Capitalizing on existing relationships and warm introductions can transform how sales teams work. So how can you enable your team to get the most value from your collective network to win more opportunities? The answer lies in relationship intelligence.
In this article, we will delve into what relationship intelligence data is and why it’s important, then share five example reports you can build in Salesforce to display these valuable insights.
What Is Relationship Intelligence?
Relationship intelligence uses the vast amounts of data within your CRM to help your sales and deal teams gain a deeper understanding of the relationships between their colleagues and their contacts, leads, accounts, and opportunities.
At its core, relationship intelligence is about transforming raw data from emails, meetings, and Salesforce activities into actionable insights that reveal not only your team’s web of connections but also the strength and history of those relationships.
Why Is Relationship Intelligence Important?
Relationship intelligence enables you to:
- Strategically prioritize opportunities and enhance outreach: By understanding the depth and nature of your company’s connections, sales teams can better prioritize leads, customize sales strategies, and tailor outreach.
- Nurture and maintain existing relationships: Setting up triggers to alert account owners when a relationship score drops below a specific threshold ensures they can proactively reach out and reconnect with important prospects and clients.
- Boost efficiency and productivity: Revealing the strongest or most relevant connections within your company’s network can guide sellers on the best path to engage a prospect or deepen a client relationship, minimizing the guesswork and maximizing output.
- Optimize sales outcomes: Insights into how to best engage potential clients allow your sales team to approach negotiations and pitches more strategically, accelerating the sales cycle and improving conversion rates. Affinity data shows that warm introductions can help your team close deals 25% faster!
How to Build Salesforce Reports Using Relationship Data [+ Examples]
Here are five real examples of how you can use relationship intelligence data in Salesforce to improve performance and drive more revenue.
Before diving in, it’s worth noting that:
- Field labels may vary for every Salesforce Org.
- After creating new reports, you can adjust the chart appearance and type directly on dashboards.
- All relationship scores listed in the examples below are out of 100 (i.e. 100 is the highest possible score).
Uncover Accounts That Need Engagement
Monitor the strength of your relationships with key accounts and create Salesforce triggers to alert account owners when relationship scores drop below a specific threshold.
How to create this report in Salesforce
Create a new report and select “Accounts” as the Report Type.
Add the following columns to the report:
- Last Activity
- Account Name
- Account Owner
- Last Email (Affinity)
- # Highest Relationship Score
Next, add filters:
- Filter the report so it shows the accounts you want to monitor. For example, you can show all accounts, your team’s accounts, or your personal accounts.
- Add a “Created Date” filter and select the timeframe you want to evaluate.
- Add a “Relationship Score” filter and set it to surface accounts with relationship scores that are less than or equal to 70 (or whichever threshold you deem too low).
Identify Which Industries You Have the Most Relationships With
Keep a pulse on your company’s evolving network by breaking down the number of connections by industry. Knowing your company’s relationships within different industries can guide business development efforts, influence resource allocation, and uncover potential expansion opportunities.
How to create this report in Salesforce
Create a new report and select “Connections with Contact” as the Report Type.
First, group rows by Contact Industry. Then add the following columns to the report:
- Account
- Contact: Website
- Contact: First Name
- Contact: Last Name
- Contact: Title
- # Relationship Score
- Ally
- Contact: Last Activity
Next, add filters:
- Filter the report so it shows “All Connections”.
- Add a “Created Date” filter and select the timeframe you want to evaluate.
See Who at Your Company Has the Most Connections
A leaderboard can help sales leaders understand their team’s collective network and identify who can assist with outreach efforts.
How to create this report in Salesforce
Create a new report and select “Users” as the Report Type. First, group rows by Full Name. Then add a column to display # of Connections.
Next, add filters:
- Filter the report by “Last Login” and select the timeframe you want to evaluate.
- Add a “View” filter and select “Active Users”.
Identify Which Opportunities Need More Attention
Opportunities with low engagement may be at risk of being lost or delayed. By giving them the necessary attention, sellers can mitigate these risks and increase the likelihood of closing the deal.
In the following example, we’re surfacing opportunities that are expected to close soon but have lower relationship scores.
How to create this report in Salesforce
Create a new report and select “Opportunities” as the Report Type. First, group rows by Opportunity Name. Then add the following columns to the report:
- Opportunity Owner
- Account Name
- Stage
- Fiscal Period
- # Probability (%)
- # Highest Relationship Score
- Close Date
- Created Date
- # Amount
Next, add filters:
- Filter the report so it shows “All Opportunities”.
- Add a “Close Date” filter and select “Current and Next FQ”.
- Add an “Opportunity Status” filter and select “Open”.
- Include a “Probability” filter and select “All”.
- Add a relationship score and set it to surface any score that is less than 70.
Compare How Relationships Impact Closed Opportunities
By comparing closed opportunities with different relationship scores, sales leaders can better understand the impact of relationships on sales outcomes. If opportunities closed with higher relationship scores consistently yield more revenue, it validates the effectiveness of relationship-building strategies employed by the sales team.
In the example below, we’re looking at opportunities that closed in the last year and comparing those with lower relationship scores against those with higher relationship scores.
How to create these reports in Salesforce
This one requires two reports that are nearly identical except for the relationship score filter. To get started, create a new report and select “Opportunities” as the Report Type.
First, group rows by Stage. Then add the following columns to the report:
- Owner Role
- Opportunity Owner
- Account Name
- Opportunity Name
- Fiscal Period
- # Probability (%)
- # Amount
- # Age
- Close Date
- Created Date
- # Highest Relationship Score
- Next Step
- Lead Source
- Type
Next, add filters:
- Filter the report so it shows “All Opportunities”.
- Add a “Close Date” filter and select “Previous FY”, or choose a specific date range.
- Add an “Opportunity Status” filter and select “Any”.
- Include a “Probability” filter and select “All”.
- Filter by “Stage” and select “equals Closed won”.
- Add a relationship score and set it to show any score that is less than 70.
Once you save this report, clone it and change the relationship score filter to be greater than or equal to 70.
Unlock Relationship Intelligence Reporting with Affinity for Salesforce
Affinity for Salesforce uses automation to generate the insights that become relationship intelligence. It automatically captures your team’s activity data and syncs it in Salesforce. Relationship scores are calculated using the recency and frequency of interactions between your colleagues and their collective network of connections. All of the data that is captured and enriched by Affinity can be used in Salesforce’s native reports and dashboards.
Affinity for Salesforce provides relationship intelligence, inbox and browser extensions, automated activity capture, and data enrichment all in one application. It’s the ideal solution for teams that want to easily capture and understand engagement data, improve data quality, and increase Salesforce engagement without burdening sellers.
Summary
Relationship intelligence provides real-time insights into your organization’s network, your company’s history of engagement with each person, and more. With solutions like Affinity for Salesforce, Salesforce Admins can use relationship intelligence to surface actionable insights for sales and deal teams in Salesforce reports and dashboards.