In this section, we will closely examine the Salesforce user interface, delving into its most essential components. This will provide you with a better understanding of what you, as a user, will encounter. If you are reading this book, it’s likely that you have intentions to dedicate a significant amount of time to navigating the Salesforce UI. As a result, grasping the features linked to the Salesforce UI becomes of utmost importance.
Comprehending these pivotal elements of the Salesforce UI will empower you to use the platform more efficiently, thereby enhancing your overall productivity. Keep in mind that the Salesforce UI is both intuitive and adaptable, allowing for customization to cater to individual preferences. This, in turn, maximizes the potential of Salesforce, facilitating success in your business endeavors. By investing time in familiarizing yourself with these features, you can fully leverage Salesforce and harness its capabilities to drive your business forward.
In this section, we will cover the following Salesforce tabs, also known as objects:
- Home
- Leads
- Accounts
- Contacts
- Opportunities
- Reports
- Dashboards
We’ll also cover the following Salesforce features:
- Search Bar
- List Views
- Setup access
- Object setup access
- Record setup access
Home – where your Salesforce journey begins
The main home page after logging in is a crucial starting point. Here, you will find a concise overview of important information, such as tasks, calendar events, notifications, and other key data pertinent to your work. By the way, the Home tab has a really good name. I will tell you why. Because like with a real home, you will abandon it after a while, spending more time in other places such as bars, gyms, and restaurants – in other words, other Salesforce tabs such as Lead, Account, Contact, or Opportunity.
Tip
If you are a Salesforce Admin, speak with your business to understand what they would really like to see on the Salesforce home tab. If you do not do this, they will leave the house (home) and will never miss it. 😉
The four riders of significance – Leads, Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities
Moving on, the top navigation bar contains various tabs and options, facilitating seamless navigation within the Salesforce platform. This enables swift access to sections that interest you, such as Contacts data, Customers Data, and Prospects data.
- The Lead: The person initially interested in your product or service.
- The Accounts: Companies such as your customers, partners, future customers, and competitors.
- The Contacts: People related to Accounts, most likely employees of Accounts. People working for your customers, partners, future customers, or competitors. People who you like. People who should like you too. 😉
- The Opportunities: Sales processes processed with your customers, partners, and future customers. Deals that you love. Money that they will bring. 😉
How are Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities bonded together? Let’s see a simple example to be able to understand the relations between Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities in Salesforce. Let’s map example customer data from the company “Super Sweets” to Salesforce features; let’s “take us to the candy shop”:
Account – “Super Sweets” candy shops
Contact – Adam Smith, who works for Super Sweets as an IT Director
Opportunity – Selling IT security stuff to Super Sweets and contacting Adam Smith to make it happen
So, you will keep the Super Sweets company information such as name, address, and customer status on the Account object, while people working at Super Sweets will be covered by the Contact objects. Deals that you are making with Super Sweets will be tracked on the Opportunity objects. Quite straightforward, isn’t it?