) Now that you have your basic pipeline built, it's time to build relationships. So go to Setup - Account Team Memberships > Manage Accounts.

7.) Now that you have your basic pipeline built, it's time to build relationships. So go to Setup - Account Team Memberships > Manage Accounts.

8.) Now that you have your basic pipeline built, it's time to build relationships. So go to Setup - Account Team Memberships > Manage Accounts.

9.) Once logged in navigate to Setup - Customize | Content Types. Find the content type labelled Lead Information. Click Update Fields. Enter title, description, status, assignee, priority, owner, opportunity_type, stage_id, and close date. Hit save changes and view preview.

10.) Now that you have your basic pipeline built, it's time to build relationships. So go to Setup - Account Team Memberships > Manage Accounts.

11.) Once logged in navigate to Setup - Customer Relationships > All Customers. Highlight your preferred customers and drag them onto the appropriate column header.

12.) Now that you have your basic pipeline built, it's time to build relationships. So go to Setup - Account Team Memberships > Manage Accounts.

13.) Once logged in navigate to Setup - My Objects > Contacts. Highlight your preferred contacts and drag them onto the appropriate columns.

14.) Lastly, it's time to finalize your lead processes. Navigate to Setup - Data Import / Export > Quick Lookup Tables and import quick lookup tables from Excel files. Go to Setup - DataImportExportSettings > Checkbox Options and uncheck Delete Existing Records.

15.) Last thing left to do is assigning users to specific cases. Navigate to Setup - Administer > Security Controls. At the top of the screen, locate tab labeled System Administrators. Click Filter By Authorizations and scroll down until you spot your Preferred Authors. Right underneath them, click Edit Permissions. Click Add Action. Select either Open Case/Opportunity Record or Call Prospect. Either way, now anytime anyone updates a lead record, it will automatically be emailed to whomever you've selected as follows:

Open Case: Your chosen user(s) will receive an email containing a link to open the given lead. They can then begin interacting with the lead as necessary.

Call Prospect: Your chosen user(s) will receive an email containing a link to call the given lead. They can then begin interacting with the lead as necessary.

16.) That concludes the lead process in Salesforce. Hopefully you learned a lot and hopefully were able to apply this knowledge to your current situation. Please leave feedback regarding this article if you feel comfortable sharing opinions or thoughts. Thank you again for reading.