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So far Dominique Beaudin has created 12 blog entries.

CRM Analytics: Use Parameters to Make Component Widgets Dynamic

Components are a hidden gem in the CRM Analytics (formerly Tableau) toolbox. You can re-use them in any dashboard and then centrally make changes that affect any dashboard where the Component is placed. But before the Salesforce Summer ‘23 release, they had to be identical on every dashboard! 

If you wanted revenue by State on one dashboard and revenue by Country on another Dashboard, you needed two different components. 

Not anymore! Here we provide a step-by-step guide (with pictures) to get you feeling confident and excited about using (and re-using) these amazing widgets. Thanks to the Salesforce Summer ‘23 release, you can now use parameters to make component widgets dynamic.

How to Make Component Widgets Dynamic in CRM Analytics

Ready to get started? Here are the steps to making your CRM Analytics component widgets display dynamically using parameters.

Step 1: Create a Component

There are a few ways to do this. I’ll outline the method that flows best with dashboard creation. But like many Salesforce tasks, there is more than one way.

  1. From a dashboard, drag the component widget to your dashboard.
  2. From the dialog box, select Create New Component.
  1. Add a widget to your new component.
    • In our example, we are using the Account Engagement (Pardot) Prospects and grouping by country.
  1. Save your component

2. Add a Parameter to your component

  1. Click on the Component Widget and choose the advanced editor from the widget menu. 

2. On the Query Tab, find the value you want to parameterize. In our case it’s “Country.”

    • Click on the pages icon (next to ID to copy the parameter to your clipboard)
    • Click Create (or update if altering an existing parameter). Note: The value MUST be in the correct case (NOT Country)
    • Click on the Parameters tab to see what you just created.
    1. Next, change the query to use the parameter. Go to the query tab and replace the group and name with your new filter. Where you see city, replace as shown below for the group and name

    Group:

          "groups": [
              "[[parameter_1]]"
            ],
            "filters": [],
            "joins": [],
            "name": "pdProspect1"
          }
        ],
    

    Name:

      {
            "name": "[[parameter_1]]",
            "ascending": true,
            "filters": []
          }
    
    1. Save your query.
    2. Save your component.

    3. Using the Component on Your Dashboard with the Parameter

    Now that you have your component with a parameter created, let’s add it to a dashboard and change the parameter. This is the fun part!

    Return to the dashboard tab (should be an open tab in your browser), and click on the component widget to select the new component we just created.

    Pro tip: To refresh component content or edit, look for the actions in the right side toolbox when the component is selected.

    Preview the Dashboard

    It looks like this: It’s displaying by Country

    Change parameter

    Now let’s change the parameter.

    1. Edit the dashboard.
    2. Click on the component, and click on Parameters (right hand side).
    3. Click on the parameter you created.
    4. Select Static for Value Type.
    1. Replace country with state. Click update.

    The component now displays State.

    You can parameterize other aspects of the component (filters, etc.), so there are lots of possibilities here.

    What else can I do when I make component widgets dynamic?

    The example in this blog is quite simple. However, it gives you the elements to be successful in creating and using CRM Analytics components. 

    These CRM Analytics enhancements give us opportunities to make dashboards more useful and allow us to finally re-use components effectively.

    Some great use cases:

    • Sales by Group or District
    • Product type filtering (for different dashboard)
    • Scenarios where you have different revenue fields (USD or CAD for example or expected vs actual)

    The Salesforce Summer ‘23 release has given us so many gems. This CRM Analytics update is a big one along with the ones we’re seeing with Account Engagement including the ability to copy marketing assets between business units, and this update to Salesforce user access management

    Need help digging into this super helpful feature? Or wondering how this can fit into your overall marketing reporting strategy? Reach out to the team at Sercante to start a conversation.

    Original article: CRM Analytics: Use Parameters to Make Component Widgets Dynamic

    ©2023 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

    The post CRM Analytics: Use Parameters to Make Component Widgets Dynamic appeared first on The Spot.

    By |2023-07-17T20:55:56+00:00July 17th, 2023|Categories: Analytics & Reporting, Pro Tips, Release Notes|

    5 Reporting Accuracy Strategies to Get Your Data the Trust it Deserves

    So you’ve spent hours gathering requirements, picking datasets and creating the most beautiful report the world has ever seen.  And then, while presenting your amazing work to leadership you hear the dreaded “That number looks off”….  And you can’t quite pinpoint why the reporting accuracy is in question. 

    No one wants to be in that situation. But the good news is there are ways to think ahead and get your report the “cred” it deserves!

    Here are five strategies you can use to ensure Salesforce marketing reporting accuracy and trustworthiness every time.

    1. Create a ‘count and amount’ report

    A very simple way to get trust in your marketing reporting data is to create a ‘count and amount’ report in each system.  

    As an example, if I am creating a report in CRM Analytics where I have enriched the Opportunities object, I can create a compare table that has total Opportunity Dollar amount and Total count of opportunity. Then I can create a report in Salesforce reporting with the same criteria. 

    Why? This allows you to confidently point to “evidence” that the base data is accurate.  One bad join can have a huge impact.  Better for you to catch it before the consumers of your report do!

