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The content discusses how to associate activities like calls and emails with CRM entities in Gong to provide context. It explains the stages of CRM entity association, importance of CRM data accuracy, and options for association logic customization. The process involves finding contacts and accounts, identifying the most likely account and deal, and viewing CRM entities in Gong. It also covers reassociating activities to CRM entities based on changes in CRM data. The goal is to ensure accurate associations between activities and CRM entities for proper context and tracking.
Where to go: Company settings > Activity association
Associating activities such as calls and emails to your CRM entities provides proper context for your Gong activities. Once a Gong activity is properly associated, you will know who a call was made to, the company they work with and the deal the activity is for. As there can be several accounts or deals that a conversation can be associated with, you can customize and control the association logic so that the association is tailored to your specific CRM implementation.
To get the most accurate associations, make sure the configurations reflect how data is stored in your CRM. For example, if you don’t store the deal owner details in the CRM, set the account owner to off.
Before updating your settings, test how those changes affect associations. For more details see Simulate activity association.
When you click Update settings:
The settings are applied to new activities in Gong.
Select Reassociate activities from the last 30 days. This may take up to 24 hours to update activities occurring the in last 30 days. In this case, changes to the associations will be exported to your CRM.
CRM entity association stages
The different stages of CRM entity association are:
Finding contacts and accounts that correspond to the activity participants: As contacts in the CRM are associated with accounts, we can create a list of accounts based on the contacts found. If no contacts are found, you can specify what Gong should do.
Identifying the account most likely to be associated with the activity: If more than one account is found, specify the parameters for how Gong should choose the correct account to associate with the activity.
Identifying the deals most likely to be associated with the activity: Once we have associated an account, specify the parameters for how Gong should choose the correct deal to associate with the activity.
Viewing CRM entities in Gong
Once the association is made, we display the CRM objects, in all activities, such as on the call page, deals and accounts pages and deal insights.
Importance of CRM data accuracy
This algorithm allows for flexibility so that if the CRM hygiene is not complete, we will still be able to make accurate associations. However, there will still be scenarios where incorrect association could be made if CRM hygiene is not maintained.
Association options
Included in the settings are options for how we can relate to different personnas, such as account owners, or deal contacts, when attempting to associate a CRM entity with an activity. The options provided support different ways that CRM data may be structured in your CRM. For example, what is the role of the deal owner in your process? do you maintain their details in your CRM and do they participate in all or most of the activities for the deal?
For each personna, set whether assocation should be:
Off: select this option if this personna is not part of your CRM setup. For example, if you don’t maintain details of the deal owner in your CRM, or your deal owner is not always an activity participant.
On: Optional: select this option if you want to prioritise accounts or deals where the personna is a participant, but still enable other accounts or deals to be associated with the activity. If one personna is present, that account or deal will be associated with the activity. If several of the personnas are present, we will continue to narrow down the association based on your settings.
On: Mandatory: select this option when the personna must be an activity participant. In this scenario, if the personna isn’t participating, the activity will not be associated to either an account or deal.
Stage 1: Find CRM contacts and accounts
First, we find the CRM contacts with the same email or phone number as the activity participants. As CRM contacts are associated with an account, we can then get a list of accounts the activity can be associated with.
Note:
If you have multiple duplicate contacts in your CRM, we associate a maximum of two contacts to the activity.
In some cases, the contacts may not have been added to the CRM yet. When no CRM contacts and accounts are found, choose whether to:
Locate accounts with the same website domain as the participant’s email domain: If a participant’s email is [email protected] and there is an account whose website is www.acme.com, the account can be associated with the activity
Don’t match activity to account: Gong will associate the activity to an account when the contacts are added to the CRM.
Once we have a list of accounts, we run the account association rules.
Examples
This table explains how accounts are selected in this stage of the activity association process:
Activity | Scenario details | Association setting | Association result |
---|---|---|---|
6 external participants on a call | 5 participants exist in the CRM as a contact | N/A | The accounts of the contacts are listed as potential accounts to associate with the call |
1 participant has no contact in the CRM | Find account by matching participant’s email domain to account website domain | If an account with the same domain is found the account is added to the list of accounts to associate | |
Dont match activity to any account | Account for this participant won’t be associatd with the activity | ||
3 external participants on a call | No participants have a contact in the CRM | Find account by matching participant’s email domain to account website domain | Accounts with the same domain as any of the participants are listed as potential accounts to associate with the call |
Don’t match activity to any account | No account will be associated. The association process is stopped. |
Stage 2: Associate to one account
The options to narrow down the list of accounts to associate are as follows:
Is the account owner a participant?
