Salesforce User Training

If you are a user on the salesforce platform you probably have a large headache.

Salesforce is a really awesome tool however, you likely have never gotten good training from your company on how to use the tool. And that sucks!

One thing to note about salesforce is that it is very customizable. You can change so many things around.

So I have compiled a training that is a majority of the most common things you’ll come across in salesforce even with these customizations.

So I really hope that you learn a lot from this training.

User Training Course

Before we jump into the article I want to mention that if you like this post I have a full-length course that goes into more detail with the things you, as a user need to know.

I will leave the link to the udemy course here.

Youtube Video

The last item of housekeeping, I have this all in a youtube video so if it is a little easier for you to consume or understand please go ahead and watch the video!

Thanks!

User Training

So user training is essentially showing people how to use salesforce. Now, this isn’t using salesforce by creating the different fields or the different automations.

This is using salesforce to do a day-to-day job in sales, service, consulting, etc.. So there are loads of things that we could cover in this training.

However, out of all the things that I have trained on at various companies, these are the top ones that have made the biggest difference to the users.

These tools have saved them time, energy, and frustration!

So the things we will cover are:

• Creating a lead
• Converting a lead
• How contacts, accounts, opportunities, and leads are connected
• creating accounts
• how to create contacts
• creating opportunities
• filling fields as you work
• logging activities
• using links and record ids
• creating a report
• creating a list view

When you have all these tools under your belt you’ll be able to use salesforce as a super user. And when you run into issues you can feel confident going to an admin knowing that you’ve tried all that you can!

Create a Lead

First, let’s talk about leads. These are a great first place to start because they are typically the starting point of the sales process within the salesforce.

Leads hold information about potential clients or customers who aren’t quite in the sales process yet.

Let’s talk about an example really quick.

Imagine you are a video conferencing company tech company. So any time someone joins your video conference with your email they could become a lead.

However, if they like your video conferencing tools and decide they want to use it at their company, then they become an opportunity (or deal in the works).

This holds information like names, emails, phone numbers, companies, etc. These help us to understand things about the lead.

And later on if/when this lead converts, then this information will carry over for you to use and not duplicate that work.

So let’s move on to creating a lead.

First, you will start on the home page. This will typically be the page you see when you log in. So from here click on the leads tab in the top navigation menu.

Once you’ve clicked on that you will be taken to the recently viewed leads list view. You can change this by clicking on the down carrot next to the ‘recently viewed’ title.

Change this to whichever list view you would like to access and you’ll see different leads with different criteria.

Then once you’ve done that. You can look in the top right corner of the list view and click the new button. This will bring up a popup that allows you to enter in the new information.

This is what that popup looks like. Anything with a red asterisk is required.

Pro tip: the more information you can enter in, the better! This helps you and others in the company draw conclusions on all leads based on this information.

Once you are done hit save and you’ll be lead to their lead page. This will show all the info you put into the lead as well as where you can add any activities to the lead. Such as a phone call or email.

Convert a Lead

So leads are a really great place for salespeople who are lower on the sales hierarchy to work with. These are people with roles like sales development or business development.

However, once the lead has reached a certain point it becomes a likely deal rather than a person who may convert.

Each company will have different standards for what the driving factor is to go from lead to opportunity. This may be a phone call, a verbal yes from the customer, or maybe something completely different.

Here are the steps to converting the lead on the tech side.

So there are two ways to convert a lead.

First you can hit the convert button in the top right corner of the record.

Second in the status ribbon you can select the converted status button.

Then you’ll need to hit the select converted status button.

This will bring up a new pop-up to move this lead and its accompanying information into accounts, contacts, and opportunities.

You can create a new one if it hasn’t been created yet or you can choose an existing record.

Its far easier to check quickly if there are existing records than to try and merge them in the future.

Once you have that information filled out, then select the convert button in the bottom right corner of the pop up.

Then you’ll see the records that have been created or connected and the lead is converted!

How Contacts, Accounts, Opportunities, and Leads are Connected

Now that we have converted a lead let’s take note of leads, contacts, accounts, and opportunities are connected.

Typically, accounts are the ‘parent’ over other records. Meaning, that the account is the place that the other records connect back to.

So opportunities and contacts connect back to accounts. As well as many other records, however, they are the most common that you’ll see.

Although leads are a bit different. They hold all the information of an account, contact, and opportunity until that lead is converted. This helps with keeping things simple and only using the file storage that you need.

Creating Accounts

Now, let us move on to creating an account.

As I mentioned, accounts are the record that everything connects back to. Accounts are companies that you have deals with in the past, present, and future.

Most of the time you will not need to create an account. This is because they are typically created through the lead conversion process.

First, before you decide that you need to create an account. Go into the search bar at the top of your salesforce page, and search for the company.

This will reduce the need to merge accounts later.

Now, let us move on to creating the actual account. This is very similar to creating a lead.

Starting on the accounts tab, you can go to the top right corner of the list view and click new.

This will bring up a pop up form for you to fill out the new account info. Anything with a red asterisk is required information to save.

Once you are ready, hit save at the bottom of the pop-up.

This will take you to the new account record you just created!

Creating Contacts

Now that we have created an account, let us move on to contacts.

Contacts are the people on the account or the deal and some of their information. Admittedly, there isn’t going to be much information other than contact info and what company they work for.

This is really all that is needed.

This is almost identical to the creating an account process.

Go to the contacts page and click new.

This will bring up a popup form for you to fill out with relevant information.

