Keeping Lead Data When Converting Leads to Contact and Accounts

QUESTION:

I want to use Lead Conversion, but I need to keep certain data from the Lead vs. what is on the existing Contact/Account, is that possible?

ANSWER:

By default DemandTools uses Salesforce conversion code to perform the actual conversion. There is not an option to "custom" convert or combine data when converting Leads like there is with Single Table Deduplication. Information from the Lead is inserted only into blank fields; Salesforce does not overwrite existing Account and Contact data.

However, AFTER converting the Leads in the Lead Conversion module, the Contacts/Accounts that the Leads were converted to can be updated with data that was on the Lead.

To do this, after performing the conversions:

1. 1.  Use MassEffect to export all the Lead fields from the newly converted Leads (or the specific fields you are most concerned with, e.g. address fields).
   • Use the following conditions in the where clause:
     • Isconverted = True
     • Last Modified Date = Today
     • Last Modified By = the user that ran the Lead to Contact/Lead to Account
     • For “Fields to Download” be sure to include:
       • ConvertedContactID
       • ConvertedAccountID
2. Use that exported spreadsheet and MassEffect to update the matching fields on the Contact and Account records.  This will require 2 passes, one for Accounts and one for Contacts. The ID matching will be:
   • ConvertedContactID -> Id (on the contact table)
   • ConvertedAccountID -> Id (on the account table)

When mapping the fields will also have the option to just perform an update on the fields, but also to merge text area, long area text, multi-select picklist and True/False fields. ANY blank field values in the input file (i.e. Lead fields) will be ignored by default so contact/account fields WILL NOT be overwritten with a blank from the Lead.

NOTE:  ALL of these operations can be scheduled, so although this process requires multiple jobs they could all be scheduled to run automatically.

• Lead Conversion
• MassEffect Export (converted Leads)
• MassEffect Update Accounts
• MassEffect Update Contacts