What is a Lead
A Lead is an unqualified prospect, someone who's shown interest but hasn't been confirmed as a real contact or opportunity yet. Leads live on their own, separate from Contacts, Accounts, and Deals, until someone decides they're worth pursuing and converts them. That separation is deliberate: it keeps unqualified names from cluttering the modules used for actual client relationships.
Adding a Lead
How to- 1Open the Leads tab from the sidebar.
- 2Click + Create Lead, near the top right of the list view. Use the dropdown arrow beside it instead if you're adding leads in bulk from a spreadsheet.
- 3Fill in the record. Last Name and Company are mandatory. Add Email, Phone, Lead Source, and Lead Status if you have them, since these are what most filters and reports run off later.
- 4Check the Lead Owner field. It defaults to whoever is creating the record, so reassign it if you're logging a lead on someone else's behalf.
- 5Click Save. The lead appears in the Leads list immediately, and any automation tied to lead creation (assignment rules, notification emails) fires at this point.
The four subsections below cover every option under Filter Leads by, useful once there are enough Leads in the system that browsing the full list isn't practical.
System Defined Filters
Built into Zoho CRM by default. These filter on lead behaviour and record state, not on a specific field value, so they're the fastest way to answer questions like "who hasn't been touched yet" or "who's mid-sequence."
Activities
Leads that have a task, call, or meeting logged against them.
Campaigns
Leads tied to one or more marketing campaigns run through the CRM.
Latest Email Status
Filters by what happened with the most recent email: sent, opened, bounced, replied, and so on.
Locked
Leads currently locked from editing, usually during an approval process or a workflow hold.
Record Action
Filters by what was last done to the lead record itself: created, edited, deleted.
Related Records Action
Same idea as Record Action, but for the most recent change on records linked to the lead.
Touched Records
Leads with at least one logged interaction. A useful starting filter for "who is actively being worked."
Untouched Records
Leads with zero activity since creation. This is the list for finding leads nobody has followed up on yet.
Cadences
Leads currently enrolled in an automated outreach sequence.
Website Activity
Behavioural data pulled from visitor tracking on the Embark site. These filters only return results for leads whose site visits have actually been tracked and matched to a CRM record.
Attended By
Which team member handled a live chat with this visitor.
Average Time Spent (Minutes)
Average time per visit across all recorded sessions.
Browser
Browser used during the visit, e.g. Chrome, Safari.
Chats
Whether the lead has a chat conversation on record.
Days Visited
Number of distinct days the lead has visited the site.
First Page Visited
The page the lead landed on during their first visit.
First Visit
Date and time of the lead's first recorded visit.
Most Recent Visit
Date and time of the lead's latest visit.
Number Of Chats
Total chat conversations started by this lead.
Operating System
Device OS used during the visit, e.g. Windows, iOS.
Portal Name
Which tracked site or portal the visit happened on, relevant if more than one domain is connected.
Referrer
The site or link that sent the visitor to the page.
Search Engine
Which search engine, if any, brought the visitor in.
Time Spent (Minutes)
Total time spent across all visits.
Time Visited
Timestamp of a specific visit.
Visitor Score
A calculated engagement score based on browsing behaviour.
Filter By Fields
Every standard field on the Lead record. Grouped below by what they're used for, rather than the CRM's alphabetical order, to make the list easier to scan.
Salutation, First Name, Last Name
The lead's name, split into standard parts.
Lead Name
Full name field used across list views and reports.
Title
The lead's job title.
Company
Name of the lead's organisation.
Email, Secondary Email
Primary and alternate email addresses.
Phone, Mobile, Fax
Contact numbers on record.
Skype ID, Twitter, Website
Messaging handle, social handle, and company website.
Email Opt Out
Whether the lead has opted out of marketing email.
Unsubscribed Mode, Unsubscribed Time
How and when the lead unsubscribed from communications.
Address
Combined address field.
Address - Street Address, Flat / House No. / Building / Apartment Name
The two line-level components of the street address.
Address - City, State / Province
City and state components.
Address - Country / Region, Zip / Postal Code
Country and postal code components.
Lead Source
Where the lead came from: referral, website, event, etc.
