Creating a Sales Lead

This topic discusses how to create a sales lead.

Warning! If you use a Sybase database and your user role has data distribution rules with 16 or more subqueries, you may receive an error message when you access a lead or opportunity. If an error occurs, reduce the number of data distribution rules for the user role, or reduce the complexity of the data distribution rules.

You can set up data distribution rules in Enterprise Components.

See Enterprise Components product documentation.

Page Name	Definition Name	Usage
Lead - Discover Page	RSF_LEAD_ENTRY	Enter details about a sales lead, including the name, status, and rating, and the customer's name, address, and contact people.

Use the Lead - Discover page (RSF_LEAD_ENTRY) to enter details about a sales lead, including the name, status, and rating, and the customer's name, address, and contact people.

Navigation:

Sales > Add Lead > Lead - Discover
Sales > Search Leads > Lead - Discover

Customer

The Type field indicates whether a lead is a company or a consumer. Depending on which you choose, different fields appear. For company customers, you can enter Customer and Site; for consumers, the fields are First Name, Last Name, and Site.

Note: For Higher Education leads, the Consumer type is selected as the default value if the business carding functionality is enabled.

See Selecting the Customer for a Lead or Opportunity.

When a customer is present on the lead, the Address field is populated with the primary address for the customer. Use the drop-down box to select whether to use an existing address, search for an existing address not in the list, or add a new address. Then, click the Go button to search for an address or add a new address.

Note that if the customer for a lead is a prospect, the name of the customer is editable on the Lead - Discover page. Otherwise, the customer name is displayed as a link that you can click to view more information about the customer.

When you manually create a lead, a text entry field and a search button appear next to the Customer and Site or First Name/Last Name and Site fields. You can enter or search for a customer and site. Before clicking the Search button, you can optionally enter characters in the Customer or First Name and Last Name fields to limit the search.

See Selecting the Customer for a Lead or Opportunity.

If you display an existing lead, the relevant fields (Customer or First Name and Last Name are displayed when lead is for a prospect customer.) If the lead is for an existing customer, a link is displayed that can be clicked to launch an existing customer's information on either the Company or Person (Consumer) components. The Search button becomes a Search Again link.

Lead

Field or Control	Description
Description	Enter a description of the lead. This can be the customer name, the product, or other descriptive information. You can define the default value for this field on the Component Field Default component. See Setting Up Component Field Default Values.
Business Unit	Enter the business unit with which the lead is associated. The default is the business unit that is associated with the sales user on the Sales User page. If the person who is signed in is not a sales user, then the system uses the business unit that is specified on the person's User Preference page.
Sales Rep (sales representative)	Enter the primary sales representative (formatted name: `first name, last name`) who is assigned for this lead. The default is the name of the sales user who is currently signed in. If your sales access profile permits you to reassign leads, you can override the default value. You can enter the desired sales person's name by entering a few letters of the sales user's last name and clicking the Lookup button to search for that person, or you can click Lookup without entering any letters to select from the list of all sales users that are within the specified business unit. Note: This field is renamed Recruiter for Higher Education leads.
Revenue and Currency	Enter the estimated amount of revenue that you anticipate from this lead and the currency code for the revenue. When you add products to the lead on the Propose page, this currency is used for pricing information and to calculate a total price. You cannot change the currency code if products are already associated with the lead. The default currency code is the code that is associated with the sales user on the Sales User page.
Status	Select the current status of the lead. Note: Status values are delivered as translate values; do not modify or delete them. However, if you have the required security permissions, you can create additional status values. Delivered values are: Accepted: The lead is accepted by the assignee. Closed - Duplicate: The lead is a duplicate of an existing, active lead. (Fields remain display-only.) Closed - Lost: The lead should not be worked or updated because the sale was lost. (Fields remain display-only.) Closed - Won: The lead should not be worked or updated because the sale was won. (Fields remain display-only.) Converted to Opportunity: The lead is converted to an opportunity and is available for pipelines and forecasts. Use the Convert button in the toolbar to convert a lead to an opportunity. When a lead is converted, the fields on the Lead pages remain display-only. You must access the opportunity to enter or update data. Deferred: The assignee cannot accept the lead at this time. For example, a sales representative might select this value when attempts to contact the customer are unsuccessful and the representative wants to handle other leads and then return to this one later. Imported: The lead is imported from an external spreadsheet. New: The lead is recently created. Note: The system assigns this value when you add a new lead. Then, when you enter data and save the page, the system changes the status to Open. Open: The lead is available but is not yet accepted, rejected, or turned back. Referred: The assignee refers the lead to another specified sales representative. Rejected: The assignee does not accept the lead and enters a rejection reason. When you select this value, the Reason and Comments fields appear; you must enter a reason. Turnback: The assignee resubmitted the lead for assignment to another sales representative. When you select this value, the Reason and Comments fields appear, and the Sales Rep (sales representative) field is deselected; you must enter a reason. Working: The assignee accepted the lead and is currently working on it.
Rating	Indicates the degree of the customer's interest or the potential for making a sale; for example, Hot, Warm, or Cold. Define rating values on the Lead Ratings page. Also, you can map scripted survey ratings to lead ratings to qualify a lead and move it from PeopleSoft Marketing to Sales. If a lead is not accepted or rejected within the specified time for its rating, PeopleSoft Sales workflow can be triggered to send an email notification to the assigned sales representative and to the representative's manager. Workflow can also send an email notification to the marketing agent who transferred the lead and to that agent's manager. Note: If the lead source is PeopleSoft Marketing, the value in this field is automatically generated. You can override this value. See Setting Up Lead Ratings.
Priority	Select a priority to indicate the urgency of working this lead. Priority values are translate values.

Academic Information

Use this section to select and store information about the institution, career, and one or more program and plan sets for the constituent in the lead.

This section appears only for Higher Education leads. Changing the customer of the lead does not change the current selection in this section.

If the Academic Information section is not displayed in the Lead — Discover page, check installation options and see if the Higher Education option is enabled. To check this pre-requisite, navigate to Setup CRM > Install > Installation Options and select Higher Education under Product Options and Save. Then, navigate to Setup CRM > Common Definitions > Component Configuration > Display Templates > Display Template Details. Search for HE_SALES Display Template and open the template for leads. Click Discover and select the Academic Information option under Sections. Save changes.

After making changes to the Installation Options, restart the Application Server and access the Lead — Discover page.

Academic Information section of the Lead - Discover page

Field or Control	Description
Institution and Career	Select the institution and career for the lead. These fields are editable when you first add the new lead; they become read-only after the lead is saved. The system filters the values for career based on the selected institution. Each lead supports only one institution and career.
Admit Term	Select an admit term for the selected institution, career, program and plan combination, if applicable. Note: Enter value in this field if you run the Recruiting Performance Fusion Intelligence reports off of the CSW: Recruiting & Admissions Interactive Dashboard.
Program and Plan	Enter a school program and a plan for the program. You can enter multiple programs and plans for the lead. The system filters the values for program based on the selected career, and plans based on the selected program. The system removes any existing program and plan sets in the lead if you change the current institution or career.
Add Program and Plan	Click to add a new row and enter a program and a plan.

See Higher Education for Sales.

Contacts

This page region enables you to view and enter information about the contacts for the lead.

If the Allow Prospects option is enabled on the Installation Options page, you can use the + button to enter new prospects, or run a search to find already entered contacts.

See Selecting Customer Contacts for a Lead or Opportunity, Understanding PeopleSoft CRM General Options.

Accept/Reject Lead

Click a button to accept, reject, or turn back the lead. If you click the Reject or Turnback button, the Reason (required) and Comments (optional) fields appear on the page.