What happens when I convert leads in Salesforce?

Table Of Contents

• Account, Contact, and Opportunity Creation
• Campaign Member Association
• Activity Transfer
• Field Mapping and Custom Fields
• Permissions and Visibility of Converted Leads
• System Fields Updates

When you convert a lead in Salesforce, it’s much more than just changing the status of a potential customer. This process triggers the creation of crucial records—an Account, Contact, and optionally an Opportunity—that help organize and streamline the follow-up with your leads. Each of these records serves a specific purpose, enabling your team to maintain comprehensive profiles for companies, individuals, and potential deals. In addition, Salesforce associates any campaigns or activities linked to the original lead, ensuring that valuable historical interactions and marketing touchpoints aren’t lost in the transition. The converted lead itself becomes a read-only record, which prevents data duplication and preserves its original details, while custom fields can be mapped to account, contact, or opportunity fields, keeping all necessary information intact. This seamless process not only reduces manual entry but also enhances team collaboration, keeps CRM data clean, and improves sales efficiency by providing immediate access to structured customer data.

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1. Account, Contact, and Opportunity Creation

Account Creation

• Purpose: The account represents the company or organization associated with the lead. By creating an account, Salesforce ensures that all relevant business information is centralized under one record.
• Process: When you convert a lead, Salesforce uses the lead’s company details (if available) to create a new account. If the company already exists in Salesforce, you can opt to update this existing account rather than create a duplicate. This step is crucial for preventing redundancy and keeping your CRM organized.
• Data Handling: Only empty fields in the existing account record are updated with information from the lead. Salesforce doesn’t overwrite any existing data, which ensures that critical account details remain intact.
• Benefits: Creating an account streamlines the way sales teams track and manage interactions with the entire organization, allowing them to view past engagements, open opportunities, and other related contacts under a unified record.

Contact Creation

• Purpose: The contact record is specific to the individual person associated with the lead. This could be a decision-maker, influencer, or key contact within the company.
• Process: Upon conversion, Salesforce generates a new contact record using the personal details of the lead. If a contact already exists with the same name or email, Salesforce lets you update the existing contact instead of creating a new one. Like with the account, only empty fields in the existing contact are populated with lead data to prevent overwriting valuable information.
• Custom Field Mapping: If custom lead fields exist (e.g., job title, preferred communication methods), Salesforce can map these fields to the new contact record as long as the fields are mapped properly in setup. This mapping ensures that specific, relevant details about the individual are maintained and visible.
• System Tracking: Salesforce includes system fields such as contactCreatedByLead or contactUpdatedByLead on the contact record, which help users identify if the contact originated from a lead conversion. These fields appear in the contact’s history, preserving a traceable link back to the original lead.

Opportunity Creation (Optional)

• Purpose: Opportunities represent potential revenue and upcoming deals. Creating an opportunity during lead conversion lets the sales team immediately begin managing the deal process.
• Process: When converting a lead, Salesforce gives the option to generate an opportunity linked to the new account and contact. This option is typically used when the lead shows strong buying intent or when the sales team is ready to pursue a deal. If the conversion process does not create an opportunity, sales reps can still create one later if the potential arises.
• Pipeline Management: With an opportunity in place, sales teams can track each stage of the sales process, record communication, add custom fields, and update deal-related information. This process enhances forecasting, allowing the sales team to understand the revenue potential and expected close dates.
• Ownership Assignment: The opportunity, like the account and contact, can be assigned to a specific sales rep, who is then responsible for managing the sales process to closure. Ownership assignments help delineate responsibilities, making it clear who is accountable for follow-up and deal progression.

Key Benefits of This Structure

• Centralized Data: By creating distinct records for the account, contact, and opportunity, Salesforce ensures that all relevant data about a lead’s company, associated contacts, and the potential for business is accurately organized. This structure prevents overlap and makes it easy to locate specific information about a client relationship.
• Enhanced Collaboration: With separate records, team members across different departments (sales, marketing, customer service) can access specific information about the account, contact, or opportunity as needed. This promotes cross-functional collaboration and ensures that everyone is aligned on the latest details.
• Improved Data Hygiene: By providing the option to update existing records instead of creating duplicates, Salesforce minimizes redundant entries and maintains cleaner data. This helps ensure that the CRM remains a reliable source of truth for client information.

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2. Campaign Member Association

• If the lead was a member of a campaign, Salesforce links this campaign information to the new contact, preserving the campaign history and marketing journey.

3. Activity Transfer

• All activities linked to the lead are transferred to the newly created account, contact, and opportunity. This ensures that follow-up activities remain visible across the associated records.
• Notably, activities initiated from a Sales Engagement cadence do not transfer automatically. If an activity is deleted from one record, Salesforce removes it from all associated records. To restore, simply retrieve it from the recycle bin.

4. Field Mapping and Custom Fields

• During conversion, custom lead fields can populate fields in the account, contact, or opportunity records if field mapping has been configured by the admin. This mapping ensures that relevant custom data follows through from lead to converted records seamlessly.
• New system fields, such as contactCreatedByLead or contactUpdatedByLead, are added to indicate that the contact was generated or updated through lead conversion.

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5. Permissions and Visibility of Converted Leads

• By default, converted leads become read-only and non-searchable after conversion to avoid confusion and streamline data access. However, admins can grant specific permissions, such as View and Edit Converted Leads, allowing certain users to view and edit these records.
• Converted leads do still appear in lead reports, maintaining historical insights even if the records themselves are no longer directly accessible.

6. Assigning Ownership and Scheduling Tasks

• Salesforce lets you assign new owners to the converted records, but only open activities transfer to the new owner. This allows a seamless transition for sales reps to continue where others left off.
• You can also schedule follow-up tasks immediately after conversion, aiding in continuity and maintaining momentum with the newly converted prospect.

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7. System Fields Updates

• Last Modified Date and Last Modified By fields on converted leads update automatically when picklist values are altered, helping you track when important changes occur.

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In summary, converting a lead in Salesforce is not only about creating new records but also about preserving and transferring valuable historical data, activities, and custom field information. This structured approach enhances sales teams’ efficiency, maintains data integrity, and ensures a seamless journey from lead to active customer records.

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