Updated on December 10, 2019 
Salesforce workflows help you work faster, smarter, more efficiently. In this post, our Client Success Director Chris Petersen explains what Salesforce workflows are and shares examples of workflows that will be useful for commercial real estate brokers that use Salesforce or any Salesforce-based CRM including our AscendixRE.
And even if you are not a broker, you’ll get a good understanding of the value of automated workflows.
What is a Salesforce Workflow?
Workflows, put simply, are a way to automate all the administrative stuff you typically handle.
I truly believe every user can benefit from at least one workflow.
Workflows generally do 3 things:
- They either assign you tasks to complete automatically,
- They send emails (to you or your clients/prospects) automatically
- They update the data in another field automatically.
Here are some workflows you might want to consider:
General Prospecting
Case #1. If you tag a contact as a ‘warm prospect’, a workflow can create a series of follow up tasks for you, spread X amount of days apart, so you don’t have to remember when to keep in touch.
Case #2. Similar to above, except instead of tasks, it can create automated emails sent directly to the contact. A series of emails that send sequentially, a marketing drip campaign essentially.
Case #3. If you log a call, and the result is a voicemail, a workflow can create another follow up for you to make X amount of days later.
Listing Brokers (lease or sale)
Case #1. When you win a listing and create a Property Listing record in AscendixRE or Salesforce, a workflow can create a checklist for all the tasks you need to accomplish (get signage, photos, email brokers, etc.) Check off the tasks as you complete them.
Case #2. When you capture people inquiring about a listing, and create an Inquiry record in AscendixRE or Salesforce, a workflow can automatically email that inquirer with a standard email message, including attachments, links or photos. A workflow can also schedule automatic follow-ups so you don’t lose touch with that potential buyer/tenant.
Tenant Reps/Buyer Reps
Case #1. When you are representing a client in finding space to lease or buy, and you manage it through a Deal, you can let the workflow automate steps based on the deal stage. Example, if the stage is LOI, then workflow can send an email to your client. If a stage is due diligence, then another email can be sent. If a stage is inspection, then another email or task reminder can be sent.
Case #2. If you are keeping track of lease expiration dates (on the Account record, Preference record or Lease record), you can use the date as a trigger, so that X amount of days or months before that date, an email or follow up task gets created, so you stay on top of upcoming lease expirations.
Other Salesforce Automations
Not classified under workflows, but it also helps. If you rely heavily on reports, you can subscribe to reports, so that they get emailed to you on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
This way you don’t have to remember to pull up reports, they just get sent to you with the freshest information. (Example of reports: Calls made this week, Upcoming Lease expirations, Property tours given this week, Pipeline/Open deals, etc…).
I highly recommend you think about some of the things you do on a daily basis, that can reach a point where it’s prescriptive and predictable.
How I Use Salesforce Workflows:
Follow up is the name of the game, and I tend to be a visual person, so I have automated all of my follow up tasks, and then placed those tasks on my Salesforce calendar (which is also visible on my phone app). When I see what I need to do that day or that week in a centralized place, I become much more focused.
? Bonus: AscendixRE Workflows
In this presentation, we list the most popular workflows by our AscendixRE users.
About AscendixRE CRM
AscendixRE CRM converts Salesforce and Dynamics 365 into a commercial real estate CRM. We took into account the specifics of the commercial real estate industry and prebuilt fields, objects, workflows that will help you become more efficient and leverage up-to-date technologies. Contact us to request a free demo.
Authored by Chris Petersen
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