Lab 2 - Manage leads in Dynamics 365 Sales

Contoso Coffee just returned from FoodService Summit Denver, a three-day food service and hospitality industry trade show. Their booth team collected 47 business cards and badge scans from prospects interested in upgrading their commercial coffee and espresso equipment. Those contacts are currently sitting in a spreadsheet on the event manager's laptop — not in Dynamics 365, not assigned to any rep, and not being followed up on.

This is exactly the scenario Priya described when she said "leads fall through the cracks." In this lab, you'll fix that. You'll create leads manually, import a batch of leads from a CSV file, review them with Copilot, and qualify the most promising one to create an opportunity.

This lab should take approximately 35 minutes to complete.

Before you start

You need to be signed in to Sales Hub. If you haven't completed Lab 01, make sure you have at least signed in to your environment (Lab 00).

Task 1: Create a lead manually

After a rep named Jordan Park left the conference floor, they typed a quick note about a conversation they had with a prospect named Maya Torres from Northwind Traders. You'll capture that as a lead.

  1. In Sales Hub, select Leads in the left navigation.

  2. Select + New on the command bar.

  3. Fill in the following fields on the main form:

    • Topic: Commercial espresso machine lease - 12 locations
    • First Name: Maya
    • Last Name: Torres
    • Job Title: Director of Operations
    • Business Phone: +1 (972) 555-0143
    • Company: Northwind Traders
    • Email: maya@northwindtraders.com

  4. In the record header above the Business process flow bar, select the chevron (˅) next to the Owner field to expand the header details. Then set:

    • Lead Source: Trade Show
    • Rating: Hot

  5. Select the Details tab and fill in:

    • Description: Met at FoodService Summit Denver. Northwind Traders is upgrading their coffee program across all 12 restaurant locations. Decision expected within 60 days. Budget is approved. Wants a site visit next week.
    • Industry: Eating and Drinking Places
    • Annual Revenue: 85000000
    • No. of Employees: 450

  6. Select Save on the command bar. If you receive the duplicate record warning, select Ignore and save.

    Dynamics 365 creates the lead record. Notice the Business process flow bar at the top showing the lead in the Qualify stage.

  7. Select Qualify to immediately open the lead qualification dialog, but don't complete it yet. You'll qualify this lead in Task 4 after working with the import.

Task 2: Import leads from a CSV file

Jordan collected 47 cards at the conference, but you'll work with a small representative sample. You'll import five leads at once using Dynamics 365's CSV import feature.

Prepare the import file

  1. Open a plain text editor (such as Notepad) on your computer.

  2. Copy and paste the following content exactly as shown:

    First Name,Last Name,Job Title,Company Name,Email,Business Phone,Lead Source,Rating,Industry,Number of Employees,Topic
Daniel,Nguyen,VP of Operations,Litware Inc.,daniel@litwareinc.com,+1 (216) 555-0198,Trade Show,Hot,Hotels and Motels,1200,Commercial espresso machine lease - 18 hotel properties
Aisha,Patel,Facilities Manager,Coho Winery,aisha@cohowinery.com,+1 (206) 555-0112,Trade Show,Warm,Eating and Drinking Places,85,Commercial coffee maker - tasting room and restaurant
Marcus,Webb,General Manager,Relecloud,marcus@relecloud.com,+1 (512) 555-0177,Trade Show,Warm,Hotels and Motels,320,Espresso machine upgrade - lobby café and restaurant
Sofia,Mendez,Director of Operations,VanArsdel Ltd.,sofia@vanarsdelltd.com,+1 (617) 555-0165,Trade Show,Cold,Eating and Drinking Places,2400,Service and maintenance contract renewal - 8 locations
Ben,Andrews,Facilities Director,Tailspin Toys,ben@tailspintoys.com,+1 (303) 555-0133,Trade Show,Hot,Durable Manufacturing,680,Corporate campus espresso machine lease - 3 locations

  3. Save the file as foodservice-summit-leads.csv in a location you can easily find (such as your Desktop). In the Save As dialog, set Save as type to All Files — otherwise Notepad adds a .txt extension and the import will fail.

