Salesforce Basics : Getting Started

The first time you log in to Salesforce, it can be overwhelming. However, thinking of it like a sophisticated Excel spreadsheet can help to understand the data and how to navigate the system. We'll look at Records, Fields, and Objects as well as how hyperlinks work to get you started.

Sara Burton
|
16 steps
|
3 minutes

Salesforce

Click here.

Click "Seller HomeGood morning, End. Let's get selling!"

Click "Account"

In Salesforce, these **Objects** appear at the top on the **Navigation Bar (Nav Bar)**. There are lots of different objects shown here, but the core ones to focus on to start with are: **Accounts** - Organisations your business works with. **Contacts** - Individual clients that your business works with - the human beings! **Opportunities** - Sales deals that the business is working on, secured or lost. **Leads** - Potential opportunities that are being chased down to convert into a full Opportunity

Click "Contacts"

Click "Accounts"

In this example, under **Accounts** we have a list of our client Organisations, starting with "Burlington Textiles Corp of America". This layout of **Records** in a list, is called a **List View**. There are lots of super useful things you can do with List Views, but we'll save that for another session. For now, we're just happy to see a list of client Organisations we recognise.

Click here.

Lets drill into **Records** further by having a look at **Fields** in **Salesforce**: We can select the **Account Record** of "Burlington Textiles Corp of America" by clicking on the blue hyperlink Name in the **List View**.......

Click "Burlington Textiles Corp of America"

Click here.

Pro tip! **Right-Clicking** on a hyperlink field will give you the option to open the record in a new Tab, so that you have both records open at the same time. You can then either toggle between the two, or move one to a second screen.

Some hyperlink fields do special things. So for example, clicking on "Email" will open up the Email Window.

Once opened, you can send an Email from the pop-up.

If you have **Integrated Telephony**, you may have Click To Dial (CTD) enabled, so clicking on any blue Hyperlinked telephone number field will start a call to that particular contact.

Well done! You are now familiar with the basic layout of your **Salesforce Org**, understanding how **Objects** contain **Records**, which have individual **Fields** of data, and how some of these have **Hyperlinks** which enable you do look at more **Records**, or launch an **Email** or **Telephone Call.**

We aim to bring you simple Salesforce training guides specifically with the end user in mind. Clear, jargon-free training, focused on the human. To find out how we can support your Salesforce usage and adoption using Scribe, specifically tailor-made to your organisation, email us at [stumped.consulting@outlook.com](mailto:stumped.consulting@outlook.com) for more information. Or, if you want to use Scribe for your own training, sign up here: <http://www.scribehow.com/lp/home?via=sara> I love using Scribe to present training in a step-by-step guide and am recognised as a Scribe Ambassador for this. As such I receive a small commission for anyone signing up for Scribe via this link - but this Scribe itself is free!