What this operation supports in Copper
Creates a new lead, Copper's term for an unqualified prospect that hasn't yet been promoted into a full Person and Opportunity record, accepting a name, company, and contact details.
Implementation details
A lead exists as its own separate record type rather than a lightweight version of a Person -- it has its own status field and only becomes a Person (and optionally an Opportunity) once it's explicitly converted.
Operational considerations
This separation keeps unqualified inbound prospects out of the main People and Opportunities pipelines until someone decides they're worth pursuing, which matters for keeping pipeline reporting focused on genuinely qualified contacts.
Use cases
Scenarios include capturing form submissions, marketing automation lead captures, and CRM onboarding from partner systems.