In today’s complex private capital environment, dealmakers are using CRM data to drive deals more than ever before.
According to an Affinity survey, 41% of respondents have seen an increase in CRM usage over the past year.* To make data-driven decisions, dealmakers need insights that go beyond static contact records and deal progress. One way deal teams can improve deal success? Activity tracking.
In this blog, we’ll discuss how activity tracking using Salesforce can help deal teams effectively find, manage, and win more deals.
What is activity tracking in Salesforce?
Activity tracking is the process of recording and collecting data from dealmaking activities, which can help to close more high-quality deals.
Activity tracking relies on creating an entry in your CRM database for any interaction between your deal team, prospects, and even existing customers. This is connected to the other CRM entries for that person and company in a relational database that includes when dealmakers send and receive emails, set meetings, or have impromptu conversations with founders, LPs, or other external partners—this is all information that can be accessed and used within the dealmaking process.
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How Salesforce activity tracking can improve your CRM data
When deal teams have access to real-time activity insights, it enables dealmakers to better research, source, and engage new opportunities.
Activity tracking increases dealmaker accountability
Engaging in high-value but manual activities, such as initial outreach, is necessary in order to drive deals forward.
As dealmakers work against the clock to win deals, it’s easy to get lost in activities that don’t provide a strong return on investment. When these tasks get in the way, it impacts dealmakers' abilities to hit pipeline goals and close deals effectively. Activity tracking via automation keeps them accountable for revenue-driving activities by providing a clear record of deal activity along with data and metrics relevant to their performance.
While it’s rarely effective to micromanage dealmakers, tracking activity in Salesforce enables partners to stay on top of their team’s productivity with clear dashboards. Activity insights make it easier to identify areas of improvement and coaching opportunities that can boost productivity.
Tracking activities improves efficiency
Accurate and complete activity tracking can accelerate deal velocity in more ways than one.
According to a recent Affinity survey, 65% of respondents believe poor quality outreach is due to missing context from previous interactions.* Activity tracking puts that data and other necessary insights at dealmakers’ fingertips, reducing embarrassing errors or crossed wires that can delay deals—or even put them in jeopardy.
The right CRM permissions make unified activity information readily available, and this also eliminates the need for dealmakers to interrupt their workflows and sift through multiple sources of engagement data. Accessible activity data makes dealmakers more efficient, allowing them to focus on building relationships and engaging in activities that move deals forward faster.
Activity tracking helps dealmakers identify and correct problems in real time
As dealmakers face growing targets in a competitive market, being able to quickly pinpoint which opportunities aren’t advancing—and why—is key to improving win rates. Activity tracking provides end-to-end visibility for every deal in your pipeline.
Additionally, activity tracking makes it easier for dealmakers to determine challenges and gaps in the pipeline and take the necessary measures to course-correct before it’s too late.
For example, activity reports make it easy to see which opportunities have lapsed in engagement. This way, you can make sure those contacts receive timely and relevant follow-ups.
Activity tracking promotes a culture of collaboration and transparency
Dealmaking shouldn’t—and doesn’t have to—exist in a silo.
When dealmakers have access to a complete history of activity across the entire firm right within their CRM, it puts everyone on the same page. This provides a smoother experience for external partners while closing deals faster.
When dealmakers have a consolidated view of activity information, they’re also able to lean on relationship context from their team members and take advantage of their shared network to prioritize the right opportunities. It encourages dealmakers to work together and secure more opportunities as a team.
Automated activity tracking boosts data accuracy and availability
The quality of decisions made throughout the investment process is directly related to the quality of data available in your CRM. Inaccurate data or complete lack thereof makes it challenging to effectively move deals through the pipeline.
However, it’s unrealistic to put the burden of data management on individual team members alone—especially when you consider the volume of sales activity.
Automating activity tracking improves the availability of data while minimizing the impact on existing workflows. At the same time, it reduces the risk of error that comes with manual data entry so your team can can confidently make data-backed decisions.
How to get the most out of activity tracking in Salesforce
Activity tracking is only effective when that data is used to enhance the deal process. Here are a few ways you can use activity insights to your advantage.
Log every activity in Salesforce
With shrinking resources, adding additional processes into the dealmaking workflow feels counterproductive. But when deal teams only have access to fragments of data it significantly reduces the usefulness of the information available. For example, a dealmaker who only has access to half of a founder or LP's previous interactions is missing necessary context.
If dealmakers aren’t able to get value out of the activity tracking data, they’re less likely to rely on it in the investment process—lowering Salesforce CRM adoption and impacting their ability to close deals.
