Salesforce Account & Contact Data - Build The Tree

Salesforce is amazing at many things…

·  Creating a collective database

·  Crunching the numbers to desired outcomes

·  Driving users into their system of record

·  Acquiring and integrating great technology

·  Industry-focused larger problem solving

Let’s start with the basics. What is a CRM?  Customer Relationship Management. The human element, be it the users or the customers, is the quintessential element in a CRM. Without that, then what are you managing?  For Salesforce the term CRM has broadened out to engulf every department & factor in the customer’s journey.  Here is a great video highlighting Salesforce’s vision - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlhESAKF1Tk

It is in that relationship element of Salesforce that has an opportunity for improvement. It's not the fault of the smart people at Salesforce working to build a better tomorrow. There are a great many things to do in the CRM space. The opportunity is to improve on the relationship(s) in the context of the Sales, Customer Success, and Business Development engagement via Sales Cloud. Relationships are not with accounts but instead with people.  These people are stored in Salesforce as contacts at accounts.  Below is an example of how Salesforce views the contacts and accounts.  The related list lacks context, interaction, and ultimately the tie back to the goal.

Sales and Sales Leadership conduct a daily dance on how they would like things to work and what strategy they are going to pursue in the context of the lists provided

There is a better way to ensure the contacts are set up to be represented in the context of the position they hold at their company.  The hierarchy will provide context across departments and drive data cleanliness at both the account and contact level(s).

How can I set up a hierarchy in Salesforce?

1) In Sales cloud, Salesforce has some standard fields that users should have access to

a. Account level hierarchy by the “Parent Account” field

b. Contact level hierarchy by the “Reports To” field

2) Once set up you can view the contacts in context or invest in an AppExchange application like Squivr.com to provide a more robust experience. 

3) Consume & use, interaction, collaborate & action are the goal(s)

a. Consume – If users are using TikTok, YouTube, Uber, & Venmo in their personal lives they expect a similar experience in their professional lives as well.  The contact & account interaction needs to be intuitive and as easy to use

b. Interaction – Any Salesforce user knows that it takes time to update Salesforce. Consolidate the user’s workflow and increase adoption and satisfaction 

c. Collaborate – Users must feel free to connect, interact, & take action across the company’s departments

Salesforce data can be very valuable the better you get the foundations of your Salesforce experience the better off adoption, value, and user experience will become.