Lead to Contact

Lead to Contact

This has been asked before, but I can't seem to find a good resolution. 

When I get mail, the sender gets placed in CRM as a "Lead". If that person is not a lead (e.g. a partner company), I still want them in my contacts. 

  1. How can I move that "Lead" to a "Contact"? 
  2. If I delete the lead and manually create the contact, will I lose all my history with that person?

It seems silly not to be able to "downgrade" a lead...

Thanks,
Lee