Integrate Salesforce with your email, phone, and calendar tools
CRM upkeep and usage often get put on the back burner. Asked in a recent Affinity survey, 35% of respondents cited time as the biggest barrier to keeping CRM records and activity up to date.*
Fortunately, activity insights are often readily available within the platforms private capital firms already use every day. Tools including Affinity for Salesforce or Einstein Activity Capture take advantage of this data exhaust and automatically pull insights from existing workspaces such as email and calendar, and track that activity directly within Salesforce.
By eliminating the burden of manually logging emails, events, and other interactions, deal teams benefit from improved accuracy and completeness of activity data within the Salesforce CRM.
Utilize activity tracking to create a roadmap to success
Activity tracking takes the guesswork out of the dealmaking process. It helps dealmakers easily identify gaps and visualize patterns in outreach and communication that can inform their dealmaking process.
Historical activity insights help deal teams determine what works best to move deals through the pipeline. For example, you may discover that sending emails is more effective for outreach than phone communications. Or your ideal post-meeting follow-up cadence is three days instead of five. Activity data can even inform the optimal relationship strengths that improve outreach success and win rates.
By analyzing activities from screening to close, you get an improved understanding of your deal cycle and the templates you need to scale. It reveals successful strategies that you can replicate to build stronger pipelines.
Use activity data to unlock relationship insights
Purely transactional deals are a thing of the past. In today's world of private capital, successful outreach and deal origination relies on relationships.
Activity tracking provides a timeline of every activity associated with a person or a company. When you layer relationship intelligence on top of this CRM data, dealmakers can better understand the strength of the relationships in their own networks—and those of the firm at large.
This relationship context helps dealmakers uncover warm paths to introductions that secure deals 25% faster compared to cold outreach.
Bonus: Read our step-by-step guide to maximizing Salesforce ROI for more on making activity tracking a success.
Augment your Salesforce activity tracking with Affinity for Salesforce
Affinity for Salesforce improves your activity tracking so dealmakers can focus on what matters—sourcing, working, and closing deals.
Elevate your Salesforce activity tracking with:
- Streamlined data capture for high-velocity dealmaking. Save over 200 hours of manual CRM work per user with integrations that automate the capture of account and activity data in Salesforce.
- Access to CRM data directly within your workflow. Affinity for Salesforce extensions improve CRM usage by extending Salesforce records and activity insights to dealmakers directly in the tools they use every day—from their email inbox to their browser and LinkedIn—without ever having to open Salesforce.
- Relationship insights that enrich existing activity data. Get warm introductions and accelerate the dealmaking process with AI-driven relationship intelligence to make better use of your firm's network of connections and build stronger relationships. Plus, stay on top of key relationships with alerts so you never lose touch with valuable contacts.
- Long-term historical data for better decision-making. Affinity for Salesforce retains data indefinitely, compared to alternatives like Einstein Activity Captures that limit storage to two years, improving long-term decision-making and relationship insights.
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Salesforce activity tracking FAQs
Why should you track activities in Salesforce.com?
Tracking activities in Salesforce can help dealmakers better source, manage, and close deals. When teams track their activities and interactions, it improves efficiency in the dealmaking process by giving teams access to the relationship context they need, when they need it. It also improves accountability by encouraging dealmakers to focus on revenue-driving activities that accelerate dealmaking.
Complete activity data also helps teams draw out valuable relationship insights that unlock warm introduction paths and context to better qualify deals—improving deal quality and time-to-close.
Which activities should you be tracking in Salesforce?
All external touch points should be tracked as activities to create Salesforce data. Specific activities that should be recorded include:
- Phone calls
- In-person and virtual meetings
- Email communication
- Calendar events
Complete activity records provide valuable context for dealmakers to engage external partners and unlock relationship insights that help dealmakers find, manage, and close deals faster.
How does activity tracking in Salesforce work?
Activity tracking in Salesforce is as simple as inputting activities, such as outreach and engagement, into your Salesforce database. These are typically organized into three categories: tasks, events, and calendars.
This data can then be accessed throughout the dealmaking process to inform decision-making. Salesforce users can also set activity notifications, as well as roll-up activities to contacts, opportunities, or other custom fields.
Affinity for Salesforce improves existing Salesforce activity tracking functions with an API that automates the creation, updating, and enrichment of CRM records from inbox and calendar activities. By automating activity tracking, dealmakers have access to complete activity insights that advance deals—without the burden of manual data entry.
* Data from Affinity’s 2024 survey of 250+ business leaders across investment banking, media and communications, real estate, professional services, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, and enterprise technology.
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