Proper role of Prospects?

What function is a Prospect supposed to serve in the ERPNext CRM module?

Is a Prospect just a way of linking multiple Leads together? This seems similar to an “Account” in other CRM systems.

1 Like

I think you’re somewhat misunderstanding ERPNext’s methodology as far as Leads/Contacts goes (or perhaps I am).

The Contact DocType isn’t there to function as part of the CRM module. In fact, the Contact DocType actually exists in Frappe, not in ERPNext.

The Contact DocType exists to create a record of a person, irrespective of any sort of context. For example, the Contact could be linked to an employee, a vendor/distributor, or to any combination of other records, or to no other record types at all.

Think about the Contact DocType like “Contacts” in your cellphone. You probably have contacts in your phone that are your co-workers, your family, stores that you purchase from, etc.

In the Context of the CRM, most of the time, sales should be working from the Lead/Prospect/Opportunity DocTypes.

One of the problems with ERPNext’s CRM is that you can either have it create a Contact for every Lead, or never have it automatically create a Contact from Leads. I’ve made my own app that will only create Contacts if the Lead has a First Name, Last Name, and either a phone number or email address. This keeps a bunch of nameless contacts from getting created, since a Contact that’s just a name isn’t very useful.

Hello @oguruma

Yip you’re perfectly correct with regard to a Contact and that is precisely how I also understand it.

I’m not sure why you thought I do not see it as such?