Table of Contents

How Do I Manage Contacts within Salesforce?

What is a Contact?

Contact records in Salesforce store information about the people we do, or have done business with (Customers); or people we are, or have actively pursued future business with (Prospects).

Contacts are associated with an account, but can also be associated with other records such as opportunities or tasks.

Contacts can also be associated with multiple Accounts and can have multiple roles assigned that are specific to their relationship with an account.

Search for a Contact before adding a new Contact

  1. Using the Search bar, search for the contact's email, name, or phone number.
  2. If there's a contact record, and the contact is not related to the appropriate account, use the Add Relationship button on the contact record to relate the record to the appropriate account. Select the role(s) and update any necessary information on the contact record such as email or phone number.
  3. If the person is listed as a Lead record, convert the lead to a contact only if it meets the following criteria:
    1. The Contact is associated with an Active Account, or
    2.  There is an active Opportunity associated with the contact.

If the person to be added does not meet the criteria above, they should be added as a new Lead record.

  1. If the contact or lead record does not exist; search and open the account record that the new contact will be associated with, in Salesforce.
    1. From the account record, select New Contact from the picklist indicated.
    2. In the New Contact pop-up enter the contact's name and other known information.
    3. Click the Save button.
    4. The new contact is created and related to the account record. The new contact record can be accessed from the Related List Quick Links Related Contacts section in the account record.
    1. The account's Related Contacts is shown below. Click the new contact's name to open the contact record.
    Remember to add a contact role to every contact you create.

Explore The Contact Record

  • Review the Related Accounts section to see which accounts the contact is associated with.
  • Review the contact's title and role with each account.
  • Review the contact’s Details tab to find and update information about the contact.
  • Review the contact's Related List Quick Links for a fast overview of how other Salesforce records are related to the contact.
  • Use the contact’s Activity tab to record activities, or to review prior calls and emails that are associated with the contact.

Scroll down the contact window to display additional Account information, Prospect Information, Trial Information, Address Information, Marketing information and System Information about the contact record.

Associating A Contact With Account Records

The account in the Account Name field on a contact record is the contact’s direct account.

The relationship between the contact and its primary account is a direct relationship. A contact can have only one direct account relationship. All other accounts that are related to the contact are indirect relationships. A contact can have many indirect account relationships.

Add or Change A Contact's Direct Account Relationship

To add or remove a Direct relationship between a contact and an account, change the contact’s Account Name in the Account Name field on the contact's record.

Add Account Contact Indirect Relationships and Roles

Roles are to be used to categorize the following persona types (these are used for our internal teams to know who to reach out to. I.E. - Onboarding uses the Implementation role, Success uses the Renewal role:

Role

Role Description

Account Manager

A key contact for contract negotiation and account management

Billing

A key contact for account billing and invoicing

Renewal

A key contact for account renewals

Inactive

The contact no longer has an active role with the account.

Used to retain historic activity associated with the account

Implementation

A key contact for Implementation of the platform. The onboarding team will use this contact.

Integration

A key contact for 3-party integrations of our platform. This contact will work with our support team to integrate Clever or ClassLink.

To assign an additional account relationship and role(s), or roles to a contact record follow the steps below:

  1. Click the Add Relationship button in the Related Accounts section.
  2. Add the new Indirect account relationship:
    1. Search and select the desired Account name to be added.
    2. Select the desired Role to be added.
      1. Click the right arrow to add it from the Available to the Chosen box (multiple roles can be added).
      2. Review your edits and click Save.
Remove Account Contact Indirect Relationships

Existing indirect Account relationships can be removed from a contact record within the Related Accounts section on the contact record.

  1. Identify the Account Relationship to be removed from the contact in the Related Accounts section and click the picklist arrow associated with the account.
  2. Click Remove Relationship from the picklist.
  1. Confirm that you want to remove the relationship.
  1. The relationship will be removed.
    Any Activities that are related (see screenshot below) to the indirectly related account will still be visible on the indirect account record.
How To Associate Contact Activity With An Indirect Account

Any activity (Log a Call, Email, New Task, New Event) initiated from a Salesforce contact record needs to be manually associated with the desired Account record by the User.

To associate an Account (Direct or Indirect) with an activity, select the desired Account Name from the Related To field in the Activity section- see screenshot below.

Outreach Extension Activities From Contact Records

If the Contact is associated with an Account in the Outreach Extension then activities (Meetings, Calls Logged, Tasks, Emails) created from the extension will be associated with the Direct Account.

Be aware that if the Outreach Extension Account association is changed for the contact, all of the activities under the prior account created by Outreach will be moved to the new account.
How To Flag A Contact For Removal or Merging

In the contact details, you can flag a contact for removal or merging if you determine that the record should no longer be maintained in Salesforce

Reasons for flagging a contact for removal include:

  • Bad Data
  • Deceased
  • Retired

Follow the steps below to flag a contact for deletion or merging:

  1. Hover over the Flag for Removal checkbox to expose the pencil icon.
  1. Check the Flag for Removal Checkbox.
  1. Select the Removal Reason from the picklist.
  1. Click Save.

How did we do?

Account Executive Quick Start Guide

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