Use Salesforce channels to sell in Slack

Salesforce channels are a type of Slack channel that correspond to Salesforce records, such as Accounts or Opportunities. Salesforce channels let your team centralise conversations about customers, drive deal progress and update Salesforce records, all in Slack.

Don't have Sales Elevate yet? Contact our Sales team to learn more.

How it works

• Salesforce channel names match the names of their corresponding records, which means they can include spaces, capital letters and other characters that are not allowed in standard Slack channels.
• When you create or join a Salesforce channel, it’ll be added to your sidebar in a Salesforce channels section (but you can move it to another custom section if you like).
• Your permissions in Salesforce channels match your permissions for the corresponding record. If you have permission to access the record in Salesforce, you can access the corresponding Salesforce channel; if you have permission to edit the record in Salesforce, you can edit the record in Slack.

Note: It’s not possible to invite external people to Salesforce channels.

Components of a Salesforce channel

The features of your Salesforce channels are organised into tabs. Here’s what tabs you can expect to see in a Salesforce channel and what they can help you to do. 

  Messages  
Use the messages tab for conversations related to the corresponding record, such as updating your teammates on an important deal or discussing a new opportunity. Just like a typical Slack channel, these conversations can include discussions with channel members, messages from apps or notifications from Sales Elevate.

  Record details
The record details tab uses data from Salesforce to give you a snapshot of the record that the channel is mapped to. From the record details tab, you can learn key details about the record and its related accounts and update it directly in Slack. The name of the record details tab will match the type of record that the Salesforce channel is associated with. For example, a Salesforce channel associated with an Account will have an Account details tab.

  Summary (available with the Slack AI add-on)
Use the summary tab to get up to speed quickly with a Slack AI-generated summary of conversations in all the Salesforce channels associated with the corresponding record. Click on the   More details icon next to a summary to review its sources and jump to the conversation in Slack.

   Related records
If your admins choose a record type for the Default list tab when configuring Salesforce channels, that record type will display in the related records tab. If you have permission to update the record type, any changes that you make in Slack will be reflected in Salesforce.

Note: Members of your workspace or Enterprise Grid org that aren’t assigned access to Slack Sales Elevate will only be able to see the Messages tab in a Salesforce channel.

Create a Salesforce channel

You can create a new Salesforce channel from any record that appears in Slack Sales Elevate:

1. From your desktop, click on   Sales in the sidebar.
2. Select Salesforce lists in the sidebar.
3. Choose a record list or search for a list in the drop-down menu.
4. Next to a record, click on the   Create Salesforce channel icon.
5. Click on Create channel in the top-right corner.

Note: If a Salesforce channel has already been created for a record’s parent record, you’ll be prompted to use that channel (but you can still create a new one if you like).

Update a record in Slack

To save time switching between Slack and Salesforce, you can update a record directly from the channel. You can edit a record in Slack if you have permission to edit it in Salesforce.

1. From your desktop, open the Salesforce channel for the record that you’d like to update. 
2. Select the   Record details tab.
3. Under Record details, update any fields that you have permission to edit.

Note: Admins can choose which fields display in the Record details tab by configuring a Slack record layout.

Who can use this feature?

• All assigned members (limited functionality for unassigned members)
• Available on the Business+ and Enterprise Grid subscriptions with the Slack Sales Elevate add-on