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About Creating and Using Leads

A lead is a new prospect or existing customer who might become an opportunity. A marketing organization plans and executes marketing programs with the objective of capturing and generating leads. Once a lead is created or imported, a sales representative must qualify the lead so that the sales organization can concentrate on the most profitable leads. The sales organization can distribute the leads to the appropriate sales people, using rules that match the geography of the lead and the geography of the sales person. The sales person can accept or reject the lead based on its potential ROI, and convert an accepted lead to an opportunity.

Leads typically have limited information such as name, company information, product interest, and survey response information. For information on Web services that allow operations involving leads, see Siebel CRM Web Services Reference. For more information on importing leads, see About Importing External Data.

The life cycle of a lead, illustrated in Figure 8, is as follows:

1. A new lead passes from the Marketing application to Sales, where it is qualified and assigned to a sales representative.
2. The sales representative can accept the lead and work on it (with the objective of converting it to an opportunity).
3. The sales representative can retire the lead and archive it.
4. The sales representative can reject the lead and reassign it to someone else.

Figure 8 illustrates the life cycle of a lead.

Figure 8. Lead Status Life Cycle

For information on importing leads, see About Importing External Data.