Salesforce: CRM Reference Guide (Lightning)

Salesforce Terminology

Below are a list of the most common Salesforce terms you should become familiar with.

Account	An Account is an organization or company that you want to track. Examples: City of Albany; Solar City.
Activity (Tasks/Events)	Planned task or event, optionally related to another type of Record such as an Account, Contact, Lead, or Opportunity. Examples: Call to confirm status; Email an application.
Campaign	A Campaign is a grouping of contacts used for marketing outreach. It can be the vehicle for a direct mail program, seminar, print advertisement, email, or other type of marketing initiative. Campaigns have been organized into a hierarchy reflecting the NYSERDA Organizational Chart. The Program Campaign type allows program staff to create their own non-marketing campaigns in order to organize contacts, leads, and accounts.
Chatter	Chatter is a Salesforce collaboration application that helps you connect with people and share business information securely and in real time. Groups may also be created to collaborate with a group of users.
Contact	Contacts are the individuals associated with Accounts.
Convert	Convert is the button on the Lead record that allows you to change a qualified Lead into an Account, Contact, and, optionally, an Opportunity. Information from the Lead fields are transferred into the appropriate Account, Contact, and Opportunity fields.
Lead	A Lead is used to track prospects. It has the lowest data quality threshold (it only requires that you enter a name and a company), and it will often be the initial place an individual enters the system.
Objects	Objects represent database tables that contain your organization's information. All the tabs in the top menu bar are objects i.e. Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Opportunities, Campaigns, etc.
Opportunity	An Opportunity can be added to an Account or Contact and used to track interactions such as a response to a NYSERDA offering or an indication that an Account is a prime candidate to partner with NYSERDA.
Records	A Record is a single instance of a Salesforce Object (i.e. an individual Lead, Contact, Opportunity, etc.). For example, John Jones might be the name of a Contact Record, and City of Miami might be the name of an Account Record.
Related Lists	Related lists are information sections of data on an object’s record. You can view campaigns, opportunities, notes and more that are related to that record. To view a record’s Related Lists, click the Related tab. The Related Lists shown below are Project Activities, SQA Inspector Time Off Details, and Projects Roles.
Reports	A Report returns a set of Records that meets certain criteria and displays it in organized rows and columns. Report data can be filtered, grouped, and displayed graphically as a chart. Reports are stored in folders, which control who has access.
Salesforce Applications	Salesforce includes prebuilt applications (or apps) for customer relationship management (CRM) ranging from communication and outreach tracking to partner relationship management, marketing, and customer service. The two most used/relevant apps are NYSERDA CRM and NYSERDA Program. Upon logging into Salesforce, confirm that the CRM is active. This is indicated by either NYSERDA CRM or NYSERDA CRM Lightning in the top-left of the screen. To switch between the different Salesforce Applications, click the app launcher in the top-left corner. You can either search for an app in the search tool or click View ALl to see a list of all apps.
Tabs	Tabs display those Objects and other content embedded in the current application.

Information Security

Data Governance

As users of Salesforce, you must follow the guidelines set forth in the Operations and Procedures Manual, chapter 14 - Information Security and Data Governance. In the discharge of related duties, each employee shall observe the highest standards of business and personal ethics, while promoting NYSERDA's objectives and interests, and conduct themselves in a manner that will withstand public, media, legal, and organizational scrutiny.

You can also review the Data Governance List of Approved Platforms & AI Inventory.

Personal Private and Sensitive Information (PPSI)

As a general principal, Personal Private and Sensitive Information (PPSI) should not be entered into Salesforce. If you have data or artifacts that can be classified as Personal Private and Sensitive Information per NYSERDA’s Data Governance guidelines, please seek out your Salesforce Liaison and to discuss how best to proceed with storage of this data. Your Liaison can then work with you to identify if a Salesforce Case should be submitted for review by the Salesforce Governance Council.

You should work with the Salesforce IT Team if you're looking to maintain moderate or highly confidential information in the CRM.

Common Salesforce Activities

There are two ways for a NYSERDA employee to login to Salesforce. If you need help please email SalesforceSupport@nyserda.ny.gov.

Login to Salesforce (Production) from the NYSERDA Launch page at launch.nyserda.org.

Click the box labeled Salesforce.

You will land on your Home page.

Go to  nyserda.my.salesforce.com.

Click the Log in with Employee Network Credentials link.

You will be presented with the secureAuth login where you will enter your NYSERDA network username and password. You will then need a pin from your secureAuth app to access Salesforce.

