have you given them permission to create contacts? it is at the bottom of the access rights screen

i do not why but when you give rights to a user in the user access tab, there is no any result. i had to go to settings --> security --> res.partner company and add the group sales manager manualy also i added the same to all leads it is embarassing but is seems the setting do pass to the record rules. some kind of bug

We notice the same problem in v9.

As Admin we tried to setup the group permissions as follows, which unfortunately didn't do much to solve the problem.
https://www.evernote.com/l/AY0ybQaPcclNoI4lh_CiVlDcAVKQFyhjRNoB/image.png

Also, something strange to notice is that no other sales-people could be selected (other than myself) while attempting to setup the new Contact.

https://www.evernote.com/l/AY1q8WMgK1tNyI091FVTY0GapDf6RSZYdAwB/image.png

Has anyone cracked it in the meanwhile? Anyone from odoo could comment (for v9)?

Thanks, euroblaze

Check the user permissions, under settings > access rights