Non-Client Contact Management

Howdy, folks.

I'm a new Zoho user, still evaluating the platform considering jumping over from Agile. We've brought over a core data set for experimentation, but due to the nature of our operations and differences in how Agile and Zoho manage data, I could use some help figuring a few things out.

First, a bit about our business. We're in the consumer electronics sector, and focused primarily as a B2B, so our paradigm is NOT on ' deals' (a transnational focus) but on the process of identifying, qualifying and converting prospects to accounts, which are relationship focused. Obviously, the 'deal' paradigm of Agile which forces you to treat an opportunity on a transactional basis and mandates a numeric value for a prospect (which is not always possible and not even relevant to our process) does not well suit us, thus the search for a replacement.

I know how to use the 'leads' function, and convert to a contact and account. However, our business is probably like yours where we have many relationships OTHER than customers which we need to manage.

I'd be interested to understand how you guys handle:
Vendor contacts (suppliers and consultants)
Press / Media contacts (advertising, press releases, etc.)
Trade Partners (companies with whom we co-market or collaborate)
Dormant opportunities (leads that are 'zombies' - not quite dead, but might come to life at any moment)

Thanks in advance!