Leads and Customers

Leads and customers serve different purposes but stay connected. A lead is the qualification workflow for an enquiry. The linked customer is the durable person or organisation record used by deals, activities, conversations, documents, and reporting.

2.1 Working the Lead Inbox

1. Open CRM > Leads.
2. Start with leads assigned to you and the attention filters.
3. Open a lead to confirm its source, contact details, owner, recent interactions, and next activity.
4. Move the lead through the working stages while qualification evidence develops.
5. Choose Qualify only after budget, need, decision maker, and purchase timeline are complete.
6. Choose Disqualify when the enquiry should not progress, and record a useful reason for reporting.

Qualifying may create an owned deal and links it to the existing customer. Disqualified leads remain available for reporting; they are not silently deleted.

2.2 Creating Leads and Customers

Create a lead when: the person or organisation is still being qualified.

1. Open Leads and choose New Lead.
2. Enter the contact, source, enquiry context, and initial qualification evidence.
3. Save the lead. SikaBooks assigns it to you automatically.

Create a customer directly when: the relationship is already established or no lead qualification is required.

1. Open Customers and choose Add Customer.
2. Enter identity, communication, segment, industry, territory, address, and notes.
3. Save the customer. SikaBooks assigns it to you automatically.

New customers and leads created manually, through the CRM API, or by CSV import are assigned to the user who creates them. Only CRM managers and owners can select another active representative or reassign the record. Public web-form leads use the form's configured representative and enter the manager-only unassigned queue when no representative is configured.

2.3 Qualifying a Lead

Before qualification, confirm:

• Budget — The prospect can fund the likely purchase.
• Need — The problem and expected outcome are understood.
• Decision maker — The person who can approve the purchase is known.
• Purchase timeline — There is a realistic decision period.

When Qualify is selected, review the proposed deal name, value, expected close date, pipeline, stage, and owner. The resulting customer and deal inherit the lead owner unless a CRM manager or owner deliberately reassigns them.

2.4 Viewing Customers

1. Open CRM > Customers.
2. Search by name, email, phone, or company.
3. Filter by relationship type, segment, lead source, salesperson, territory, tags, or temperature.
4. Sales representatives see only assigned customers. Managers and owners can filter across the business and inspect unassigned records.

2.5 Customer Profile

Click a customer to view their full profile:

• Overview — Contact details, type, segment, lead source, lead score
• Deals — All deals associated with this customer
• Activities — Scheduled and completed tasks
• Interactions — Timeline of all touchpoints
• Contact Persons — Additional contacts within the organisation
• Quotes — Quotes sent to this customer
• Invoices — Invoices issued
• Contracts — Active and past contracts
• Documents — Attached files
• Notes — Internal notes
• Tags — Labels for segmentation

2.6 Lead Scoring

The CRM automatically calculates a lead score based on configurable rules:

• Activity-based — Points for recent interactions, completed activities
• Engagement-based — Points for email opens, form submissions
• Profile-based — Points for matching ideal customer profile

Lead temperature is derived from the score:

• Hot — Score above the hot threshold
• Warm — Score above the warm threshold
• Cold — Score below the warm threshold

Configure scoring rules in CRM Settings.

2.7 Bulk Operations

Select multiple customers to:

• Bulk Update — Change type, segment, or lead source; assignment changes require manager authority
• Bulk Delete — Remove selected customers
• Export — Download customer data as CSV/Excel

2.8 Duplicate Detection & Merge

1. The system flags potential duplicates based on email, phone, or name similarity
2. Review duplicates on the customer profile
3. Click Merge to combine two customer records
4. Select which fields to keep from each record
5. All related data (deals, activities, invoices) is consolidated

2.9 Import Customers

1. Go to Customers > Import
2. Download the CSV template
3. Fill in customer data
4. Upload the file
5. Map columns to CRM fields
6. Review and confirm the import

Imported customers are assigned to the user running the import. A CRM manager or owner can reassign them after the import.

2.10 Contact Persons

For business customers, add multiple contact persons:

1. Go to the customer profile
2. Click Add Contact Person
3. Enter name, role, email, phone
4. Mark one as the primary contact

2.11 Customer Map

View customers on a regional map of Ghana:

1. Go to Sidebar > CRM > Customer Map
2. See customers plotted by their region
3. Click a region or marker to view customer details
4. Use the map to identify geographic clusters and underserved areas

Customers need a region assigned (via their address) to appear on the map.

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