Salesforce and Act-On Integration

By: John Nielsen

Although it is a tedious undertaking, it is important to integrate your Act-On Software account with your Salesforce account.  Having a seamless flow of information between databases prevents dated information from reaching your sales team; that is if you set it up correctly.

First, and probably the most important thing to do, is visit the Act-On University located in the “Resources” section of your dashboard.  If you’re unfamiliar with the Act-On University, it’s time to get acquainted.

Under “Checklists and Guides” you will find the CRM section containing the Salesforce Integration Guide.  FOLLOW IT TO THE LETTER.  I cannot emphasize this enough.  Should you try and skip forward, or even follow the Act-On prompts on the screen, you may miss something – like I did – the first two times.

Click here for a direct link to the Salesforce Integration Guide

Now that you’ve located the Act-On University, look for the Checklists and Guides section in the left sidebar.  Once open, look to the lower right for the section titled “User Guides – CRM”– you should see the Salesforce Integration Guide there.  Following the steps outlined in this guide and you will be set.

To insure you don’t get ahead of yourself, I’ve included a few points to remember while integrating Salesforce and Act-On:

1)   If you have tried and failed to integrate Act-On into Salesforce, before you can successfully integrate the two programs, you’ll need to uninstall any failed Act-On packages in your Salesforce account.

2)   Save your Salesforce Security token in a file and keep handy for future use

3)   ‘Grant Access to All Users’

Once you’ve integrated your Act-On account with your Salesforce account it’s time to customize your Salesforce fields to show your Act-On Activity History.  This process is outlined in the “SFDC Admin Set Up and Custom Fields” section within the Salesforce Integration Guide.

This guide will show you how to sync your leads, contacts, opportunities and much more.  It goes into Campaigns, Reporting, Prospects, Opt-Out, customizing your buttons and setting up sales users.  It is important that you follow the Salesforce Integration Guide every closely to avoid any complications.

The integration of your marketing automation and customer relationship management software is crucial to generating and nurturing qualified leads for your sales team.  By following the Salesforce Integration Guide, and properly syncing your sales and marketing efforts you can maximize your potential for success while reducing your day to day marketing efforts.

Supplemental reading and resources you might like:  Salesforce’s Lead Generation Resource