Frequently, we are asked the question: "What is the difference between a CRM lead and an opportunity?" If you are wondering exactly for the same question then the very important step in answering this question is to understand the key differences between the CRM lead and an opportunity and in particular how to use both the sets of functionality in the sales pipeline.

CRM Leads

A CRM lead is a person or account with a very few information. According to an old sales rule, "If you have never contacted your contact, then it's a lead." It could be just a person or company. Normally in a lead stage you know very little about the lead, generally nothing more than a name, email address or phone number and may be an address. This means that at any time lead is entered, it is similar to the call-to-action, that states an in charge of the business development or the sales representative to inquire about the lead, converse with them and identify the potential of the business.

Practically, soon the CRM leads get converted into a qualified or disqualified leads. However, a disqualified lead means that for certain reasons, there is a very less chance for the lead to turn into a revenue-generating opportunity. While a qualified lead means that there are some chances for the lead to turn into a business.

Qualified leads turn into opportunities by MeraCRM automatically.

Opportunities

An opportunity is a person, contact or an account that has been qualified. This contact has entered into the purchasing cycle and is committed to work with you. You have already contacted or met the person and know his requirements and expectations. According to an old sales rule, "A deal which has the possibility of getting closed, is an opportunity."

The chances of getting business are not needed to be high or intermediate, but it means that it is confirmed that the person or company may lead to work in future.

These definitions may vary from organization to organization. In fact, several of the opportunities in your CRM system might be considered as leads in some other company. However, the process of converting the lead has been done, it will be moved to the opportunity pipeline.

After getting it in your opportunity pipeline, your main goal is to concentrate your acquisite marketing and sales team on the person or the company for which there is an opportunity. As more you get into touch with the opportunity, it moves along the pipeline and as the business is fetched you can mark it as "Won" and if the business is not fetched from the opportunity, you can mark it as "Lost" lead.

Each lead needs to be qualified to an opportunity. There will always be lots of leads in your sales pipeline, but very few of them will qualify to turn into a real sales opportunity.

MeraCRM Leads and Opportunities

Every company is unique in handling their sales process. However, when using MeraCRM, you will observe that the built-in functionality around the leads and opportunities is very well suited according to the sales process described above. MeraCRM contains the built-in functionality around qualifying leads, setting it along different levels in pipeline and marking the opportunities as "Won" or "Lost" which is just a task of one click, without having to write even a single line of code.