Manage Automation Rules

SalesLoft's Automation Rules take care of the repetitive tasks that threaten to dominate your team's work day. Automation Rules fire based on certain criteria set by team admins.

Using Automation Rules alongside your personalized sales engagement allows your reps to focus their energy on prospective customers, rather than menial tasks. 

In this article, we will walk through the ins and outs of managing you team's Automation Rules, including:

• Things to Know Before You Begin
• Automation Rule Page Layout
• Add a New Automation Rule
• List of Automation Rule Field Types
• Automation Rule Criteria
• Reorder Automation Rules
• Common Automation Rules
• Automation Rule Logs
• Automation Rule Troubleshooting

Things to Know Before You Begin

Testing Automation Rules: When creating a new rule for the first time, we recommend setting criteria that restricts the rule to a specific owner (typically yourself) for testing purposes. This allows you to try the rule without impacting your entire team’s data. You can do this by adding criteria stating “SalesLoft Owner equals (Your Name)”.

Automation rules are not retroactive: Just like a line of dominos needs something to start the chain reaction, a rule will only run when a record is created or updated, which triggers the rule.

Automation Rule Page Layout

You will create, manage, edit, and enhance your team's Automation Rules from the Automation Rules tab located under your admin Data settings.  

Let’s break down the Automation Rules tab.

The Automation Rule Logs

Above the Automation Rules list, you will see a blue View Rule Logs link. Now, if you are first starting with SalesLoft Automation, this link won’t do you much good. But after you’ve activated Automation Rules you can view all the activity that has occurred.

For more information on the Automation Rule Logs, go here.

New Automation Rules

Next, you will see the New Automation Rule. Clicking this button will allow you to create new Automation Rules for your team.

For a full walkthrough of how to create new Automation Rules, go here.

The Automation Rule List View

A list of the Automation Rules you've created takes up the majority of the Automation Rules tab. Here you can see a full breakdown of the rules you have created and manage which rules are currently active.   

In your Automation Rule list, each itemized rule contains the following details:

• Name: Each time you create a rule, you will give it a unique name so you know that rule’s purpose. The rule name is a clickable, blue link. Click the name to edit the rule. 
• Rule Field Type: The rule field type is listed directly under the rule name. The rule field type determines "when" a rule will trigger. 
• Action: Any actions that take place due the rule are listed under the rule type. These actions are determined by the "then" section when creating a rule. 
• Active: The toggle button turns your Automation Rule on/off. Switching the toggle to active means when the automation event occurs, the activity will trigger.
• More Actions Ellipses: The ellipses shows additional actions you can take with your Automation Rule.
• Reorder: Edit the order of the rules in the Automation List. 
• Edit: Make changes to existing rules by selecting Edit.
• Copy: Automation Rules can differ from the slightest criteria. Rather than creating a new rule every single time, you can Copy existing Automation Rules. Once copied, edit the rule to fit your specific criteria, and save.
• Delete: For out of date or incorrect rules, delete them permanently from your Automation Rule list by clicking Delete.

Add a New Automation Rule

Automation Rules increase your team’s overall efficiency. But before you can reap the rewards, you have to create the rules. 

Your Automation Rules follow a specific pattern. Basically, you are telling SalesLoft, “When this event occurs, then make this action happen.” Within those confines, you can set specific criteria (which we highly recommend) so that the rule triggers exactly the way you need.

Things to Note: The order of “then” statements matter. Automation criteria will trigger in the order it is listed. Failing to put the criteria may result in rules not firing off. 

To add a new Automation Rule, follow the steps below: 

1. From the Automation tab in your Team Settings, click New Automation Rule.
2. In the text box Automation Rule Name: enter the name of your rule.
3. Go to the When dropdown picklist. Select the rule field type you want to create.
4. Add criteria.
5. Click + Action to create the action that will occur when the rule is triggered.
6. Select the dropdown picklist next to Then to find the result you want to occur. Things to Note: The picklist options change according to the rule field type. 
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 to include all the actions you would like to occur with the rule.
8. Click Save.
9. Your rule has been created and will now appear in your Automation Rule list. As soon as the rule is created it will be toggled Active.

