Leads, contacts, companies, deals and customers

Leads, contacts, companies, deals and customers#

These five words get used as if they were interchangeable. In Nazzam they are not, and the differences are what keep the CRM usable.

Lead#

A prospect who still needs qualification. Nobody has confirmed they are real, reachable, or worth pursuing. Leads live in their own list and never appear in your contact list, your deal pickers or your exports.

Contact#

A person who has been qualified. Somebody looked at the lead, decided it was worth pursuing, and qualified it — which created the contact. Contacts are the people you actually work with.

Company#

The organization a contact belongs to. A contact does not have to have one: a freelancer or a personal referral is a contact with no company at all.

Deal#

A commercial opportunity — a specific piece of work with a value, a stage and an expected close date. Deals are anchored to a contact, because work is agreed with a person.

Customer#

A relationship that became actual business. Not everyone in your contact list is a customer — most are not. Nazzam deliberately does not label every contact a customer, because a CRM where everyone is a customer cannot tell you who actually is one.

How one becomes another#

A lead is qualified, which creates a contact. That contact may be attached to a company. A deal is opened against the contact. When the deal is won, the relationship has become a customer.

The lead does not disappear at any point in that chain. It stays, showing where the contact came from.