Hello,

My sales pipeline is as follows:

1. We start with a list of prospects (with postal addresses).

2. The sales person rings each one to qualifiy, then if appropriate, sends them a free sample of one of our products.

3. 1 week later, the salesperson phones back to follow-up and gets an order over the phone at that point.

For this to work effectively, we need to have the addresses of the leads in the system from the beginning, so the salesperson doesn't have to waste time entering them once the lead becomes qualified. Openerp's handling of addresses in the leads does not seem very effective at the moment, with the lead needing a partner and contact associated with it.

Is there anyway I can send a sample to the prospect without making them a full partner? Also I don't want to be filling out sales orders/invoices for just one free sample when we send out so many.

The other way I can think of is to enter all of the prospects initially as partners, and then create a case to manage the sales. But at the end of the cycle, when all the leads are closed, I need to be able to distinguish between those partners who converted to customers, and those who weren't interested.

If anyone can give me some advice on directions to look at for implementing the above, I'd be very greatful.

Joe