Manage the lead lifecycle
Tom is an account executive at Contoso. He's just been assigned a batch of new leads from last week's webinar. He needs to work through them systematically: researching each one, capturing notes, updating the lead record, and ultimately deciding whether to qualify them to opportunities or disqualify them. Here, you learn how to configure and manage the lead lifecycle in Dynamics 365 Sales, including the lead form, views, business process flows, and lead qualification and disqualification.
| Lead Stage | Status | Key Actions |
|---|---|---|
| Initial review | Open – New | Assign to account executive; review lead source and basic information |
| Active engagement | Open – Contacted | Research company; log calls and meetings; identify stakeholders |
| Decision point | Qualified or Disqualified | Qualify to opportunity or disqualify with reason |
| Post-decision | Inactive (closed) | Preserve historical record; reactivate if circumstances change |
Access and organize leads with views
Dynamics 365 Sales provides multiple filtered views that help sales teams find and prioritize leads efficiently. Sales Hub includes views like My Open Leads, Open Leads, Closed Leads, All Leads, Leads opened this week, and Leads opened last week. Each view is prefiltered to show leads in a different way, letting teams focus on the right subset at the right time.
Sales managers use these views to identify leads needing assignment. For example, a manager reviews the Leads opened this week view to see all the newest leads added and then selects one or more leads to assign to specific account executives using the Assign button on the command bar. Account executives typically use the My Open Leads view to see only the leads assigned to them—this becomes their daily work queue.
The focused view provides a centralized, card-based layout for working through leads without navigating away from the list page. You access the focused view by selecting Show as > Focused view on the command bar. This view displays leads with pending activities, shows the next best action for each lead, and lets you complete activities and see record details side-by-side. Sellers can move through their queue efficiently—reviewing lead details, logging calls, and completing tasks without constantly switching screens.
For more detailed information about working with the focused view, see View and manage records in focused view.
Navigate the lead form
Once you open a lead record, the information is organized into sections that guide the qualification process. Each section serves a specific purpose in helping account executives gather data, track interactions, and advance the lead toward a decision.
The Business Process Flow (BPF) appears at the top of the lead form and guides sellers through the Lead to Opportunity Sales Process. The BPF starts with the Qualify stage, which includes fields that capture required qualification data—such as purchase timeframe, estimated budget, and purchase process. Sellers complete the fields at each stage to advance the BPF. The workflow ensures consistent qualification practices across the sales team.
The Timeline shows all activities related to the lead in chronological order. This includes phone calls made to or received from the lead, appointments, emails, internal posts colleagues make about the record, and notes added to the record. The timeline creates a running history of the relationship—account executives can review previous conversations and see what actions occurred when.
The Sequences pane displays any automation-guided activity plans attached to the lead. Sequences help sales managers enforce best practices by introducing a set of consecutive activities for sellers to follow during their day. For example, a lead nurturing sequence might include touchpoints spaced out over several weeks—an initial email, a follow-up call three days later, and a check-in appointment a week after that.
The Assistant pane provides AI-powered reminders and notifications about this lead. It might remind you about an upcoming appointment with the lead or suggest following up on an email that hasn't received a response. The Assistant surfaces actionable insights without requiring you to search for them.
The Stakeholders grid identifies people who might have a vested interest in or be involved in the decision-making process. These are typically contact records noted in the lead—such as a project lead, board members, or key decision-makers at the lead's organization. The Competitors grid helps you track other vendors also pursuing this lead's business.
Qualify and disqualify leads
As Tom works through his leads, he researches each one, logs interactions, and gathers qualification information. For example, Tom opens his My Open Leads view and starts with his newest leads. He researches a lead online and updates the Company Name, Industry, and Annual Revenue fields. He makes a phone call, logs it in the timeline, and identifies a stakeholder. He reviews the BPF and advances through the Qualify stage steps by completing required fields. He schedules a meeting—the Assistant reminds him before it starts.
After the meeting, Tom decides the lead meets qualification criteria. He selects Qualify from the command bar. Dynamics 365 closes the lead record and creates new records:
- A new opportunity (mapped from lead fields like Topic, Estimated Revenue, and Purchase Timeframe)
- A new account (if Company Name was filled in on the lead)
- A new contact (if the Name fields were filled in)
If the lead matches an existing account or contact in the system, Dynamics 365 links to those existing records instead of creating duplicates. The opportunity is linked back to the original lead—sellers can access the lead record at any time by selecting the Qualify phase in the Lead to Opportunity Sales Process BPF.
When a lead isn't viable, Tom selects Disqualify from the command bar and chooses a reason: Lost, Can't Contact, No Longer Interested, or Canceled. The lead moves to an inactive state—it can't be edited but remains in the system for historical recordkeeping. This distinction is important: records are inactivated, not deleted. This preserves the history of interactions and enables reactivation if circumstances change.
If a disqualified lead later becomes viable again—for example, a lead marked No Longer Interested reaches out months later with renewed interest—you can reactivate it. Change the view to Closed Leads, open the lead record, and select Reactivate Lead from the command bar. The lead returns to an open state and can be worked again.
Note
When you qualify a lead, the created opportunity, account, and contact records inherit information from the lead. If key fields on the lead are incomplete or incorrect, the resulting records reflect those gaps. Ensure lead records are accurate before qualification.
Manage lead status
A lead's status helps identify where it is in the qualification process. Dynamics 365 Sales uses three statuses:
- Open – Lead is currently being pursued
- Qualified – Lead was closed with a qualified status and converted to an opportunity
- Disqualified – Lead was closed with a disqualified status
Within the Open status, status reasons provide more context about the lead's current state. By default, the Open status has two status reasons: New (lead hasn't been contacted) and Contacted (lead has been reached). Organizations can tailor the available status reasons based on their needs using the Power Apps maker portal. Navigate to Tables > Lead > Columns and select the Status Reason column. Select the status you want and modify the transitions associated with it.
Now that you understand how to manage leads through their lifecycle—from initial assignment to qualification or disqualification—you're ready to explore how predictive lead scoring uses AI to prioritize which leads to work first.