Dynamics 365 & LinkedIn Sales Navigator | Part 1

Most of you probably have heard of the integration between Dynamics 365 Sales and LinkedIn Sales Navigator, but don’t exactly know the details on how everything works, which is why I decided to write 2 articles on the topic. Keep in mind I am not going to cover all the features in Sales Navigator, I am only going to cover what’s available through this integration.


Configuration

There are two places where you need to configure the integration; in Dynamics 365 and in the Sales Navigator application. In order to configure Sales Navigator you need to have a Sales Navigator administrator and team member seat. All requirements and configuration steps for both applications can be found here. When the integration is enabled in Dynamics 365, the system will add LinkedIn Sales Navigator tabs to the Contact, Account, Lead and Opportunity forms. User also have the ability to add widgets on a form by adding a form control.

Data Synchronization

I’ve gotten several questions about this, and I feel like most people think that as soon as a connection is made on LinkedIn, this data will be pushed to Dynamics 365 as contact or lead records. I also heard people say that all connections will be pushed to Dynamics 365 or that users have the option to choose which LinkedIn profiles are pushed to Dynamics 365. At this time NONE OF THIS IS TRUE. The integration currently does not create contact, lead or account records in Dynamics 365 for LinkedIn Profiles, but this is something that will be available soon. Take a look at this video for details. There are other LinkedIn records that can be synchronized to Dynamics 365, which I will explain in this article.

Dynamics 365 to Sales Navigator Synchronization

This integration does allow for synchronization/importing records from Dynamics 365 to Sales Navigator. For Dynamics 365 users who are seat holders in Sales Navigator with CRM sync enabled (this can be done by navigating to Admin>Seat Management and clicking on the ‘edit’ button and checking the box next to ‘Enable CRM sync) accounts and leads will be automatically synchronized/imported to Sales Navigator. We can also configure in Sales Navigator at which stage opportunity related data is automatically pushed from Dynamics 365 to Sales Navigator. Keep in mind only accounts and leads will be imported, as we don’t track opportunity records in Sales Navigator.

Sales Navigator to Dynamics 365 Synchronization

Users have the ability to send InMails and messages from Sales Navigator to LinkedIn contacts. Through the integration they can perform those actions directly from within Dynamics 365. A ‘copy to CRM’ checkbox on the message window determines if an activity is created in Dynamics 365 as well. Currently, when a LinkedIn contact responds to an InMail or message, an activity in Dynamics 365 is not created, but I believe this is on the roadmap.
Users also have the ability to create notes in Sales Navigator. A similar ‘copy to CRM’ slider is available. The difference is that notes created or updated in Dynamics 365 won’t synchronize back to Sales Navigator.

Sales Navigator App for Mobile

Lastly, there is a mobile app for Sales Navigator. Users can open a LinkedIn profile from the app and if there is contact information available (either from their LinkedIn profile or Dynamics 365 record) they can make a call to this person. When the call ends, a pop-up window will be shown asking if the user wants to save a phone call record in Sales Navigator. This pop-up will also have a slider on the bottom. If this is set this to ‘yes’ an activity will be created in Dynamics 365. Keep in mind the activity will only be tracked against the correct Dynamics 365 record if Sales Navigator was able to find/match the person that was called in Dynamics 365.

Data Validation for Dynamics 365

After the sync has been configured, you can also configure data validation. This needs to be turned on in both applications. In Dynamics 365 you can turn this on by navigating to Settings>Business Management>LinkedIn Sales Navigator. A window called ‘Sales Navigator Integration Settings’ will pop up where you can turn this and all other features on or off. (Screenshot further down) In Sales Navigator you can turn this (and other settings) on by navigating to the ‘Admin’ tab in Sales Navigator, and selecting ‘Admin Settings’. Click on ‘Show More’ to edit settings.

When data validation is turned on in Dynamics 365, a new option set field called ‘msdyn_orgchangestatus’ (Not at Company Flag) is added to the contact entity in Dynamics 365. The values in this field are ‘No Feedback’, “Not at Company’, and ‘Ignore’. When the current company of a LinkedIn contact doesn’t match the account the contact is related to in Dynamics 365, this field will be set to “Not at Company’. Keep in mind this validation only happens for contacts, contacts related to accounts, and contacts related to opportunities that are owned syncing Sales Navigator Enterprise Users. This validation between LinkedIn and Dynamics 365 data occurs every 24 hours. Besides the option set field being added to the contact entity, it will be also visible on the account org chart. Four new views will also be added to Dynamics 365:

• Opportunity Views:
  • All Opportunities at Risk – Contact Left
  • My Opportunities at Risk – Contact Left
• Contact Views:
  • All Contacts Not at Company
  • My Contacts Not at Company

Make sure you add these views to your Dynamics 365 App, otherwise you won’t see them!

Matching Dynamics 365 data with LinkedIn

Data validation also helps with the matching of Dynamics 365 records with LinkedIn records. The Dynamics 365 fields that are used to match lead and contact records are:

• First name, Last name
• Title
• Company
• Country
• Phone number
• Email

For the matching for LinkedIn organizations with Dynamics 365 Account records, the following Dynamics 365 fields on the account record are used:

• Company name
• Address: Street , City, State/province, Postal code, Country
• Website
• Phone
• Industry
• Number of employees

It’s needless to say that the more data users have populated in those fields, the more accurate matches will be found. Users also have the ability to manually match a Dynamics 365 record to a LinkedIn record. This might be necessary if no match is found or if there are multiple matches.

Photo Refresh

The photo refresh can be turned on in Dynamics 365 from the same place where you turn on the Sales Navigator Integration. (Settings > Business Management > LinkedIn Sales Navigator. This feature will update the records in Dynamics 365 with the most recent profile picture from LinkedIn. This is also a daily sync.

I hope you enjoyed this post! Be sure to check in again next week for part 2 where I will discuss how to actually use this from within Dynamics 365! Make sure to subscribe here to never miss another post!