Lab - Work with Dynamics 365 leads

  • 20 minutes

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales lets organizations manage their whole sales lifecycle. As part of this process, they can define and work with Microsoft Dynamics 365 leads.

The purpose of this hands-on-lab is to introduce you to working with the lead management features of Dynamics 365. For example, you'll learn to create leads, work with parent/child cases, and merge cases.

Learning objectives

At the end of these exercises, you'll be able to perform the following tasks:

  • Import lead records into Dynamics 365.
  • Manually create leads.
  • Add supporting activity records to leads.
  • Qualify and disqualify leads.

Import leads into Dynamics 365

You've returned from an industry trade show, where you worked in a booth that your organization hosted. During the trade show, you ran several promotions to encourage people to leave their business card with you. You want to enter the information from the business cards that you received into Dynamics 365. Therefore, you use a card scanning application to produce a Microsoft Excel file that's named Leads, and you now must import that file into Dynamics 365.

You'll need to download the file leads.csv to complete this exercise.

  1. On the Dynamics 365 dashboard, select Sales Hub.

  2. On the left-hand navigation menu, go to Sales > Leads.

  3. On the command bar, select Import from Excel.

  4. Select Import from CSV.

  5. Select Choose File.

  6. Browse to and select the Leads.csv file that you downloaded previously.

  7. Select Open.

  8. Select Next.

  9. Select Review Mapping.

  10. Map the lead columns as shown here:

    • Topic: Topic
    • Last Name: Last Name
    • First: First Name

  11. Select Finish Import.

  12. Select Done.

  13. After a few minutes, go back to Sales > Leads if necessary. The new leads should be listed there. (If not, select Refresh.)

Manually add a lead for Tom Smith

As you review the imported leads, you notice that one lead is missing. Apparently, Tom Smith's card wasn't added to the leads file that you imported. You remember talking with Tom at the trade show, and it seemed like a successful opportunity. You eventually find Tom's card and now have to manually enter the lead in Dynamics 365.

  1. If necessary, in the site map, go back to Sales > Leads.

  2. On the command bar, select New.

  3. Enter the following values for the new lead:

    • Topic- Interested in some new biking equipment
    • First Name- Tom
    • Last Name- Smith
    • Job Title- President
    • Business Phone- 701 555-8698
    • Email- Tom@tomsbikeski.com
    • Company- Tom's Bike and Ski
    • Address- 1987 43rd St N. Seattle, WA 98728

  4. Select Save and Close to save the lead record.

Qualify and disqualify leads

Now that Tom Smith's lead record has been entered in Dynamics 365, you want to start the lead qualification process to determine the potential for business. You'll first reach out to Tom via a phone call.

Add activities to records

  1. Find and open the lead record for Tom Smith that you created earlier.
  2. In the Timeline pane, select the plus button (+), and then, on the menu that appears, select Phone Call.
  3. Enter the following values for the new phone call:
    • Subject- Initial qualification call.
    • Description- Called Tom to discuss what types of biking equipment they're looking at. They currently only sell road bikes and would like to start expanding their product line to include mountain bikes.
  4. Select Save and Close.

Update the Qualify phase and disqualify the lead

While you were on the phone with Tom Smith, you learned that they want to move forward with the expansion of the product line for their stores during the upcoming year. But Tom also mentioned that, because the decision to add a new product is so large, others are involved in making it. There's a decision-making committee, and not everyone is sure that it's something that they want to pursue.

You now want to make a note of this information in Dynamics 365.

  1. Open the lead record for Tom Smith, and then, in the Lead to Opportunity Sales Process business process flow (BPF), select the Qualify phase.
  2. In the dialog box that appears, set the Purchase Timeframe column to This Year.
  3. Set the Purchase Process column to Committee.
  4. Because Tom indicated that the committee isn't currently interested in moving forward, on the command bar, select Disqualify to disqualify the lead. Then, on the menu that appears, select No Longer Interested.

Reopen the lead and capture the phone call activity

Several weeks have passed since you last spoke with Tom Smith about adding products to their stores. At the time, Tom mentioned that the committee that's in charge of the decision had decided not to move forward. But today Tom calls you and says that the committee might be interested in moving forward after all. Tom thinks that it would be helpful if you met the committee in person to introduce yourself and your organization.

  1. If necessary, in the site map, go back to Sales > Leads.

  2. Change the view to Closed Leads.

  3. Open the closed lead for Tom Smith.

  4. On the command bar, select Reactivate Lead.

  5. After the lead is reactivated, in the Timeline pane, select the plus button (+), and then, on the menu that appears, select Phone Call.

  6. Enter the following values for the new phone call:

    • Subject- Change of Situation
    • Direction- Incoming
    • Description- Tom reached out to let me know that the Decision-Making Committee is interested in looking at expanding our product line again.

  7. Select Save and Close.

  8. In the Timeline pane, select the plus button (+) again, and then, on the menu that appears, select Appointment.

  9. Enter the following values for the new appointment:

    • Required Attendees- Tom Smith
    • Subject- Introduction Meeting
    • Location- Their Office
    • Start Time Tomorrow at 10:00 AM
    • End Time- Tomorrow at 11:00 AM
    • Description- Initial introduction meeting with Committee.

  10. Select Save and Close.

Close the meeting and qualify the lead

You've met with the committee, and the members have indicated that they're interested in moving forward with the expansion of the product line.

  1. In the Timeline pane, find and select the Introduction Meeting appointment.

  2. Select the check mark, to Close Activity.

  3. Make sure that the state is updated to Completed, and then select Close.

  4. On the command bar, select Qualify to qualify the lead. A new opportunity record is created and opened.

  5. Make sure that the following values are already entered for the opportunity:

    • Contact- Tom Smith
    • Account- Tom's Bike and Ski

  6. In the Lead to Opportunity Sales Process BPF, select the Qualify phase. You're taken to the original lead record. The record is now read-only.

  7. In the BPF, select the Develop phase to return to the opportunity record.