There are two User Interfaces for Salesforce that deviate slightly with how they look and work.

Salesforce Classic	This interface may be the default when logging into Salesforce CRM. If you see the Switch to Lightning Experience link in Salesforce Classic then you have are able to switch to the Lightning interface. If you do not see this link, you can request it via a NYSERDA Helpdesk ticket.
Salesforce Lightning	The preferred interface when using Salesforce CRM. To switch to Salesforce Classic, click the Profile Icon in the upper-right of the screen and select Switch to Salesforce Classic from the drop-down. Alternatively, you can also click the App Launcher in the upper-left corner of the screen and search for and select NYSERDA CRM Lightning.

A search bar called Global Search is located at the top of every page within Salesforce, and you may search for any Object or Record. It is important to search for an existing Record (i.e. Contact or Account) before creating a new Record to help avoid creating duplicates. Type in your inquiry and press Enter to view results.

To broaden your search results, you may use an * (asterisk) to bring up results that include any Object or Record that contains those characters.

New records should only be created once you have thoroughly searched for and confirmed that there is not already an existing record. There are two methods to create a new record.

Options
Option 1: Click the drop-down arrow next to any Object Tab.	Option 2: Click into the specific Object (i.e. Account, Contact, or Lead) where you would like to create a record and click on the New button near the top-right of the screen.
Example: Sally Smith from Capital Solar called and asked to be emailed an application. Sally Smith is not in the CRM.
Search for an existing Account. Remember to press Enter to view all results. If the Account exists, click on the Account. If the Account does not already exists, create a new Account by performing one of the two options outlined above. Once in the Account, scroll down to the related lists titled Contracts and click New. Fill in the required information for Sally and click Save.

The purpose of utilizing this shared system is to allow anyone in the Authority to search for and obtain any pertinent information about a NYSERDA stakeholder. Therefore, adding all new and relevant information to each record is extremely important.

Example: Sally Smith emailed you her completed application and you want to attach it as a file to her Contact Record:

Log into Salesforce and search for and click on Sally Smith.

Scroll down to the related list in Sally's Record titled Notes and Attachments and click Upload Files. You can also drag & drop the file onto the page.

Select the file from your computer and click Save. Now the application will be accessible for anyone at NYSERDA to access.

All objects on the navigation menu have a List View that organizes and displays records that are filtered based on certain criteria. You can create additional list views that are visible only to you.

Example: Create a Private List view for Accounts:

Click the object's tab on the navigation menu. Accounts is the object in this example.

Click the settings cog to view the List View Controls and click New.

Enter a name for the List View. The API name will automatically populate when you click out of the List Name field. Ensure "Only I can see this list view" is selected. Then click Save.

Enter filter criteria then click Save.

Almost all records display a Details tab and a Related tab. The Related tab shows a list of additional object related to that record. Additional information about the record are displayed here. You can create new related records by using the buttons on each Related List.

Find a Contact Record to Update

Use the Global Search to enter the name of the Contact that needs to be updated. Ensure the Account the Contact is assigned to matches the company your contact belongs to. There may be multiple Contacts with the same name but assigned to different Accounts for a reason i.e. Jane Smith can be assigned to the Volkswagen Account and another Jane Smith contact is assigned to the Tesla Account.

In addition to checking the Account, there are other ways to help determine which Contact record to use:

look for records that are more 'active' and have an activity history like emails, calls, tasks etc.
check what campaigns, if any, the Contact belongs to
confirm if the Contact has any program partnerships (if applicable)

What Can be Updated?

After the correct Contact record has been located, all fields on the record can be updated except the Account Name assigned to the record. If the Contact doesn't associate with the Account listed anymore, select the No Longer with Company checkbox.

Leads

A lead is a contact at any entity (company, institution, organization, etc.) that NYSERDA or its contractor would like to interact with for the purpose of outreach, but do not yet.

A Lead record assumes that your “lead” is a new contact at a new account; therefore, a lead record contains a unique combination of Contact and Account fields. Once that lead is established and ready to be converted, those fields will be transferred to a new or existing Account, and a new contact.

The 2 Lead record types that should be used are NYSERDA Lead and Outreach Lead:

NYSERDA Leads are used primarily for Web-To-Lead functionality and hold generic contact information.

Outreach Leads hold a lot of information specific to the NYSERDA Outreach process, including the ability to delineate specific program outreach.

Leads can be imported from an Excel sheet or manually entered. To import Leads, submit a Jira ticket and include the Leads Import Template file with all of your Leads.

Click the drop down icon next to 'Leads' on the navigation menu, then click New Lead.

