How a Squarespace & Salesforce Integration Benefits Your Website

Squarespace and Salesforce, when paired together, have the opportunity to accelerate your site to new heights. In this post, we’ll be discussing how we at Relay have the ability to help seamlessly integrate Squarespace into your Salesforce campaigns so you have less to worry about when running your business and more time to focus on your goals and objectives at hand. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions when reading this post by contacting us here and we’ll be happy to help!

You’re Missing Out if You’re Not Integrating Squarespace into Your Salesforce Campaigns

Salesforce is such a powerful CRM and many users do not realize the full extent of its capabilities until they’re given the opportunity to truly see what it's all about. If you own and operate your business through Squarespace, you’re potentially leaving lots of revenue on the table for your competitors when not incorporating Squarespace into your daily Salesforce workflow and amongst your team. The custom Squarespace integration into your Salesforce campaigns we offer is beginning to trend and develop as more and more users catch on, yet you’ll want to be at the beginning of trends, right? Right! Continue reading to explore how we at Relay can provide you with said customized, full service integration of Squarespace into your Salesforce campaigns.

How Salesforce Helps Your ECommerce Site Succeed

Any successful ecommerce site has many, many moving parts. With all of these moving parts, there are many areas which have the possibility of being unintentionally ignored or overlooked. Through a custom, direct Squarespace integration into your Salesforce campaigns with your ecommerce site, you’ll be able to manage all of the moving parts, and then some. No longer will you be missing orders, having difficulties communicating with the warehouse, or even forgoing large orders due to not promoting a special deal you have running at the moment. Our custom Salesforce integration method here at Relay allows you to fully manage the entirety of your organization through key components derived from our unique processes and implementations. Through our certified Salesforce team and many years of experience, we’ve been able to help businesses just like yours achieve great things without having to sacrifice the integrity of your internal systems.

The Benefits of Integrating Your Squarespace Ecommerce Site with Salesforce

As mentioned above, the benefits are plentiful when it comes to integrating your ecommerce site with the power of Salesforce’s CRM. We know your business model is unique, and with this in mind, our customized approach to integrating Squarespace into your Salesforce campaigns will surpass the standard protocols typically enabled amongst other providers. Below are some of the customized approaches we take with each and every client, while at the same time modifying and pivoting our approach to best enable you to have a thriving platform built for success.

AI-Driven Personalized Shopping Experiences

Whether it’s an integrated chatbot, an automated A/B variant test based on user demographics, or real-time adjusted geo-IP targeting; all of these AI-driven personalizations are the foundational building blocks of what you can expect when working with us at Relay. We enjoy helping you realize your true potential as a company, and with the ever developing mechanisms we’re able to produce via our AI directives; you’ll come to discover there’s simply so much more you can do to accelerate the growth of your company.  

Continuous Rollouts Without Delays

Squarespace’s integration within Salesforce makes it easy to roll out new updates to your campaigns, directly from the native dashboard. No longer must you tweak campaigns in multiple areas to complete one task. With our fully focused integration methodology embedded within your Squarespace site and Salesforce dashboard, you can have full control over everything within one facet of your entire campaign.

Announce New Promotions in Minutes

Do you have excess inventory which needs to be moved quickly? If so, our integrations help you promote those products which must go now, in mere minutes instead of days. Through our development process, your Squarespace site is able to launch new promotions, products, announcements, etc… all within a few clicks and be well on your way to seeing the results you readily anticipate.

Blend the Digital Store Environment with Your Physical Store Environment

Oftentimes, there’s a huge disconnect between your digital storefront and your physical storefront. Everything from mislabeled SKUs, to incorrect inventory counts, to basic miscommunication can cause rifts in your efficient systems. With our custom approach, no product catalog is too big or too small to be successfully integrated into the custom Salesforce application(s) we develop. With this in mind, the sky is truly the limit and once the initial foundation is built, human errors amongst your team will most likely be reduced to nil.