    2. Understand “known” data differences between systems

    Salesforce has some datasets that don’t match perfectly. There are numerous reasons this can occur.  Familiarize yourself with these differences! While these differences will differ depending on the source of your data, you want to make sure you understand the why.  

    Some reasons include:

    • Date differences between systems
    • Schedules (vs. real time)
    • Fiscal Dates vs. Dates
    • Permissions associated with the Integration User
    • Use of “archived” prospects for reporting purposes in one system but not the other

    Some Salesforce Help articles that can help:

    3. Find the Source of Truth

    Organizations should generally decide what the source of truth is for data when a discrepancy exists.  And that source should be defensible in the “data” court of law. 

    Ok, that’s an exaggeration. But a smart report writer would make sure they know what is considered the “truth” (or develop it) before even starting. If the CEO thinks a manually manipulated Excel spreadsheet has the “real” numbers on it (and refers to them), that could be hard to match. Ultimately, it could undermine your efforts to present new reports. 

    Getting a clear, accurate and agreed up source of truth is critical. Otherwise, you will spend all your time defending your data.  Try to create that source of truth if it doesn’t exist and avoid sources where data is manipulated manually. 

    4. Check for frivolous connections

    How can your data connections be frivolous? You can connect (Join) opportunities to Leads using the date field, but that doesn’t really make any sense.  

    Make sure your connections are logical and have the same data type (text, numeric, etc). Look for common IDs as this will be the most accurate. Sometimes names can be used, but since most often unique names are NOT enforced, use with caution.  

    Bad connections can also make you lose data. Refer back to the “count and amount” section to review how to watch for that.  Finally, remember that sometimes you need more than one field connection.  For example, in CRM Analytics if you would like to join prospects to campaign members, you need both Lead/ContactID and campaign ID or you will get inaccurate results.

    In this Salesforce reporting example, we’ve created a joined report and linked the blocks based on the common field “Owner”. As you can see, the owners can’t really connect the data since one refers to Opportunity owner, and the other to campaign owner.

    In the CRM Analytics example, you will get data that matches, but it will have no meaning in the report.

    5. Identify processes that fill in key data

    Wondering why there are no influence opportunities? You can’t create a report on data that doesn’t exist. As you consider what questions the report will answer for you, consider the process. What changes are needed to make it accurate? Who are the “actors” in the processes that drive the data? 

     If you are dependent on Salespeople to fill in contact roles to get campaign influence, make sure you have included a task to verify that is being done consistently in your report creation plan.  Or consider tools that can automate the processes that will make your reporting accurate and consistent (like Sercante Automated Opportunity Contact Roles).  

    Often, creating a report is a catalyst to process change as gaps and errors are unearthed.

    Reporting accuracy is important, but not easy

    You’ve done the work — developed the questions, worked through the KPI’s and now you are ready to create your report. Make sure your reports get the respect they deserve and add the value they should with these five considerations. 

    Unearthing those process gaps as you work through the steps to ensure accuracy in your Salesforce marketing reporting? Reach out to team Sercante so we can help you build a strong foundation and winning marketing reporting strategy.

    Original article: 5 Reporting Accuracy Strategies to Get Your Data the Trust it Deserves

    ©2023 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

    The post 5 Reporting Accuracy Strategies to Get Your Data the Trust it Deserves appeared first on The Spot.

    By |2023-04-14T19:29:16+00:00April 14th, 2023|Categories: Analytics & Reporting, Pro Tips, revive, Strategy|

    Uncover Marketing Magic with Pardot Custom Redirects

    The marketing magician has many tricks in the Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) toolkit. One of those magical tools is the Pardot custom redirect. 

    What makes a Pardot custom redirect special? It allows you to segment and get the right data at the right time as your customers and potential customers interact with your marketing assets. This in turn allows you to better target interests and hone in on what’s working and what’s just cluttering your audience’s feeds. 

    So, what can you get out of using Pardot custom redirects? Read on to find out!

    Pardot custom redirect uses

    Use Pardot Custom Redirects to Better Understand Your Social Impact

    Every social media channel contributes a unique insight about your offerings to your audience. When promoting content through social media channels, it’s important to make sure you measure what your audience reaction is to ensure your message is effective and not ignored (or worse, annoys your target audience).

    If you’re publishing the same content to multiple platforms, you should create separate custom redirects for each platform. Not only will you see which of your social sites receives the most traffic, but patterns of engagement will emerge and help you draw conclusions about the specific interests of each audience.

    Measure the Marketing Impact on Event Sign Ups

    Every marketing department wants to show the impact they are making. One of the key drivers of revenue is based around events. It’s important to place custom redirects behind any event promotions created by marketing. 

    You should also give your sales reps custom redirects to use when they pitch the event as well. Better yet, create separate custom redirects for each channel that you use to promote the event for more insight into what’s working and what’s not.

    Identify Your Most Compelling Calls to Action

    There is a lot of buzz around the importance of “calls to action.” But how do you know which are most impactful? 

    The answer: a custom redirect! You can “play” with wording, placement and who clicked (did you get a response from your intentional target audience or someone else?). Now you can measure and make adjustments that will help ensure the right action from the right audience.

    Utilize Your Partner Relationships to Understand Value

    Want to get even more reach for very little investment? Use custom redirects with partners that show how their site is impacting traffic to your site. This information can help you make decisions about the value of the partnership and where you should invest more.