Select the Lead record type and click Next.

Fill in all fields marked with a red asterisks (*) and any additional information you have about the Lead. Then click Save.

Leads should be converted to once the Lead relationship develops and/or that relationship involves a project. They can be converted into Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities. You may want to convert a lead to an Account in the following situations:

When the Lead shows interest in applying for a program (Opportunity)
When needing to create Sites/Locations
When needing to create Contact Roles

To convert a lead, select the Convert button at the top of that Lead record to bring up the Convert Lead screen. In the Convert Lead screen, you will need to make the following selections based on the information in the table below. Your name will default as the Record Owner, and the Converted Status will default to Qualified. These fields can remain unchanged.

Account

A new Account can be created, or the Lead can be converted to an existing Account. If the Account name matches an existing Account, Salesforce will display it as an option rather than creating a new one. You can also search for an Account. Be sure to select the correct Account Record type .

Contact

A new Contact can be created, or the Lead can be converted to an existing Contact. If the Contact name matches an existing Contact, Salesforce will display it as an option rather than creating a new one. You can also search for a Contact.

Opportunity

A new Opportunity can be created, or the Lead can be associated to an existing Opportunity. You can also search for an Opportunity or opt to not create an Opportunity when the Lead is converted by selecting the checkbox under the Record Type.

Using the Salesforce web to lead functionality, we are able to create public facing forms that allow the capturing of lead information directly into a specified campaign.

For example, a web to lead form can be added to an outreach website to collect customer information. The information is collected and creates a new Lead in Salesforce .

For more information, please contact your Salesforce Liaison.

Accounts & Contacts

An Account is an organization or company that you want to track. Examples: City of Albany; Solar City. Contacts are the individuals associated with Accounts.

When adding a new Account, you will be asked to choose a Record Type for which there are two choices:

Business Account: This is a company under which you will be adding contacts. This should be used a majority of the time when creating new accounts.

Individual Account : This is for residential customers or individuals that are no representing a company in the CRM. This is rarely used. The name would be something like John Smith Individual Account and would have once contact under it: John Smith.

Contacts can be created from multiple places in Salesforce. The three most common locations are shown below. Contacts must always be assigned to an Account.

Location 1	Click the drop-down arrow on the Contacts Tab and click New Contact.
Location 2	Click the Contacts Tab and then click New in the upper-right of the screen.
Location 3	Click the Accounts Tab or use the Global Search to pull up the Account the new Contact will be assigned to. Then, click the Related Tab, find the Contacts Related Lists and click New.

Finding a Contact Record to Update

Use the Global Search to enter the name of the Contact that needs to be updated. Ensure the Account the Contact is assigned to matches the company your contact belongs to. There may be multiple Contacts with the same name but assigned to different Accounts for a reason; i.e. Jane Smith can be assigned to the Volkswagen Account and another Jane Smith contact is assigned to the Tesla Account.

In addition to checking the Account, there are other ways to help determine which Contact record to use:

look for records that are more active and have an activity history like emails, calls, tasks etc.
check what campaigns, if any, the Contact belongs to
confirm if the Contact has any program partnerships (if applicable)

What Can be Updated?

After the correct Contact record has been located, all fields on the record can be updated except the Account Name assigned to the record. If the Contact doesn't associate with the Account listed anymore, select the No Longer with Company checkbox.

Duplicate Management

Duplicate management features are set up and turned on by default for business accounts, contacts and leads. Here’s how duplicate management works:

When a user tries to save a new record, the record is first compared with existing Salesforce records to identify possible duplicates. The criteria used to compare records and identify the possible duplicates are defined by a matching rule .
Next, a list of possible duplicates is returned. What happens when the record being saved is identified as a possible duplicate depends on what’ s defined in the duplicate rule. For example, the duplicate rule could block users from saving the possible duplicate record or allow them to save it anyway. Both the Block and Allow options include an alert, which tells users why they can’t save the record and what to do about it. The Allow option includes the ability to report on the duplicate records.

How to Select Which Account & Contact Record to Use

When duplicate results display for Accounts and Contacts, first look for the one that most closely matches your search criteria. Look for records that are more completely filled out with information, have activity history, project history, has a supplier ID, etc. More often than not, the erroneous duplicate record will have little-to-no activity on the record.

Opportunities

An Opportunity can be added to an Account or Contact and used to track interactions such as a response to a NYSERDA offering or an indication that an Account is a prime candidate to partner with NYSERDA.