Import the file

  1. Select the Settings gear icon in the top navigation bar, then select Advanced settings.

  2. In the System section, select Data Management, then select Imports.

  3. Select + Import data on the command bar.

  4. In the import wizard, select Choose file and browse to the foodservice-summit-leads.csv file you saved. Select Next.

  5. On the Review file upload summary page, confirm the defaults are set as follows, then select Next:

    • Data delimiter: Quotation mark (")
    • Field delimiter: Comma (,)
    • First row contains column headings: checked
    • Allow duplicates: off

  6. On the Map record types page, leave Data map templates set to Default (Automatic mapping). In the Entity mapping dropdown, select Lead, then select Next.

  7. On the Map fields page, confirm the following mappings, then select Next:

    • Last Name: Last Name
    • Topic: Topic
    • Business Phone: Business Phone
    • Company Name: Company Name
    • Email: Email
    • First Name: First Name
    • Industry: Industry (Option set — leave all option mappings as default)
    • Lead Source: Lead Source (Option set — leave all option mappings as default)
    • Number of Employees: No. of Employees
    • Rating: Rating (Option set — leave all option mappings as default)

  8. Select Next.

  9. Select Finish.

  10. You're still in Advanced Settings. Wait on the Imports page and select the Refresh button on the command bar after about 30 seconds. When the import finishes, check the Successes and Errors columns.

[!NOTE] If you see any errors, check the Errors column for details. The duplicate detection rule you configured in Lab 01 will block any leads whose company name matches an existing record in your environment.

  1. Return to Sales Hub by selecting the app switcher or navigating back to your Sales Hub URL.

  2. In Sales Hub, select Leads in the left navigation.

  3. On the command bar, select Read-only grid to switch to the grid view.

  4. Search for one of the names from your CSV file (such as Ben Andrews) to confirm the imported leads appear in the list.

[!NOTE] If the leads don't appear immediately, wait another 30 seconds and refresh again.

Task 3: Review leads and use Copilot insights

Now that the leads are in the system, you'll use Copilot to review one of the hot leads before deciding whether to qualify it.

  1. Select Ben Andrews from the leads list to open his record.

  2. At the top of the lead form, locate the Copilot Summary section. Read the summary generated for Ben's lead — it should highlight key details such as his role, company size, topic, and lead source.

  3. On Ben's lead record, scroll to the Timeline section. Select + and choose Phone Call to log a planned call.

  4. In the Quick Create form:

    • Subject: Discovery call - equipment consultation
    • Direction: Outgoing
    • Description: Follow up from FoodService Summit Denver. Confirm equipment needs and site count.
    • Duration: 30 minutes

  5. Select Save and close.

    The call activity now appears in Ben's timeline, making it visible to anyone on Jordan's team who might cover for them.

Task 4: Qualify a lead

Maya Torres is a hot lead with a confirmed budget and an accelerated timeline. It's time to qualify her and create an opportunity.

  1. Select the back button to return to the Leads view. Remove any filters.

  2. Select Maya Torres from the leads list to open her record.

  3. Review the lead details to make sure they're complete. Then select Qualify on the business process flow.

  4. In the Qualify Lead dialog, fill in the following fields:

    • Existing Account?: Select Northwind Traders — they should already be an account in the system, so you can look up the record.
    • Existing Contact?: Select + New. In the Quick Create form, Maya's information populates. Select Save and Close.
    • Purchase timeframe: This quarter
    • Estimated budget: 150000

  5. Select Qualify from the command bar.

    Dynamics 365 links three records automatically: the Account for Northwind Traders, a Contact for Maya Torres, and an Opportunity pre-populated with the lead's details. The lead itself is marked as Qualified and closed.

  6. You'll be redirected to the new Opportunity record. Confirm that the opportunity information shows:

    • Topic: Commercial espresso machine lease - 12 locations
    • Account: Northwind Traders (this is in the header, next to the Owner field)

    You'll work with this opportunity more in Lab 05.

You've successfully created a lead manually, imported a batch of leads from a trade show, used Copilot to review a lead, and qualified the hottest lead into an opportunity. Priya's second requirement — a standardized lead lifecycle — is in place.