Has anyone here used custom objects in SalesForce for advocacy tracking/nominations? This is for very early stage "program" - I'm not ready to introduce any new software as the initial focus isn't on building out a formal broad advocacy program, but do want to move out of spreadsheets and google docs for tracking. I've seen it done pretty well at a previous org and curious if others have opinions or examples or warnings 😁
does it need to be a custom object or could you use a few custom fields -- less of a lift that way
we started with fields and then eventually made them activities so they were more trackable
- I can foresee an advocacy platform in the future but want to lay the organizational groundwork for success.
have done this before and +1 to amanda's approach. its okay to start with but gets complex after a while
I've done this 🙂 it really depends on how you want to manage your program.
In the past, I've had a client who had a checkbox for Referenceable and a notes section. The challenge we faced there was that the reference information was editable by anyone with access to edit Account and Contact records - so the CSMs would just turn it off without sharing the reason.
If you have multiple people putting out multiple asks to your referenceable customers, this method gets tricky. I personally haven't seen a good way to track ongoing asks and historical activities inside of SFDC. I've always seen this done in a spreadsheet ... and if you have competing asks, you need to ensure all those making the asks are also referring to the spreadsheet.
I also haven't seen a good example of tracking for different activities/referenceability types (such as speaking engagements, content development, sales references, etc.).
That said - starting at this point is a great way to get your customer reference data in your CRM!
Not to mention that if you have some hot advocates (big logos, etc.) that make them desirable for all kinds of marketing asks, you're putting that information right in the hands of anyone in your org who wants it. Which can lead to easily overburdening your advocates—often without your knowledge.
- YES to the overburdening of the best advocates - hate that! Luckily we're small enough where almost all advocacy asks will be funneled through myself or head of DG
just be careful that is the SFDC team builds it for you, will they also be open to making changes. It won’t come out of the oven perfectly and without the commitment….
any specific "gotchas" to watch out for? Or is the challenge designing something that will work in the real life of a specific organization?
No specifics. There is balance of trying to think about every scenario Vs. keeping it simple. I lean towards the latter, piloting it with a subset and then making the changes. But, if it is one and done, I might reconsider the strategy.
At a company I was at, I wanted to buy a 5k piece of software and the SFDC said they could build it. They did and were great about it, but it cost more than the actual software. There were some compliance issues which forced the decision.
Hi - we work off of custom objects in Salesforce - happy to share with you what we built and the report that our Rev Ops team built also.
We have drop downs for the activity and also associate with the CSM that owns the account. Also a notes section just in case more detail is needed along with a date tracker.
We also used Salesforce for our advocacy tracking - a couple of standard fields, a couple of custom fields, some new activities, and a couple of new reports.
Mine sounds a little similar to Amanda’s set up. We have customers interests on the contact field and log the activities once completed as an activity.