List of Automation Rule Field Types

Automation Rules revolve around specific activities, or triggers, that set each rule into motion. These triggers occur based on the selected Automation Rule field type, which is the activity that causes SalesLoft to fire the rule.

Each time you construct an Automation Rule, you will start by choosing a field type. Then you will define the criteria for how the Automation Rule will occur. 

Here is a complete list of the available Automation Rule field types:

When a Call is logged for a Person 

Fires an action when a called is logged.

Common use case: Admins can add criteria for Dispositions that equal "Connected," then "Set Person Fields" to update the Person's stage.

When a Contact is not found in SalesLoft

Searches for the Contact’s email address to match a Person in SalesLoft.

If you are using a rule based on either a Contact not found in SalesLoft, the first rule you should set is to "Create a Person." This creates the Person in SalesLoft, and you can then set additional fields or take more actions.

Common use case: To automatically import and create a new Person in SalesLoft.

When a Lead is converted to a Contact

Fires when a Salesforce Lead is converted into a Contact and Account.

Common use case: To remove a Person from all Cadences when someone in Salesforce has successfully converted the Lead into a working Contact and no longer need to put them on a communications Cadence.

When a Lead is not found in SalesLoft

Searches for the Lead’s email address to match a Person in SalesLoft.

If you are using a rule based on either a Lead not found in SalesLoft, the first rule you should set is to "Create a Person." This creates the Person in SalesLoft, and you can then set additional fields or take more actions.

Common use case: To automatically import and create a new Person in SalesLoft

When an Opportunity changes in SalesLoft

Fires when an Opportunity updates or has changed to a specific Opportunity stage. 

Common use case: Send Slack messages from Opportunity Stage changes. This allows teams to get an instant notification when opportunity updates happen. 

When a Person changes in SalesLoft 

Looks for a change in any Person field in SalesLoft. This also includes any Salesforce fields which are mapped to a Person field.

This event looks for any change on the Person in SalesLoft to start it off, not just when a specific field changes to meet the criteria. For example, if a rule looks for “Industry equals Electronics” and a Person’s title changes from VP to CEO, but they already had a value of “Electronics” in the Industry field, this rule will fire because the title field triggered a change, and the Industry field still meets the criteria.

Common use case: To start a rule based on a field that meets certain criteria, such as a Cadence Stage or an industry.

When a Person is not found in Salesforce 

Uses the Person’s email address in SalesLoft to search for a matching Lead or Contact in Salesforce

Common use case: To automatically create a new Lead or Contact in Salesforce. 

When a Person books a Meeting

Fires when a Person sets a date on the user's calendar for a meeting. 

Common use case: Admins can create workflows, such as removing a person from Cadences, marking them as a Success, or sending a Slack message when a meeting is booked. 

When a Person clicks on a link in an Email

Fires when a prospect clicks a URL link in an email sent through Cadence.

Common use case: To remove an interested Person from all Cadences and instead add them to a new "high interest" Cadence that's specifically tailored to following up with interested prospects with more personalization.

When a Person replies to an Email

Fires when a prospect replies to an email sent through Cadence.

Common use case: To remove all People at an Account from all Cadences across the team, which prevents team members from continuing to contact other prospects at that account.

When a Success is recorded for a Person

Fires when the Success button is clicked on a Person.

Common use case: To remove a Person and all other people on that Person’s account from all Cadences, since the communications process has already been successful.

When stats for an Email change

Fires when a person views, replies, or clicks a link in an email.

Common use case: To remove an interested Person from all Cadences and add them to a new "high interest" Cadence that's specifically tailored to following up with interested prospects with more personalization.

