Leads

A lead is a person who may become a customer. The Leads module collects them from forms, spreadsheets, your website and workflows. It assigns each lead to someone and gives it a score, and when a lead is ready to buy you convert it into a contact and company in Contacts, and optionally an opportunity in Opportunities.

Before you begin

• The Leads module requires the Contacts module. Converting a lead creates or reuses records there.
• To create an opportunity during conversion, the Opportunities module must be enabled and you need permission to create opportunities.
• To collect leads from forms, the Forms module must be enabled.
• Open the module from Leads in the main menu (/m/leads). You need leads.lead.read. See Permissions for the rest.

Key concepts

Concept	What it means
Stage	Where the lead is in qualification: New, Contacted, Qualified, Disqualified or Converted.
Owner	The person working the lead. A lead can also be Unassigned.
Score	Points for who the lead is (Fit) plus points for what has happened with the lead (Engagement).
Temperature	Hot, Warm or Cold, based on the score.
Source	Where the lead came from: Added by hand, Form, Import, API or Workflow. The Source detail names the form, the file, the API key or the workflow.

Stages

Stage	Meaning	How a lead gets there
New	Not worked yet.	Every new lead starts here.
Contacted	Someone has reached out.	Logging a call, an email or a meeting on a new lead moves it here automatically. You can also move it by hand.
Qualified	A real prospect, worth converting.	Moved by hand.
Disqualified	Not worth pursuing, with a reason.	Moved by hand. You must pick a reason. You can requalify the lead later by moving it back to an open stage.
Converted	Turned into a contact (and optionally a company and an opportunity).	Converting the lead. A converted lead can no longer be moved or edited for ownership.

Find your way around

The Leads page has two views. Switch between them with Board and List above the leads.

• Board shows a column per stage. Each column shows its total and up to 50 leads. If a column has more, a "more in the list" link points you to the list view.
• List is a table with Name, Score, Stage, Owner, Source and Last activity. Use Sort by to order it by Best score, Newest, Recent activity or Name.

Both views have a search box (Search leads…) and filters for Owner (Mine, Unassigned or a person), Temperature and Source. The list also filters by Stage. Select Clear to remove all filters.

The Leads board: one column per stage. Drag a card to move the lead.

Who sees which leads

• With leads.lead.read, you see the leads you own and leads that nobody owns.
• With leads.lead.readAll (View every lead), you see every lead.

Add a lead

1. Select New lead.
2. Fill in what you know. A name, an email, a phone or a company is enough. The dialog has First name, Last name, Email, Phone, Company, Job title, Website, Industry, Country, Company size and Notes.
3. Choose an Owner: By the assignment rules, Unassigned, or a person. Without Assign leads to anyone, the only person you can pick is yourself.
4. Select Create.

If a lead with the same email already exists, the dialog says so. Select Open it to go to that lead, or Create anyway to add a second one.

With By the assignment rules, the rules decide. If no rule applies, a lead you add by hand goes to you. To change a lead's details later, select the edit (pencil) button on its page, then Save changes.

tip

The score updates as you type the lead's details, so you can see right away how promising the lead looks.

Work a lead

Select a lead's name to open its page. The page shows:

• the lead's name, job title, company, stage and temperature;
• Details: owner, email, phone, website, country, industry, company size, source, when it was added, last activity and notes;
• Score: the Fit and Engagement points, rule by rule, and the thresholds for hot and warm;
• Activity: the lead's timeline;
• sections from other modules, such as custom fields and attachments.

A lead's page: details and score on the left, the activity timeline on the right.

Log calls, emails, meetings and notes

1. In Activity, pick Call, Email, Meeting or Note.
2. Enter a Subject, and optionally When it happened (leave it empty for now) and Details.
3. Select Log call, Log email, Log meeting or Add note.

Logged activities count toward the engagement score. Logging a call, an email or a meeting on a New lead moves it to Contacted.

The timeline also records what happened automatically: how the lead was created, stage changes, assignments (including which rule assigned it), form responses, and when the lead came back through a form, an import or the API.

Move a lead to another stage

• On the lead's page, select Move to and pick a stage.
• On the board, drag the card to another column.
• In the list, select leads with their checkboxes, then Move to.

Moving a lead to Disqualified opens a dialog asking for a Reason (for example No budget, Not a fit, No response, Chose a competitor, Duplicate or Other). Select Disqualify to confirm. To requalify the lead, move it back to New, Contacted or Qualified.

Dropping a card on the Converted column opens the conversion dialog (see Convert a lead).

Assign a lead

On the lead's page, the Owner in Details works differently depending on your permissions:

• With Assign leads to anyone (leads.lead.assign), pick a person, Unassigned, or Assign by the rules.
• Without it, select Take it to take an unassigned lead, or Give back to release a lead you own.