Streamline Additional Business Operations & Elements in a Scalable Fashion

They say “a rolling stone gathers no moss”. This statement greatly applies to how once you’re rolling towards success, you’ll continue to keep rolling towards additional, future success through streamlined and scalable processes without any extra fluff along the way. Once you reach a certain level of steady growth through our customized integrations, you’ll want to continue said growth via scalability. There’s no better platform to do so (in our opinion) than Salesforce. The customized tools available at your disposal, when properly integrated into your Squarespace site, will allow your business to flourish and grow beyond your original expectations.

Increase Efficiency & Effectiveness with Automated Tasks

Centralized site management and automated tasks can take a lot of the leg work out of the picture and have your Squarespace site operating at peak efficiency. The initial grunt work, performed by us of course, lays the groundwork for unmatched workflows. Automated tasks can be the difference between making the sale and losing the sale. So why not try having us incorporate them into your business model via Salesforce and see how they perform?

Internationalize Your Salesforce Campaigns with Ease

If you’re planning on reaching the global population you may have found previous efforts to be difficult and burdensome. With our custom Squarespace integration into your Salesforce campaigns, internationalization of your business becomes that much easier. No longer must you calculate time zones with custom messaging approaches, apply trending products to certain locales, or manually toggle between different sub-dialects of a national language. With our customized approach, this is all taken care of for you and your business from day one of launching.

Choosing Relay for Your Squarespace & Salesforce Integration

Now you’ve learned what we can offer here at Relay. Feel free to contact us using the form below and we’ll be sure to respond to your inquiry as soon as possible. We look forward to learning more about your business, your projects, your goals, and explaining how our custom Salesforce integrations will allow your Squarespace business to reach new heights and become a pioneer in the digital age.

Sales forecasting is an essential part of any business, yet it can be challenging to create meaningful forecasts. In this blog post, we will discuss a simple method for creating sales forecasts using Monte Carlo simulations. This approach relies on limited data and produces statistically meaningful forecasts with just a couple of clicks. With Monte Carlo simulations, you can model complex scenarios and get a better understanding of the range of possible outcomes and their probabilities.

A sales rep's pipeline includes every open opportunity that they are working on. In most CRM's, like Salesforce, an opportunity has 3 main data points that are used for sales forecasting: amount, close date, and stage. The opportunity stage is often associated with a win probability such that deals that are early in the sales cycle have a lower probability of closing vs those towards the end, which have a higher probability of being won. In other words, opportunity stage forecasting assumes that deals have a different likelihood of success at different sales cycle stages.

For example, if you know that you typically win about three-quarters of deals that enter the 'Negotiation' stage, you can predict that you have a 75% shot for all the deals in that stage. An expected revenue forecast will use this probability to determine an aggregate forecast amount across your pipeline.

Calculating an expected revenue forecast requires very little math:

1. For each open opportunity in your quarter, multiply the amount by the stage probability.
2. Sum each of the amount/probability products for each opportunity
3. Add in the amount of any closed won opportunities

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This method is straightforward but creates a sales forecast that is a single-point estimate. In other words, it only gives you a single number and does not take into account the range of possible outcomes. They also often produce forecasts that would not be possible. A deal can either be won or lost; there is never an outcome where your deal can close at 75% of the opportunity amount.

One common scenario that distorts expected revenue forecasts is when your pipeline has opportunities with drastically different amounts. So-called whales, or very large opportunities compared to the rest of your pipeline, can often drive an expected forecast number that would not be possible if those opportunities did not close on time. If 20 of your deals in the pipeline are around $10K each and 6 opportunities are $50K, just 1 or 2 of the bigger deals can easily sway the revenue for the quarter if they don't close on time. Visualizing the impact that each opportunity can have on the pipeline can be a time-consuming effort if done manually.

This is where Monte Carlo simulations come in. Monte Carlo simulations can be used to generate a distribution of possible revenue outcomes and their probabilities instead of a point estimate. It helps us visualize the possibilities across the pipeline and make more informed decisions.

