Converting lead of existing account

[marclangston]

I'd like to find a way to force the Lead conversion process to use the (existing) Account/Account ID already contained in an imported Lead. An example:

Marketing has identified several existing customers (Sugar Accounts) that might be interested in a new product. We'd like to create Leads and not Opportunities since there is still a reasonable chance the customer really won't be interested. I can easily import a bunch of Leads in to the system, assigning them to the Account owners as well as including an import column for both Account Name and Account ID.

However, when I get to Lead conversion, the default process tries to re-create the Account. The user either has to a) correctly navigate the "Possible Duplicate Account" screen or b) relate the Lead to an existing Account by selecting from a list from the Lead conversion screen. Neither of these options has a high success rate with my users - it's just unusual enough that people get confused with the whole process. So I'd like to avoid either option and just get the Lead conversion process to use the Account/ID information that I've already imported with the Lead. No "possible duplicate" message, no choosing from a list of every account in the system.

Can anybody suggest how to do this? I think the same issue arises if I create a Lead from the Account sub-panel: even though I created the Lead from "within" the Account, the Lead conversion process won't simply use that account.

Thanks.
marc

[andopes]

You would need to modify both modules/Leads/ConvertLead.php and modules/Accounts/AccountFormBase.php in order to accomplish such feature.

Regards

[marclangston]

Thanks, Andre. I'm going to pass this information along to a co-worker and I might be back asking for some clarification and/or direction.

marc