Not every contact you meet will be a potential customer. They could become a supplier or someone that can introduce you to other people.
For these people, I thought a flag that said partner would be the solution. However, this gives partners a contact status. And how can a Partner also be a “lead”?
Having used Candid CRM for a couple of days, I now realise that “Partner” is not right, and the solution is obvious. Creating contact types of “Introducer” and “Supplier” solves the problem and will work with all the other reports and charts I intend to create.
The partner flag also looked wrong on the contacts screen as a filter. You have “partners”, “non-partners” and “both”. This is messy and confusing for the user.
“Partner” flag has gone, I am now trying the new “Introducer” and “Supplier” contact types and will add them to the user setup process if they work for me. If they don’t work for you, then you can delete them.
Another contact type I am considering is “Past Customer”. We all have customers that we have not heard from, but these should be treated differently from potentially new customers.