Leads are the sales enquiries which come into a business and therefore would typically be processed by either Salespeople ("General" User Type) in a business or else Administrators.
Orders are the Customer Orders which a business has with its customers and therefore would typically be processed by Admin / Operations staff. Orders can either be "one-off" / standalone orders, or "Contracts" if they are for an ongoing service / longer fulfilment period and possibly recur on regular basis, for example annual renewal etc.
Depending on how a business operates, a Lead can progress into an Order once a customer has placed an order, or alternatively, an order could be fully contained and completed within a Lead if you wished by setting up the Workflow accordingly.
Not all business will require Lead working, or Lead and Order working - it very much depends on things such as the size and structure of your business as well as the volumes of leads you process and complexity of your sales order process etc.
If you are not sure whether you need to setup Leads and Orders then our advice would to be leave this area for now and focus instead on recording and scheduling all your Activities in the Customer area first as this is the best place to start out and then add Leads / Contracts at a later stage if required.
What are benefits of using Leads and Workflows?
Using Lead and Workflows has multiple benefits, such as:
Ensures that a consistent sales process is followed for all Leads.
Guides your staff through all steps involved in the process of taking a Lead through the sales process and therefore helps training with new starters.
Enables all internal users to see exactly which stage all Leads are at in the sales process and therefore have great visibility of the “sales pipeline” which enables accurate forecasting to be made for sales revenues and volumes etc.
Gives managers and business owners accurate data to determine which staff are performing best.
What are benefits of using Orders and Workflows?
Using Orders and Workflows has multiple benefits, such as:
Ensures that a consistent process is followed for all Orders.
Guides your staff through all steps involved in the process of taking an order through the entire process and therefore helps training with new starters.
Enables all internal users to see exactly which stage all Orders are at in the sales process and therefore have great visibility of the “order pipeline” which enables accurate forecasting to be made for revenues and volumes etc.
Gives managers and business owners accurate data to determine which staff are performing best.