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Create or edit leads

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Create leads in Dynamics 365 to track potential new customers. A lead can be an existing client or someone you've never done business with before. You might get leads from many sources, such as advertising, networking, or email campaigns. You can add notes, activities, and related contacts to your leads.

Tip

If you’d like to try Dynamics 365 Sales for free, you can sign up for a 30-day trial.

License and role requirements

Requirement type You must have
License Dynamics 365 Sales Premium, Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise, or Dynamics 365 Sales Professional
More information: Dynamics 365 Sales pricing
Security roles Any primary sales role, such as salesperson or sales manager
More information: Primary sales roles

Create or edit a lead

  1. In the sitemap of your sales app, select Leads.

  2. Select New.

  3. Enter the information you have about the lead. Only the Topic and Last name are required. All other details are optional.

  4. Select Qualify in the process bar and select or create an account and contact.

    • If you select an account or a contact, the company name and contact address details are filled in for you if they were empty. If that information was already entered, your selection doesn't change the existing values.
    • If you create an account or a contact, Bing Maps can fill in the address details for you if your administrator has turned on address suggestions. Scroll down to the Address box and start typing the street address. Select an address from the list of suggestions provided by Bing Maps.
    • When you create a lead, you can select any values for Existing Contact and Existing Account until you save the lead. After you save the new lead, you can only select values that have been filtered to avoid duplicates.

  5. Select or enter the remaining details in the Qualify step.

  6. In the Timeline section, add any notes or activities, like phone calls or tasks, that are related to the lead.

  7. To add a contact as a stakeholder, scroll down to the Stakeholders section and select New Connection. Search for and select a contact to connect and assign the Stakeholder role. Or, select New Contact to create a contact, connect it, and assign it the Stakeholder role.

    • A stakeholder is a key contact at the account who's involved in making purchase decisions. If you associated a contact in the Qualify step and selected mark complete to identify the contact as the account's decision maker, then that contact is automatically connected as a stakeholder and assigned the Stakeholder role.
    • By default, the contact you connect is assigned the Stakeholder role. To select a different role, select the space to the left of the contact in the list, select Edit, and assign the correct role.

    Important

    If you don't see "New Connection", it means your organization is using a customized view of leads. In that case, select the Connections tab, and then select Connect to connect a stakeholder to the lead.

  8. Select the Details tab and enter any other information you have about your lead, such as industry and preferred contact method.

  9. Select Save & Close.

Import leads from Excel, CSV, and XML Files

You can add leads by importing them from a Microsoft Excel, CSV, or XML file or from Microsoft Exchange. Learn how to import data into Dynamics 365 Sales.

Do more with leads

Typical next steps

Can't find the options in your app?

There are three possibilities:

  • You don't have the necessary license or role. Check the License and role requirements section at the top of this page.
  • Your administrator hasn't turned on the feature.
  • Your organization is using a custom app. Check with your administrator for exact steps. The steps described in this article are specific to the out-of-the-box Sales Hub and Sales Professional apps.

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