To assign many leads at once, select them in the list view, then select Assign and choose a person or Unassigned.

The new owner receives the Leads assigned to you notification.

Bulk actions

In the list view, select leads with their checkboxes (or Select all on this page). A bar appears with:

• Move to: change their stage;
• Assign: change their owner (needs leads.lead.assign);
• Delete: delete them (needs leads.lead.delete).

Deleting leads also deletes their timelines. Contacts made from them stay.

Capture leads automatically

Besides adding leads by hand, leads arrive from several sources. Every captured lead is checked against existing leads by email. When a lead with the same email exists and isn't converted yet, the existing lead is updated instead of duplicated: it gets the values it was missing, plus a "Came back" entry in its timeline that counts as engagement.

Source	How it works
Form	Each response to a connected form of the Forms module adds a lead, or adds to the lead with the same email. Set this up in Lead settings → Forms.
Import	Upload a CSV file from Import (see below).
API	Another system, such as your website's back end, sends leads with an API key. See Lead settings → Website & API.
Workflow	A workflow uses the Create a lead action.

Countries are recognized from codes or names, and company sizes from ranges or headcounts (for example, 120 becomes 51–200 people).

Import leads from a spreadsheet

You need Import leads from spreadsheets (leads.lead.import).

1. On the Leads page, select Import.
2. Choose a CSV file, or drop it on the page. Comma, semicolon and tab separators work. The file can have up to 10,000 rows and 5 MB.
3. Check The first row has the column names if your file has a header row.
4. Check how columns map to lead fields. Modulix guesses the mapping from the column names (in English, French, German or Spanish). For each field, pick a column or Do not import. A full-name column is split into first and last name.
5. Check the preview of the first rows.
6. Under When a lead has the same email, choose Leave it as it is or Fill in what it is missing.
7. Check Assign new leads by the assignment rules if you want the rules to give the new leads an owner.
8. Select Import n leads.

When the import finishes, a summary shows how many leads were added, updated and left as they were. Rows that could not be imported are listed with their line number and the problem, so you can fix them and import them again. Select See imported leads to view them, or Import another file.

Importing leads: check the column mapping and preview before importing.

Convert a lead

When a lead is ready to buy, convert it. You need Create and edit contacts (contacts.contact.write) as well as permission to edit leads. A disqualified lead must be requalified first.

1. On the lead's page, select Convert. (On the board, you can also drag the card to Converted.)
2. Under Contact, choose what to use:
   • Use name links an existing contact that has the same email (offered when one exists);
   • Create name creates a new contact from the lead.
3. Under Company, choose:
   • Link to company to use an existing company with the same email domain or name;
   • Create a company, and check the Company name;
   • No company.
4. If the Opportunities module is available to you, the Opportunity section appears with Also create an opportunity checked. Keep it checked to open a deal at the same time, and enter the Opportunity name (the company's name by default), the Value and the Expected close date. Clear the check box if you don't want a deal yet.
5. Select Convert.

Converting a lead: reuse or create the contact and company, and optionally open an opportunity.

What conversion does

• The contact is created from the lead's name, email, phone, job title, country and notes, or the existing contact is used. An existing contact without a company is linked to the chosen company.
• The company is created from the lead's company name, email domain or website, industry, size and country, or an existing company is linked.
• The opportunity, when you asked for one, is created for that company and contact in the default pipeline's first stage. The lead's owner owns it, the lead's source and notes are copied to it, and the contact is added to its contacts with the Decision maker role.
• The lead's owner owns the new contact and company (if that person can view contacts).
• The lead stays, marked Converted, with a banner showing the conversion date and links to the contact, the company and the opportunity.

Conversion happens as a single step. If the opportunity can't be created, no contact or company is created either, and the lead stays as it was.

note

Deleting the contact later doesn't undo the conversion. The lead stays converted, and its link to the contact is cleared.

Where the lead goes next

After conversion, you work the deal in Opportunities. From the opportunity's page you can create a quotation, which becomes a sales order, then an invoice and a payment.

Lead settings

You need Configure assignment, scoring and capture (leads.settings.manage). On the Leads page, select the settings icon (Lead settings) next to Import. The page has five tabs: Assignment, Scoring, Reasons, Forms and Website & API.

Changes are not applied until you select Save. Discard throws away unsaved changes. When you save, every lead is rescored.

Assignment

Assign new leads automatically sends new leads without an owner through the rules. People can still reassign leads by hand.

1. Select Add a rule and give it a Rule name.
2. Under When, choose whether All of these are true or Any of these is true, then Add a condition: pick a Field, a Comparison and a Value.
3. Under Give the lead to, choose:
   • One person;
   • People in turn (round-robin), so each new lead goes to the next person and everyone gets the same number. Optionally add And the members of a team from your organization structure; the rotation follows the team as people join and leave;
   • Nobody (leave it unassigned).
4. Use Move up and Move down to order rules. The first rule that matches decides.
5. Under When no rule matches, choose who gets the leads no rule takes (the fallback).

