Sales teams thrive on networking and continuously building healthy, strong relationships. Salesforce empowers sales professionals with essential tools that foster collaboration, discussion, and networking. To keep pace with the demanding needs of sales teams, Salesforce regularly reviews its feature set and makes changes to better serve its users.
The recent retirement of the News feature, alongside greater investment in AI-Powered Einstein Relationship Insights, is one such example. Let’s take a closer look.
News was originally built to allow instant access to relevant news about customers, partners, competitors, and industries. The News component included articles from the past 30 days and was available on business accounts, contacts, leads, and the Home page. Despite its many advantages, the feature had significant challenges:
- User preferences for a more modern interface, intuitive design, and improved functionality;
- Information overload, making it challenging for users to sift through all updates;
- Lack of actionable insights or analytics since the information presented was just a record.
As of the Winter ’24 Release, News has been retired in all Salesforce orgs, but for those who seek to spend less time researching and more time acting on served-up insights, Einstein Relationship Insights is worth exploring!
Einstein Relationship Insights (ERI) leverages AI to analyze communication data, providing actionable insights that enhance relationship dynamics and guide strategic decision-making for more effective and informed sales efforts. It is resourceful in its ability to analyze relationships and identify patterns, networking opportunities and enable interactions.
Quick Overview of Key Functionalities of ERI
- Relationship analysis: Using AI, ERI can analyze communication patterns, emails, and other interactions to identify key relationships between individuals and organizations.
- Relationship scores: Provides scores or indicators that represent the strength or health of relationships, helping sales teams prioritize their efforts.
- Actionable insights: Recommends actions to strengthen relationships or capitalize on opportunities based on the analysis of communication data.
- Integration with other Einstein features: Einstein Relationship Insights is often integrated with other Einstein features to provide a holistic view of customer relationships.
- Advanced Search functionality: ERI does contact research by drawing information from the web, news, internal and external sources so that the results are comprehensive and complete
“ERI can do this at a pace and scale that is impossible for any human to do. This is a glimpse into the future of how humans will successfully work in tandem with AI.” – Jason Briggs, Senior Director of Product Management, Einstein Relationship Insights
| Benefit | Desciption | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Prioritization of Opportunities | By identifying key stakeholders and the strength of those relationships, ERI helps to prioritize opportunities based on the relationship score. | Focus on high-potential deals, optimizing time and resources. |
| Actionable Insights | ERI provides actionable insights and recommendations that guide Sales teams on the best ways to nurture and hone relationships. | Enhanced strategic approach to customer engagement. |
| Enhanced Communication Strategies | Sales teams can tailor and customize communications based on ERI analysis of patterns and preferences of customers. | Personalization that leads to improved interactions and a higher likelihood of successful deals. |
| Improved Cross-Selling and Upselling | ERI spots opportunities for cross-selling and upselling by identifying relationships within an organization. | Ability to propose additional products/services to existing clients. |
| Proactive Relationship Management | ERI offers alerts and notifications to Sales teams about changes in communication patterns or potential risks. | Promptly address issues and maintain positive client relationships. |
| Data-Driven Decision Making | Incorporating AI-driven insights enables more informed and data-driven decision-making. | Not just a gut feeling, but data-backed intelligence to make decisions. |
| Integration with Sales Processes | ERI seamlessly integrates with Salesforce CRM and sales processes, making insights readily available. | Ease of access and action. |
| Efficient Time Management | With clarity on priorities and actionable insights, sales reps have a clear road map ahead of them to optimally utilize their time and resources. | Increased efficiency and focus on activities with higher success potential. |
What to Consider Before Enabling Einstein Relationship Insights
It is clear that ERI is vital for sales representatives in any organization. However, any tool is useful only if it can function well. So before you enable ERI, here are some considerations to take into account
- Data Quality: The effectiveness of Einstein Relationship Insights relies on the quality of your data. Ensure that your Salesforce data is accurate, up-to-date, and well-maintained.
