Optimize Salesforce Anywhere Templates

Learning Objectives

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

  • Explain how Salesforce Anywhere documents can be created as templates.
  • Understand how mail merge syntax can auto-populate standard and custom fields.
  • Describe the ways to configure Salesforce Anywhere templates.
  • Learn about premade Salesforce Anywhere templates.
  • Describe how templates can be customized for your use cases.
  • Embed Salesforce Anywhere templates on objects and records

Anyone who has worked with templates knows they’re only useful when used. Salesforce Anywhere templates, combined with the efficient workflows Salesforce Anywhere for Customer 360 offers, are a powerful tool for your team. Here’s how they work.

What Are Salesforce Anywhere Templates?

Your team likely uses templates already, maybe a standard PowerPoint® deck or client email template. Salesforce Anywhere templates have a similar functionality—they’re prepopulated with all the content you need for specific types of actions. But what really sets them apart is that Salesforce Anywhere templates can be dynamically populated with Salesforce record data and embedded into Salesforce.

What’s more, any Salesforce Anywhere document can be set up as a template. So if an all-star on your team creates a brilliant contract document, an admin can immediately turn that into a template that’s accessible by your entire team. When sales is ready to close a deal, they can quickly access the template, customize it for their prospect, and embed it on the relevant record. The best part is you have a fully functional Salesforce Anywhere document that can be used in Salesforce without switching platforms.

The Power of Templates

You can build a template from just about anything. Stick with something simple, like a header for account name information, or create a live app like a Kanban board, and a checklist. Need a countdown clock to streamline a collective goal? It’s easy to embed components on your template where your team needs it. 

Try automatically filling new documents with standard and custom fields from the record using mail-merge syntax. Mail merge fields port data from the associated Salesforce fields into your Salesforce Anywhere document. It works with both standard fields, like an Account Plan, and custom fields, like Account Nickname. 

And don’t feel like you have to start from scratch. Your team can turn existing documents into templates with Salesforce Anywhere for Customer 360. Use Salesforce Anywhere templates to set best practices by making the right documents available when and where your team needs them. Then, try adding Salesforce live apps to a Salesforce Anywhere document embedded in a Salesforce record. That way, you can configure them to update automatically based on the record’s data.

Some typical templates include: 

Test It in a Use Case

Let’s revisit Emma Rivera, owner of Choco Chocolate Company. Her team is now operating smoothly since implementing Salesforce Anywhere for Customer 360, and she’s ready to test the new technology with a prospect.

The opportunity quickly presents itself. While shopping at the Clean Supermarket chain, a supermarket that stocks fair trade chocolate, she realizes there is a huge opportunity to place her product. She sets her sights on getting a meeting with the company and starts by creating an Account Plan in Salesforce Anywhere. 

Emma stands in the supermarket with a shopping cart, looking at the chocolate aisle. A thought bubble appears above her head with a lightbulb and Choco chocolate bar inside.

Emma logs into Salesforce, opens a new document, and uses a standard field to create a header. Because she has already set up the Salesforce Anywhere document component, it only takes a click for her to insert the Account Planning Template into her document. From there, she fills in the template with her specific approach to getting her products placed in Clean Supermarkets. 

Then, because she is an admin, Emma can set permissions to establish how users can engage with the plan, for example, View; View and Edit; or Must Request Access. For her Account Plan, she gives View permissions to everyone on her team to keep them in the loop, and gives the View and Edit permission to her head of sales, so they can collaborate together on next steps. 

Note

Note

View and Edit is a best practice, because team members can collaborate in a structured way. 

Congratulations on completing this module—we hope you and your team enjoy the efficiencies Salesforce Anywhere brings!

Resources