How to set up Affinity for Salesforce

Once you're done with the installation process, we'll go over the set up process below for Salesforce and Affinity instances in chronological order.

Overview

1. Create custom fields in your Salesforce instance
   
   1. Part 1 - Creating custom fields for Account objects
   2. Part 2 - Creating custom fields for Contact objects
2. Disable the "Send through External Email Services" feature
3. Set up Affinity for Salesforce in Affinity
4. Set up page layouts in your Salesforce instance
   
   1. Part 1 - Setting up page layouts for Account objects
   2. Part 2 - Setting up page layouts for Contact objects

Create custom fields in your Salesforce instance

You have the ability to enrich account and contact records in your Salesforce instance with dozens of Affinity Data fields, which contain important information about companies and individuals. To enable this, you'll need to create custom fields in Salesforce for each Affinity field that you'll want to sync.

Part 1 - Creating custom fields for Account objects

1. First, review the list of Affinity Data fields and how you can create their equivalents in Salesforce: Creating custom Salesforce fields based on Affinity Data fields
2. When you're ready to start creating these custom fields, go to Salesforce Setup. Then, click on the Object Manager tab and click the Account object.
   
   
   
3. Now, click on the Fields and Relationships tab, then click New to create a custom field.
   
   
   
4. Choose the Data Type that is most relevant based on the Affinity Data field you are choosing, then click Next.
   
   
   
5. Now, click the checkbox next to Visible to make sure all available profiles have access to this field. You can also click the checkbox next to Read-Only if you'd like to prevent users from making edits to this field. Then, click Next.
   
   
   
6. Repeat as necessary for each field that you want to sync. Continue to reference "Creating custom Salesforce fields based on Affinity Data fields" as needed.

Part 2 - Creating custom fields for Contact objects

Repeat steps 1-5 above, but for Contacts this time.

Disable the "Send through External Email Services" feature

If your organization sends emails through the Salesforce email composer, then your Salesforce admin may have enabled the Send through External Email Services feature. This needs to be disabled moving forward, given that it would create duplicate activities alongside enrichment by Affinity for Salesforce.

1. Type "email" in the search bar and click the Send through External Email Services tab on the left-side navigation.
   
   
   
2. Verify that the settings for Gmail and/or Office 365 are turned off.
   

Set up Affinity for Salesforce in Affinity

Now, we'll go over syncing Affinity's relationship intelligence and data into your Salesforce instance (learn more about syncing FAQs here).

1. Sign into your Affinity instance, then click on Settings in the top-right corner.
   
   
   
2. From there, click on the Blocked Emails tab on the left and follow the steps in this article: How to block emails from surfacing for Affinity for Salesforce.
3. Once you've added all the emails you'd like to hide communications for, click on the Integrations tab on the left, then click on Salesforce.
   
   
   
4. Click on Affinity for Salesforce to get started with the set up process.
   
   
   
5. You'll see that you can connect Affinity to both Production and Sandbox versions of your Salesforce instances by clicking one of the relevant buttons: Create Production Configuration or Create Sandbox Configuration.
   
   
   
6. You will see a webpage titled Allow Access?, where you can click Allow to continue.
   
   
   
7. Once you've connected your Salesforce instance, go to the section titled Select Account and Contact List Views and select the account list view and contact list view you'd like to enrich with Affinity Data, then click Save.
   
   
   
8. Set up Enrichment Types
   1. Field Enrichment - Accounts: Click the Edit button, then click the checkbox to Create Contacts Under Account List View - this will help auto-create contacts on Salesforce based on your email interactions. Then, map the custom Salesforce fields you already created for your account objects to the Affinity Data fields.
      
      
      
   2. Repeat Step 7.1, but for Field Enrichment - Contacts this time.
   3. Account and Contact Enrichment: Select the enrichment options for your Salesforce instance. Most users will have all of these enabled. Additionally, you can also check the box to Allow Affinity to pull logged Salesforce Activities into relationship score calculations.
      

Set up page layouts in your Salesforce instance

Now that you've configured your preferences in your Affinity instance, go back to the Salesforce instance to set up the page layouts with these new custom fields and objects.

Part 1 - Setting up page layouts for Account objects

1. Go to Setup, then click Object Manager, then click Account.
2. In the Account object, click the Page Layouts tab on the left sidebar, then click Account Layout.
   
   
   
3. Create a new section within the Account Layout so that you can place the custom Salesforce fields you previously created into this new section.
4. Within the Fields tab, you'll see the custom Salesforce fields you recently created. Drag-and-drop these fields onto this new section.
   
   
   
5. You'll also notice the Highest Relationship Score provided by Affinity, which didn't appear during the Field Mapping process in the previous section.
   1. We highly suggest leveraging the Highest Relationship Score in your Account Layout so that you and your team members can easily tell the strengths of your/your team's relationships with your accounts and contacts.
      
      
      
   2. Drag and drop the Highest Relationship Score field into the desired section.
      
      
      
   3. To prevent accidental edits to the Highest Relationship Score values, click on the Edit icon and check the box for Read Only.
      
      
      
6. Scroll down to the Related Lists tab, where you'll find the custom object Affinity Connections that you can drag-and-drop under Related Lists.
   
   
   
7. Click the Edit icon next to Affinity Connections, which will allow you to select which Affinity fields to show and which field to sort by.
   
   
   

Part 2 - Setting up page layouts for Contact objects

Repeat steps 1-7 above, but for Contacts this time.

Now that you're done setting up your Salesforce and Affinity instances, let's see how you and your team members can put Affinity for Salesforce into practice (see How to use Affinity for Salesforce).