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No matter your role in an organization, you've probably been frustrated trying to use technology to get your job done. Collabrax promises to promote growth, scability, and cost savings so that you can get back to what you do best, running a succesful and profitable business.

Utilize LinkedIn with Salesforce CRM

 

LinkedIn and SalesforceLinkedIn is the largest business-oriented social networking website with millions of members and growing rapidly. Just as popular, Salesforce.com continues to lead the way in the CRM industry. Being able to tie your Salesforce Contacts to that person’s LinkedIn profile is a valuable resource in learning more about customers, prospects, and other business related contacts.

When searching Salesforce’s AppExchange for apps related to ‘linkedin’, about a dozen are tied to LinkedIn in some way or another. A highly reviewed and free app that Collabrax chose was in|force Connector by Redkite. With this app you can view your contact’s LinkedIn profile directly within Salesforce Contact pages.

LinkedIn Profile in Salesforce Contacts

LinkedIn Profile in Salesforce Contacts

Installation of the in|force Connector only takes about 5-10 minutes and then you can be on your way to connecting LinkedIn profiles to Salesforce Contacts.

There are four primary steps:

Step 1 – Install App

Clicking Get It Now from the AppExchange listing begins the installation process into your instance of Salesforce. Follow the steps as defined in the deployment guide.

Step 2 – Get LinkedIn API Key

Because LinkedIn has limits on the number of times per day an application can make calls to its API — and this is controlled by the API key — each organization installing the in|force Connector must have its own API key. Go to www.linkedin.com/secure/developer to get your key. Again this is nicely described in the deployment guide.

Step 3 – Configure Connector

Once you have acquire the API key, switch to the in|force Connector App in Salesforce where you will be asked to enter the key. You will need the API Key and Secret Key. Enter those values then click save.

Step 4 – Add Connector to the Contact Layout Page

From the Salesforce Contact layout configuration page click on Visualforce Pages and you should see a new LinkedIn Profile widget. Start by dragging a new Section to the page, naming it LinkedIn Profile, as a container to hold the profile. Then drag the new LinkedIn Profile widget to your new Section and save the page layout.

Contact by contact, you are now ready to connect LinkedIn profiles to your Salesforce Contacts,

For questions about this process and any other Salesforce capabilities, contact Collabrax today.

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14.May.11 CRM, LinkedIn, Salesforce.com Comments (0)

Automate Lead Collection On Your Website With Salesforce

As we work with existing or potential salesforce customers, we have found Salesforce’s Web-to-Lead feature to be one of the least utilized. Available in the Group, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions, Web-to-Lead lets you gather information from your company’s website and automatically generate up to 500 new leads a day.

Below is a step-by-step guide for the basics of setting this up for your business. You should have access to the following prior to beginning:

  • Either you are a System Administrator for your Salesforce organization or you can get help from one.
  • You are a webmaster for your company’s website or you can get help from one.
  • Basic knowledge of HTML and CSS is helpful in making your web form look pretty.

STEP 1

To begin, navigate to Setup>App Setup>Customize>Leads>Web-to-Lead. When you click on Web-to-Lead you are brought to the below screen where you can begin setup. Setup includes editing Web-to-Lead settings and creating the Web-to-Lead form based upon the Lead fields you want in your form.

Salesforce Web-to-Lead

Salesforce Web-to-Lead Settings Page

STEP 2

Click on the Edit button to set the basic settings. Web-to-Lead Enabled must be checked in order for this feature to function. Then specify which Salesforce user will be the Default Lead Creator. When the Lead is created from a form being submitted on your website, this user will be set as the Lead owner. If however you have Assignment Rules enabled, the Lead owner may change based upon the criteria in your assignment rules. Finally, you should set a Default Response Template. This is a email template that is sent automatically to the person completing the web form based upon the email address they supply. Depending on the edition of Salesforce you have, you can use Auto-Response Rules to vary the email template that is sent depending on defined criteria.

STEP 3

Now that the settings are complete, it’s time to Create the Web-to-Lead From. The first step is to pick the fields you will be using in your web form. You can use standard and custom fields. All Available Fields are list and simply select the ones you want and click the Add arrow to move them to the Selected Fields list. Then you will want to specify the web page location the person with be taken once they submit your web form. This is often referred to as your “thank you” page.

Salesforce Web-to-Lead

Salesforce Web-to-Lead Form Builder

After you click Generate, you will be give the necessary HTML code to insert into your website. If you are not the webmaster for your website, give this code to someone that has access to edit it. The code includes basic instructions and debugging capabilities for testing. If everything is setup correctly you should be able to submit the form from your website and within a few minutes you will see a new Lead in your salesforce CRM.

If you are using WordPress to manage your website, try WordPress-to-Lead.

For questions about this process and any other Salesforce capabilities, contact Collabrax today.

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16.Apr.11 Cloud Computing, CRM, Salesforce.com Comments (2)

Big News for Small Business: WordPress and Salesforce Team Up

WordPressThings just got a little bit easier for small business owners everywhere, especially those in need of a new or updated website. Recently, Salesforce for small business unveiled two free WordPress themes for small businesses.

The new themes are designed with all the bells and whistles, helping businesses attract more customers. You can use them to highlight your business information and easily update web copy. Plus, when it comes to blogging, you also have the ability to publish entries directly to your site’s home page or via a subfolder in your site’s navigation.

WordPress Benefits for Small Business

First of all, it’s free! Although your site may look similar in layout to the sites of other small business owners, there are still plenty of opportunities for customization. Because the sites are built on WordPress, they are also easy to set up and manage.

When it comes to site operation, flexibility and ease of use are two of the biggest benefits that come with the Salesforce WordPress themes. You’ll be able to build your site’s ranking through the search engine optimization (SEO) tools inherent in the WordPress platform. When search engines bring in more traffic to your site, you get more leads and more customers.

WordPress has been the go-to platform for individual bloggers for years because it is so easy to use. You can see just how easy it is to get going by watching these demo videos for the Turnkey and Green Stimulus themes:

WordPress can also help you with customer relationship management. More than 50% of consumer use search engines to find what they need. Since your website is the first point of contact for many of your company’s leads, finding a low-cost, professionally designed site that is visually pleasing is win-win for your business.

Advantages over Traditional Webmaster or Host Provider

Small businesses are notorious for being short on two things: money and time. Having a well-coded site used to mean paying a webmaster to make updates each time you needed to upload an employee photo or make changes to your web copy.

The new WordPress themes offered by Salesforce change all that, allowing you to install the theme and make content changes yourself through a user-friendly interface. There is no need to know developer coding. In fact, most domain hosts are set up to make WordPress installs on you site super easy. Fatastico De Luxe is a widely-used application that lets you setup WordPress and other scripts in just a few clicks.

But Wait! There’s More: Salesforce Plugin

If your small business is using Salesforce to power customer relationship management, you can install the WordPress-to-Lead (similar to Salesforce Web-to-Lead feature) plugin on your WordPress-powered site. People who visit your site will be able to contact you directly through your website, and the lead information is automatically entered in your Salesforce CRM. That means you no longer have to copy and paste lead information into your account.

Whether you use Salesforce to manage customer relations or not, this announcement is sure to make your life much simpler.

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12.Feb.11 CRM, Salesforce.com Comments (2)



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