Manage Prospects and Customers Separately Using Account Types

In this post we review:

1. How Account Types distinguish between prospects and customers
2. The permitted activities for Prospects
3. How and when to convert a prospect to a customer

Customer Account Types and Prospects

A key role of the Account Type is to identify whether the Account is a Customer. If not selected as a Customer Type, the Account Type can only be used for Prospects and 3^rd party addresses like customs brokers and freight forwarders. This means these accounts may only be used on Quotes or as third party Ship To addresses for customer accounts. This prevents the creation of an order or shipment for a prospect until they have been through review and credit approval process.

Account Types can also control account numbering, and the default assignment of identifiers such as Account Manager and Salesperson. Fields found on the marketing and profile tabs for an account can also default from the Account Type.

A well defined Account Type can save significant time when creating new prospects and customers.

Keeping a prospect out of the customer master until a quote is won allows you to reduce clutter in the customer accounts workbench. This is helpful for reporting and analysis.

When viewing the Customer Accounts Workbench, there is an option on the Standard Search Tab to allow you to include/exclude Prospects from your search.

What Can You do with a Prospect?

Prospects have an Account ID but not a Customer Key. The absence of a Customer Key rules out Orders, Shipments, Invoices and Credit Memos.

But you can:

• Create, win and lose (hopefully not) Quotes
• Add contacts
• Communicate by creating appointments, activities and attaching documents

Converting a Prospect to a Customer

To convert a prospect to a customer, you must change the Account Type from a Prospect Type to an appropriate Customer Account Type (with Customer Type box selected).

You can do this directly in the Accounts Workbench. If you initiate the Win process for a Quote and the system will alert you that the Account is a prospect and must be converted to a customer.

You will receive the following message confirming that you wish to proceed with the conversion.

You will also be asked whether to update the defaults on the Account based on the new Account Type. If you accept the default settings on the Customer Account Type will be used to override defaults on the new customer. All history, documents and appointments will remain for the new customer.

The Customer Since field on the Account Tab is automatically updated to the date they became a customer.

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  Limit Sale of Specific Items to an Approved List of Customers

  Do you have items that have been produced specifically for a customer or group of customers that you wish to limit sale to only those customers? The ‘Requires Approval to Sell’ flag on the Inventory Master helps you control who can purchase that product.