Learn the Benefits of Integrating Salesforce with Gmail and Google Calendar

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

Describe how your reps rely on Gmail, Google Calendar, and Salesforce to work prospects and deals.
Identify with the redundancy your reps experience entering sales data in multiple applications.
Describe how integrating Salesforce with Gmail and Google Calendar helps your reps become more productive.

Increase Your Sales Reps’ Productivity

Your sales reps use Gmail and Google Calendar. And they use Salesforce. Isn’t it time reps use those applications together? According to McKinsey & Company, sales reps spend up to 28% of their day in email and calendars. That’s the case with sales reps Erin Donaghue and Lance Park, who work at an emerging solar company, Ursa Major Solar. It’s important for them to bring Salesforce data to the place where they spend so much of their time.

When you integrate Gmail and Google Calendar with Salesforce, you help your reps spend less time entering data and switching between applications. You also help sales teams track important email conversations relevant to Salesforce records. These perks help your reps:

Eliminate the time they spend on redundant data entry into different applications.
Access important email messages, scheduled meetings, and relevant Salesforce records in one place, making it easier to craft targeted, meaningful communications to prospects and customers.
Focus more on what matters most: their sales!

Erin and Lance use Gmail, Google Calendar, and Salesforce. Let’s review how they use these applications.

Why Sales Reps Use Gmail and Google Calendar

Your sales reps already spend time in Google applications. Here’s what they do.

The Thing Reps Do	Why?
Send email messages	Email is an easy and effective way to engage with prospects and get relationships going.
Maintain contacts	Google Contacts in Gmail serve as your reps’ virtual Rolodex card file.
Schedule meetings and appointments	Your reps rely heavily on their calendars for planning their days and scheduling important events.

Why Reps Use Salesforce

Ursa Major purchased Salesforce because it’s a powerful sales tool. Their reps use Salesforce to track information about their prospects and deals. Let’s take a closer look at what sales teams use Salesforce for.

The Thing Reps Do	Why?
Maintain leads and contacts	Your reps relate leads and contacts to other important Salesforce records, such as accounts and opportunities.
Schedule meetings and appointments	Sales reps and their managers rely on the Salesforce calendar to get sales-related meetings and appointments on the books. Your reps also relate these events to other important Salesforce records.
Track deals in the pipeline	Sales folks track their deals using Salesforce opportunities, which your sales teams relate to (you guessed it) other important Salesforce records.
Learn about outstanding cases	Not everything in sales goes smoothly. Your reps benefit from knowing about the issues that their customers log with your company. This is especially important before your reps try selling whatever it is that your reps sell!

Why Redundancy Is a Problem

Why is this fact important to know? Because your sales reps do some of the same things in Google applications as they do in Salesforce. Our Ursa Major sales reps Erin and Lance often use these applications to track contacts and tasks, and schedule meetings and appointments.

Redundancy between Google applications and Salesforce Venn diagram

Let’s look at some ways that redundancy causes problems for you and your sales reps.

Time lost during context switching and maintaining data in two places. The context switching alone pulls your reps out of their selling mode and puts them into a tools management mode.
Greater chances for data entry errors. When your reps enter data in both Google applications and Salesforce, the possibility of getting something wrong increases. We can see that when Erin enters a contact in Google Contacts and then again in Salesforce, she inadvertently introduces an error. Not good.

Mistakes, such as Erin’s data entry errors, compromise data quality, and even your company’s reputation. What’s most important here is that Erin’s sales efforts don’t have to compete with keeping her sales data current between Google Contacts and Salesforce.

How Integrating with Gmail and Google Calendar Helps Your Sales Reps

With the Gmail integration, reps can do more from Gmail and Google Calendar. Plus, when you add Einstein Activity Capture, reps avoid busy work and stay focused on selling. Here’s a quick glimpse of what these products deliver to your sales reps.

Gmail Integration Feature

Why It’s Helpful

See and relate relevant Salesforce content in Gmail and Google Calendar

Your reps get context into what’s happening with the people they sell to. And most important:

Reps add email and events that are relevant to the sales cycle, so that colleagues in Salesforce know what’s going on.
You play the important role of increasing Salesforce adoption among your sales team.

Access Salesforce features in Gmail and Google Calendar

There’s no need to leave Gmail or Google Calendar when your reps:

Create Salesforce records, such as leads, opportunities, accounts, contacts, and even records based on custom objects.
Relate email messages and nonrecurring calendar events to multiple Salesforce contacts and to any other Salesforce record that accepts tasks or email messages.
Search for Salesforce records, including ones based on custom objects.

Einstein Activity Capture Feature	Why It's Helpful
Sync contacts and events	Sales reps have access to up-to-date contact and scheduling data where they need it most. And with data entry reduced, so are data entry errors.
See emails and events on related Salesforce records	When reps send and receive emails, Einstein Activity Capture automatically adds them to the activity timeline of related account, contact, contract, lead, opportunity, and quote records. Sharing settings let you decide who else can view the related emails and events, so that teams work together better.
Get critical sales context alongside relevant emails	Einstein Email Insights give reps intelligent data that helps them send the right response at the right time. For example, reps see when an email from a customer mentions a competitor. The rep can then follow up immediately with the customer.

These features offer some serious productivity boosts to your sales teams. In the next unit, you learn how the integration with Gmail and Google Calendar helps sales teams free up administrative time. That way, your sales team can focus on increasing their sales. When sales are good at your company, you all benefit, right?

Take a Tour of the Gmail Integration

Ready to see the Gmail integration in action? Watch this quick demo that shows how reps can view and work with Salesforce data directly in their inbox.

Next, let’s see how to set up the Gmail integration and Einstein Activity Capture.