CRMD Blog

To better illustrate what field dependencies are, below are terminology as defined by Salesforce Trailhead that may be handy for some of our viewers.

Picklists – “A selection of options available for specific fields in a Salesforce object, such as a list of regions.“

Picklist Values – “Single value from a list of options rather than make an entry directly in the field“

Field Dependencies – “Filters that allow us to change the contents of a picklist based on the value of another field.“

Stay tuned for our next webinar on Thursday March 8th, 2019. Subscribe to CRMD’s Youtube Channel to watch our complete playlist of Salesforce tutorials.  Get answers to all of your CRM needs for you and your business. If you found this content helpful, let us know! Leave a comment with your questions or suggestions for future videos.

John Pontius is a Business Analyst with CRMD and has worked in the Salesforce platform as a Sales Manager and Administrator for over six years. He  holds his Salesforce Administrator, Advanced Administrator, Sales Cloud Consultant and Platform App Builder Certifications and finds particular joy in helping clients eliminate repetitive, time-sucking actions through automation.  

John Pontius is a Business Analyst with CRMD and has worked in the Salesforce platform as a Sales Manager and Administrator for over six years. He  holds his Salesforce Administrator, Advanced Administrator, Sales Cloud Consultant and Platform App Builder Certifications and finds particular joy in helping clients eliminate repetitive, time-sucking actions through automation.  

Tweaks to Lightning Experience & Salesforce Classic

Spring 2019 introduces the new Lightning Flow Builder, a drag-and-drop functionality with a simplified toolbox. The Flow Builder will be the default for all orgs, and no migration is needed.

Other smaller changes we can soon expect is Pinned List View, which makes any list the default view, Subtabs and Pop-out utilities in the Lightning console window as well as the ability to clone sandboxes and simpler user email addresses format.

It’s clear in Salesforce recent announcement that the company is keen on globalization. This release includes new question type, targeted invitations, custom reports, and link expiration in addining to improved translation for Surveys.

CPQ & Salesforce Billing

Salesforce has expanded CPQ & Billing flexibility with usage-based pricing and consumption schedule. In Pardot Advance, users now have access to the Einstein Behavior Scoring, which is based on prospect engagement activities.

Lightning Scheduler & Dialer

With Lightning Scheduler introduced, the ability to set appointments, office hours and required attendees is now easily accessible in the console. Available for Enterprise and Unlimited editions at an extra cost, Lightning Scheduler and Lightning dialer personalizes appointments and auto-create records.

New in Quip

New live apps for this release include the ability to directly embed from Box and Dropbox with Filesharing and placing live Salesforce data inside quip documents with Salesforce Record live app. In addition, the new Quip Document Lightning Component allows edit/comment/embed options on live documents, spreadsheets, and slides. Quip Slides connect live data and charts with team-based slide presentations and Task Drawer helps consolidate list of all user assigned tasks.

Community Cloud in Salesforce Spring Release

Create custom-branded apps for iOS & Android with pre-built components using the Mobile Publisher for Community Cloud.

Partner Account Relationships will enable point-to-point sharing of select information from a lead or opportunity between partner types, such as distributors and resellers.

Reuse components and design libraries built with 3rd-party UI frameworks using the Lightning Container Component.

Critical Updates.

Beginning February 2019, Salesforce classic will be sent out to the pasture. All innovations will transition to Lightning Experience. The Migration tool is available to move from Classic to Lightning Knowledge. This transition introduces a name change, as Lightning Component are now called an Aura Component. Aura Components and Lightning Web Components work in conjunction as part of the Lightning Component framework. Another item set to retire: Customizable Forecasting.

These steps are repeated again and again and again all throughout the day by sales reps. across the country. Whether they’re prepping for a cold call or checking for updates about an existing customer, a quick Google search will provide quick, reliable information.

But over time, these steps can bog a sales person down. Using the 17.2 second estimate above, a sales rep. tasked with placing 100 outbound calls per day would spend 28 minutes per day clicking through to search Google. That adds up to over 2 hours a week, without even factoring in any user errors or external distractions. Apply this across a team of sales people and that’s hours of time spent on nothing more than clicks.

It’s time to streamline this.

The Salesforce platform was designed and is intended to be customized to meet each company’s unique business needs. Whether it’s routinely searching a company in Google, or pinpointing a customer’s headquarters on Google Maps, the platform can be tailored to streamline any process.

Let’s stick with this Google search example above. There are many ways to implement this in your user interface, but today we’ll explore creating a Custom Button or Link.

Custom buttons can be added to page layouts to let users interact with Salesforce data (Company Name) with external websites and services (Google).

For the above example, I’ve added a custom button to automatically search Google with whatever value is already listed in the “Company” field.

It’s a two-step process that involves creating the button and then placing it on the desired page layout.

 Step I: Creating the Custom Button

1. Click Setup
2. Type “Button” into “Quick Find / Search”
3. Under Leads, Click “Buttons, Links, and Actions”
4. Click “New Button or Link”
5. Create a Label (I chose Google Company Name)
6. As good practice, enter a description to let colleagues know the purpose of the button
7. Select the “Detail Page Button” radio button
8. For behavior, select how you would like the page to open for the end-user
9. Content Source should be URL
10. In the content box, paste the following link: http://google.com/#q={!Lead.Company}
11. Click the Check Syntax Box. If no errors are found, click Save and Press Ok.

Now the button is created and it’s time to place it on the lead detail page.

Step II: Place the Button on the Lead Detail Page

1. Click Setup
2. Enter “Page” into the Quick Find Search Box and Select “Page Layout” under leads
3. Select the Lead Layout page you’d like to add the button to and click “Edit”
4. From the selection box at the top, click “Buttons”
5. Click and drag your customized button onto the page layout. You will be able to place the button on the page box turns green.
6. Once placed, click save at the top

You should now have a custom button on your lead detail pages that will automatically search Google with the company name. By using the button, I was able to search Google in 2.1 seconds.  That saves a representative 15.1 seconds per record, completing the task in almost 1/10 of the time.

Is there a task you’d like to automate? Think about what’s bogging your team down and let us know. Chances are there’s a better way to do it and we at CRMD will help you find it.

John Pontius is a Business Analyst with CRMD and has worked in the Salesforce platform as a Sales Manager and Administrator for over six years. He  holds his Salesforce Administrator, Advanced Administrator, Sales Cloud Consultant and Platform App Builder Certifications and finds particular joy in helping clients eliminate repetitive, time-sucking actions through automation.