NYSERDA Opportunities are used to delineate prospective projects and/or applications. Outreach Contractors use Opportunities to note when programmatic outreach is being performed on the Account.

To create a new Opportunity record, click the drop down arrow on the Opportunities tab and click New Opportunity.

Select either a NYSERDA Opportunity or Outreach Opportunity.

All fields marked with a red asterisks (*) must be entered:

Opportunity Name	Create a name to keep track of your Opportunity. Most naming conventions include the contact's name and company or program for which they're interested in applying.
Account Name	Enter the Account associated with the Opportunity. If the Account doesn't exist, a new one can be created within the same window.
Close Date	Enter a date you think the Opportunity will occur. It can be any date in the future.
Stage	Select a stage that is the best description of where the Opportunity progress is or the project application status.

Tasks & Events (Activities)

An activity may be a task or event completed or scheduled by a Salesforce User. All interactions with Customer and/or Strategic Partner Accounts and Leads should be entered as Activities.

Tasks can be created on Lead, Contact, and Opportunity records.

Click the New Task button to create a task.

Subjects prepopulate if you click in the Subject field, or you can type a custom Subject. The due date, priority and additional comments can be added to the task. Additionally, tasks can be assigned to different users or queues.

Tasks can be assigned to different users or queues. The due date, priority and additional comments can also be added to the task.

Events can be created for Accounts, Contacts, Leads, and Opportunity records. Events display on your calendar in Salesforce. The details are not shared with other users.

Click the New Event button to create an event.

Fill in all required fields and any additional details about the event. Subjects prepopulate if you click in the Subject field, or you can type a custom Subject.

Quick Texts can be used on Tasks in the Comments field. A Quick Text lets you insert predefined messages like greetings, answers, and common responses. Click inside the Comments field and then click the Message Icon that pops up to select a pre-written message to populate the Comments field.

Emails can be sent from Contact, Lead, and Opportunity records. Rather than sending an email from Outlook, you can search and open the Contact or Lead record and compose an email in Salesforce. Salesforce provides the option to create and Activity as either a Task or an Event. Most Activities may be recorded as Tasks. An Activity should be created as an Event only if the Activity was an event in which outreach was conducted broadly to multiple existing or potential Customers and/or Strategic Partners. Events have additional fields (e.g., Event location, Agenda, etc.) that may be filled out if useful.

Click the Email button.

The email will automatically populate with the Contact's email address.

Enter the Subject and compose the email.

Quick Text Button		Quick Texts allow you to enter short, prewritten messages. You can create new Quick Texts or use any that are saved in a shared folder.
Add an Attachment/File		Click to add an attachment or file to the email.
Insert a Merge Field		Merge Fields pull in details about the record using a special shorthand code. For example {{{Recipient.FirstName}}} will populate the Contact or Lead's first name in the email.
Insert an Email Template		Click to insert an email template.
Preview Email		Click to preview how the sent email will appear to the recipients.

You can preview the email and then click Send. In the email preview, you'll be able to see what information populates in the Merge Fields if you used any.

Campaigns & Marketing

A Campaign is a grouping of contacts used for marketing outreach. It can be the vehicle for a direct mail program, seminar, print advertisement, email, or other type of marketing initiative. Campaigns have been organized into a hierarchy reflecting the NYSERDA Organizational Chart. The Program Campaign type allows program staff to create their own non-marketing campaigns in order to organize contacts, leads, and accounts.

Campaigns are a way to group all of your contacts together in a list which allows Marketing to send out an email to all campaign members.

To add an individual to an existing Campaign, open the Contact or Lead record.

Once in the Contact or Lead record, scroll down the Campaign History related list and click the Add to Campaign button.

Enter the Campaign Name and click Enter.

Click the name of the Campaign from the list and click Next.

Once you select the correct Campaign, select a status on the New Campaign Member record and click Save. You can leave all the other default information.

Only Salesforce Administrators and Marketing & Communications staff can create new Campaigns to be used for mass email purposes. Program staff can create new Program Campaigns without submitting a Help Desk Campaign Import List ticket. Program Campaigns cannot be used to send mass email communications.

Click the drop-down arrow next to Campaigns in the navigation menu, then click New Campaign.

Select the Program Campaign record type if not already selected and click Next.

Enter the Campaign Name and select Program-managed Campaigns for the type, then click Save. Additional details can be added to the campaign record but this is all that is required to create the program campaign.

Campaign names should follow a general naming convention. It should include the program area and a description of who the Contacts/Leads are in the campaign. If applicable, a date can be included.

