Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant Part 4: Lead Management

This topic includes the following objectives:

• Explain how Campaign capabilities support the sales process.

• Given a scenario, recommend appropriate methods for lead scoring and criteria for lead qualification.

• Discuss the best practices for managing lead data quality in Salesforce.

Salesforce provides different marketing capabilities which can support a sales process. A sales process refers to the different stages of reaching prospects, qualifying leads, and closing sales deals. Prospects or leads are primarily generated through marketing campaigns which can be managed in Salesforce. Leads are qualified and converted into customers based on predefined criteria; Salesforce supports converting leads into accounts, contacts, and opportunities. 

When it comes to lead scoring, it is important to understand that various types of lead scoring criteria can be used to calculate the lead score. The criteria can be selected based on business requirements. A high lead score indicates a good quality lead which can be qualified and converted into an opportunity in Salesforce.

Leads are used to track prospects in Salesforce. After qualifying the lead records, they can be converted into accounts, contacts, and/or opportunities. Various tools are available natively in Salesforce and in the AppExchange to assist with lead management to turn prospects into customers. Campaigns can be used to store marketing efforts that are used to obtain leads and store them in Salesforce. Events and tasks can be associated with leads.

Lead data quality is important to consider due to its direct impact on the creation of new opportunities. The probability of a lead’s conversion to an opportunity depends on the accuracy and completeness of lead information in Salesforce. Different measures may be utilized as part of a data management plan to assess, monitor and improve lead data quality.

There are several methods of data enrichment in Salesforce that can be utilized to update existing data or add new data. A third-party data service, such as a Lightning Data service, can be utilized to update accounts, contacts, or leads. It can also be used to add new accounts to Salesforce. A Lightning Data package includes a data integration rule that needs to be configured and activated to match and update records automatically. A data assessment can be run to test the setting specified in a data integration rule.