Boost Opportunities with Interactions
- Unit 2.1: Get Started with Opportunities for Recruitment
- Unit 2.2: Create Opportunities with Interactions
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Describe the use of Opportunities for recruitment
- Name and describe the different recruitment models
- Customize the recruitment steps on Opportunities and Interactions
- Describe the different Opportunity Record Types and their uses
Stella, Connected University’s system admin you met in the previous chapter, knows that an essential part of recruiting is connecting with prospects, understanding where they are coming from and what they are interested in, and giving them the information they need when they need it. That requires not only a solid communication plan, but plenty of good data.
CU has started down the path of collecting and storing more data, and structuring that data so it can be used to communicate effectively, understand their prospects, and make their processes more efficient. They are using Interactions for Student Recruitment to track the way data is coming in and automate where that data ends up in Salesforce and the recruiters are loving it.
However, Interactions do more than stage data so it can be sent to other areas of Salesforce. It also provides a starting point for universities like CU who know what Salesforce is capable of and want to expand their recruitment practices, but don’t know where to start. Stella wants to find out more about how Opportunities are used in Interactions for Student Recruitment so she can continue to help the recruiters at CU make meaningful relationships with their prospects and applicants.
The recruiters are looking for the ability to:
- Generate more prospects and differentiate those who have a higher level of interest from those who have yet to raise their hand
- Track a prospect’s interest in a plan and term
- Move prospects through a standard process with well-defined goals
- Create multiple standard recruitment processes for different types of students or departments
- Help manage their communications while still providing personable service
- Collect more and better data to help their marketing teams understand which strategies are working to bring in the best students
To do this, Stella is looking at these main functions offered through the Sales Cloud:
| Leads | Individuals who may be interested but have not raised their hands |
| Contacts | Individuals who have raised their hands, or have another type of relationship with the university, like a parent or high school counselor |
| Opportunities | The prospect’s interest in a plan and term, from point of inquiry to student |
| Sales Processes | A set of stages an Opportunity is moved through to achieve a goal for that recruitment process |
| Email Templates | Emails that are shareable across departments and contain merge fields to help manage one-to-one communication |
| Lead Source | A set of values to track how data enters the system at the point of Lead, Contact, and Opportunity creation |
| Campaigns | A marketing or recruitment strategy such as an email blast, campus visit, or college fair, that tracks the Leads and Contacts reached and the Opportunities influenced |
Use these Trailhead resources to learn more about the Sales Cloud:
Connected University will be using Opportunities to track a prospect’s unique interest in the University, but what does that mean? That depends on the admissions department! Let’s talk about some common recruitment processes applied by CU.
When it comes to undergraduate prospects, their interest is in the undergraduate-level majors starting in a defined term. An undergraduate student who wants to start school next September may have their educational career mapped out, but they don’t need to. They may inquire about various majors such as business, psychology, and English, but they ultimately submit a general application to the Undergraduate Admissions department for a certain term. This is called centralized recruiting because an applicant need not apply for each major of interest.
Admission to graduate programs at CU function a little differently. Prospects that are interested in a specific graduate-level program starting in a defined term must submit an application for the specific degree they wish to pursue. A graduate prospect who wants to start school next September may be interested in an MBA as well as an English MA degree. The recruitment and admissions processes for these programs are managed by different teams and departments in different schools, so the prospect’s interest must be tracked separately. When it comes time to apply, the prospect will apply for each program of interest, because graduate admissions follows a decentralized recruitment model.
So, what makes an Opportunity unique in each model?
| Career | Model Used | Opportunity Key Concatenation |
|---|---|---|
| Undergraduate | Centralized Model | Prospect + Level + Term |
| Graduate | Decentralized Model | Prospect + Level + Plan + Term |
If an undergraduate’s major of interest changes for the same Term, their undergraduate Opportunity will be updated to reflect that change; but if a graduate’s program of interest changes for the same Term, a new graduate-level Opportunity will be created.
Stella now understands what makes an Opportunity unique, but what steps does it follow? Let’s look at how she has defined the general Opportunity lifecycle from inquiry to applicant to enrollment.
If we translate the diagram directly to Salesforce, the Inquiry Opportunity section becomes three Stages in an Inquiry Sales Process, with the end goal of “Start Application,” and the Applicant Opportunity section becomes five Stages in an Applicant Sales Process, with the end goal of “Enroll.”
Undergraduate and graduate admissions processes probably include different steps, so they may want their own Sales Processes and Stages. That can be done as well, but for now we’re going to focus this standard model.
When you look at the Opportunity Lifecycle diagram above, you may wonder why it is separated into two paths: inquiry and applicant. There are several benefits to this:
- Defining clear, easy-to-manage goals
- Reporting on and automating customized processes
- Defining different required fields
- Using different page layouts for the fields available
- Listing different picklist values in fields used for both inquiries and applicants
- Security to prevent Stage changes or field editing for certain types of Opportunities
Interactions for Student Recruitment includes Opportunity Page Layouts tailored to Inquiry-level Opportunities and Applicant-level Opportunities. Stella followed the steps in Interactions for Student Recruitment’s installation guide and has created two Opportunity Sales Processes and Record Types to take advantage of the Page Layouts included in the package and meet the needs of the recruiters.
The Inquiry Opportunity’s compact layout displays the Recruitment Plan, and the Stages range from Inquired to Applied.
The Applicant Opportunity’s compact layout displays the Academic Plan, and the Stages range from Applied to Enrolled.
These stages, sales processes, and page layouts have helped CU jump into using Opportunities, but they can all be further customized to fit specific needs.
Stella receives a request from the recruiters to add a new Applicant-level Stage to Opportunities. Follow along with her as she adds the new Stage:
- Go to Setup > Object Manager > Opportunity > Fields & Relationships and click on the Stage field.
