Ottili HQ

Leads and qualification

How Ottili HQ captures and qualifies leads: the first business contact in the lead-to-cash flow, from lead through prospect to deal — company-scoped and supported by Ottili AI and Flows.

Overview

In Ottili HQ a lead* is the first business contact before it is qualified: a person or organization showing interest in your offer but not yet assessed as a concrete sales opportunity. Qualification* is the step where you decide whether a lead becomes a qualified prospect and eventually a deal. Leads and their qualification are the entry point to the Ottili HQ lead-to-cash flow — from the first inquiry to the collected payment in a single company-scoped workspace.

Every lead is bound to your [company context](/docs/company-and-team). What you create in Ottili HQ stays inside your company boundary and is not visible to other companies.

What a lead is in Ottili HQ

A lead* is an early business contact — not yet qualified. In Ottili HQ a lead is its own lead-to-cash record type, alongside companies, contacts, deals, quotes, orders, invoices, open items and payments. Leads are part of the Ottili HQ offering (status: available) and are company-scoped.

Unqualified lead*: first inquiry, not yet assessed for fit and intent.
Prospect*: a qualified potential customer you assign a concrete sales opportunity to.
Customer*: an active business relationship, once the first deal is won.

Leads typically originate from a [company and its contacts](/docs/companies-and-contacts) or are created automatically from marketplace orders (see [Connect an integration](/docs/connect-an-integration)).

The qualification step

Qualification means: you check whether a lead meets the bar for a real sales opportunity and promote it from lead* to prospect*. Typical qualification questions:

Need*: does the organization have a concrete problem Ottili ONE solves?
Authority*: is the contact the right person in the company?
Fit*: does the interest match the products and services you offer?

A qualified lead becomes a prospect and can be converted into a deal*. Once the first deal is won, the prospect becomes a customer. Status labels follow the canonical Ottili ONE maturity vocabulary — from *Concept* through *Beta* to *Live*. Where labels appear is explained in [Understand feature status labels](/docs/understand-feature-status-labels).

Leads in the lead-to-cash flow

Leads are not isolated: they anchor the whole chain. In Ottili HQ these lead-to-cash records are available:

Customers* (companies) and contacts*
Leads* and deals*
Quotes* and orders*
Invoices* and open items*
Payments*

A qualified lead becomes a deal; a quote is created from the deal; an order from the quote; an invoice from the order; open items and payments show what is still due and what has been collected — all in the same company context. For the full flow see [What is Ottili ONE?](/docs/what-is-ottili-one).

Capture and qualify leads

How you work with leads in Ottili HQ:

1. Create a lead*: capture it from an existing [company and contact](/docs/companies-and-contacts) or create it directly.

2. Qualify*: assess need, authority and fit, and promote the lead to prospect.

3. Convert to a deal*: link the qualified lead to a deal and start the sales opportunity.

4. Automatically from marketplaces*: [Marketplace Connect](/docs/connect-an-integration) creates new customers and leads automatically from marketplace orders.

Supporting qualification with Ottili AI and Flows

Leads work with the other Ottili products:

Ottili AI* summarizes a lead's history, drafts replies and suggests follow-ups — always approval-first and only within your company context.
Ottili Flows* automates follow-up tasks and qualification steps, for example triggered by events on the lead record. Build one in [Build a flow](/docs/build-a-flow).
Ottili Files* stores documents attached to the lead, deal or contact — stored once, available to AI, Flows and LD3.

Data isolation and permissions

Every lead is company-scoped. Access is controlled by your company's roles and permissions; sensitive actions (replying to customers, purchasing, publishing) go through the approval queue. Your business relationship stays inside one company boundary and remains auditable.

[Companies and contacts](/docs/companies-and-contacts)
[What is Ottili ONE?](/docs/what-is-ottili-one)
[Company and team](/docs/company-and-team)
[Build a flow](/docs/build-a-flow)
[Connect an integration](/docs/connect-an-integration)
[Understand feature status labels](/docs/understand-feature-status-labels)

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