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S alesforce.com For Dummies, 6th Edition, is for users of Salesforce, including those users who have the Unlimited, Enterprise, or Professional Edition. It’s for Salesforce users who want to quickly know how to use this web-based application, running “in the cloud” – also known as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) – for sales, marketing, and customer service.

About This Book

Don’t use this book to find out how Salesforce works. Use this book to find out how you can manage your customers and your teams and close more business by using Salesforce:

❯❯ If you’re a sales rep, this book shows you how to use Salesforce to manage your leads, accounts, contacts, and opportunities. Spend less time doing administrative work and more time focused on making money.

❯❯ If you’re a sales manager, this book shows you how to use Salesforce to track team activities and pipeline, shorten the ramp-up time on new hires, and pinpoint key deals that require your involvement.

❯❯ If you’re in channel sales, this book shows you how to track your relationships with companies that are – or will be – your partners and all the deals they work for you.

❯❯ If you’re a partner, this book shows you the world of Salesforce and how you can improve your deal pipeline and win rate with your vendor.

❯❯ If you’re in marketing, this book shows you how to use Salesforce to make an immediate and measurable impact on your sales organization. We cover how to manage campaigns and track leads to fill your funnel.

❯❯ If you’re in customer service, this book shows you how to manage customer issues, from creation to resolution. Support managers will see how to improve agent productivity and customer self-sufficiency.

❯❯ If you sit on the executive team, this book shows you how to use Salesforce for internal collaboration and to measure your overall business.

❯❯ If you’re an administrator or involved in your company’s customer relationship management (CRM) initiative, this book gives you practical knowledge for customizing, configuring, maintaining, and successfully implementing your solution.

We show you everything you need to know to manage the life cycle of your customer relationships in Salesforce, from qualifying leads to closing opportunities to handling service agent inquiries. Along the way, we share a laugh or two. And this book can expose you to useful features and functionality that you might not have even known existed!

Note: Not all portions of this book necessarily apply to your edition of Salesforce. Different editions have varying degrees of features and functionality. We make sure to point out the differences where relevant.

This book has been revised to reflect the latest Salesforce.com product and feature offerings as of the Spring 2016 release. Salesforce is an Internet-based service where new releases occur simultaneously for all customers, about three times a year, without your having to lift a finger (okay, except to just log in). Because of this model, Salesforce.com can release new versions of its product faster than many traditional software vendors – and faster than we can write! We did our best to update this book to the current version of the product, but please bear in mind that new versions of Salesforce are always in the works.

Keep in mind that references to the product use the word Salesforce, and references to the company that makes the family of products, or the family of products as a whole, use the term Salesforce.com. That’s a tiny detail, but we didn’t want you to think our eagle eyes had glossed over it!

Finally, within this book, you may note that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and want to visit one of these web pages, simply key in the web address exactly as it’s noted in the text, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e-book, you’ve got it easy – just click the web address to be taken directly to the web page.

Foolish Assumptions

Please forgive us, but we make one or two foolish assumptions about you, the reader. We assume the following:

❯❯ You have access to a high-speed Internet connection, have used a web browser, and have access to the most up-to-date version of your chosen browser. If we assumed incorrectly, you have much more pressing problems than understanding the effective use of Salesforce.

❯❯ You have a Salesforce account and some interest in knowing how to use it, beyond the mere curiosity of reading our riveting prose.

❯❯ You have some business experience – at least enough to understand that winning deals is good, and losing deals is bad.

❯❯ You have at least a vague idea of what a database is, including basic concepts such as fields, records, files, and folders. (Imagine an organized filing cabinet and all its contents.)

Icons Used in This Book

To help you get the most out of this book, we place icons here and there that highlight important points. Here’s what the icons mean:

Next to the Tip icon, you can find shortcuts, tricks, and best practices to use Salesforce more effectively or productively.

Pay extra attention when you see a Warning icon. It means that you might be about to do something that you’ll regret later.

When we explain a juicy little fact that bears remembering, we mark it with a Remember icon. When you see this icon, prick up your ears. You can pick up something that could be of wide or frequent use as you work with Salesforce.

When we’re forced to describe something geeky, a Technical Stuff icon appears in the margin. You don’t have to read what’s beside this icon if you don’t want to, although some readers might find the technical detail helpful.

Beyond the Book

In addition to what you’re reading right now, this product also comes with a free access-anywhere Cheat Sheet that tells you how to perform your day-to-day functions in Salesforce. To get this Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and type Salesforce.com For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the Search box.

Where to Go from Here

If you’re just getting started with Salesforce, you may want to turn the page and start reading. If you’re an administrator and have a deadline, you may want to jump to Part 6. If you’re a manager, try reading about reports and dashboards in Part 7. Sales reps and service reps should start in on Parts 8 and 4, respectively. Regardless of what you choose, we’re sure that you’ll find what you’re looking for!