I was looking for a process flow diagram, that describes what happens when a lead is converted in Salesforce. I couldn’t find one, so I made my own. Once a lead is qualified, the next step is to convert the lead. In Salesforce, when you convert a lead, there are a number of options that are part of the process flow.

The first step is to press the convert button. Salesforce will then display the Convert Lead page. The main decisions to be made on this page are :

1. What account should the lead be related to. The options are to create a new account, select an account (Salesforce will display the exact or near matches in the dropdown) or search and select an existing account.

2. Should the lead be attached to an existing contact. It could be the case that the lead already exists in the system as a contact and if so, when the lead is converted, the open activities and any new data can be added to the contact record. This avoids creating duplicate contact records for the same person.

3. Should an opportunity be created. In most cases an opportunity would be created, as the lead was qualified, and an opportunity tracks the next steps in moving through a sales process.

There is also an option to create a task, that will be related to the contact and opportunity.

Custom Field Mapping

Finally, it is also possible to make sure that any custom fields that you have added to the lead to gather more information about the lead is not lost and is transferred over to the newly created or existing contact, account or opportunity record. This is done by using lead custom field mapping.

This is done with the Map Lead Fields button, which is found on the Lead fields page in the custom fields and relationships sections.

Here you can select any of the custom fields that have been added to the lead object, and select a field on the account, contact or opportunity to map it to. On lead conversion, the value from the lead custom field will be transferred into the mapped field. In the example below, the Number of Locations custom field on the lead has been mapped to the Number of Locations field on the Account.