Question:
How do I convert a person to a lead?
Answer:
While Copper does not have the native functionality to convert people back to leads, we do have a few workarounds to help you achieve this.
The first workaround involves exporting your people records, then importing them back as leads. You'd delete the old people records after the export.
The second suggestion is to use people instead of leads, and create a custom dropdown field on the person record that let's you indicate the difference.
We'll explore each option in more detail below.
Workaround 1:
This option allows you to create a lead record with the details stored in the former person record. If you also want to add activities (like phone calls, meetings, etc.) to the lead record from the person record, this must be done separately via the API, which means it's available to Professional and Business Users only.
Sign into your Copper account and choose 'People' from the left-hand menu.
Check the box at the left of each person record you want to export.
Select the 'More' icon and choose 'Export List.'
4. On the resulting lightbox that appears, click the option to 'Export all selected People' if you don't want to send everyone's details out. If you'd instead like to export all people records in your system, you can click the box for that option.
5. Click 'Export.'
6. In the file that results from the export, delete the URL and ID columns on the far right, and any users you do not want as Leads.
7. If you want to import the value of any custom fields on your people records that don't yet exist on your lead records, you can add them to leads.
8. Once the file is ready, click 'Settings' from the left-hand menu in Copper.
9. Scroll down to the Data Management section and choose 'Import Data.'
10. Click the 'Import Leads' option.
11. On the next page, choose the file type you exported, then click 'Choose File' and complete the import.
Now that you've created your new lead records, you'll likely want to delete the old people records. Follow the steps below to achieve this:
1. Click 'People' from the left-hand menu in Copper.
2. Check the box to the left of the person or people you want to delete.
3. Click the 'More' icon and select 'Delete.'
Workaround 2:
If this is a feature you cannot wait for, you can consider making a custom dropdown on people records that lets you indicate whether it's a lead or a person. To do this, follow the steps below:
Sign into your Copper account and click 'Settings' from the left-hand menu.
Click the blue 'Add custom field' button.
In the light box that appears, you'll see the information needed to create this drop-down:
Let's look at each of the sections
Field Label - This is how the field will be identified on the record. Name it something your other users will easily understand.
Field Type - This is where you would indicate it's a drop-down field, as opposed to a text field or some other format.
Dropdown Options - Each option represents an item that will show up in your drop-down menu. These are the possible selections one can make from the drop-down menu.
Available On - Indicate the type of record this field should appear on
Include in Filters? - This lets you use the data from this field as a filter for narrowing down a list of entities on the record's main page.
You'll choose the drop-down field type, create options for 'People' and 'Leads,' and make it available on People records.
4. Click 'Save.'
Now you'll need to go through your People records to ensure the right selection is made on each one.
One of the bonuses of using People for Leads is you can track your Leads in Opportunities through a pipeline. I would also add a prefix for Leads, to separate them from People who might already be associated with the same company. See the image below as an example:
If you chose to make the drop-down field filterable, you can filter to show which people are leads
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