Sales forecasting with Monte Carlo simulations is straightforward. A good monte Carlo simulation will run thousands of trials and randomly adjust variables in a model to determine the probabilities of each outcome. The outcome of each simulation is placed on a histogram, which allows us to visualize the most probable outcomes.

For example, in a pipeline with 20 opportunities slated to close this quarter, we might run 20,000 simulations where in each trial we randomly adjust 15% of our pipeline to close up to 30 days later than we currently expect. Each trial produces a new revenue forecast which is placed on the histogram. The more simulations that produce a similar outcome (forecast range), the more probable it is to happen. At the end of the simulation, we can visually see how probable each forecast is for our given scenario.

Of course, adjusting the simulation settings will produce different results, but in all cases, the insights produced by a Monte Carlo simulation will far outweigh the point estimates produced by an expected revenue forecast. You could choose to run a simulation that only adjusts a small portion of the opportunities in your pipeline, or one that adjusts all open opportunities. Simulations could be even more nuanced by focusing on opportunities with close dates near the end of the month, which are often the most likely to carry over into the next quarter or reporting period.

If you're already using Salesforce and are interested in trying out this approach to generate your sales forecasts, we've developed a simple app called Confidence, which can help you run thousands of simulations on your sales pipeline in just a couple of clicks. You could be generating sales forecast simulations in just a matter of minutes. Take a look at our walkthrough of Confidence below and sign up for free here.

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It’s that time of the year again! Last year we counted down the five features of Salesforce that we are thankful for and this year we’re back with five new features we appreciate day in and day out. Salesforce is always adding new features to enhance the customer experience, whether it’s very large such as Salesforce Genie or a tweak along the margins such as adding dynamic actions to show custom flow action buttons in the highlights panel rather than the feed panel. We’re always surprised by what Salesforce will add and this year has been no exception. Let's take a look at Relay's favorite additions of 2022.

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Redesigned AppExchange Website

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We’ve all been staring at the same AppExchange website for years now and while it’s been very serviceable, a lot has changed since the last time it was given an overhaul. With a new streamlined, sleek interface, you’re now able to find apps quicker using advanced filtering and sorting. In addition, all page loading has been made much faster and you’re able to hop around the website with ease instead of waiting for pages to load. The app pages have been given an overhaul as well allowing you to get relevant information at a glance along with the ability to filter reviews by reviewer badge ranking. We’re big fans and we’re actually looking forward to spending more time on the AppExchange website.

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Data Table Beta Arrives!

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It’s been a long requested feature, but it’s finally here - Data Tables. The Datatable component has been a very popular Lightning Web Component for a while, allowing developers to add a configurable, sortable datatable on a flow screen. It’s officially here and the integration is just as we hoped. Flows can now have a beautiful table of record data and users can select and view the exact information they want to continue with the flow. We’re very excited to give this new component a lot of heavy usage.

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Record Type Filtering for Picklists

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Another addition we’re thrilled to see is record type filtering for picklists in Dynamic Forms for Flow.  Now when a user selects a value from a picklist in Flow, the following categories will be relevant to that picklist value. This is going to be huge for case creations and allow for much more pointed data when created.

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PopUps

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One of our absolute favorite AppExchange apps of 2022 and for good reason. Without any code, users can add Flow, Modal, or Toast pop-up message to any Lightning or Community page. Whether you want to add validation to your record creation, or simply create a on-boarding wizard for new customers, PopUps will allow you to do just that. Best part of it all, it’s absolutely free.

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Dynamic Gauge Charts

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This is a small one, but in our eyes one that is super useful for dashboard creators. The top voted customer idea of the Winter ‘22 release, with 14,000 votes was dynamic gauge charts. This allows teams to view and measure their goals and KPIs on a real-time gauge that changes dynamically over time instead of remaining fixed with a specific number. Your business changes rapidly, so instead of having to update your gauges on ALL your charts each time conditions shift, dynamic gauges will adjust for you.

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2022 was a feature packed year for Salesforce, with the acquisition of Slack coming into full focus with Slack-First Customer 360, Slack Canvas and of course the possible revolution of Salesforce Genie. It was hard to narrow it down to just five, but to be honest, we might need to expand next year’s list to ten as we anticipate a very busy 2023 for Salesforce.

