An Account is closely used with Contacts when managing working or closed relationships. It is your organization’s customer’s competitors, and partners. It represents the company or business entity and is stored in an accessible database until it is converted into a working relationship while the Contact is the Person which represents or is associated with an Account.
A good rule of thumb to follow in determining what should be an account is the following:
– must have a physical address
– must have people who work or reside there
– the location can receive postal mail
An account will give you access to the information you have collected so far about the company. This can include information like the people who work there, existing deals, requests, documents, and more. In case you’re meeting with a person associated with the company, viewing this information puts you in a better position to talk about relevant topics.
Account Best Practices
If you are working with a solo contractor or an individual consumer, you can enter their data through a special account type called a Person Account. Each account should have at least one Contact who is a person and this contact will be related to that account.
It is important to always have an account associated with your contacts. Don’t leave out orphan contacts since you might forget them. Remember, contacts that do not belong to an account will only be viewable to the owner and not to everyone in the organization.
Make it a point to also keep information on all accounts updated by using the Social Accounts, Contacts, and Leads feature which lets you add social network information to your records. You need to be registered to each social network before you can link a group or individual’s social network profile to an Account or Contact on Salesforce.