We assume that if an account owner is on the call, then the call is predominantly associated with that account.
Select whether we should associate according to the account owner. See Association options for an explanation of the settings:
Off
On: Optional
On: Mandatory
If you select On: optional or On: mandatory, you must provide the name of the CRM field you store the account owner in.
Examples
Activity | Scenario details | Association setting | Assocation result |
---|---|---|---|
A call with 3 accounts that could be associated with the call | No account owners on the call | Off | List of accounts to associate: unchanged Action: Go to tie breaker |
On: Optional | List of accounts to associate: unchanged Action: Go to tie breaker | ||
On: Mandatory | List of accounts to associate: 0 Action: No association to account or deal | ||
A call with 3 accounts that could be associated with the call | One account owner on the call No account owner details available for other accounts | Off | List of accounts to associate: unchanged. Action: Go to tie breaker |
On: Optional | List of accounts to associate: 1 Action: Associate with the account and go to deal association | ||
On: Mandatory | List of accounts to associate: 1 Action: Associate with the account and go to deal association | ||
A call with 3 accounts that could be associated with the call | Two account owners on the call from two different accounts | Off | List of accounts to associate: unchanged. Action: Go to tie breaker |
On: Optional | List of accounts to associate: 2 Action: Go to tie breaker | ||
On: Mandatory | List of accounts to associate: 2 Action: Go to tie breaker | ||
A call with 3 accounts that could be associated with the call | Three account owners on the call from 3 accounts | Off | List of accounts to associate: unchanged Action: Go to tie breaker |
On: Optional | List of accounts to associate: unchanged Action: Go to tie breaker | ||
On: Mandatory | List of accounts to associate: unchanged Action: Go to tie breaker |
What to do if multiple accounts are still options?
If multiple accounts can still be associated with the activity, for example, there is a call with two account owners participating, we provide two tie breakers for selecting a single account:
Related contacts: Select the account with more contacts participating in the activity. If out of two possible accounts, one account has 2 participants and the other has 4, select the account with 4 participants. If this tie breaker is activated and there is a single account, we associate the activity to that account.
Recent activity: Select the account with the most recent entry in the CRM, such as the newer account, or the account with the most recent update. Included is the option to associate more than one account to the activity, as at this stage if a single account can’t be chosen, you might prefer to associate the activity to more than one account.
Examples
Activity | Scenario details | Association setting | Association result |
---|---|---|---|
A call with 3 accounts that could be associated with the call | List of accounts that can be associated: 3 | Related contacts: Off In tie breaker 2, maximum number of accounts to associate: 1 | Select account with the newest entry in the CRM date field selected Action: Go to deal association |
Related contacts: On Account 1 has 2 people on the call Account 2 has 1 person on the call | Call associated to Account 1 Action: Go to deal association | ||
Related contacts: On Account 1 has 1 person on the call Account 2 has 1 person on the call Tie breaker 2: maximum number of accounts to assocate: 1 | Call associated to account with the most recent entry in the CRM Action: Go to deal association | ||
Related contacts: On Account 1 has 1 person on the call Account 2 has 1 person on the call Tie breaker 2: maximum number of accounts to associate: 2 | Call associated to both accounts Action: Go to deal association |
Stage 3: Associate to one deal
Once we know which account the activity is associated with, we can identify deals which the activity may be related to. If you don’t want your activities associated with deals, click Disable to disable deal association. The options to narrow down the list of deals are:
Create a list of potential deals
The list of deals includes those that were open around the time the conversation took place. Identifying open deals is based on the value of two fields:
deal status: set by the rep, indicates whether the deal is open or closed.
deal close date: a rough estimate of when the rep expects the deal to close
If these fields aren’t maintained, there may be deals where the status is open and the close date was several weeks or months previous. In addition, conversations just before or after a deal is opened or closed may still be related to that deal.
