Business Process and Paths in Salesforce

This guide provides you with a comprehensive understanding of Business Processes and Path to optimize your Salesforce experience.

In this blog, you will:

• Learn about the stages in various business processes like Sales, Support, Solution, or Lead, and how they can be customized in Salesforce.
• Understand how record types make business processes accessible to users.
• Discover how Path acts as a visual guide through each step of your business process.
• Explore the essential elements of Path, including key fields and customized guidance.
• Gain insights from real-world use cases and solutions.

This blog is your gateway to mastering these Salesforce functionalities, enhancing your ability to manage and navigate business processes efficiently. Let’s get started.

What is a Business Process in Salesforce?

A Business Process in Salesforce is a structured representation of various stages an organization’s process might include, such as Sales, Support, Solution, or Lead processes. These processes, reflective of a company’s unique culture and approach, can be customized and implemented within Salesforce, allowing for multiple business processes tailored to specific organizational needs.

Making Business Processes Accessible

• Via Record Types: Business processes are made accessible to users through record types in Salesforce.
• Guidance Through Paths: For each business process, a path can be created to guide users at every step, ensuring clarity and efficiency.

Example: Auto Car’s Diverse Sales Processes

Auto Car, with its divisions for Individual and Commercial leasing, demonstrates the use of distinct sales processes. The commercial leasing division follows a strategic selling process with fewer stages compared to individual leasing, requiring separate sales processes and associated opportunity record types for each division.

Types of Business Processes in Salesforce

1. Sales Process: Tracks stages an Opportunity undergoes in its sales lifecycle.
2. Support Process: Follows various statuses a Case undergoes in support.
3. Lead Process: Represents stages a Lead passes through its lifecycle.
4. Solution Process: Details the stages a Solution experiences.

Use Case: Sun Solar’s Commercial Solar Panel Sales

The Challenge

Sun Solar introduced a new product line for commercial solar panels, targeting mid and large-scale companies. This new line, managed by a dedicated sales team, involves a more complex sales process than their residential deals.

The Solution

The solution involves creating a distinct Opportunity Record Type and Sales Process specifically for this new product line.

The Reason

This approach allows for the new sales process stages to be clearly defined and segregated, ensuring the commercial solar panel deals are managed effectively and distinctly from the residential sales.

What is a Path in Salesforce?

A Path in Salesforce is a dynamic visualization tool that effectively illustrates your business process. It offers guidance for success and highlights key fields at each stage, aiding your company’s growth by encouraging efficient completion of business processes.

Integration in Salesforce

Paths are linked with specific record types and are available as a Lightning component in the App Builder. You simply add the Path component to your layout, and Salesforce intelligently renders the appropriate Path based on the record type.

Key Features of Path

• Key Fields: Essential fields that need completion before moving to the next stage.
• Customized Guidance: Each path step can include tailored guidance for success.
• Order Determined by Picklist Values: The path’s sequence follows the order of values in the related picklist.

Considerations When Using Path

• Limit of 5 fields in the key fields section per stage.
• Confetti celebrations to mark milestones within a path.
• Record type and owner fields are not editable within the Key Fields panel.
• Deletion of a record type results in the removal of its associated path.
• Person account settings influence the path for business or person accounts.

Use Case: Streamlining Processes at GiveHelp Labs

The Challenge

GiveHelp Labs requires distinct steps for qualifying individual patients and onboarding physicians for in-patient referral leads, necessitating clear, stepwise guidance for call center representatives.

The Solution

• Creation of two separate record types.
• Development of two distinct Lead Processes.
• Establishment of two Paths on Lead Status for each record type.

The Reason

By creating different lead record types and processes for patients and physicians, and defining two paths on the lead status values, GiveHelp Labs can efficiently guide reps through each specific lead process.

Next, explore – Sales Process in Salesforce

Summing Up

This blog has taken you through the critical concepts of Business Process and Path in Salesforce, illuminating their importance in streamlining business operations and enhancing user guidance. These tools are vital for any Salesforce professional looking to deepen their understanding and effectiveness within the platform.

To further your mastery in Salesforce and apply these concepts practically, consider joining the saasguru community on Slack. Here, you’ll connect with a network of Salesforce professionals and enthusiasts, engaging in valuable discussions and staying abreast of the latest developments.

Moreover, if you’re eager to advance your skills, the Salesforce Admin Course presents an excellent opportunity. Also, check out our comprehensive Salesforce Admin Exam Guide; we’ll cover everything you need to know to prepare for the Salesforce Admin Exam and pass with flying colors.

Elevate your Salesforce journey with saasguru today!