When a Person Completes the first Step of a Cadence

Fires when a person completes the first step of a Cadence. This rule does not include People who were “Skipped,” “Removed,” or “Moved to another Step.”

Common use case: To update the Person Stage field in both SalesLoft and Salesforce so all members of a sales team know when a prospect is being actively worked.

When a Person is removed from a Cadence

Fires when a person is removed from a Cadence, either manually or from a different Automation Rule.

Common use case: To update the Person Stage to a “Removed” status.

When an Account changes in SalesLoft

Looks for a change in any Account field in SalesLoft. This also includes any updates from Salesforce fields that are mapped to an Account field.

Common use case: Start a rule based on a field that meets certain criteria, such as a Person Stage or an industry.

• Things to Note: This rule will run when any change is made to the account, not just when a specific field changes to meet the criteria.

Automation Rule Criteria

Criteria helps define when an Automation Rule should fire. You can set criteria based on SalesLoft person fields, company fields, or Cadence information. After you select a criteria field, chose one of the criteria operators that will tell SalesLoft what criteria to look for when a rule is triggered.

SalesLoft's current criteria operators (all case-insensitive) include the following: 

• Equal: The value in the criteria field is exactly this value.
• Not equal: The value in the criteria field is anything except this value.
• Greater: The value in the criteria field is greater than this value.
• Greater or equal: The value in the criteria field is greater than or exactly this value.
• Less: The value in the criteria field is less than this value.
• Less or equal: The value in the criteria field is less than or exactly this value.
• Is set: The criteria field was previously blank/null, and now has a value.
• Is unset: The criteria field previously had a value, and is now blank/null.
• Has changed: The criteria field was previously set (not a blank/null), and its value has changed to a different, new value.
• Contains: The value in the criteria field includes this value.
• Doesn’t contain: The value in the criteria field does not include this value.
• Is null: The criteria field is blank/null.
• Is not null: The criteria field is not blank/null.

Reorder Automation Rules

When your Automation Rules begin to trigger, they fire in their listed order. This means that if you have an important rule at the end of your list, another rule that is ahead in the list may keep your rule from firing. 

Simply put, the order of your Automation Rules matters.

Which is why SalesLoft gives you control over your list of Automation Rules. You can move rules up, down, straight to the top, or the bottom of the list.

To reorder your Automation Rule, follow these instructions:

1. Under your Team Settings, navigate to your Automation Rules.
2. Find the Automation Rule you would like to move. 
3. Select the ellipses (...) on the right side of the Automation Rule's row. 
4. From the drop-down menu, choose which direction you would like the Automation Rule to move.

Common Automation Rules

If you're just getting started with automation, you are probably wondering "What Automation Rules should I put in place?" As you can see from our list of Automation Rules, there are a lot of different rules that you can add to maximize your team's productivity. 

The recommended best practice when it comes to Automation Rules is to craft rules based on your team's specific use case. Still, there are certain Automation Rules that are commonly implemented by SalesLoft users. Use this list of common Automation Rules as you start building the rules for your team:

When a Person Is Not Found In Salesforce Create a Contact

When a Success is Logged Remove Person from the Cadence

When Stats Change for an Email Mark as Star

GDPR Compliance: Automatically Add EU Residents to a GDPR Specific Cadence

In addition to the vendor compliance in SalesLoft's privacy settings, automation can help manage the way your reps communicate with European contacts.

