Entering new contacts

Because contacts belong to accounts, the best, most reliable way to create contact records is by starting from the relevant Account detail page. From the Account detail page, you can then add a contact by using either the Create New drop-down list on the sidebar or the New button on the Contacts related list. The result is the same in both situations, and Salesforce automatically prefills the Account lookup field. By doing this, you can always find your contact, and your contact’s activities also appear in a list on its Account detail page.

To create contacts by using this best practice, follow these steps:

1. Search for the account, and then click the appropriate Account Name link on the Search Results page.

   The Account detail page appears.

2. Click the New button on the Contacts related list.

   The Edit mode of a new contact appears, as shown in Figure 9-1.

3. Fill in the fields as much as you can or as required.

   The Account field is prefilled with the account you were working from.

4. When you’re done, click one of the following buttons:

   • Save: After you click the Save button, the Contact detail page appears. On this page, you can click the Edit button whenever you need to modify information on the record.
   • Save & New: Clicking this button saves the current contact record and automatically opens a new, blank contact record in Edit mode.

   A link to the first contact appears in your Recent Items list in the left sidebar.

Importing your contacts and accounts

If you already have contact lists from another database (such as Excel), you can use the Data Import Wizard to create multiple contact records in Salesforce and be done in no time. The Data Import Wizard is located in the Tools sections of either the Accounts or Contacts home page.

When you import accounts, you can import just companies and their associated information, or you can import companies and their related contacts in one action. Which route you take really depends on your existing data and what you want in Salesforce.

To import your contacts and accounts automatically, follow these steps:

1. Click the Contacts tab to go to the Contacts home page, and then click Import My Business Accounts & Business Contacts under the Tools section.

   The Import Business Accounts & Business Contacts Wizard appears, which includes four steps for importing records, plus helpful hints.

   If you’re a system administrator for Salesforce, you can click the Import My Organization’s Accounts & Contacts link, which allows you to import substantially more records at one time with different owners. If you’re an administrator, that link also appears under the Tools sections of the Accounts or Contacts home pages. What’s the big deal? Most users can import 500 records at a time, but if you’re a system administrator, you can import 50,000 at a time and leap over tall buildings in a single bound.

2. In your existing contact tool or file, compare your current fields with the fields in Salesforce. Add fields to the account or contact records by customizing Salesforce.

   If you can map all the information you currently have to fields in Salesforce, move on to Step 3. If you have to add fields to Salesforce to match fields, see Chapter 17.

3. Export your file.

   You may have contacts and accounts in an existing database, such as Zoho CRM, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Access, or Microsoft Outlook. Most systems like these have simple tools for exporting data into various formats. Select the records and the fields that you want to export. Then export the file and save it in a comma-separated values (CSV) format. If your accounts are already in spreadsheet format, such as Microsoft Excel, just resave the file in the CSV format.

4. Review and prepare your data in Excel.

   Refine your accounts and contacts before bringing them into Salesforce or clean them up after the import — it’s up to you. Some sales reps prefer to make changes on a spreadsheet first because they’re more accustomed to spreadsheets.

   When preparing your import file, keep these points in mind:

   • Enter your column headers in the first row. We recommend renaming column headers to be consistent with the field names in Salesforce. For example, you could rename the Company field from Outlook as Account Name.
   • To import data for your entire company (available as an option only to system administrators), add a column for Record Owner to signify who should own the record in Salesforce. Otherwise, as the person importing, you own all the records from the file.
   • To differentiate locations of a company (for example, Sony in Tokyo versus Sony in New York), add a column for Account Site and update the rows in your file to reflect the different sites.
   • Link accounts in the import file by adding columns for Parent Account and Parent Site and by filling in fields as necessary to reflect the hierarchy.
   • Make sure that a Type column exists and that fields are filled to correspond to the types of companies you track (customers, partners, prospects, competitors, and so on).
   • For files with more than 500 rows, divide the master file into smaller files to fit the Import Wizard’s size limitation. You have to repeat the Import Wizard for each of the smaller files.
   • To import contacts and accounts at the same time, add a column for the billing address fields if those addresses are different from the contacts’ mailing addresses.

   For more hints on importing, click the Help and Training link and check out the Training and Support information in Salesforce by searching for the keyword Importing.

   When you’re figuring out how to import data into Salesforce, we recommend testing an import with five or so records first, just to make sure that you know what you’re doing. After importing the test data, review your new records to make sure that they contain all the information you want to have brought in. Delete the test records, refine your import file, if necessary, and then run through the final import.

5. After preparing the file, and clicking the Import My Organization’s Accounts & Contacts link, click Launch Wizard.

   The Data Import appears in a new window.

6. Choose Accounts and Contacts under the Standard objects tab in the left window and choose what you want to do with them.

   You can add new records, update existing Salesforce records, or update and add new ones at the same time.

