If you are using Microsoft CRM/Dynamics 365 you have probably scratched your head wondering why Accounts allow you to have multiple contacts associated but Leads only allow you to have a single contact. This has been the design of Microsoft CRM from the beginning and it never made sense to me.

I have worked with clients who upon learning the way this works decided to abandon using leads altogether for a number of reasons:

• To train users on handling contacts differently for Leads & Accounts would cause user adoption issues
• Having to enter multiple lead records to enable the ability to track more than one contact would cause issues when converting to an Account/Opportunity (you would have to convert each lead record, delete the duplicate account records, then merge each contact to the account
• Using the stakeholders area of a lead does not link the stakeholder contacts to the account that gets created when the lead is qualifies… I know it’s confusing.

Abandoning the use of Leads is unfortunate as I feel the separation from suspects (leads) to qualified prospects (accounts with opportunity)/customers is very beneficial. Utilizing the leads area creates a much cleaner line between prospecting, qualifying & pursuing opportunities.

Don’t confuse the Stakeholders area of the lead as a solution, the stakeholders area is meant to track contacts that would influence a buying decision. Stakeholders is a lookup to existing contacts or allows you to create new contacts however they are not linked to the account that gets created when the lead is qualified.

We have built an enhancement to Microsoft CRM/Dynamics 365 that allows you to track as many contacts under a lead as needed, it changes the leads module to handle contacts the same way that it works in the account area (one “company” with multiple contacts). When you qualify a lead, it will create all of the contacts on the lead as contacts and associate them to the account that is created.

If you would like to have this enhancement in your Dynamics CRM/365 system, contact us.

Watch a  demonstration video:

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CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365