    Get The Most Out of Your Offline Efforts Too!

    While it might seem obvious, the value of creating custom redirects that are specific to written and offline content is critical. An engaged audience will interact with your content and their next step will be to visit your site. 

    Knowing which pieces generated the most interest (or sales in the long haul) helps you make the most of your marketing budget and determine what efforts are worth investing in. Offline is expensive… do you know what it’s doing for your business? Now you can.

    Find Out Who is Engaged Internally

    Most businesses send important information to their employees. But, do you know who actually reads those communications? Are they effective? Is your desired message being received? Are there patterns based on subject? Or frequency? Or send time? 

    We often consider these questions when we are dealing with our external audiences, but they are just as critical internally. Consider custom redirects as another tool that human resources, marketing or any department internally can use to ensure your company’s internal resources are engaged as well.

    Check out this blog post for more creative ways to use Pardot to increase employee engagement.

    Get Creative with Pardot Custom Redirects: Create a Quick Poll

    How can you get quick input from your audience without a full online survey? Custom redirects might be the answer. 

    The process is simple. Create custom redirects to the separate links, buttons, or images used for voting and they will automatically record the clicks on each link. 

    A great example of this would be something like a Net Promoter score. You can create links with one question (example: Would you recommend our company/product/service to someone else?). 

    From the reporting side, you could now segment between “Yes” (raving fan) and “No” (potential detractor) answers. Then you can address any concerns from those who need follow up or are ready to promote your brand for you!

    Monitor Prospect Activity

    Ever wished you could be alerted to a certain prospect’s activity on your site? Imagine you’ve had a prospect close to close for over a month now, but they want time and space to make their own decision. Wouldn’t it be nice to know when that person gets serious and looks at your pricing options? 

    Custom redirects allow you to track such activity in a few different ways. For example, If using email to contact prospects, create custom redirects to monitor prospect clicks. 

    Using a service like Account Engagement (Pardot)? You can create an automation to notify your team that an action has been taken by a prospect, allowing you to be super responsive to high probability prospect activity. Strike while the iron is hot!

    When you’re ready to level-up your sales team response skills, check out Salesforce Engage. Here’s a blog post that walks you through the tool.

    Experience the Magical Insights Pardot Custom Redirects Can Offer

    The most important thing when preparing any marketing effort is to determine how you will measure success. Custom redirects allow you to effectively collect relevant and timely data on who did what and why. 

    Used correctly, they can greatly improve the efficacy of your marketing activities and help you “prove” what you already know: Effective marketing strategies work. Even beyond that (and maybe more importantly) understanding what’s not working and being able to “fail fast” and move on to more impactful actions.

    Need help understanding the full impact of your marketing efforts? Here’s a blog post that provides insight into proving the impact of your marketing efforts through connected campaigns. And if you’re still feeling lost, you can reach out to the Sercante team for help.

    Original article: Uncover Marketing Magic with Pardot Custom Redirects

    ©2022 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

    The post Uncover Marketing Magic with Pardot Custom Redirects appeared first on The Spot.

    By |2022-11-30T15:19:00+00:00November 30th, 2022|Categories: Analytics & Reporting, Getting Started, revive, Setup & Admin|

    Unified Analytics: Find Reports and Dashboards Faster in Analytics Home

    If you’re like me, you hate spending half your life looking for things that have been filed already. I have reports in CRM Analytics and Salesforce, and it feels like a waste of time to have to look in two places. 

    I also hate having to “guess” what previous reports/ dashboard might already exist before I add to the fray by creating a new one. On top of that, in Salesforce I have to use up to 2 navigation tabs if I frequent both Reports and Dashboards often, using up valuable visual real estate…

    Well, your “search” for a solution is over! In the Salesforce Winter ‘23 Release, you now have access to a really cool way to see ALL your reports and dashboards through a single pane of glass.

    Introducing… The Unified Experience For Analytics Home.

    unified analytics view

    How will Unified Analytics change my life?

    While it might not be life altering, the Unified Analytics experience is magical on many levels and will give you back precious moments throughout your day! 

    How, you ask? A few examples:

    1. Filter by Dashboard or reports (or lenses or Apps or Components) and see BOTH Salesforce AND CRM Analytics assets
    unified analytics dashboard
    1. Explore all reporting assets by date, type, modified date, created date creator
    unified analytics folders
    1. Search across all analytics assets to find what you need with a single search
    unified analytics keyword results

    Turning on Unified Analytics

    You can turn on Unified Analytics in a few simple steps:

    1. Go To Setup > Analytics > Setting
    2. Check the box for “Enable the Unified Experience for Analytics Home”

    That’s it!

    home object manager

    Some Important notes

    • You need an Analytics CRM license to use this new feature
    • Once enabled, the experience will be available on Salesforce apps and through the browser
    • Collections can be created or accessed from apps or through the browser

    There are tons of tidbits in the Winter ‘23 release. This one might be small, but if your organization is one of those with lots of reporting assets (and lots of people writing reports), then this little nugget might just be the gold you’ve been looking for. 

    Onto the next adventure.

    Learn more about Unified Analytics and Salesforce reporting

    Original article: Unified Analytics: Find Reports and Dashboards Faster in Analytics Home

    ©2022 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

    The post Unified Analytics: Find Reports and Dashboards Faster in Analytics Home appeared first on The Spot.

    By |2022-11-28T21:01:00+00:00November 28th, 2022|Categories: Analytics & Reporting, New Features, Release Notes|

    Unified Analytics: Find Reports and Dashboards Faster in Analytics Home

    If you’re like me, you hate spending half your life looking for things that have been filed already. I have reports in CRM Analytics and Salesforce, and it feels like a waste of time to have to look in two places. 

    I also hate having to “guess” what previous reports/ dashboard might already exist before I add to the fray by creating a new one. On top of that, in Salesforce I have to use up to 2 navigation tabs if I frequent both Reports and Dashboards often, using up valuable visual real estate…

    Well, your “search” for a solution is over! In the Salesforce Winter ‘23 Release, you now have access to a really cool way to see ALL your reports and dashboards through a single pane of glass.

    Introducing… The Unified Experience For Analytics Home.

    unified analytics view

    How will Unified Analytics change my life?

    While it might not be life altering, the Unified Analytics experience is magical on many levels and will give you back precious moments throughout your day! 

    How, you ask? A few examples:

    1. Filter by Dashboard or reports (or lenses or Apps or Components) and see BOTH Salesforce AND CRM Analytics assets
    unified analytics dashboard
    1. Explore all reporting assets by date, type, modified date, created date creator
    unified analytics folders
    1. Search across all analytics assets to find what you need with a single search
    unified analytics keyword results

    Turning on Unified Analytics

    You can turn on Unified Analytics in a few simple steps:

    1. Go To Setup > Analytics > Setting
    2. Check the box for “Enable the Unified Experience for Analytics Home”

    That’s it!

    home object manager

    Some Important notes

    • You need an Analytics CRM license to use this new feature
    • Once enabled, the experience will be available on Salesforce apps and through the browser
    • Collections can be created or accessed from apps or through the browser

    There are tons of tidbits in the Winter ‘23 release. This one might be small, but if your organization is one of those with lots of reporting assets (and lots of people writing reports), then this little nugget might just be the gold you’ve been looking for. 

    Onto the next adventure.

    Learn more about Unified Analytics and Salesforce reporting

    Original article: Unified Analytics: Find Reports and Dashboards Faster in Analytics Home

    ©2022 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

    The post Unified Analytics: Find Reports and Dashboards Faster in Analytics Home appeared first on The Spot.

    By |2022-11-28T21:01:00+00:00November 28th, 2022|Categories: Analytics & Reporting, New Features, Release Notes|

    How to Choose a Salesforce Marketing Reporting Tool

    Not sure which Salesforce marketing reporting tool is the best for showing the results of your campaigns? 

    With so many to choose from between Salesforce CRM, Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot), and CRM Analytics, it can be difficult to nail down what reporting tool is the best fit for you. 

    While all the tools described here (to some extent) can be used to meet each criteria, some do it better than others. 

    Questions to determine which Salesforce marketing reporting tool is best for your team’s goals 

    We’ll help you narrow it down with some simple questions and a review of what each tool excels at! Hint: They all contain the letter “A”!

    Question 1: What are you “asking” of the data?

    While there are many uses for data, breaking down what you want into categories can help you create specific and purpose driven reporting content. 

    What that content is meant to inspire is the million dollar question. So… “What do you want your data to do for you?”

    I Need Operational Data!

    This type of reporting is really ideal for managing day to day metrics. The key here is that these are used to keep a pulse on the health and activities that keep your business running day to day. 

    • How many deals were open, closed, won or lost?
    • How many tasks were completed?
    • What is overdue? Or due today?
    • Who are my best performing Salespeople?

    Best Fit: Salesforce

    Why? Salesforce reports excel at showing data in a way that tells you what’s going on right now. Built-in report types give you easy access to history data and other commonly used data. 

    Need a quick list or visual to get the point across that is specific to a specific business metric? It’s easy to do (assuming you have the data in place). Another cool feature is that your reports and dashboards can be tailored to run as the person opening them, making them a custom fit and focussed.

    I Need Trending Data and Patterns, preferably in visuals!

    • How fast are we closing sales?
    • How is the pipeline looking for Q2 Compared to Q1? What had the most impact?
    • Which activities lead to sales?
    • How are my KPI’s Performing to goal
    • What are my leading or lagging indicators?

    Best Fit: CRM Analytics

    Why? Of all the tools this is the one that allows you to do “gymnastics” with your data and connect lots of things together. It also has much more robust visualization options, allowing you to connect and visualize data more easily. 

    Built-in apps provide “purpose” driven dashboards and insights based on best practices. You can have many filters and even specify which dashboard items interact with which filter! 

    While you can do some trend analysis in Salesforce, CRMA brings it to the next level. To top it off, if you have the right license, predictive analytics are within your reach.

    I Need Marketing Asset Intelligence!

    • What is the health of my campaigns?
    • I need to create list reports to segment and manage prospects!
    • What marketing activities are leading to increased engagement?
    • What activities are occurring? Or have occurred?
    • How is my nurture program performing?

    Best Fit: Pardot Reporting

    Why?: Pardot is purpose built to surface marketing metrics and streamline prospect management. Reports on common metrics (click through, open-rate, bounce rate opt out etc.) are available. While more limited in the sense of customization, these are critical metrics for every marketing department and company and help you keep a pulse on the health of your assets.

    Other considerations for selecting a Salesforce marketing reporting tool

    Who is your audience?

    This one is really all about functional role and (ahem) attention span. Think about the following questions to determine how audience affects which Salesforce marketing reporting tool to use:

    • How much time does the audience for the report have time to absorb the information? Does it come from multiple sources? 
    • Are they open to navigating many reports? 
    • How many filters are needed on the front end? 

    If your audience does not use your reports, then all the platforms are equally terrible. Always consider useability and make sure you consider hidden costs when comparing value.

    Leadership Team (C-Suite) 
    • These stakeholders tend to want a 5,000-foot strategic view that can be visually absorbed quickly and without too much explanation or time. For this group, CRM Analytics is a good fit since its strength lies in optimizing connected datasets in a visual way.
    Operational Managers
    • This group often wants to look at the high-level metrics, but also be able to dig into the records and data when a pattern or interesting number stands out. For these stakeholders, Salesforce reporting can be the best choice. 
    Marketing staff, Designers, Marketing Managers (admins, marketing staff etc)
    • As the lifeblood of marketing, these stakeholders need quick and easy access to see who is a best fit for nurture programs, check scoring and grading status and see what assets are performing best. Pardot reporting provides this view and the data that’s needed day to day.
    Analytics Staff
    • When you need ALL the data and want to know all the things, a deeper tool is needed. CRM Analytics allows the high-level and low-level data and allows the ability to create unlimited customized datasets to use for reporting. Additionally with licensing upgrades, the power of Einstein predictions can be unleashed. Fun fact, this data can be written back to Salesforce with the Salesforce Data connector, adding even more potential uses (teaser for a future blog 😉).

    What resources do you have available for reporting and analytics?

    Ok, so this one is kind of a trick question. No one ever has enough time or money… But it does matter. Having the right resources to develop your brilliant report or having the time to consume report content is critical. 

    How can you get the most out of each platform if you are strapped for resources? Any of the choices requires expertise and time to master customization or modification. But many “no effort” solutions also exist out there. 

    Also, while tools like CRM Analytics are pricier, consider the time to create 10 reports in Salesforce to get the same information and the limitations around connecting objects. Additionally, consider the pitfalls around manual reporting (Excel gathering) and the potential data and time issues that can occur. Consider all the costs of NOT having a single version of the truth. 

    How can I stretch my time and budget around Salesforce analytics? 

    Here are resources that might help.

    Salesforce: Check out the app exchange for many free useful examples and fully functioning Dashboards. Everything from adoption metrics to quality check dashboards can be had at the click of a button … and many are free. 

    CRM Analytics: This one is license specific, but you don’t need a data scientist to install apps such as B2BMA analytics (included for many Pardot  versions – more information here).

    Pardot: Sometimes less is more! This documentation around all reports Pardot will get you pointed in the right direction!

    Which Salesforce marketing reporting tool is best? It depends…

    So in conclusion, while each reporting platform has its strengths and weaknesses, the strongest is the one that presents the right content, to the right audience at the right time. 

    We hope the information in this post helps you to nail down which tool is right for your unique situation. 

    Still not sure? Drop us a line and we’ll see how we can help you.

    Original article: How to Choose a Salesforce Marketing Reporting Tool

    ©2022 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

    The post How to Choose a Salesforce Marketing Reporting Tool appeared first on The Spot.

    By |2022-10-10T18:27:00+00:00October 10th, 2022|Categories: Analytics & Reporting, Pro Tips, revive, Strategy|

    Salesforce Native Reporting: Get More From Your Data

    Salesforce has robust native reporting capabilities that come out of the box. But what happens when you need more? What CAN you do? 

    This Salesforce native reporting overview will make you a custom operational reporting superstar. That’s because it highlights the ways you can leverage custom objects and use joins in your reporting. 

    The good news is, once you know what’s possible, the world of Salesforce reporting is much easier to navigate.

    Where to Start: Create a Lookup Relationship on a Custom Object

    We’re going to start by going through the process of creating a lookup relationship on a Salesforce custom object.

    Why start here? In short, all Salesforce reporting is based on relationships between objects. 

    Let’s say you have a custom object where you store all of your team’s required compliance paperwork. You want to report on which opportunities need which paperwork within that custom object. 

    While you can create a custom report type for your custom object, there is no link between Opportunities and your custom object. 

    The good news is that you can create one! 

    Example: Creating a relationship between custom object and Opportunity

    Here’s an example that we can use as we move through our reporting exploration. Specifically, these are the steps to create a relationship between a custom object and an Opportunity in Salesforce:

    1. Open the custom object. In this case, I have created a custom object called “Compliance Documents.”
    2. Select Fields & Relationships.
    3. Select “New” to create a new field.
    4. Select “Lookup Relationship.”
    1. Select “Opportunity” as the Related to. This will create the relationship between Opportunity and the custom object, making them “linked” for reporting and other related purposes.
    2. If you want the relationship to be consistent and there should be a value selected, make sure to select “Always require a value in order to save the record.” Also make sure that “Add this field to existing custom report types that contain this entity” is checked.
    3. Click through the next few screens to verify permissions, Related list label and select what layouts to the new field to.

    With these steps, you can now add the custom object in a report type AND the related list will appear for the Opportunity. So easy, right?

    Exploring Salesforce Custom Report Types

    So, now that we have linked our custom object with a lookup relationship, let’s get ready to report!

    Use the following example to inspire your use of native Salesforce reporting capabilities.

    Use Case Example: Set up a custom report type 

    You want to be able to see what type of compliance reports have been completed (and what opportunities do NOT have documents) for your Opportunities. To accomplish this, we will set up a custom report type. 

    1. Go to Setup and select “Report Types.”
    2. Click “New Custom Report Type.”
    3. Select the Primary object (see tip below for more information).
    4. In our case, we will use Opportunities as our base object. We are interested in both Opportunities that have documents AND those that don’t. So, we’re calling it “Opportunities with or without Compliance Documents.”
    1. Now we can select the related objects. In this case, we want to see Compliance Documents. 

    Because our custom objects were created to support Activity creation, and Activity creation links to the Assignment object, we can add all these to maximize our report.

    NOTE: We are selecting “A” Records may or may not have “B” records so we can see how many of our total Opportunities have records. If we selected Each “A” record must have at least one “B” Record, we would ONLY see these records and not be able to compare (which will be handy in our report).

    1. Save your changes.

    Tip: What is the Primary Object?

    The primary object is the “base” Object for your report. You can select a custom or standard object. To decide which to select, consider what fields you want and whether they are connected as you select these. 

    Remember that all reporting starts with relationships between objects. One tool that can help you “see” the relationships in Salesforce is the Schema Builder in setup, which is where you can select your objects and get a visualization of how they are connected. 

    Good news for us, Salesforce report types makes this easy by only allowing you to select objects that are related and have lookup relationships. If you don’t see a child object, it’s because there isn’t a defined relationship. 

    Add Lookup Fields in Salesforce Custom Report

    So, great news! You have connected your custom object to a standard object and created a new report type. But what other data can we add from here? 

    Let’s see what we can add using the “edit layout” section of the Report Type.

    1. Click on “Edit Layout”
    2. On the left, you can dropdown the list under “view” to see the objects in your report type.
    1. Use the “Add fields related via lookup” to see what you can add to your report from other related objects.
    1. You can see all the objects that have a relevant relationship to “opportunity” in this window. Clicking on the object name allows you to select fields to add to your report.

      In the example above, I am adding Account Name and Account Number. You can change the view to show any of the objects in the custom report type to select related fields. You can see which fields were added by lookup easily since they have a magnifying glass next to them in the layout window.

    NOTE: Watch out for duplicate fields. For example, if I select the ID for Account using the related lookup, I will end up with two almost identically named fields when creating reports, which could be confusing. Not all lookup fields contain data. If a field is not required in a related object field, you may not get any additional data (just empty fields)

    1. You can add sections, add and remove fields and do many other fun things in this window, but we’ll move on to creating our report with our shiny new report type! (more information on working layouts here.) For our use case, we are ready to move on.

    Creating a Report Using Your Custom Report Type

    Finally all your work will come together in an amazing report! Let’s jump in!

    1. Go to Reports
    2. Click on “New Report”
    3. Be sure to select “all” to search for our New Custom Report type
    1. On the right, you can quickly see what reports have been created with this report type and what objects are included. Click on “Start Report”. You can add whatever fields you need.

    Using Cross Filters to Filter Records Based on Related Objects

    Now that I have a report in progress, what else can I do to use other objects with it? One example of this is a cross filter. 

    A cross filter allows you to filter your report type based on a related object. For example, If I have a report type based on opportunities, I can use a cross join to limit the results to opportunities that have related campaign influence records (without actually having to include the Campaign Influence object in the custom report type).

    1. Click on “Filters”
    2. Select the drop down next to filters and select New Cross Filter
    3. Select Opportunities as the “show me” and Campaign Influence as the limiter

      NOTE: You can use “With” or Without” as the criteria to return records.

    TIP: Check out the Sercante Campaign Influence Starter Pack for more information.

    Using Joined Reports in Salesforce to Enrich Your Data

    Joined Reports in Salesforce are a little tricky to understand but can be VERY practical. Here’s how the feature works.

    Consider the following use case. You want to be able to show Products on Opportunities related to those with compliance documents. Your custom report type does not have Product information. 

    No worries at all! If there are related fields between the two report types, you can join them together in blocks.

    Here’s how to do that:

    1. Click on “Report” at the top left of your report window.
    2. Click on “Joined Report,” and click apply.
    1. Click on Add Block.
    2. Select the Opportunities with Products block.
    1. Use the lookup window under “Group Across Blocks” to pick the field you want to group on. This will create a connection on a common field. 

    In this case OpportunityID is most appropriate since I want to see detail for each opportunity. You can now see the fields I selected from my Custom Report type and fields I selected from the Opportunities with Products report.

    NOTE: Once you create a Joined Report, you also need to manage filters for each one separately under the filter area. 

    Now you can see how the Joined Report enriches your data! We can see if any Opportunities with or without documents have products linked.

    So what happens now?

    In our little summary we have reviewed the ways in which you can show data in Salesforce reports through Lookup relationships on objects for the following:

    • Custom reports types
    • Lookups on Custom report Types
    • Joined Report
    • Cross filters

    The wonderful world of Salesforce Reporting is constantly changing and improving with every release. Knowing what you can do to bring your data together is the key to creating meaningful, actionable reports. 

    I hope this summary helps in your understanding of what’s available and related use cases.

    Looking for information about Salesforce native reporting?

    Salesforce has a wonderful help section with videos and how tos that can help you on your journey. And remember, you can always reach out to the team at Sercante if you have any questions. 

    Tell us what you’re going to build using Salesforce native reporting capabilities in the comments section.

    Original article: Salesforce Native Reporting: Get More From Your Data

    ©2022 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

    The post Salesforce Native Reporting: Get More From Your Data appeared first on The Spot.

    By |2022-09-16T14:21:00+00:00September 16th, 2022|Categories: Analytics & Reporting, Data Management, Pro Tips, revive|

    Salesforce Summer ‘22 Release: CRM Analytics Features We Love

    The Salesforce Summer ‘22 Release is sending lots of love to CRM Analytics (formerly Tableau CRM) users in the form of updates and new features that make reporting work easier using the tool.

    These are the features we’re going to start using ASAP.

    What CRM Analytics features are there to love in the Salesforce Summer ‘22 Release?

    They said it was coming. They said it would be here soon. Now it’s here. The CRM Analytics data manager has gotten a facelift and some groovy new features. 

    Flows are headed out the door. Hello recipe driven data sets! Will you be ready? 

    Read ahead to find out how some of these new features will change the way you use CRM Analytics

    Reviewing Usage of CRM Analytics limits

    Viewing usage is now a breeze! No more wondering what the limits are or how close you are to reaching them. This usage is unique to what’s used by CRM Analytics. I’ve been using this feature since the beta so I can’t even remember how we did it before.

    All recipes, all the recipes, all the time (well pretty soon)

    The retirement of flows is imminent. No, they won’t disappear, but this release shows that a strong “nudge” is being given to moving away from Data Flow (happy dance on my part).

    Side note: the Flow to Recipe conversion (Beta) does not appear to be ready for primetime and flows are not going anywhere any time too soon! 

    As part of this transformation, new Recipe features are being released to close the gap.

    You now can give each step in a transform a name in a recipe

    Before
    After

    Salesforce resource

    The “update” Join is now out of beta! 

    Use Case: The update can be used to replace fields with those from another table. For example, instead of joining and adding a bunch of fields, you can update the Campaign name directly in related objects — less complexity and mess! 

    Improved Data Sampling in Recipes

    Select how you want the preview to work! 

    You can now select a “sampling mode.” This is REALLY useful when the results you want to see might not exist in the initial rows returned (like when you are selecting filters). No more guessing when bucketing and filtering your values!

    Salesforce resource

    Connections screen that connects with your needs 

    The connections area now has a simpler layout. That means seeing what’s available for use has never been easier. You can also view filters, multi values and other specific information about your connected data sources in one screen. 

    When selecting connectors (add connector) you can now pick the type easily and see what options are available (and the list is growing). Open any object to see the new streamlined layout!

    Improved Data Manager Layout

     It’s now super easy to see what’s happening, happened or will happen!

    And finally, a small but wonderful change…. The status “circle” in Data manager now actually means something. The “green” shows how much of the recipe/dataflow has run so you can have some idea of how far into the process your data generation has gone!

    Salesforce resource

    See all the possibilities in CRM Analytics 

    Maybe one of the most compelling things about the changes has nothing to do with what you can do, but with what you can now easily SEE. With all the possibilities becoming more visible, I anticipate many CRM Analytics admins and users digging into more of what the product has to offer.

    Let us know what you’re working on in the comments section or reach out to us here.

    Happy reporting everyone! 

    Further Reading

    Original article: Salesforce Summer ‘22 Release: CRM Analytics Features We Love

    ©2022 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

    The post Salesforce Summer ‘22 Release: CRM Analytics Features We Love appeared first on The Spot.

    By |2022-06-21T14:34:00+00:00June 21st, 2022|Categories: Analytics & Reporting, Data Management, New Features, Release Notes|

    Renovate Your Tableau CRM Dashboard: Create a Custom Toggle in 3 Steps

    Ever wondered how you can optimize real estate in your Tableau CRM Dashboard? A great option is using toggles. 

    There are several types of toggles. You can select a single field from a dataset when you have the values in one field. Or, you can create a custom toggle that lets you change views and other attributes dynamically. 

    You can go from this:

    Graphical user interface, application

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    To this:

    Graphical user interface, application, table, Excel

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    What is a toggle?

    A toggle is a widget that lets you quickly jump from view to view and show your dashboard users what their options are. You can use them to change groupings, column names and even metrics used. 

    In this example, we will keep it simple.

    Step 1: Create the visual.

    In our example, we are using the Pardot Prospects dataset. We drag a chart filter onto the Canvas and group by Country.

    Chart, bar chart

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    Step 2: Create the toggle.

    Next, we drag a toggle widget onto the canvas. With your toggle on the canvas, you’ll:

    1. Click on the toggle.

    2. Select “Change data source” (top right).

    3. Select “Create Custom Query” (bottom left).

    Graphical user interface, application

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    4. Add a name for the column (the name will display in the toggle).

    5. Select “+ Add Column” and select “Dimension.”

    Graphical user interface, application

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    6. Select the “Pardot Prospects” Dataset.

    7. Add Country.

    Graphical user interface, application

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    8. Repeat for all dimensions you want to use. Click “Done.”

    9. Click on the toggle and change the query properties to “Single Selection (required).” Application

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    Step 3: Bind the toggle.

    1. Click on the chart you created earlier and select “Advanced Editor” in the right-hand panel.

    Graphical user interface, application

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    2. Click on “Select Query” on the left-hand side.

    3. Select the name of the Toggle you created (In this case, it’s “Select Group”).

    Graphical user interface, text, application

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    4. Select the Back arrow by choosing a query to return to the main screen.

    5. Under “Source Data” click on “Choose data.”

    Graphical user interface, application

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    6. Use the dropdowns to select “column” and select the column with the Dimensions you selected. Use the back arrow next to “Select Data” to return to the main screen

    7. Change the interaction type to “selection” and the “Data Serialization Functions” to “asObject”

    Graphical user interface, application

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    Note that the Interaction result shows you the value that is created by your string. Click on the “Copy” button to save the interaction code to your clipboard

    8. Find the “groups” area and replace the “Country” group with the code you just created (see below). Make sure you keep the Quotes on each side.

    Graphical user interface, text, application

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    9. Click on the “Widget” Link at the top. Use the Find function to find the “column map” section.

    Graphical user interface, text, application, email

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    10. Change the value from this:

    A picture containing chart

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    To this:

    Graphical user interface, application, Word

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    Why do we need to remove the column map?

    We remove the column map because we are dictating with our Binding what the columns will be and removing Tableau CRM’s static mappings.

    Happy toggling with Tableau CRM!

    That’s it! You can now use the toggle to select any of the views you created.

    As you play around with this feature, you can get very fancy. You can use bindings to change just about anything in your chart dynamically.

    When you’re finished playing around, here’s another solution you can use to customize your Tableau CRM reporting tables and keep it going.

    Happy toggling!

    How fancy are you gonna get with your custom toggling in Tableau? Tell us about it in the comments or send us a message to chat.

    Original article: Renovate Your Tableau CRM Dashboard: Create a Custom Toggle in 3 Steps

    ©2022 The Spot for Pardot. All Rights Reserved.

    The post Renovate Your Tableau CRM Dashboard: Create a Custom Toggle in 3 Steps appeared first on The Spot for Pardot.

    By |2022-04-07T18:03:00+00:00April 7th, 2022|Categories: Analytics & Reporting, Pro Tips|

    How to Use Flags in Tableau CRM to Create Many-to-One Relationships

    Ever wished you could facet, filter and do other magic on a dataset that also had aggregated data from a summary table in Tableau CRM?  

    There is a way!

    For example, you want to look at all the scores in the Pardot engagement history object, but also would like to use the same report to show summarized campaign information.

    The dilemma?

    When you bring in the summarized data and join it by Campaign, each Activity row will contain the data for the entire campaign. While it will make your campaign numbers look spectacular, it will also be spectacularly wrong!

    What to do?

    Use a flag to differentiate summarized data

    Tableau CRM has an AMAZING feature that lets you create a row number that you can use as a flag to differentiate between summarized and detailed data.  

    How? You can use the flag in your dashboard widgets to summarize or exclude data as needed.

    Here’s how it works:

    1. Join your data as usual. Here we are joining on ActivityCampaignID in Pardot Engagement history to the ID in the Campaign table after we aggregate the metrics we want from Campaigns (leads, cost $ and opps $).
    2. Use a transform in your recipe to create the “flag” / unique identifier.
    •   Select Add transformation.
    •   Select Multiple row formula at the top.

    The multiple row indicator allows Tableau CRM to “partition” the data so you can look at groups of data within the data and apply metrics to the specific group. 

    In this instance, we are grouping by the CampaignID to assign a row number for each instance of the campaign (starting from 1).

    1. Select Row Number.
    2.  Select the field you wish to create row numbers from.
    3. Select numeric.
    4. Give it a name and save.
    5. Complete your recipe and run!

    You now  have a “flag” that can be used in your recipe.  Each #1 in the row can be used to reflect the “unique” campaign aggregate.

    The flag gives you access to accurate data

    Now you can use this flag in metrics and KPI widgets where you want to see the campaign metrics. 

    Example

    By adding the flag we created to the filter for summary statistics around Campaigns, we are able to limit the  distinct Campaigns for our KPI/top level summary. But we are still able to see the row-level detail for non-aggregated data (like score).

    Why is this great?  Now you can use the SAME filters, toggles and other interaction features to see detail AND the summary.

    Using a single dataset, we can now view the Campaign stats (which we aggregated) and all the activity details our marketing teams crave!

    Have a fun use case for this solution? Tell us about it in the comments.

    The post How to Use Flags in Tableau CRM to Create Many-to-One Relationships appeared first on The Spot for Pardot.

    By |2022-02-18T18:30:44+00:00February 18th, 2022|Categories: Analytics & Reporting, Data Management, Pro Tips, revive|