Use What You Pay For in Salesforce
With all the bells and whistles you get out-of-the box with Salesforce, it’s easy to miss some of the hidden gems that also come standard but aren’t automatically enabled or need a little attention to get up and running. Make sure you are getting the most out of your investment in Salesforce by leveraging these awesome Salesforce features.
1.
Web-to-Lead and Web-to-Case
Available on: GE, PE, EE, UE, PXE
With a few clicks, you can generate the HTML code to add to a lead or case form on your website and have that information pushed directly into Salesforce. You can do this on standard or custom fields and can then apply assignment rules to route the incoming Leads or Cases to the appropriate owner.
2.
Forecasts
Available on: PE (No Opp Splits), EE, UE, PXE
Forecasts allow you to predict and plan the sales cycle based on a rollup of Opportunities. The Opportunities are segmented into 4 forecast categories (Pipeline, Best Case, Commit, Closed) which updates automatically as the stage progresses. The Opportunities are also segmented by date range based on the Close Date. Then for the summed amount, you have a few different options: 1) Opportunity Amount (Revenue) 2) Opportunity Quantities 3) Opportunity Splits (Revenue) 4) Product Families (Revenue, Quantity, or both).
3.
Field History
Available on: CM, GE, PE, EE, UE, PXE
Track changes on up to 20 fields per object by capturing the prior value, the user, and the date/time of the change. You can then run reports on the historical data to audit changes or refer back to data at a certain point in time.
4.
Dynamic Dashboards
Available on: EE, UE, PXE
Say you need a Sales Pipeline dashboard, which should show an individual just their Opportunities and pipeline data. Rather than creating a dashboard for each of your users, Dynamic Dashboards allow you to define the running user for the dashboard as the logged in user. As long as your report components are filtered with a ‘My’ or ‘My Team’ filter, each user will then only see his/her relevant records.
5.
Feed-Based Page Layouts
Available on: EE, UE, PXE
The Feed-Based Layout option allows you to split Chatter information and Record Details into 2 tabs. This allows Chatter to have even more features on record pages (like Feed Filters) while not taking up space on the record detail page.
6.
Record Types
Available on: EE, UE, PXE
Record Types allow you to offer different business processes, picklist values, and page layouts either on a user basis (by Profile) or record basis (Net New Opps vs. Upsell Opps).
7.
Mobile
Available on: CM, GE, PE, EE, UE, PXE
The latest mobile sensation sweeping the nation is Salesforce1 and its sidekick SalesforceA. Access and update Salesforce data from an interface that is optimized for navigating and working on a touchscreen mobile device.
8.
Workflow Rules
Available on: EE, UE, PXE
Workflow rules allow you to trigger additional actions when certain criteria is met. The automated actions can be field updates, email alerts, task assignment, and outbound messages. For example, every time an Opportunity has the Close Date pushed to the future, you want to increment a custom field called “Push Counter” for reporting and auditing.
9.
Data.com Search
Available on: PE, EE, UE, PXE
Even without the additional purchase of Data.com’s Clean or Prospector license, you can still perform a basic search in Data.com to find additional accounts, contacts, or leads and then manually add those records to Salesforce.
10.
Joined Reports
Available on: EE, UE, PXE
Joined reports allow you to include several different report types (or even multiples of the same report type) in one report with a common field uniting them and providing the grouping level. For example, you may want a way to show Accounts with the current Open Opportunities and Open Cases side by side.
11.
CRM Content and Libraries
Available on: CM, GE, PE, EE, UE, PXE
Share, search, version, and store important company documents in Salesforce using CRM Content. Then, organize and segment your content within Libraries to provide access to certain users or groups with varying rights in the Library. Preview files directly in Salesforce, refer to past versions, comment, and subscribe all without downloading anything. You can also allow your staff to create content packs within Salesforce, which is a grouping of multiple pieces of content, delivered to customer via URL link so you can track if it was opened, password protect it, and even prevent downloading.
12.
Tagging and Chatter Topics
Available on: CM, GE, PE, EE, UE, PXE
Both personal Tags and Chatter Topics allow users to quickly add key words to a record for later reference. Tags create a sidebar shortcut and tagged records can be displayed in a format similar to Global Search results. Topics, on the other hand, are tied more closely to Chatter, can be favorited, and searched. Each option can allow users to store helpful information on the record that doesn’t fit into a current field.
13.
Scheduled Reports and Dashboards
Reports available on: PE, EE, UE, PXEDashboards available on: EE, UE, PXE
You can email a report or dashboard to Users or Groups on a Daily, Weekly, or Monthly basis. This is a great way to automatically keep you and your team on top of your data.
14.
Stay In Touch
Available on: CM, GE, PE, EE, UE, PXE
Stay-in-touch requests allow you to send an email out to customers with a summary of their contact details to verify. If changes are needed, the customer can click a link in the email to provide the updates which the Contact owner then accepts and clicks a link to update.
15.
AppExchange Apps
In addition to all the great features available out-of-the-box, there are thousands of Apps (free and paid) on the AppExchange which can further enhance your Salesforce experience. From duplicate prevention to DocuSign integration, the sky is the limit.
If you have any questions about these features or would like assistance implementing them, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Follow Outbox Systems on Twitter to receive updates as we continue the “Use What You Pay For” series. Each week we will drill into one of these features and provide a short demonstration along with setup and configuration instructions.
*CM: Contact Manager, GE: Group Edition, PE: Professional Edition, EE: Enterprise Edition, UE: Unlimited Edition, PXE: Performance Edition
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