Important Information about the Salesforce Integration

Article author
Apollo Team
Updated

Overview

Integrating Salesforce with Apollo enables you to access and keep your data synchronized within both platforms.

Before you integrate Salesforce with Apollo though, there are several important details to remember that can help you streamline the setup process and reduce the risk of unnecessary errors when integrating Salesforce.

Check out the following sections to learn more about the Salesforce integration.

Checklist Check-In

Apollo created a Salesforce integration checklist so you can quickly reference setup steps, workflows, and best practices. Use this checklist to ensure your CRM integration is set up for success.

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Salesforce Sync Settings

With the Salesforce integration, your sync settings determine how Apollo and Salesforce share data between both platforms.

Window of Opportunity

For paid Apollo plans, after you enable the Salesforce integration, there's a 6-hour window of time to configure push settings, configure pull settings, and map fields. This gives your team time to properly configure the integration.

During this time, you can't manually pull records. After 6 hours, syncing is automatically enabled.

Pull Settings

Apollo always pulls your contacts, accounts, and deals from Salesforce. This allows Apollo to remove any matches from the Apollo database. It also prevents your team from accidentally prospecting records in Apollo that already exist in Salesforce.

After connecting the integration for the first time or triggering a manual pull, the sync process may take several hours to complete, depending on the number of records in your CRM. After that, Apollo automatically syncs any new or updated records from Salesforce every 30 minutes.

When Apollo identifies a lead and a contact for the same person in Salesforce, Apollo always pulls the contact, not the lead. This is the only form of deduplication that Apollo runs against Salesforce.

You can't deactivate the automatic pull for leads, contacts, and accounts, but you can hide them from view in Apollo. For more information, follow the steps in Configure Salesforce Pull Settings. To update the pull settings for Salesforce opportunities, check out Map Apollo Deals to Salesforce Opportunities.

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Push Settings

Push settings relate to how Apollo pushes data from Apollo to Salesforce. Unlike pull settings, you can choose whether to enable push settings for Salesforce.

Once enabled, Apollo syncs saved records and updates to Salesforce in real time.

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Duplicate Records

There are several key duplication rules to keep in mind before connecting Salesforce.

When you integrate Salesforce, Apollo mirrors the data in Salesforce. If you have duplicate leads, contact, or accounts in Salesforce, these same duplicates reflect in Apollo, too. To avoid duplicate records, clean and deduplicate Salesforce before you integrate with Apollo.

If Apollo pulls a duplicate from Salesforce, Apollo displays a potential duplicate message on the contact or account and in the activity log.

When you manually create a duplicate record in Salesforce, Apollo automatically creates the same record. Likewise, if you enable Salesforce push settings and create a duplicate record in Apollo, Salesforce creates the same record within Salesforce.

Apollo doesn't automatically delete or merge the duplicates that you manually create. If you decide to delete or merge any of these records, you must manually merge or delete.

If duplicate records have already been synced from Salesforce to Apollo, you have two options to remove them:

  • Delete: If you enable the appropriate settings in Apollo, you can delete duplicate records in either Apollo or Salesforce and the deletion will sync for both.
  • Merge: If you enable the appropriate settings in Apollo, you can merge duplicate records in Salesforce and the changes will sync to Apollo. Once you merge a duplicate, Apollo will only sync information for the remaining record with Salesforce.

To change these settings:

  1. Launch Apollo and click Settings > Integrations.
  2. Click View next to the Salesforce integration.
  3. On the Salesforce integration page, select from Contacts, Leads, Accounts, or Deals, then click Sync.
  4. Click the checkboxes to enable deletion sync or merge sync.

Merge and deletion sync settings highlighted

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Map Fields and Stages

Fields

In order for Salesforce and Apollo to sync correctly, you need to map Apollo fields to the fields in Salesforce and configure whether Apollo overwrites or auto-fills the data in your CRM fields.

If you decide to enable autofill or auto overwrite for mapped fields, keep the following in mind:

  • When you select Auto-fill, Apollo automatically uses information within the Apollo database to fill in the field from Salesforce. This only happens if a field is empty and Apollo has relevant information available.
  • When you enable Overwrite, Apollo automatically overwrites the existing information in the field from Salesforce with the information within Apollo. This only happens if the information differs between the two platforms and Apollo has relevant information available.

Autofill and auto overwrite only run when Apollo pulls information from Salesforce.

 
Manual Mode

Manual actions always take precedence. If you manually enrich a field during CRM enrichment, Apollo pushes that update even if you haven't enabled auto-fill or overwrite settings for a field.

Stages

When you integrate Salesforce, Apollo automatically creates a pipeline for deals with the same stages as your Salesforce opportunity stages and deactivates the creation of new deal stages in Apollo.

Check out Map Apollo Deals to Salesforce Opportunities for more information about the automatic stage mapping between Apollo deals and Salesforce opportunities, and manual field mapping between deals fields and Salesforce opportunity fields.

Check out Map Apollo Fields in Salesforce to learn more about field mapping and configuring auto-fill and overwrite settings.

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View Errors

Leverage the Salesforce integration error log to view any sync errors that Apollo receives from your Salesforce.

The error log only displays errors that Apollo receives when pushing information to Salesforce. These errors are Salesforce responses that usually indicate a restriction from Salesforce, such as hitting a custom validation rule or rate limits for your connected instance.

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Use Apollo on Salesforce

If you spend most of your prospecting cycle in Salesforce, you can use Apollo directly on Salesforce. After you connect the integration and configure sync settings, add the integration directly into Salesforce:

To use Apollo on Salesforce:

  1. Log into Salesforce and create a Visualforce page.
  2. Name the page and the label Apollo.
  3. Paste the following snippet into the Visualforce markup.
<apex:page standardController="Account">
    <apex:iframe src="https://app.apollo.io/#/embedded-crm/account?crm_object_id={!account.id}"/>
</apex:page>
  1. Save the Visualforce page, and navigate to an account in Salesforce.
  2. Click Settings > Edit Page.
  3. Click a tab, then add a tab to the page. Change the tab type to Custom. Enter Apollo for the name.
  4. Drag the Visualforce component into the tab's empty space.
  5. Select the Apollo page you just created, and set the height to 450.
  6. Click Save.
  7. Navigate back to an account page, and click Apollo. Apollo shares prospects from the selected account.

You can save contacts to Apollo, email them from Apollo, add to them to a sequence, add them to a list, export to Salesforce, and assign owners or accounts.

You have now used Apollo on Salesforce.

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Next Steps

Here are a few solid next steps to keep your Salesforce integration running smoothly.

Integrate Salesforce With Apollo You can connect your Salesforce account to Apollo to keep contacts, accounts, and activities flowing cleanly between both systems without surprises.
Configure Salesforce Pull Settings Make sure your team gets the freshest CRM data by configuring Salesforce pull settings to control how Apollo brings contacts, accounts, and opportunities into your workspace.
Configure Salesforce Push Settings Avoid data drift by configuring push settings to send updates from Apollo back into Salesforce exactly the way your CRM workflows expect.
Map Apollo Deals to Salesforce Opportunities You can map Apollo deals to Salesforce opportunities to keep stages, fields, and deal activity aligned for cleaner reporting on both sides.
Access the Salesforce Error Log in Apollo If something feels off, quickly troubleshoot by checking the Salesforce error log to pinpoint sync conflicts before they disrupt your workflows.

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