Conditions can test Email, Email domain, First name, Last name, Phone, Company, Job title, Website, Country, Industry, Company size, Source and Source detail. Comparisons include is, is not, is one of, is none of, contains any of, contains none of, starts with, ends with, is at least and is at most (company sizes), is empty and is filled in. Accents and letter case are ignored.

People who have left, or who can no longer view leads, are skipped. When nobody in a rule can take the lead, the next matching rule is tried, then the fallback.

Scoring

Scoring: temperature thresholds, fit rules and engagement points.

• Temperature: set Hot from (points) (default 60) and Warm from (points) (default 30). Warm must be below hot. Owners receive the Hot leads notification when one of their leads turns hot, unless they made the change themselves.

• Fit: points for who the lead is. Each rule has a name, conditions (like assignment rules) and points between −1000 and 1000. Negative points push leads down. The defaults are:

  Rule	Points
  Work email (an email that isn't from a free mailbox provider)	+15
  Decision maker (job title contains CEO, founder, director, head, VP and similar)	+20
  Company of 51 people or more	+15
  Has a phone number	+5

• Engagement: points for each activity, with an optional maximum (At most) and an optional number of days the points count for (Counts for (days)). The defaults are:

  Activity	Points	At most	Counts for
  Each call	10	30	90 days
  Each email	5	15	90 days
  Each meeting	20	40	180 days
  Each form response	10	20	90 days
  Each time the lead comes back (same email)	5	10	90 days

  You can also give points for Each note.

Scores update on every change. As activities stop counting, scores are updated every hour.

Reasons

The Disqualification reasons offered when someone disqualifies a lead. The built-in reasons are No budget, Not a fit, No response, Chose a competitor, Duplicate and Other. Select Add a reason to add your own (for example, "Wrong region").

Forms

Connect forms of the Forms module so that each response adds a lead, or adds to the lead with the same email.

1. Select Add a form and choose the form.
2. For each lead field, choose which question fills it. Modulix suggests questions from their names, and splits a full-name question into first and last name.
3. Select Save.

Responses are never refused because of leads. If the Forms module isn't enabled, this tab tells you to enable it.

Website & API

Other systems can send leads with an API key:

1. Create an API key with the permission Send leads through the API (leads.lead.capture) in Administration → API keys.
2. Keep the key on your server. Never put it in a web page.
3. Send each lead to POST /api/v1/leads/capture. A lead with the same email is updated rather than doubled. The tab shows an example request you can copy.

The fields accepted are firstName, lastName, email, phone, company, jobTitle, website, country, industry, companySize, description and sourceDetail.

tip

For a form on your website, a public form of the Forms module is the simplest option: it needs no API key.

Dashboard widget

The My best leads widget on your dashboard lists your open leads with the highest scores. Select All to go to the Leads page.

Workflows and notifications

Leads work with workflow automation:

• Create a lead adds a lead, or updates the lead with the same email. It is assigned and scored like any new lead.
• Move a lead to a stage moves a lead to New, Contacted, Qualified or Disqualified (with a disqualification reason ID).
• Assign a lead gives a lead to a person, or assigns it by the rules when no person is given.

Workflows can also react to lead changes, for example creating a task when a lead's temperature changes to hot.

Notification	When	Default channels
Leads assigned to you	A lead is assigned to you, by the rules or by someone.	In-app, email
Hot leads	One of your leads becomes hot.	In-app

Permissions

Permission	What it allows	Granted by default to
leads.lead.read	View and work on their own and unassigned leads	Admin, Member
leads.lead.readAll	View every lead	Admin
leads.lead.write	Add and edit leads, log activities	Admin, Member
leads.lead.assign	Assign leads to anyone	Admin
leads.lead.import	Import leads from spreadsheets	Admin
leads.lead.delete	Delete leads	Admin
leads.lead.capture	Send leads through the API (for API keys)	Admin
leads.settings.manage	Configure assignment, scoring and capture	Admin

Converting a lead also needs contacts.contact.write. Creating an opportunity during conversion also needs permission to create opportunities.

Troubleshooting

• There's no Convert button. The lead is already converted or disqualified, or you don't have permission to edit leads or create contacts. Requalify a disqualified lead first.
• The opportunity section is missing from the Convert dialog. The Opportunities module isn't enabled, or you can't create opportunities.
• I can't see a lead a colleague mentioned. Without View every lead, you only see your own leads and unassigned ones.
• New leads aren't being assigned. Check that Assign new leads automatically is on, that a rule matches, and that the people in it can still view leads. Otherwise the fallback applies.
• Scores and rules ignore my custom fields. Scoring and assignment use the lead's own fields only.