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Labor First is a full-service Retiree Benefit Manager, providing customized health benefit solutions and member advocacy services to the retirees of multi-employer group benefit plans. Since 2005, Labor First is the only Medicare Benefit Manager that solely services the union retiree healthcare marketplace.

Labor First offers unique Medicare benefit plans that enhances existing benefits for current retirees while offering savings for plan sponsors. But beyond this, they offer a team of Retiree Advocates that assist members through the complex world of retirement benefits; creating a truly holistic experience for the lifecycle of the relationship.

Relay has been a long standing partner of Labor First helping them innovate and grow on the Salesforce platform. We are sharing a chat with Kimberly Lundgren, Labor First's Vice President of Information Technology, about the company, challenges, and of course, Salesforce.

What are some of Labor First's biggest challenges in the next year?

Labor First is growing rapidly, and with growth comes change. We are working hard at figuring out how to scale our current technology stack to accommodate this growth.

‍What has been the biggest benefit you have seen from your Salesforce investment?

Having the ability to modify Salesforce to support current and future needs, has proven to be invaluable. Our Salesforce org has been built out to support the business processes used by every department.

What advice would you give to companies thinking about whether they should implement Salesforce into their workflow?

Don't try to re-create a legacy system in Salesforce. Take the time to understand how Salesforce works and all that can be done with a well thought out, outstanding implementation. Salesforce is extremely agile, and with proper planning, can break down silos, support business processes for multiple departments, thus providing better visibility into company operations.

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If you are interested in learning more about how Salesforce custom apps and integrations can help you run your business processes more efficiently and unlock insights into your operations, schedule a 30 minute consultation with one of our Salesforce Architects today or send us a message!

The Basics: What is the Salesforce AppExchange?

Short answer? It’s the Appstore for B2B business applications.

The Salesforce AppExchange is the biggest marketplace for B2B apps out there.

You’ll find apps from ISVs (Independent service vendors for) productivity, documentation, project management, marketing & sales, and of course, apps catering to specific verticals, niches, and use-cases.

Salesforce allows connecting the entire customer journey across sales, service, commerce, marketing, and every other touchpoint. This means it has got every approach that could bring a business closer to the customers. Reaching closer to the customers becomes easier when it is through an application that is easy to use and proves to be functional for them. This is where the role of a Salesforce AppExchange developer comes into play.

Having your application on AppExchange means that your business is visible to the customers. But this will be true when your app is good enough to leave an impression. A professional Salesforce AppExchange developer creates application for a business, creating something just what they had expected.

Here are some of the roles and responsibilities of the developer:

• To develop, configure, and deploy a business application using the Salesforce platform, ensuring that the security standards of the application are top-notch.
• To create, execute, and maintain APEX code, VisualForce, Salesforce incorporation, and AppExchange pages.
• To effectively test and implement the application, managing all the processes like coding, configuring, installation, maintenance, and debugging under proper timelines.
• To work closely with the business teams and develop custom workflows and CRM solutions.

As a quick take away, here are some top rated Apps that highly skilled Salesforce Developers leverage.

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1) Slack

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Salesforce developers have the opportunity to be at the forefront of this world by using Slack to surface the information their customers need at the time they need it. Developers can extend their apps and allow users to use Slack as their collaboration hub and take action on data from Salesforce and other business systems. Combining the low code capabilities of Salesforce and Slack’s user interface, developer toolsets, and API services, Salesforce developers are in a unique position to build apps that can provide a connected experience for employees and customers.

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2) RingLead

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Streamline the health of your database by continuously capturing, cleansing, protecting, and enriching your data with customizable technology and real-time, crowdsourced intelligence. The RingLead Platform orchestrates Salesforce and Marketing Automation processes like managing duplicates, data normalization, segmentation, enrichment, routing, and much more.