Examples:

02_27_24 Clean Energy Hubs - Residential Summer Workshop Webex Attendees
2023 NY Sun - Commercial Solar Inspectors
Disadvantaged Communities - WeAct Stakeholders

Click the Related tab then click Add Contacts or Add Leads to add individuals to the campaign.

Only Campaign Owners can make changes to a campaign. Campaign Owners are assigned when the Contact Import List ticket is created. The individual submitting the request will be the Campaign Owner unless other noted in the ticket.

However, Campaign Owners may update Contacts and Leads associated with the campaign if less than five (5) updates are required. If more than five (5) Contacts or Leads are required to be added or removed from the campaign, Campaign Owners must submit an additional Contact Import List ticket to have Corporate Marketing make the mass update.

When the Marketing team sends out email blasts, an email shell campaign is created to use for the marketing email send out. The other campaigns, i.e. source campaigns, are used to identify who the email blast should go to.

Example:

The NY Sun team wants to send an email blast to Residential and Non-Residential customers about an upcoming workshop. The Marketing team creates a new campaign to send the email blast and uses the NY Sun Residential and NY Sun Non-Residential campaigns as the source campaigns. The new workshop campaign email will be sent to all members in the NY Sun Residential and NY Sun Non-Residential campaigns. A report is then generated from the marketing email send.

Any time a Campaign Import List is requested, the Marketing Team will ask for which Interest Area to associate the campaign. There is a general opt-in list that sends 1 to 2 emails per month based on those interest areas.

Subscriber Preferences:

A customer can update their subscriber preferences by visiting https://portal.nyserda.ny.gov/CustomerPreferences. After customers update their preferences, it's updated in Salesforce on a monthly basis.

As a reminder, users can always update their preferences to be resubscribed to an interest area. It is good practice to occasionally send your contacts the Customer Preferences link to resubscribe.

The simplest way to track CRM Outreach activities as they related to email sends is to create a Program Import List for the outreach activity invitees. Submit an email request and advise which campaigns should be used for the email send.

The Marketing team can use Journey Builder to automate emails and notifications to campaign email send recipients such as Don't forget to register or Thanks for registering type of emails. Reach out to your Project Manager and the Marketing team to discuss further.

Text messaging will also be available in the future as ways to communicate with campaign members.

Program communications are not sent through Marketing Cloud. Program communications should be sent via Outlook. Campaign member lists can be exported from Salesforce to use in your Outlook email.

Marketing communications include NYSERDA branding, can be seen as a marketing deliverable, and are sent through the Marketing team.

Press releases and communications from the Comms team are sent through Marketing Cloud but follow a different process and sent by a different team.

The major difference between sending marketing emails through Outlook vs Marketing Cloud is Marketing Cloud gives the recipient the option to unsubscribe. Communicating to stakeholders needs to be from Marketing Cloud (via the Marketing Team). Make sure there is the ability to offer an unsubscribe option.

Don't send any emails to campaign members from Salesforce. Use Outlook or submit a request to the Corporate Marketing team.

When updating anyone about public facing items, the email send needs to go through the Marketing team.

Reports

Reports allow you to view a collection of data points and filter them in different ways. Reports can be stored in a public folder to be shared with other or saved in a private folder. Reports can be scheduled to run at specified times and can be exported into Excel.

Access the Reports tab.

Click New Report.

Search for a Report Type and select it.

To see a list of all Report Types, click the All category. Click on any object in the list to generate a report with that information. You can also select a category based on the type of report you want to run. For example, a report about Contacts would be in the Accounts & Contacts category while a report about Campaigns would be in the Campaign category. Reports about Emails, Events, and Tasks would be in the Activities category.

Click Start Report. Before clicking Start Report, you can see a list of fields that are available in the report to ensure the information you require is available.

Select the fields to include in the report. The fields list may be collapsed initially. Click the arrow to expand and view all available fields.

Update the filters to narrow the required data.

Save, Run, or Save & Run the report. You will be prompted to name and save the report in a Private or Public folder.

It is possible to run a report that someone else has already saved in a public or shared folder.

Access the Reports tab.

Click All Reports in the left-hand panel to search for a specific report. Click All Folders in the left-hand panel instead to search for a specific report folder.

Type in the name of the Report or Folder in the search bar at the top of the Reports window.

To Run a Report, click the drop-down arrow on the far-right of the screen on the report line and click Run.

To Export a Report, click the drop-down arrow on the far-right of the screen on the report line and click Export.

Mobile App

Details about using the mobile app will go here.

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Salesforce: CRM Reference Guide (Lightning)