Therefore, the list of potential deals to associate is made up of:
Deals opened up to 14 days after the conversation took place
Deals closed up to 14 days before the conversation took place
Deals with a deal status of open but the close date field was up to 100 days before the conversation took place
This timeline shows when conversations might be associated with an opportunity based on the opportunity’s status and close date.
Example
Date of conversation | Deal status | Deal close date | Include deal in list? |
---|---|---|---|
1st January 2024 | Open | 1st November 2023 | Yes: conversation less than 100 days after close date |
1st January 2024 | Open | 1st September 2023 | No: conversation more than 100 days after close date |
1st January 2024 | Closed | 21st December 2023 | Yes: conversation less than 14 days after the deal status was changed to closed |
1st January 2024 | Closed | 10th December 2023 | No: conversation more than 14 days after the deal status was changed to closed |
Include or exclude deals
Set up filters to automatically include or exclude specific deals from being associated with activities as follows:
Select the CRM field you want to base your filter on.
Select Is or Is not to set whether the filter will include or exclude the deal.
Enter the values relevant for the filter.
Add more filters as necessary.
For example, exclude renewals by selecting the CRM field which contains the deal type. Select Is not and then Renewal.
Filter logic
There is no limit to the number of filters you can set up. The logic for the filters is:
Is filters are grouped together in an OR function so that all values set are used to build a list of which deals to include in the association
Is Not filters are grouped together in an OR function so that all values set are used to build a list of which deals to exclude from the association
To include a deal for association, the deal must be in the include (Is list) and must not be in the exclude (Is Not list).
Examples
In the CRM:
Deal name | Deal type | Forecast category | Deal stage | Industry |
---|---|---|---|---|
Deal1 | New business | Most likely | Finance review | Airlines |
Deal2 | Upsell | Best case | Proposal | Software |
Deal3 | Adjustment | Closed | Closed won | Airlines |
Filters:
Forecast category is Most likely, Best case
Industry is Airlines
Deal type is not Churn, Adjustment
Deal stage is not Inquiry, Proposal
The filter logic is as follows:
Include deals:
Forecast category is most likely, best case OR where the Industry is airlines: Deal1 and Deal2
AND exclude deals:
Deal type is churn or adjustment OR deal stage is inquiry or proposal: Deal2 and Deal3
The filters result in associating the activity with Deal1.
Settings for personnas involved in the deal
Choose whether to associate deals based on which activity participants also have a role in the deal.
Is the deal owner a participant?
If there are participants from several different deals, we assume that if a deal owner is on the call, the call is predominantly related to that deal.
Select whether to associate based on if the deal owner is a participant. See Association options for an explanation of the settings:
Off
On: Optional
On: Mandatory
If you select On: Optional or On: Mandatory, you must select the name of the CRM field you store the deal owner in.
Examples
Activity | Scenario details | Association setting | Association result |
---|---|---|---|
A call with 3 deals that could be associated with the call | No deal owners on the call | Off | List of deals to associate: unchanged Action: Go to deal contacts matching |
On: Optional | List of deals to associate: unchanged Action: Go to deal contacts matching | ||
On: Mandatory | List of deals to associate: 0 Action: No association to deal | ||
A call with 3 deals that could be associated with the call | One deal owner on the call | Off | List of deals to associate: unchanged Action: Go to deal contacts matching |
On: Optional | List of deals to associate: 1 Action: Go to deal contacts matching | ||
On: Mandatory | List of deals to associate: 1 Action: No association to deal | ||
A call with 3 deals that could be associated with the call | Two deal owners on the call | Off | List of deals to associate: unchanged Action: Go to deal contacts matching |
On: Optional | List of deals to associate: 2 Action: Go to deal contacts matching | ||
On: Mandatory | List of deals to associate: 2 Action: Go to deal contacts matching | ||
A call with 3 deals that could be associated with the call | Three deal owners on the call | Off | List of deals to associate: unchanged Action: Go to deal contacts matching |
On: Optional | List of deals to associate: unchanged Action: Go to deal contacts matching | ||
On: Mandatory | List of deals to associate: unchanged Action: Go to deal contacts matching |
Is the deal contact a participant?