Anything with a red asterisk is required to save.

Once you’re ready click save and it will take you to the new contact you just created!

Creating Opportunities

Now let us move on to creating opportunities.

Opportunities are for the deals you have in the pipeline, have been won, or have been lost. Any and all information here will help you!

If it’s a current opportunity then this information will help you understand how to win and close the opportunity.

If the opportunity is closed the information can be analyzed and conclusions can be drawn. This helps us close deals better in the future!

So let’s move into creating the new opportunity.

Start on the opportunity tab and click new in the top right corner of the opportunity list view.

Next, you will see a new opportunity pop up.

This is where you put in the information for the opportuinty.

Anything with a red asterisk is required and will be needed to save the record.

Finally, once you are done entering in the information click save and you will be brought to the detail page of the opporutnity you just created!

Filling Out Fields as you work

Next, is a really big tip that I have for you. It pertains to the best way I’ve found to fill out fields as you work.

Technically it is to not fill out fields as you work….

But when you are in a meeting or are in email mode back and forth with a potential customer, but all your notes in the details field.

Then, after you have completed the meeting and are ready to sit down to do “computer work” go back to that detail page.

Take the info you got from the call and parse it out into the correct fields. This will save SO much time.

For example, you are on a call with a potential customer. They say that they have a max budget of 50k, want the product for 300 employees, and need it asap.

You don’t want to be searching for the amount field, company employee field, and close date during the call. You just want to make a quick note and move on with the call naturally.

This can also help you when you revisit things later on to make conclusions that could have been overlooked!

Logging Activities

Next we will be moving on to logging activities!

In my experience, this is one of the more complex parts of salesforce. Activities are phone calls, emails, meetings, etc.

These can be a really useful piece of data to help us understand how many contacts it takes to sell a particular product.

There may be other systems that help you log this information automatically. So that can both contribute to the complexity and issues that may arise from logging activities.

Let us jump into logging a net new activity.

So when you are on a record click on the activity tab choose the activity that is right for you.

Log a call- this is a call.

New task – this is a new thing that you need to do or have done. Like sending a quote or running a comp.

New Event – this is likely a meeting or a conference.

Email – this is an email.

When you are on the activity fill out the relevant information. Including the related records such as accounts, opporutnities, and contacts.

This is what really drives home our data analysis.

Using Links and Record IDs

Another quick tip for you!

Links with in salesforce has the record ID. This is the unique alpha numeric sequence that identifies each individual number.

If you need to save a record for some reason you can just save that 18 digit ID number at the end of the URL and plug that back into the URL when you are logged in, to get back to that record.

Also, if you share a record with a link and the person you shared it with does not have access they will not be able to access the record with the link!

Creating a List View

So one of the wonderful tools in salesforce that is a game changer for the users I train is the list view. This is what you see when you click on the leads, accounts, opportunties, etc tabs.

These usually start off with showing the most recently viewed ones.

However, this is not always the best view for productivity!

So you can create a new list view to show the right records based upon criteria.

For example, for leads if you only want to see your leads that are rated as “hot” or “warm” leads you can use the list view to narrow down and only show those leads.

So now let us jump into creating that new list view.

Start on the list view page of any object.

Underneath the new button there will be a gear icon. Click it and then click new.

This will bring a popup for you to enter in the list name and the visivility of the list view.

Hit save, then you can go in and choose your filters. I’ve chosen to have my leads (owned by me) that are rated as hot.

Hit save and you will see the leads that are filtered down!

Creating a Report

Next, we will move onto creating a report. It is very similar to creating a list view.

However, you have more bells and whistles to manipulate and analyze your data with.

Also a note to admins. Teach your users how to make their own reports it hleps them so much and reduces your workload in the future!

For the users, be prepared for this to help your a lot! Creating a report is a great tool to help you answer questions that you have about your data.

So, let us jump into creating a report!

Start on the reports tab and click new report.

This will take you to choose the report type.

The report type is the group of data that you will be starting with and be analyzing. I chose opportunities and hit next.

That takes you to the report editor with the different tools to manipulate the data.

On the left hand side you will see the filters that you can open up more data with or you can narrow down your data with.

Here I opened up the close date to be for all time so I can start with a lot of data and clean things up from there.

A quick note, be sure to togle the update preview automatically.

This allows you to see your changes in real time rather than having to save and run the report.

Editing the report

Then you can go back and filter the data more or open it up to more data.

Here I filtered out any opportunities that were closed won or closed lost.

Another tool you as the user can do is take some columns of data out of the report. I took out the ‘owner role’ because there was not any data.

To do that, click the down carrot on the column and click remove column.

The next tool I want to point out is grouping rows. This helps you to narrow down your data further.

You can group rows by certain criteria. Here I grouped it by account name. So if an account had 2 opportunities you could see those two next to each other in the report.

Then if you need to you can add fields that are not automatically added.

You might be able to add fields from other objects however, they need to be related somehow and have the records also related.

Then the final tip I have for you to use on a report is to summarize a column.

This is really useful if you have amount or expected revenue fields that you need to see the total of all opportunities.

I know this is a LOT of information to take in on opportunities.

However, just get into a salesforce report and start playing around with filters and the other options you have!

Conclusion

A big congrats to you for making it through this user training! This is my most popular video, over on the youtube channel and I was eager to get this out in blog form for you guys.

As of writing this it has about 20k views so I hope to see that grow through this post and through the youtube platform!

So if you like it please join the email list, youtube channel and follow on LinkedIn and Twitter!

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