Lead and Customer Sources can be used to record and keep track of the various information sources for your sales opportunities.
Creating and editing sources
Administrators can configure these from Settings - Lead Sources.
A source can be enabled independently for customer and lead records. Click on an existing source name to edit it.
Click Create New Source on the left side if you want to define a new source.
For either action, the following can be set:
Enabled - Check to make this source available for use for all users.
Source - This is the source name.
Supported for Lead
Supported for Customer
Lead conversion to customer
If a source is marked as being applicable to leads only, it cannot be selected on a customer record. However, leads that have a lead-only source assigned will retain that source when the lead is converted to customer.
The source will continue to be set on the new customer record until another source is selected for the customer. After this is done, and the record saved, the customer record will only have access to customer-only sources.
This is only relevant if you need to amend the source on a customer record, for example, to correct a mistake.
Deactivating a source
If you mark a source as disabled, either with the Enabled check box or the specific customer / lead check box, any records with that source assigned will retain that source until another source is selected.
After this is done, and the record saved, the customer record will only have access to eligible and enabled statuses.
Practical uses
This means that temporary sources, such as events or campaigns, can be removed from your source list when they are no longer relevant. The source will be retained on any leads, customers, or opportunities that already have it set, but it will not be available to any new records.
This will help keep your source list manageable.
Lead-specific and customer-specific sources
It is important to remember that:
Lead Sources will be available to Leads and Lead Opportunities.
Customer Sources will be available to Customers and Customer Opportunities.
If you know that a particular source will be used only for new leads and associated opportunities, it may be beneficial to mark them as lead-only.
Similarly, if you have sources that you know will only apply to new opportunities for your established customer base, you can mark them as customer-only. This source will then be available to all new opportunities for existing customers.