Account import to leads or contacts?

[agcilantro]

I have a large list of acounts from a previous sales business I had that i have exported from outlook and various spreadsheets to csv form. I also have a list of contacts, some from these accounts, some not related. If i consider accounts as persons or businesses that I've completed a sale to, it seems to me that all of these accounts should be imported as leads. My question is, do I:

1)import them as leads, and convert them to contacts and accounts as I make a sale

2)import them as leads and also import the contacts and relate the contacts to the leads and accounts after i have converted the lead to a sale

or

3) Import the accounts as accounts, import the contacts as contacts and export the accounts and re-import them as leads, related to both accounts and contacts.

I have read some of the Sugar university info on importing related records, but I just don't know which of these previous avenues would make the most sense in relation to how the Sugar CRM workflow is.

Thanks for your help and feedback.

[jli]

you mention that you have a list of accounts/contacts from your system, whom you have previously done business with. is there a particular reason why you need to capture these accounts/contacts as both accounts/contacts and leads within Sugar, rather than just accounts/contacts?

[agcilantro]

you mention that you have a list of accounts/contacts from your system, whom you have previously done business with. is there a particular reason why you need to capture these accounts/contacts as both accounts/contacts and leads within Sugar, rather than just accounts/contacts?

I am starting a new business and want to utilize these accounts as targets for new campaigns, and to organize these accounts as leads for sales calls and regional sales reps.

I am trying to understand the idea of accounts, contacts, leads and opportunities, to be honest, as well as the workflow in SugarCrm. I am not locked into using these accounts in the way I mentioned, if there is a more logical way to use Sugar to achieve what I am trying to do I am open to suggestion.

Thanks for your reply and question.

[jli]

so, the classic process flow that Sugar facilitates well out-of-the box is that:

- a lead is a person that your business process categorizes as "have not had contact with and have not done any business with"
- once your biz process determines that this person is more than just a lead (whether they show interest in what you're selling or what have you), you convert this lead into a contact (and an account and/or an opportunity)

now, by no means, are you restricted from interpreting the Sugar modules for a different type of biz process.

there are other ways to categorize the "type" of account/contact you have, without having to solely migrate them into the leads module.

maybe you can migrate your data into the accounts/contacts modules and then create a custom field to further categorize each, so that your sales reps understand what types of contacts they're working with going forward.

[agcilantro]

so, the classic process flow that Sugar facilitates well out-of-the box is that:

- a lead is a person that your business process categorizes as "have not had contact with and have not done any business with"
- once your biz process determines that this person is more than just a lead (whether they show interest in what you're selling or what have you), you convert this lead into a contact (and an account and/or an opportunity)

now, by no means, are you restricted from interpreting the Sugar modules for a different type of biz process.

there are other ways to categorize the "type" of account/contact you have, without having to solely migrate them into the leads module.

maybe you can migrate your data into the accounts/contacts modules and then create a custom field to further categorize each, so that your sales reps understand what types of contacts they're working with going forward.

Thanks for explaining the flow to me.
For illustration purposes, let us say that I have 5000 accounts throughout the US that I have previously visited or sold products to from past businesses. Some of these accounts I have sold to in the last year, others not for 2-3 years. I am creating several new product lines and a new startup company, so none of these accounts are technically accounts, if the definition of an account is a company or contact to whom I have sold a product or service.

My ultimate goal is to be able to sit down with this account or contact or lead list, after finalizing my product lines, and be able to prioritize the most viable targets for each product line, in order to design marketing campaigns, plan my and my sales reps first 3 months of sales calls, and find out which of these previous accounts will buy into the new company's products and philosophy.

Again, thanks for your feedback and suggestions

[jli]

so, how we deal with repeat customers (different products or renewals) is that we create opportunities for these new deals, related to the existing accounts/contacts. from here, you're able to track opportunities through stages and such. sales reps can work based on opportunities.

we do not go back and create new leads for each new "opportunity".

[agcilantro]

I understand.
So I should import the accounts, then import the contacts, relate the contacts to the proper accounts (if they are related), then determine what the targets would be for the new products, create opportunities and assign these opportunities to sales reps or work on them myself.
And the leads would be for new stores or distributors that I or my sales reps find in our travels or from my web site, which can then be assigned to reps by region or by their department.

[jli]

that's how i would suggest to proceed.

[madmat]

If everything works right, you can simply import your contacts, their companies will automatically be turned into accounts then.
So only one step needed and no hassle with relating all of them by hand.

[agcilantro]

Well, I do have multiple contacts from some of the accounts. If I import the contacts, would I end up with multiple or duplicate accounts?