7. Click Add New Records and choose the unique identifier for the records.

   If you want Salesforce to avoid importing duplicate records, choose whether you want a duplicate contact to be identified by matching name or email. If a contact record with the matching criteria already exists in Salesforce, Salesforce updates that record with the information in your file.

8. Drag and drop your CSV file into the right window, as shown in Figure 9-2, and click Next when you’re done.

   The Edit Field Mapping page appears, where you can edit your data mapping.

9. Map the contact fields between your file and Salesforce, and when you’re done, click Next.

   If you’re importing only accounts, skip this step. Otherwise, just go through the field mapping, click the Change link to modify the auto-mapped fields, and click the Map link to map your unmapped fields to Salesforce, as shown in Figure 9-3.

   Mapping fields is simply the process by which you associate a field from one database with a field in another database so that your data appears in the right fields. For example, if you’re importing your contacts from Outlook, you want data from the field called Company in Outlook to map to the field called Account Name in Salesforce. Take your time when making the mappings. Pay attention to which screens are for account-specific fields and which screens are for contact-specific fields.

10. Review your selections and import to make sure you didn’t forget anything, and when you’re ready click Start Import.

    This step basically warns you about problems with the data or lets you know about fields that haven’t been mapped. If you discover an error, you can click the Previous button and refine your mapping, or even close the wizard so that you can improve your import file. You might have to start over, but at least you avoid importing bad or incomplete data.

    When you click Start Import, an Importing page appears to confirm that your import is in progress.

11. Click OK and later check the records that you imported.

    Salesforce sends you an email after it successfully imports your file. To check your import, click the Contacts tab to go to your Contacts home page. Use the Recent Contacts section drop-down list to select the Recently Created option, and a list of the contacts that were recently created appears. Click the link for a contact that you just imported to double-check that the information is accurate.

If you’re importing both accounts and contacts, scroll down on an applicable account to verify that all the right contacts are linked from your import file. Click into a specific account and contact record and check to see that the information matches your import file.

Researching contacts on social networks

Visiting a company’s website may tell you about its location and phone number, but it won’t help you figure out which sports team to mention when calling a customer. For detailed insight on a person’s likes and dislikes, you have to turn to social networks. We all do it. Before dialing that prospect’s phone number, we look up the person online to see a picture and find out more about him or her. Sure, it’s a little creepy, but it definitely helps you avoid saying the wrong thing.

With Social Contacts, Salesforce lets you link to your existing social network accounts and then search and select the right profiles for your contacts from right inside Salesforce. The best part is, from then on, every time you visit that contact, his picture will appear in the upper-left corner of the page with links to his social network profiles.

Updating contact fields

While you work with your contacts, you may need to modify contact information. To update a contact, follow these steps:

1. Type the name of your contact in the Global Search field at the top of any Salesforce page and click Search.

   A Search Results page appears.

2. Click the desired Contact Name link.

   The Contact detail page appears.

3. As with any record, double-click any field that has a pencil icon to its right to edit that field.

   If a field doesn’t have an icon at the right of the field, click the Edit button at the top of the record to make changes. A padlock icon means that you can’t edit that field.

4. Update the fields as necessary and then click Save.

   The Contact detail page reappears.

Cloning an existing contact

If you want to add a contact that’s similar to an existing record, cloning can save you keystrokes and time. To clone a contact, go to the existing contact and follow these steps:

1. Click the Clone button at the top or bottom of the contact record.

   A new contact record in Edit mode appears. All the information is identical to the previous record.

2. Edit the information on the new contact record, where appropriate.

   Pay attention to what’s prefilled because you want to avoid inaccurate information on the new contact record.

3. When you’re done, click Save.

   You created a new contact without altering your existing contact.

Using contact list views

A contact list view is a list of contacts that match certain criteria. When you select a list view, you’re specifying criteria to limit the results that you get back. The advantage of using a list view versus searching is that you can use the list view over and over again. For example, if you like to send a card on a contact’s birthday, you can benefit from a preset list view for this month’s birthdays.

The Contacts home page comes with several predefined list views, including

• All Contacts: Provides a list of all the contact records entered into Salesforce. Depending on the way your company has set up your security model, you may not see this view or its results.
• Birthdays This Month: Generates a list of contacts whose birthdays land in the current month (assuming that you collect that information).
• New This Week: Generates a list of contacts that have been created since the beginning of the week.
• Recently Viewed Contacts: Allows you to look at a list of contacts that you’ve recently viewed.

You use a predefined contact list view in exactly the same way that you use any list view (detailed in Chapter 17) or the predefined list view for any other record.

Creating custom contact views

If you want special lists for the way that you track your contacts, we recommend building custom list views, just as you do for any other record. (For an example of how to create a custom view, see Chapter 17.) For example, if you sell medical equipment, and once per month you like to call your contacts who are dentists, you can create a list view to simplify your work.