Lead Status
Current pipeline stage, e.g. New, Contacted, Qualified.
Lead Owner
The team member responsible for the lead.
Rating
Manual or scored priority, e.g. Hot, Warm, Cold.
Industry
Sector the company operates in.
Annual Revenue, No. of Employees
Firmographic details on the company, where captured.
India Presence
Custom field flagging whether the company has operations in India.
Tag
Free-text labels applied to the record for quick grouping.
Converted Account, Converted Contact, Converted Deal
The Account, Contact, and Deal created when this lead was converted.
Lead Conversion Time
When the lead was converted.
Created By, Created Time
Who added the record, and when.
Modified By, Modified Time
Who last edited the record, and when.
Last Activity Time
When the most recent activity on the lead happened.
Connected To
Any other CRM record this lead has been manually linked to.
Filter By Related Modules
These filter Leads based on records they're connected to in other parts of the CRM. Useful once Leads start linking out to Deals, Quotes, or support Cases.
Accounts
Leads linked to an existing Account record.
Calls
Leads with logged calls.
Campaigns
Leads linked to a specific campaign record, filterable by that campaign's own details.
Cases
Leads linked to a support Case.
Contacts
Leads linked to a Contact record.
Deals
Leads linked to a Deal (Potential).
Emails
Leads with logged email records.
Invitees (Invited Meetings)
Leads invited to a Meeting.
Invoices
Leads linked to an Invoice record.
Lead Product Relation (Products)
Products associated directly with the lead.
Meetings
Leads with a scheduled or completed meeting.
Notes
Leads with notes attached to the record.
Products
Leads linked to a Product record.
Purchase Orders
Leads linked to a Purchase Order record.
Quotes
Leads linked to a Quote record.
Sales Orders
Leads linked to a Sales Order record.
Solutions
Leads linked to a Solutions (knowledge base) article.
Tasks
Leads with logged Tasks.
Vendors
Leads linked to a Vendor record.
Converting a Lead
Once a Lead is qualified, worth pursuing as a real prospect, it gets converted. Conversion moves it out of the Leads module and creates the corresponding Contact and Account, and optionally a Deal, all in one action.
How to- 1Open the Lead record you want to convert.
- 2Click Convert at the top of the record. This only appears once the mandatory fields on the lead are filled in.
- 3In the Convert Lead window, choose whether to create a new Account, or attach the lead to a company that already exists in the CRM.
- 4Make the same choice for Contact: create new, or link to an existing person.
- 5Decide whether to create a Deal at the same time. This is optional, turn it off if the lead is only qualifying as a contact for now. If a Deal is created, fill in Deal Name, Stage, and Closing Date at minimum.
- 6Set the owner for the new records, and leave the notify options on if the lead owner or new record owner should be alerted.
- 7Click Convert. Zoho CRM creates the Contact and Account, adds the Deal if one was selected, and carries over standard fields, activities, notes, and attachments from the lead.
What is a Contact
A Contact is a person in an established relationship with Embark, whether that's someone who came through a converted Lead, or a contact added directly for an existing client, partner, or referral. Contacts are usually linked to an Account, the company they belong to.
Adding a Contact
How to- 1Open the Contacts tab from the sidebar.
- 2Click + Create Contact, top right of the list view.
- 3Last Name is the only mandatory field, but a contact with no Account attached is hard to make sense of later. Add Account Name to link them to their company, plus Email, Phone, and Title if known.
- 4Click Save.
What is an Account
An Account is the company or organisation record. It sits above Contacts and Deals, one Account can have several Contacts and several Deals attached to it, which is what makes it possible to see all activity with a client in one place.
Adding an Account
How to- 1Open the Accounts tab from the sidebar.
- 2Click + Create Account, top right of the list view.
- 3Account Name is the only mandatory field. Add Industry, Phone, Website, Billing Address, and Annual Revenue if known, since these carry over automatically when a Lead is converted into this Account.
- 4Click Save.
This manual is still growing
Navigation, Leads, Contacts, and Accounts are covered in full above. Deals, Campaigns, and the rest of the CRM will be added the same way, part by part, as we work through them.