- Scroll down to Opportunity Stages Picklist Values and select “New”
- Add your new Stage Name and Type. Probability is a static percentage that can be used in reporting. Forecast Category is also used for reporting. Select which Sales Processes the Stage should be added to, and save.
- Reorder the Stages if needed by selecting “Reorder” and moving the values around.
Next, she much update the Stage values on the Interactions object, so the value she added can be used: 1. Go to Setup > Object Manager > Interaction > Field & Relationships and click on the Opportunity Stage field. 2. Scroll down to Picklist Values and select “New” 3. Add your new Stage and save. 4. Reorder the Stage values by selecting “Reorder.” Highlight one or more values and move them using the Up and Down buttons on the right, then save.
Now that Stella understands why Opportunities can be used for recruitment, what an Opportunity represents, how to design them, and how to customize them, she wants to take a closer look at Interactions’ native Opportunity matching to learn how she can customize the matching process. Join her in the next unit to learn more about Opportunity matching and the different recruitment models.
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Explain the difference between a centralized and decentralized recruitment model and when each would be used
- Create Interactions to update Opportunities using a centralized and decentralized recruitment model
The undergraduate and graduate admissions teams at CU recruit in different ways. They not only employ distinct strategies, their recruitment teams often operate differently too.
As you have seen, undergraduate recruitment at CU manages applicants in one place regardless of their major of interest, which is considered a centralized model. Graduate recruitment at CU uses a decentralized model, and manages applicants based on their major of interest. This is reflected in the way a university defines a unique undergraduate Opportunity (Prospect, Level, and Term) versus a unique graduate Opportunity (Prospect, Level, Plan, and Term).
One of the biggest concerns when bringing information into a system is data cleanliness, and that means avoiding duplicate records as much as possible. Interactions avoid creating duplicate Opportunities by taking the parameters that make a record unique and turning them into a unique ID.
Jane Smith, a current high school student, inquires about the Bachelor – English plan. She wants to start Fall 2018. Let’s look at an example of what her Inquiry Opportunity record would look like in Salesforce:
The record type is Inquiry Opportunity, and it’s at the Stage of Inquired. The Recruitment Plan is “Bachelor – English” for the “Fall 2018” Term. The Lead Source and First Inquiry Source have both been tracked in the Source Information section. All of this data came from the Interaction records associated on the right.
Let’s look at the Opportunity Key at the bottom of the record. The key is: “0030S000005IDuiQAG.Undergraduate.a0N0S000000HKyY.”
The first section represents Jane Smith’s Salesforce Contact ID, followed by the level, or Career (Undergraduate), and finally the Fall 2018 Salesforce Term ID.
Jane has been getting emails and communications about the English bachelor’s Plan, but she has been considering changing her major to business administration. She fills out a web form with her name and email for the “Bachelor – Business Administration” Plan for Fall 2018.
The name and email Jane entered on the web form will match her existing Contact record, and the Interaction Processor will find the Salesforce Contact ID. The fields in the Academic Interest Information section matched Jane’s existing Undergraduate Opportunity based on the Career and Term; so when the code assembled the Opportunity Key, it was the same as the Key on her original Opportunity: the Contact ID “0030S000005IDuiQAG” + “.Undergraduate.” + the Term ID “a0N0S000000HKyY,”.
When Interaction created by the web form ran, the Interaction Processor updated Jane’s existing Opportunity’s Recruitment Plan, and associated the “Imported” Interaction to the Opportunity:
The undergraduate admissions team will continue to communicate with Jane, but now, any information specific to the major will reflect the fact she is interested in Business Administration instead of English.
John Miller is an alumnus who is interested in getting an MBA degree starting Fall 2018. Let’s look at his Inquiry Opportunity in Salesforce:
The name and email John entered will match his existing Contact record, and the Interaction Processor will find the Salesforce Contact ID. The Career is still Graduate, and the Term is still Fall 2018, but the plan is now “MA – English,” so when the code assembles the Opportunity Key, it will be the Contact ID “0030S000005IEIVQA4” + “.Graduate.” + Plan ID “0010S000004s9vy.” + Term ID “a0N0S000000HKyY,” which does not match John’s existing Opportunity for the MBA Plan.
The Interaction created from the web form ran and created a new Opportunity for the MA English Plan. It also associated the “Imported” Interaction to the new record:
John has been receiving communication from the School of Business for his MBA Opportunity and now he will also begin receiving information from the College of Humanities about his English MA Opportunity.
All this information the recruiters at CU have received about Jane Smith and John Miller can help them and their marketing teams understand how recruitment is going, and make decisions about how to improve their marketing and recruitment efforts. To help the recruiting and marketing teams meet these goals, Stella gives them access to Interactions for Student Recruitment’s out-of-the-box Recruitment Dashboard. Below are the steps a recruiter follows to access the dashboard:
- Go to the Dashboard tab
- Select All Folders and click on the Recruitment Dashboard
- Reload the Dashboard with the most recent data by clicking the Refresh button
- This dashboard has some basic reports that could be useful for recruitment and marketing.
- Click on the View Report link on This Month’s Academic Interactions
- Go back to the Dashboard and click on the View Report link on Opportunities by Academic Career
Using this dashboard as a starting point, the recruitment and marketing teams have a clearer understand- ing of their data, and they are confident it lines up with both their centralized and decentralized recruitment processes. Stella was similarly excited to find that Interactions for Student Recruitment also includes a sample Admin Dashboard, tailored to help system admins quickly identify data loading and mapping errors as well as other data management reports.
Now, Stella and the recruiting teams want to dive deeper into source and campaign information to analyze the effectiveness of their Fall 2018 recruitment strategies. Continue to the next chapter to find out more about how source data is tracked.