A frequent question we hear from our clients is, “How Do We Integrate Salesforce With LinkedIn?†and the answer we give them is “Use Salesbolt to Integrate LinkedIn and Salesforce.â€
But they often ask a few more questions as well, so we’ll cover all that below!
Why don’t LinkedIn and Salesforce connect out of the box?
LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft, who would rather you use MS Dynamics rather than Salesforce. So the relationship between the world’s largest professional directory (LinkedIn) and the world’s largest CRM (Salesforce) is complicated.
On top of that, LinkedIn doesn’t want to be known for selling its users’ data. Well, they do, if you pay for LinkedIn Sales Navigator Enterprise (the price is unlisted, but we’ve heard it’s above $200 per user per month). That edition will allow you to create Leads and Contacts in Salesforce from LinkedIn. But what if you don’t have the money to buy that edition of Sales Navigator?
Go Old School
A lot of people resort to just copying and pasting. It’s an annoying but common business practice. We’ve all done it at times. Luckily, there is a growing list of tools that will let you do this, and our favorite is Salesbolt.
Salesbolt
Salesbolt is a Chrome Extension that can handle almost any Salesforce to LinkedIn integration. Unlike Sales Navigator which lives in Salesforce and looks at LinkedIn data, Salesbolt lives in LinkedIn and looks at Salesforce data!
So when you are on a LinkedIn Profile, you can see any/all the Leads or Contacts you have in Salesforce that match the details of that person. And it works the same for LinkedIn Company pages, showing you the Salesforce Accounts that match those details.
If there are existing records in Salesforce, you can update them easily.
And if there aren’t existing records you can create them in just a few clicks!
You can download this Salesforce to Linkedin integration directly from the Chrome Webstore.
Ecquire
Edit: Since this post first came out, Ecquire has announced that they are discontinuing their Chrome Extension. So you might want to look for an Ecquire replacement.Â
Ecquire is a Chrome Extension that, as well as having a pretty funny looking mascot, can also connect Salesforce to LinkedIn! The price is cheaper than Salesbolt’s monthly subscription but obviously more expensive than the totally-free Assistlead, mentioned below.
Assistlead
The main benefit of Assistlead is that it’s totally free. And, it can easily create Leads or Contacts in Salesforce from a LinkedIn profile. However, that’s about it. You can’t edit or even surface that Salesforce data in LinkedIn. But if you are on a tight (or no) budget, Assistlead is the tool for you!
Explore further
Want help in integrating Salesforce.com with LinkedIn – connect with our team of expert Salesforce consultants. Contact us today to start the conversation.
