A Lead is a potential client — you have not completed a transaction with them yet. Your business may have thousands of leads, however, you don't necessarily want them in Xero.
NOTE: Leads in Method do not sync to Xero. Once a lead syncs to Xero, they are no longer a lead and converts to a customer or supplier.
Leads stay in Method until they are converted to a real customer or supplier, and then they immediately sync to Xero.
For all intents and purposes, a customer lead is very similar to a customer, the only difference being they don't sync to Xero. In this article, we will cover how to:
Create a Lead in the Contacts App
The Contacts App is used to manage all of your contacts. All your customers and suppliers (which we refer to as vendors) will be synced to this app from Xero. The below steps will show you how to create a lead which will not sync to Xero.
Click the ⊕ New link on the Contacts app.
If not already selected, make sure you select Lead as the contact type.
Fill in the rest of the information for your lead and note the required fields. There is also an option to add Tags, and a Lead Status, Rating, and Source.
If this lead eventually becomes a customer, it will show up in Xero as shown in Name in Xero.You can also expand the Add Address information and/or Add Social Media Information to add more info.
Select the Save button either at the bottom or top of the screen.
View Your New Lead
Once you create your lead, you will be taken to a screen where you can view them. The screen is broken up into three different sections:
Contact Details: The details for the contact attached to the lead. For more information on the difference between contacts in Method and contact in Xero, please see our article Contacts in Method vs Contacts in Xero.
Lead Details: The details for the lead.
App Ribbons: The lead will have a number of interactions and transactions that will eventually be associated with it.
Once you are using Method and have created transactions and logged interactions with your lead, the app ribbons will start to show related information for your lead. The below example image is from an existing lead with a few activities and estimates. The Estimates tab has been selected, showing an estimate belonging to this customer:
A lead will, hopefully, eventually become a customer, and there are a number of ways to convert a lead into a customer, (for example, unchecking This is a Lead, when editing the customer).
NOTE: Once a lead becomes a customer or vendor and syncs to Xero, you can make them inactive. However, you are unable to re-activate them within Method. To reactivate an inactive customer or vendor, you will need to do so within Xero itself.
In the next article, you will learn how to: