A Simple 7-Step Guide To Salesforce Outlook Integration

This is a simplified guide to Salesforce outlook integration. Download this pdf for a more detailed process including requirements etc. Salesforce is among the world’s leading CRM. The platform has helped businesses streamline and automate business processes. With solutions spanning departments such as sales, marketing, and customer engagement, Salesforce has helped businesses become very efficient and effective. Sales representatives spend a lot of time in Microsoft Outlook. Interacting with clients and prospects through email is a huge part of the sales process. Outlook enables sales reps to send and receive emails from leads while managing functionalities like calendar appointments and events. Sales reps spend about 50% of their billable hours on minimal tasks such as maintaining data, transferring data, and data entry. So much time is wasted while switching between the several windows open during business operations. Salesforce Outlook integration helps to minimize the time spent while switching between windows. You no longer have to switch between windows: harness the power of Salesforce while using Outlook to conduct business.

Importance of Salesforce Outlook Integration

There are so many benefits of integrating Salesforce with Outlook. This integration helps your sales team become more efficient and close more leads. Salesforce Outlook integration gives your sales team several exciting features that help them better manage conversions. Here are just a few reasons why you should integrate Salesforce with Outlook:

1. Saves your team valuable time – Your team no longer has to toggle between tabs while working. This integration also helps your team save the time spent entering data from one application to the other.
2. Helps your team to focus on closing more leads – Your sales team can now focus on what matters – closing more leads. Salesforce Outlook integration enables you to track email conversion rates relevant to Salesforce records.
3. One central place – this integration helps your team to access important Outlook email messages and manage all relevant Salesforce records in one central place. This makes business processes simpler and more convenient.
4. Makes data entry easier – Salesforce Outlook integration helps data entry and management easier. No time is wasted while transferring and managing data.

How to Integrate Salesforce with Outlook

Connecting Salesforce with Outlook is a simple process. You’ll first need to have both Salesforce and Outlook environments up and running. You also require Salesforce administrative access to proceed with the integration. You can either use Salesforce Lightning or Service Cloud to set up the Salesforce Outlook integration. Here are the steps to follow to successfully integrate Salesforce with Outlook:

Step 1: Enable Salesforce Outlook Integration in Salesforce

The first step is to enable the outlook integration in the Salesforce platform. Open your Salesforce and navigate to the setup menu. Search for Outlook in the quick find box and select Outlook integration. Enable Outlook integration and Lightning sync button.

Step 2: Configure Outlook Domains

Salesforce allows three standard domains by default. The three acceptable domains are Outlook.com, Office365.com, and Office.com. These domains are whitelisted by default. If your Outlook environment runs on a unique domain such as email.companyname.com, then you will need to whitelist that domain with Salesforce. To configure such a domain, scroll down within the Outlook integration and Lighting Sync until you find a section titled Microsoft Outlook Web App Domain. On this section, click new to add a new domain then enter your unique domain.

Step 3: Add Salesforce App to Outlook

Switch to Microsoft Outlook to download and install the Salesforce app from Microsoft AppSource. To download the Salesforce app, open a new email message window and click on the three dots to reveal an action menu. Click the Add-ins button to open the Microsoft AppSource marketplace. Search for Salesforce and click install to add it to your Outlook environment. The Salesforce App is now installed in your Outlook.

There are many Salesforce-related apps in the marketplace. These apps have the word Salesforce as a prefix. Ensure you only install the one named Salesforce.

Step 4: Log into Salesforce from Microsoft

After installing Salesforce, it is now time to log in through Outlook. Go back to the new message you created and click on the three dots to prompt action. There should now be a menu item with the Salesforce label. Click on the Salesforce label to open the Salesforce app panel after which you will be prompted to log in to your Salesforce account. Ensure that you select production as your environment before you log in. After selecting production as your environment, a login window will pop prompting you to enter your login credentials. You will then get a message confirming that you have allowed Outlook to share data with Salesforce.

Step 5: Start using Salesforce in Outlook

After you log in to your Salesforce through Outlook, it is now time to start using Salesforce. You will need an active Salesforce panel in Outlook. Using this panel, you can quickly and easily create Salesforce contacts, events, and tasks within Outlook. You can also do tasks such as searching for contact records and tracing their account history and email opening rates. Lastly, you can access unique email templates from Salesforce when composing new emails for your contacts.

Step 6: Enable Enhanced Email

You have to enable enhanced email feature in Salesforce to record emails sent in Outlook contact conversation history. To enable enhanced email, return to Outlook integration and Lightning Sync window within Salesforce. Look for a section titled Log Email Messages to Salesforce while composing. Click Activate and Notify Reps. Click the edit button and then the active and advanced email security settings. Check the box true and click save. Go back to the log email messages to Salesforce while composing settings page and turn on the slider next to use Email within Outlook. You are now set to go.

Step 7: Log Email Conversations

You can now log an email conversation having enabled enhanced email. Log into a contact’s conversation history using the Salesforce panel in Outlook. Search for a record from Salesforce and click the log button in the top right part of the Salesforce Panel. Select people records to log the email to and the contact to which that conversation is relevant. Click save and an address will automatically be added. You are done with your Salesforce Outlook integration.

Wrap up

Email is still a huge and crucial part of the sales process. Sales reps spend a lot of time in Outlook. The app offers them a lot of functionalities to communicate with clients and close of prospects. The benefits of using Salesforce for your business cannot be over-emphasized. Salesforce helps your business become more efficient and gives you a competitive edge. Salesforce Outlook integration is a game changer in the sales process. It has helped sales teams close more leads. You can now have conversations with prospects including those that take place in Outlook. Work better by integrating Salesforce with Outlook. Here at PlumLogix we help businesses, just like yours, better utilize their Salesforce subscription. There is so much more you can do with Salesforce to grow your business. Contact us for expert Salesforce assistance and let us grow your business together.