Before you can create the rule, complete the following:

• Speak with your Security and Legal team about your company's GDPR settings. 
• Map a EU Resident SalesLoft field to a Salesforce field. Your Salesforce admin will need to create a Salesforce field. We recommend creating a checkbox field that will designate "GDPR Compliance."
• Create a Process Builder in Salesforce: since your prospects are coming directly from Salesforce lists, your Salesforce admin can build a "process builder" in SFDC that will check the GDPR compliance box on the lead/contact if it meets one of the following criteria:
  • Country (on the contact): Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom
  • Phone Number Starts with:  +43, +32, +359, +385, +357, +420, +45, +372, +358, +33, +350, +49, +30, +36, +354, +353, +39, +371, +423, +370, +352, +356, +31+, 47, +48, +351, +40, +421, +386, +34, +46, +44, +355,+376, +374, +994, +375, +387, +298, +995, +983, +389, +373, +377, +382, +7, +378, +381, +41, +90, +380

Once everything is set up on the Salesforce end, create a new Automation Rule that will check for this GDPR compliance box when a lead/contact is added to a Cadence. If the box is checked, it will remove them from the Cadence and add them into the GDPR team Cadence as a holding bucket.

Automation Rule Logs

The Automation Rule Logs track attempted automation activity. So, as soon as your rule is turned on and begins to run, you can view the activity log and check the progress.  

From this page, you can filter logs by the status of their occurrence, as well as get a complete breakdown of the activity that occurred.

Filter

Automation log filters allow you to view your list of completed Automation Rule logs. You have two filtering options:

• Status: Filter by the status of the rule to see which rules were completed or if any errors occurred. 
  • All: To view all of the automation activity that has occurred.
  • Success: To view only the successful automation activities.
  • Failure: To view only the failed automation activities. Failed activities will appear in red font with a notification icon. When an activity displays as Failed, hover your mouse over the Event status to see the reason the activity failed. This way you can address the failure and correct it in SalesLoft (or in Salesforce is the trigger failed on that end). 
• Rule: Filter by the name of the rule. This way you can quickly see whether a rule has been successful. If the rule has failed you can troubleshoot to correct the issue

Automation Rule Troubleshooting

When an Automation Rule fails, there are a number of variables that could be the cause of the failure, like the action already being completed or incorrect data.

Below are some common reasons for automation failures you may encounter, along with some tips and resources to help you troubleshoot. The rule field type that the error typically applies to is listed in the parenthesis. 

• Cadence stage name “stage name” is not a valid stage: (Create Person) The Cadence stage that has been selected does not exist in the Salesforce picklist field. There are two options to correct this error: You can delete the Cadence stage in SalesLoft and select a stage that exists in Salesforce OR create the Cadence stage in the picklist in Salesforce.
• Person must be created with a valid email address or partial name and phone number: (Create Person) When a person is created in SalesLoft, the person’s email address and partial name or phone number are required fields because they are considered unique identifiers. Make sure this information is filled in prior to the Automation Rule being triggered.  
• Email address has been taken: (Create Person) Email address is already being used for an existing record. This prevents duplicates from being created. 
• Person is Already Starred: (Mark as Star) SalesLoft person has already been starred, so the action cannot occur. Reorder your list so this rule fires last.
• {“errors”:[“UKNOWN_EXCEPTION: You’re creating a duplicate record. We recommend you use an existing record instead.”]}: (Create Contact) The data has already been used on an existing contact in Salesforce. This prevents duplicates from being created. 
• {“errors”:[“REQUIRED_FIELD_MISSING: Required fields are missing: [FieldName].”]}: (Create Contact) Your Salesforce instance requires data in a certain field to be filled in before creating the contact. You have two options to correct this error: Advise users to complete the field in SalesLoft so the error does not occur OR lift the requirement in your Salesforce in the Admin settings.
• {“errors”:[“INVALID_FIELD_FOR_INSERT_UPDATE: Unable to create/update fields: field type Please check the security settings of this field and verify that it is read/write for your profile or permission set.”]}: (Create Contact) The contact cannot be created because of a specific field's Salesforce permissions. Have a Salesforce admin edit the permissions on the field so that users can edit the field. 
• {“errors”:[“INVALID_CROSS_REFERENCE_KEY: Owner ID. Owner cannot be blank.”]}: (Create Contact) Salesforce cannot create the contact because an Owner ID number is not available. Make sure each SalesLoft user is linked to their Salesforce user account by setting the User Management in Salesforce Connector.