Deal contacts (known as contact roles in Salesforce) are contacts with roles who are defined and the primary contact for the deal. If you do not use contact roles in your CRM, set this to Off. If there are participants from several deals, we assume that if a deal contact is on the call, the call is predominantly related to that deal.
Select whether to associate based on if the deal contacts in the activity. See Association options for an explanation of the settings:
Off
On: Optional
On: Mandatory
If you select On: Optional or On: Mandatory, you must select the name of the CRM field you store the deal contact in.
Examples
Activity | Scenario details | Association setting | Association result |
---|---|---|---|
A call with 3 deals that could be associated with the call | No deal contacts on the call | Off | List of deals to associate: unchanged Action: Go to team member matching |
On: Optional | List of deals to associate: unchanged Action: Go to team member matching | ||
On: Mandatory | List of deals to associate: 0 Action: No association to deal | ||
A call with 3 deals that could be associated with the call | One deal contact on the call | Off | List of deals to associate: unchanged Action: Go to team member matching |
On: Optional | List of deals to associate: 1 Action: Associate call to deal | ||
On: Mandatory | List of deals to associate: 1 Action: Go to team member matching | ||
A call with 3 deals that could be associated with the call | Two deal contacts on the call | Off | List of deals to associate: unchanged Action: Go to team member matching |
On: Optional | List of deals to associate: 2 Action: Go to team member matching | ||
On: Mandatory | List of deals to associate: 2 Action: Go to team member matching | ||
A call with 3 deals that could be associated with the call | Three deal contacts on the call | Off | List of deals to associate: unchanged Action: Go to team member matching |
On: Optional | List of deals to associate: unchanged Action: Go to team member matching | ||
On: Mandatory | List of deals to associate: unchanged Action: Go to team member matching |
Is a team member working on the deal a participant?
If there are participants from several different deals, we assume that if a team member working on a deal is on the call, the call is predominantly related to that deal.
Select whether to associate based on if the team members working on the deal are participants. See Association options for an explanation of the settings:
Off
On: Optional
On: Mandatory
If you select On: Optional or On: Mandatory, you must select the name of the CRM field you store the deal owner in.
What to do if multiple deals are still options
If there are still multiple deals that can be associated with the activity, for example, there is a call with two deal owners participating, the options for selecting an account are:
Related contacts: Select the deal with more contacts participating in the activity. If out of two possible deals, one has 2 participants and the other has 4, then select the deal with 4 participants. If this tie breaker is activated and there is a single deal, we associate the activity to that deal.
Recent activity: Select the deal with the most recent activity in the CRM, such as the newer deal, or the deal with the most recent update. Included in this option is the option to associate your more than one deal to the activity. At this stage if a single account can’t be chosen, you might prefer to associate the activity to more than one deal.
Examples
Activity | Scenario details | Association setting | Association result |
---|---|---|---|
A call with 3 deals that could be associated with the call | List of deals that can be associated: 3 | Related contacts: Off In tie breaker 2, maximum number of accounts to associate: 1 | Select deal with the newest entry in the date field selected |
Related contacts: On Deal 1 has 2 people on the call Deal 2 has 1 person on the call | Call associated to deal 1 | ||
Related contacts: On Deal 1 has 1 person on the call Deal 2 has 1 person on the call Tie breaker 2: maximum number of deals to associate: 1 | Call associated to deal with the most recent entry in the CRM | ||
Related contacts: On Deal 1 has 1 person on the call Deal 2 has 1 person on the call Tie breaker 2: maximum number of deals to associate: 2 | Call associated to both deals |
Reassociating activities to CRM entities
As data is added to the CRM it can be necessary to reassess the association assigned when the activity occurred. For example, if a new account is generated, we may be able to associate an activity to an account that we had previously not found a relevant association for.
Creating, updating or deleting the following CRM fields triggers reassociating activities to CRM entities:
CRM contact: email, phone, mobilephone, accountId
CRM account: website
CRM deals or opportunities: parentid, contact reference fields depending on configuration, user reference fields depending on configuration
Contact roles in a deal: (reassociation happens when the deal contacts association settings are set to On: Optional or On: Mandatory) contactId, opportunityId
Reassociation could result in activities which were originally associated to a specific deal is now reassociated with a different deal, or activities that weren’t associated to any deal may now be associated to a deal.
We update relevant activities that occurred up to one year prior to the current day.