I as integration, L as lead – Salesforce encyclopedia (I-L)

I as integration

It’s usually highly anticipated but its effects. Sometimes, you want to forget about what has happened. The effects can vary – concerning company integration parties but not when they refer to Salesforce integration 🙂 What we mean is the integration of tools built in the Salesforce technology with other tools (third-party systems) that the company has already been using. Is it possible to put everything together?

The answer is yes! Salesforce has built-in APIs that enable carrying out regular integrations with the most commonly used and popular solutions, for example, online shops or EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) systems. This API also enables less obvious integrations supporting a specific industry or customer’s business need. Usually, the limitations of such integration have their source in systems – the lack of possibility (or business purpose) to expose data online. However, there is also a solution to that, such as a file-based integration.

There’s something else – Salesforce is easy to extend. Once you’ve used an application based on the Salesforce Platform, you are aware that, along with the increase of business needs, you can extend it easily and add the next solutions (for example, from the Salesforce AppExchange store). To launch them, you don’t need additional integrations – they happen automatically. In addition, in the aforementioned app, you can find many pre-built connectors allowing you to connect third-party systems to Salesforce. Thanks to that, the project is simplified to a greater extent. What’s more, time and costs essential to its implementation are often reduced.

J as journey

Strictly speaking – the customer journey. An adventure with Salesforce usually starts from this journey, in other words, implementing Salesforce in the company. First things first, each, even the greatest journey starts with the first step 🙂

Imagine IT, marketing, sales or service managers considering implementing the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, from Salesforce, of course. What do they do? They switch on their laptop and take the first step! They enter Implementing Salesforce CRM into Google and then come across the Craftware webpage. From the homepage, they go to tabs, and perhaps, read an article or a case study. After some time, they come back to us and browse other content. Finally, after their initial online contact with Craftware, they, as our potential customers, meet personally with our sales department. Next emails, phone calls, and meetings result in signing a contract and implementing Salesforce.

In a nutshell, the customer had their customer journey and each of their contact with Craftware left a mark in our Salesforce ecosystem. Through the platform’s functionalities, we were able to monitor the customer’s activity, draw conclusions, help them to effectively choose a tool tailored to their needs, and bring them closer to the decision of its implementation. From that point, our customer, as the owner of the Salesforce tools, can easily create, monitor, and manage the customer journey of their customers.

K as knowledge

When it comes to looking for Salesforce knowledge, two sources come to mind first: Trailhead and Community Cloud. Very different, but also aimed at different audiences.

Trailhead is a Salesforce proprietary e-learning platform designed for individual learning of the Salesforce technology from the beginner level to more advanced elements. It’s a perfect place both for rookies who are just getting started with Salesforce, and more advanced users and administrators. Regardless of your specialization, thanks to Trailhead, everyone can broaden their knowledge and develop practical skills of navigating through the Platform. They can build competence in new areas and functionalities, and, at the same time, prove them by gaining badges and superbadges. By using Trailhead, you can also prepare for the certification exams.

Community Cloud is a product for companies allowing them to give certain groups (employees, partners, or customers) access to a specific branch of the system. It’s one of the most recognizable Salesforce cloud-based solutions besides Sales Cloud or Service Cloud. Community Cloud connects people – customers, partners, or company’s employees. It facilitates mutual communication, exchange of experiences, and sharing practical knowledge about Salesforce. Community Cloud allows creating a knowledge base – a place with information organized according to specific categories, for example, company’s products, carried out procedures, or frequently asked questions.

L as lead

What can CRM help you with? It depends on the department that uses the system, the position the user holds, and definitely, the user’s individual experience. It is so because not all CRM functionalities are equally helpful to all users. It is, however, very likely that lead management would be the most frequent answer to the aforementioned question. Leads, well, that’s… What does a lead mean in the sales process? This term is commonly used but also misused. Does it mean the same as a customer? As it is sometimes commonly considered to be that.

Each company has its model of cooperation with customers and rules of its qualifications onto subsequent sales stages. In addition, each company follows its procedures and applies a particular language or vocabulary. CRM helps companies to organize and structure this process for a particular system. In Salesforce CRM, you deal with a Lead at the initial stage of the sales process. It is a potential customer, that is, a person who can buy some product from us – our task is to take care of such a Lead and qualify them accordingly. During the subsequent stages of the customer lifecycle, the Lead turns into a business opportunity (purchasing process). It is associated with this person (Contact), and, sometimes, the company for which the process is implemented and where our Contact works (Account). Finally, after the successful closure of the business opportunity, we achieve the desired deal.

Of course, with both Salesforce CRM and other CRM systems, nothing magically happens by itself – as this is how some people imagine working with (and in) CRM. You need to feed CRM with data regularly – if we take care of it, CRM returns the favor by facilitating the transformation of a Lead into a deal. Feeding CRM with data doesn’t have to be an unwanted obligation – Salesforce offers many tips, clues, and support for its users. And what a sales team’s workday might look like when using Sales Cloud? Check it out!

The next entries will appear in the following part of the series. Stay tuned 🙂