Workflow: Qualifying and Converting a New Lead

This guide ties StretchCRM's objects together into one end‑to‑end workflow: turning a fresh lead into revenue. Follow it as a template you can repeat for every new opportunity.

The goal

You've received a new inquiry. By the end of this play you'll have a fully qualified opportunity with a complete history, a structured follow‑up cadence, and a deal moving through your pipeline toward Closed Won.

Step 1: Capture the account and the person

1. Create the company for the account — name, domain, industry, size, and revenue. Set its lifecycle stage to Lead and assign an owner.
2. Create the contact — email (required), name, job title, phone. Link them to the company, set lifecycle Lead, lead status new, and record consent status.

Starting with clean, linked records means every later step rolls up correctly.

Step 2: Log the first touch

1. Open the contact and log an activity for your first interaction — a call or note summarizing what they need and why they reached out.
2. Set an outcome if the conversation reached one (e.g. connected).

Logging the first touch updates the contact's last‑activity timestamp and starts the timeline.

Step 3: Qualify

Decide whether this is a real opportunity. As you learn more:

1. Update the contact's lead status (e.g. connected) and lead score to reflect how promising they are.
2. If qualified, move the contact's lifecycle stage to Opportunity.
3. Optionally review StretchCRM's advisory lead‑scoring signals to sanity‑check your read (these are suggestions, not automatic changes — see Customer Intelligence).

Step 4: Open a deal

1. Create a deal attached to the company and contact.
2. Enter the amount, a realistic close date, the deal type, and priority.
3. The deal starts at New Lead; move it to Qualified now that you've qualified it.

Step 5: Put follow‑up on rails

1. Enroll the contact in the Intro follow‑up sequence so the first outreach is scheduled automatically.
2. For the opportunity itself, enroll the deal in the Deal mutual action plan so you and the buyer stay aligned on next steps.
3. Add any specific tasks the deal needs — e.g. "Prepare scope," due in two days.

Step 6: Advance the deal

As the opportunity progresses, move it through the pipeline and log each interaction:

1. After a needs conversation, move to Discovery and log the discovery call activity.
2. When you send pricing, move to Proposal Sent and log the proposal activity (outcome proposal_sent).
3. During back‑and‑forth on terms, move to Negotiation.

Each stage move is recorded automatically on the deal's timeline, and the stage's win probability updates your weighted forecast.

Step 7: Close

1. When the customer commits, move the deal to Closed Won. This marks it won and removes it from open pipeline.
2. Update the company and contact lifecycle to Customer.
3. Hand off to success: create any onboarding tasks and, if issues arise, open tickets in the Support Pipeline.

A worked example

Northstar Studio inquires about a brand system:

1. Create company Northstar Studio and contact Ava North (Founder), linked, consent subscribed.
2. Log the intro call; update Ava to lead status connected, lead score 82, lifecycle Opportunity.
3. Open the deal "Northstar brand system and launch CRM" for $18,500, move to Qualified, then Discovery.
4. Enroll Ava in Intro follow‑up and the deal in Deal mutual action plan.
5. Send the proposal → move to Proposal Sent (65% weighted → ~$12,025 of expected value).
6. On agreement, move to Closed Won and set Northstar and Ava to Customer.

Tips

• Link as you go. Every activity, task, and deal should point at the contact and company — that's what makes the account timeline complete.
• Update lifecycle at the moments that matter: Lead on capture, Opportunity on qualification, Customer on close.
• Use sequences for consistency and tasks for specifics. Sequences handle the repeatable cadence; tasks handle the one‑off actions unique to this deal.
• Trust the weighted forecast. Honest stage moves keep your expected‑value number real and your forecasting sharp.

Troubleshooting

The deal won't move to a stage. Make sure you're choosing a stage from the Sales Pipeline (deals can't use support stages).

The contact won't enroll in the sequence. Confirm you're using a contact sequence for a contact (and a deal sequence for a deal) — target types must match.

Closed the deal but the account still shows as a lead. Lifecycle stage is per record. After Closed Won, update the company and contact lifecycle to Customer separately.