Learn Why Sales Should Track the Competition

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

• List a few ways you can help sales reps track the competition in Salesforce.
• Prepare your org so you can create custom fields and reports.

Introduction

Every company needs insight on competitors to stay competitive in the marketplace. But do you know who has some of the best insight? Sales reps. 

In this module, you’ll learn how to help sales reps document those insights right in Salesforce. Here’s a brief summary of what you’ll do.

• Create new custom fields on the Opportunity object where users can identify competitors and the reasons deals are lost.
• Add validation rules to ensure users populate the new fields at the right time.
• Build reports and dashboards based on the new custom fields.
• Create a Competitor Chatter group for sharing insights and stories.

How to Follow Along with This Module

If you’ve earned other Trailhead badges, you’re used to getting hands-on in your personal Trailhead Playground. For this module, we’re taking a slightly different approach. 

We recommend you use your sandbox. Follow along with these steps in your sandbox, test them, and then consider deploying your setup to production. 

Don’t have a sandbox? That’s OK. You can use your free Trailhead Playground to follow along. 

While your Salesforce org and sales processes are unique, when you follow along in any of these environments, you learn the configuration, analytics, and change management steps for tracking competition in Salesforce. 

Preparation

In the next three units, you build out new fields, rules, and reports. To prepare, do these things first.

1. Admin access: We start by customizing the Opportunity object. Salesforce System Administrators typically do this, so make sure you have access.
2. Familiarity with custom fields, validation rules, and reports: We show you how to create custom fields, validation rules, and reports. Before you start the work on your own, take some time to get acquainted with these concepts.

Resources

• Data Modeling (Trailhead module)
• Formulas and Validations (Trailhead module)
• Lightning Experience Reports & Dashboards (Trailhead module)
• Create Custom Fields (Salesforce Help article)
• Validation Rules (Salesforce Help article)
• Enable the Lightning Report Builder (Salesforce Help article)
• Sandbox Types and Templates (Salesforce Help article)