Record basic details of an Enquiry (or sometimes referred to as a Lead, or an Unqualified Lead) so it can be captured quickly and qualified and processed later.
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Once qualified, these records can then be converted into an Opportunity (a qualified sales Opportunity), or a Problem (if the enquiry was really about getting support or customer service). If there's no immediate or qualified sales opportunity, but this is a valid prospect that you want to continue marketing to. then the Enquiry can be converted into just a Contact and/or Company record. Alternatively of course a fake, nonsense or qualified out Enquiry can just be discarded.

Enquiries have fewer rules about what you can input than an Opportunity. For example, it can contain duplicated or blank information in any field, so is perfect for quickly recording information - without worrying about pre-qualifying the opportunity, potential duplicates or other data validation activities.

To create a new Enquiry, use the Global Create and select 'Enquiry' from the drop-down.

Next, add information about the Enquiry where possible. All of these fields are optional to complete, so even if you just know the phone number or just the email address, the Enquiry can still be created.

Note: The Opportunity Source Type can be specified when creating an Enquiry with no associated Campaign Activity, and a default can be specified on the Enquiry Form. Additionally, the “Other source” free text field can be mapped to a field on an Enquiry Form, so this can be recorded based on user input.

Once happy with your changes, click 'Create'.

Once the Enquiry is created, you can still make changes to the record. For example, if you discover the person's Last Name once you've phoned them, you could update the record with this information.

If an Enquiry progresses and now needs a sales pipeline to manage its progress, a support/problem ticket raising, or simply a new Contact in the system, select 'Convert'.

From here, you can choose to create a new Contact or Company, or assign this to an existing Contact or Company in the CRM to avoid duplicate records. You can also create a new Opportunity/Problem from scratch, or assign it to an existing Opportunity/Problem that's already being worked on. However, you can convert an Enquiry to a Contact or Company without creating an Opportunity/Problem.

Converting an Enquiry marks it as 'Inactive'. You can still access inactive Enquiries through the Enquiries page. Simply select the Filters and remove the Status Flag filter, or change it to "Active".

For more information on filtering your data, take a look at this guide.

Alternatively, you can choose to delete this Enquiry by clicking 'Discard'.

You can easily unlink an Enquiry that has been converted by mistake, or if you wish to link it to a different record.

Navigate to the Enquiry Report here or via the navigation menu. Open the filter menu using the three-dots (further options menu).

Change the default filter to show 'Is Not > Active'. This will now show you all Enquires which are linked. Find the Enquiry you need to unlink.

On the Enquiry page, navigate to the Status section and click the 'Unlink' button.

By unlinking an Enquiry, you'll remove the connection to the record created when converting. It won't alter or delete the record which was already made and will place the Enquiry back into the status of New.

Want to automatically create CRM Enquiries from form fills on your website? Check out this guide on Enquiry Web Forms to learn how visitors can submit a form and automatically register their Enquiry in the CRM!