- Training and Adoption: Plan for user training and adoption. Communicate the benefits of Einstein Relationship Insights to your sales teams and provide training sessions to maximize its use.
- Review Licensing Costs: Regularly review Salesforce pricing documentation to stay informed about any changes in licensing costs for Einstein features.
- Stay Informed: Salesforce regularly updates its features, and new releases may bring enhancements or changes to Einstein Relationship Insights. Stay informed about Salesforce releases and updates.
- Consult Salesforce Support: If you encounter any issues or have specific questions about enabling Einstein Relationship Insights, consider reaching out to Salesforce support or consulting with your Salesforce representative for personalized assistance.
What Does Einstein Relationship Insights Cost?
Based on your business needs, you can choose the edition of ERI that suits you best. There are currently two packages available as a standalone product.
| Einstein Relationship Insights Starter –Search web and news | Einstein Relationship Insights Growth – Search web, news and Salesforce files |
|---|---|
| $50 per user/per month | $150 per user/per month |
| Includes Relationship graphs & browser extensions | Includes Relationship graphs & browser extensions |
| Automated Research Assistant for News data and Web data | Automated Research Assistant for News data, Web data and Salesforce files |
| – | Relationship context over the entire Opportunity or Case, beyond just a single person or record. |
| – | Relationship context over entire Opportunity or Case |
For customers who have the Sales Cloud Unlimited Edition, Einstein Relationship Insights Basic is included in the license.
Can a Salesforce Consultant Help With Einstein Relationship Insights?
Salesforce Consultants can provide valuable assistance in implementing and optimizing Einstein Relationship Insights (ERI). Here’s how:
- Assessment and Requirement Gathering: The consultant starts by understanding the customer’s business processes and sales workflows. They gather requirements from key stakeholders to tailor Einstein Relationship Insights (ERI) to the organization’s goals and challenges.
- Licensing Guidance: The consultant helps the customer choose the right Einstein licenses based on their needs and budget. They explain the features of different licenses to enable informed decision-making.
- Implementation Planning: Working together, the consultant and customer create a detailed plan for implementing ERI. This plan includes milestones, timelines, and success criteria for a smooth implementation.
- Customization and Configuration: The consultant adjusts ERI settings and customizes the solution to match the organization’s terms, data models, and processes.
- Integration with Existing Systems: The consultant ensures ERI integrates seamlessly with other Salesforce features and external systems, addressing challenges and optimizing data flows for accurate insights.
- Training and Change Management: The consultant conducts training for users and administrators, helping them understand how to use ERI effectively. Change management support is provided for a smooth transition to AI-driven processes.
- Data Quality Improvement: Recognizing the importance of accurate data, the consultant collaborates to enhance the quality of Salesforce data using cleansing strategies and best practices.
- User Adoption Strategies: The consultant develops strategies to encourage users to adopt ERI, highlighting its benefits. User guides are created to support ongoing learning.
- Monitoring and Optimization: The consultant sets up monitoring tools to track ERI’s performance and optimizes configurations based on user feedback and changing business needs.
- Continuous Support and Updates: Post-implementation, the consultant offers ongoing support for any issues. They keep the customer informed about new releases and best practices related to ERI.
- Performance Reviews and Reporting: Regular performance reviews assess how ERI is impacting sales processes. Reports are generated to showcase positive effects and guide further improvements.
Summary
Einstein Relationship Insights (ERI) stands as a powerful tool within the Salesforce ecosystem, offering a sophisticated approach to relationship management. The benefits extend beyond enhanced relationship analysis to prioritizing opportunities, actionable insights, and improved communication strategies.
The investment in ERI is not just in technology but in elevating the effectiveness of every sales interaction, leading to stronger relationships, strategic wins, and sustained growth. Embrace ERI, and propel your sales team into a new era of intelligent and impactful customer engagement.