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3) Deployment Manager for Marketing Cloud

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Easy to use, no doubt that this app is a strong ally for those who have more than one business units to separate the production environments from the test environments. Deployment Manager was one of the highest rated sessions in the Partner Lodge at Dreamforce 2019 and it’s also the 2nd most downloaded Salesforce app which allows partners to streamline account creation, migration and setup.

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4) ORGanizer for Salesforce

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ORGanizer for Salesforce Extension lets you forget about your Salesforce.com username and passwords and help you to recognize Salesforce.com tabs on your browser. ... With ORGanizer you can choose color and title of every ORG tab you open. Developers work in many orgs and have individual passwords and logging for each that they use. With ORGanizer they now will have a user friendly and save way of accessing each org. As a Salesforce Developer anything that saves me time when it comes too tools is worth it's weight in gold.

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5) Building your own app

With Salesforce Platform, there’s no infrastructure or software to buy, set up, and manage. With a few clicks, you can start building custom cloud apps now. For developers, Trailhead is the easiest way to go further with Salesforce. Designed as a series of fun, interactive tutorials, Trailhead takes you step by step through Salesforce, and you can start at any level. As a Developer, building an app is a great way to pursue digital transformation. A great app becomes a tool customers and employees eventually feel like they couldn’t live without. In that sense, the “development” of an app doesn’t end with the launch. You’ll continue to iterate, improve and reimagine what your app will do. And as that happens, your business will keep on benefiting from the results. Salesforce is an eden for Developers as it has a tremendous amounts of support on the platform and provides a low code solution in building powerful apps.

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The AppExchange is a power marketplace and has thousands of Apps to help everyone on your team. For Developers the App exchange is where they can find new tools to innovate within the Salesforce instance and even create and publish new apps for other to use.

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When you are looking to automate your business processes, you have a few different options to consider. We at Relay highly suggest a custom solution to ensure that your apps are talking to each other in the exact manner in which you envision. But we understand there are times when you may have a smaller, less critical need to connect your apps. That's where a solution such as Zapier can revamp the way your company operates.

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What is Zapier?

Usually, if you were looking to connect two apps, you would need a developer to sift through the application's APIs and code a custom program. But Zapier brings this ability to everyone, connecting thousands of apps using a no-code interface. This means that a team member in Marketing could build an automation for their department or another colleague in HR can build one for their department. This not only frees up your developers, but it allows everyone to get creative with automations that serve their business needs.

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How does Zapier Work?

So say you want to find a way to celebrate your sales team's success in Salesforce and announce it to everyone within Slack. Using Zapier, this can be done within a matter of minutes. Once you have connected both your Salesforce and Slack accounts, you can start creating your first "zap."

Each "zap" starts with a trigger step. This is what initiates the automation. For this case, our trigger step would be updating an opportunity's stage field to "Closed Won"

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We select the Object (Opportunity), Field (Stage), and then input what we want the field to be updated to continue (Closed Won) Finally, we can test the trigger to make sure it brings in the correct records.

Once Zapier finds the right record, we can create our action step; which in this case will be Slack. Choose Slack and then we can choose the action event we want to occur. For this scenario, this would be "Send a Channel Message" since we want everyone to see a new deal has been closed.
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Choose your channel and then let's build the message to be sent to the team. Here is where we will want to format it well to make sure your team only sees the details that are relevant to them.

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Let's include the company name and the sales amount. You can choose whether to send the message as a bot, which we will in this scenario and if you want to give the bot a name. Fill in any relevant fields that are important to your organization and then click continue. Here is where you can send a test message to your selected Slack channel. Send a test to make sure it looks right to you and then you're nearly there.
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Turn on your Zap and sit back and wait. Next time your sales rep marks an opportunity as "Closed Won", your whole team should get a message automatically.

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The Power of Zapier

What we just did was build the simplest of Zapier scenarios, but you can see how easy and powerful it can be where the only limits are your imagination. There are filter steps, A/B paths, formatting and so much more that you can do within Zapier to make your automation scenarios as unique as your business needs.

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For your more complex business needs and automations, feel free to reach out to the team at Relay where will tailor your apps to do everything you need and nothing you don't.