Salesforce Integration Guide
This guide outlines how to connect your Salesforce instance to Unify.
Overview
In just a few steps, you can integrate Unify with Salesforce and start syncing data:
- Choose an integration user strategy
- (Optional) Create custom fields
- Connect your Salesforce instance
Unify is considered a connected app on the Salesforce platform which is a secure process for connecting Salesforce integrations with controllable permissions.
1. Choose integration user strategy
We recommend creating a dedicated, Unify-only integration user with a specific permission set. This enables more robust reporting because it ensures all record changes by Unify are properly attributed to Unify.
However, any of the approaches below are supported.
| Setup | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Dedicated, Unify-only integration user | This is best practice and our recommended option. The user is granted specific limited permissions and all updates made within Salesforce are clearly attributable to Unify. | This requires the purchase or use of a dedicated Salesforce user license, which may require time to set up at your company. |
| Shared integration user with other connected apps | This might be a better choice, because you may already use an integration user with other connected apps. You don’t need to provision a new user. | Unify must share the permissions and limits of the shared integration user. If this user’s access is shut down, all connected apps will be impacted. |
| Existing individual user with system admin permissions | This is typically the fastest and most affordable option because you use an individual user that already exists in your Salesforce. There’s no need to create anything new. | Unify is given full system access and edits made within Salesforce are attributed to the individual user. If the user leaves the company, the connection will break. |
You have full control over the permissions assigned to the integration user. However, Unify requires certain permissions for features to work properly. For a full overview of the required permissions and Salesforce settings, see this guide.
2. (Optional) Create custom fields
Unify can write additional Unify-specific information back to Salesforce, such as the name of the sequence a person is enrolled in. In order for Unify to write this data back to Salesforce, you need to create custom fields on the Salesforce objects you want it written to.
Here are the Unify-specific fields you can map to Salesforce objects:
| Field | Objects | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Unify Metadata (Text) | Account Contact Lead | A unique identifier useful for tracking records that Unify writes to. |
| Unify Created At (Date) | Account Contact Lead | The date and time the record was created by Unify. This will only be populated if Unify created the record; otherwise, it will remain empty. |
| Unify Updated At (Date) | Account Contact Lead | The date and time the record was last updated by Unify. |
| Unify First Written At (Date) | Account Contact Lead | The date and time the record was first written to by Unify. This will be populated when Unify first creates or updates the record, and it will not change after that. |
| Unify Initial Play (Text) | Account Contact Lead | The name of the first Unify Play that ran on this record. |
| Unify Most Recent Play (Text) | Account Contact Lead | The name of the most recent Unify Play that ran on this record. |
| Unify Initial Sequence (Text) | Contact Lead | The name of the first Unify Sequence this person was enrolled in. |
| Unify Initial Sequence At (Date) | Contact Lead | The date and time this person was first enrolled in a Unify Sequence. |
| Unify Initial Sequence Step At (Date) | Contact Lead | The date and time this person first completed a step in a Unify Sequence. |
| Unify Most Recent Sequence (Text) | Contact Lead | The name of the most recent Unify Sequence this person was enrolled in. |
| Unify Most Recent Sequence At (Date) | Contact Lead | The date and time this person was most recently enrolled in a Unify Sequence. |
| Unify Most Recent Sequence Step At (Date) | Contact Lead | The date and time this person most recently completed a step in a Unify Sequence. |
All of these fields are optional. You can choose to create all of them, some of them, or none of them. At a minimum, we recommend creating the Unify Metadata field to track records which records Unify touches in Salesforce.
To create a custom field in Salesforce:
- In Salesforce, navigate to Setup -> Objects and Fields -> Object Manager.
- Click on the object you want to create a field on
- Choose Fields & Relationships -> New
- Select the correct data type for the field you want to create
- For text fields, choose the Text data type and set the length to 255.
- For date fields, choose the Date/Time data type.
- The field should not be marked as “required” or “unique”.
Once the new field is saved, repeat these steps for each of the other fields.
3. Connect Salesforce instance
Navigate to Settings -> Salesforce and select Connect. You will be redirected to the Salesforce authentication page where you can sign in using the desired Salesforce integration user that Unify will use.
This screen will appear before you have connected a Salesforce organization.
Once connected, syncs will be paused by default. You can look over the settings and field mappings before resuming syncs.
Once a connected, you will see the settings available for your Salesforce connection.
Choose which objects to create
Salesforce has two different ways of representing companies and people:
- Contacts and Accounts: Every person has a Contact record, and Contacts are associated with Accounts.
- Leads: Every person has a Lead record which contains information about both the person and their company.
Unify allows you to choose which object strategy you want to use. You should pick the option that best aligns with how your BDRs or SDRs use Salesforce today. If you’re unsure of which to choose, Unify recommends using Contacts and Accounts as a best practice.
Create field mappings
Unify provides granular control over which Salesforce fields map to which Unify fields. For each Unify object type, click on Create Mapping and choose which fields you want Unify to read and write to.
The field mappings page allows you to customize which fields Unify can read and write to.
For each field, you can choose the read and write behavior. The available options are:
- Read Only: Unify can read this field from Salesforce but will never write to it.
- Read & Write: Unify can read this field from Salesforce and write to it if it is currently empty. Unify will never overwrite the value if it is already set.
- Read, Write & Update: Unify can read this field from Salesforce and write to it. If the field is already set, Unify will overwrite the value with the new one.
If Unify does not have permission to write to a field, you may not see the write options for that field.
In most cases, the default options will be a good starting point. You can always return to change these mappings later by selecting Update Mapping.
Enable read and write syncs
Once you’re satisfied with your integration settings and field mappings, you can begin syncing data into Unify by selecting Resume. If at any point you want to pause syncs again, you can return to this page and select Pause.
To enable Unify to write data back to Salesforce, activate the toggle next to Enable writing to Salesforce. This will allow Unify to sync records back to Salesforce.
Additional Salesforce resources
Required Permissions
Ensure your Salesforce user has the correct permissions and settings enabled for Unify.
Configure Default Values
Specify default values that should be used when writing to Salesforce.