To start testing CRM Sync within a Sandbox environment, we recommend testing each of the features below to ensure a successful connection.
Get started
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If your CRM admin and Sales Navigator admin aren't the same person, please ensure they're doing these steps together.
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We recommend having access to user accounts within the Sandbox CRM that own opportunities, as some features will work differently based on opportunity status.
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Users who are testing in the Sandbox environment will see a banner at the top of all Sales Navigator pages while in the Sandbox environment. Please ensure users see this banner before proceeding.
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If you haven’t already, follow the steps in the help center article to connect to Sandbox and add users.
Below are the features we would recommend testing and how to determine if they are working as expected:
Lead and Account records in Sales Navigator will match with Account, Contact, and Lead Records in your CRM. A matched Sales Navigator Lead or Account is indicated within Sales Navigator by displaying a CRM badge next to their name.
Learn more about matching logic.
To test, complete the following steps:
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Verify initial CRM match:
- View a lead within Sales Navigator that is a contact within your CRM.
- Click the CRM badge in the top left of the profile topcard.
- Verify the click opens up the related record in your CRM.
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Create a manual match within CRM:
- Sign in to your CRM and find the lead or contact profile page.
- Within the Sales Navigator embedded profile, you'll see possible matches.
- If you don't see possible matches, but instead a full profile, click Not the Right Person from
More in the upper right corner.
- If you don't see possible matches, but instead a full profile, click Not the Right Person from
- Click Match profile to create the match.
Repeat the above steps for a matched account to ensure that sync is working as expected.
Activity writeback enables Sales Navigator users to log InMails, messages, phone calls (initiated from our Sales Navigator Mobile App), notes, and SmartLink views back to CRM.
To test, complete the following steps:
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Activity writeback with a matched lead:
- In Sales Navigator, navigate to a lead who is matched in CRM.
- Click Message to send a message to that lead.
- Click Copy to CRM to enable writeback.
- Verify the message is written back to the corresponding CRM record’s Tasks section.
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Activity writeback with an unmatched lead:
- In Sales Navigator, navigate to a lead who is matched in CRM.
- Click Message to send a message to that lead.
- Click Copy to CRM enable writeback.
- Verify the message was written back to your CRM’s Unresolved Activities Report or System View as an open activity.
- Associate and save the open activity with the correct record in CRM.
- Verify the activity shows to the CRM record’s activities history
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Repeat the above steps for the following activities:
- Logging a call on the Sales Navigator mobile app.
- Adding a note.
- Notes require ownership and don't writeback on unmatched contacts.
- Sending an InMail.
- User viewing a SmartLink.
Contact Creation provides the ability for a user to create a Contact record in Microsoft Dynamics 365 or Salesforce from a Sales Navigator Lead Page or Lead List.
To test, complete the following steps:
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Create a contact:
- Locate a lead in Sales Navigator you'd like to add to your CRM.
- From an unsaved lead’s page or the lead list, click
More and select Add Contact to CRM from the dropdown that appears. - From a saved lead’s page, click Copy to CRM on the lead page.
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Verify the contact within CRM:
- Navigate to the lead’s page in Sales Navigator.
- Verify there is a CRM badge on the lead profile.
- Click CRM badge.
- Verify the record was created in your CRM and the lead source matches your selection.
Enabling auto-save ensures the user’s relevant CRM leads, contacts, and opportunities are saved as Sales Navigator leads and accounts. Saved leads are leads that will produce alerts within a user's homepage.
To test, complete the following steps:
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Wait 24 hours after Sandbox connection to allow for auto-saves to be ingested to Sales Navigator.
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Verify the auto-generated lists from CRM:
- Navigate to Lists in Sales Navigator.
- Select Auto-Generated: My CRM Leads and Contacts.
- Verify the leads displaying match the options for auto-save the admin selected.
- Repeat these steps for Auto-Generated: My CRM Accounts.
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Verify subsequent auto-saves:
- In your CRM, create a new opportunity for a matched account.
- In your CRM, add a matched contact to the opportunity.
- Verify the account and lead are added to the respective Sales Navigator lists the next day, as processing will occur in 24 hours.
When searching for leads and accounts, users can use Advanced Search filters to see leads and accounts that are in your CRM or not in your CRM.
To test, complete the following steps:
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Wait 24 hours after Sandbox connection to allow for ingestion from your CRM to Sales Navigator to be completed.
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Conduct a lead search.
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Select View All Filters within the filters section.
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From the Other Filters section of the pop up, select Show contacts synced from CRM to apply the filter.
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Verify the filters are applied and show correct results.
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Repeat steps 2-5 for account search.
Data Validation verifies the contacts and accounts in your CRM with the respective LinkedIn member and company profiles. When the CRM account record associated with the CRM contact record doesn’t match a current company associated with the LinkedIn Member profile, a Not at Company is auto-populated on that record in your CRM.
LinkedIn will attempt to validate every CRM contact record that fits any of of the three following cases:
- Owned by a Syncing Sales Navigator user.
- Related with an opportunity owned by a Syncing Sales Navigator user.
- Related with an account owned by a Syncing Sales Navigator user.
Important to know
On account of Sandbox timeout limitations, expect a partial run with a small subset of contacts flagged accordingly.
To test, complete the following steps:
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Enable Data Validation within Sales Navigator Admin Settings and configure the fields within your CRM.
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Confirm the following Reports or System Views are accessible in your CRM:
Dynamics 365 Sales
- All Opportunities at Risk – Contact Left
- My Opportunities at Risk – Contact Left
- All Contacts Not at Company
- My Contacts Not at Company
Salesforce
- SN: Contacts No Longer at All Open Opps
- SN: Contacts No Longer at My Open Opps
- SN: All Past Customers at New Companies
- SN: My Past Customers at New Companies
- SN: All Contacts Not at Company
- SN: My Contacts Not at Company
Here's a tip
If these reports aren't showing, ensure you have installed the most recent version of the Sales Navigator application for your CRM.
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Navigate to a Contact record in your CRM that matches one of the following criteria:
- Contact is owned by a Syncing Sales Navigator user.
- Contact is related with an Opportunity owned by a Syncing Sales Navigator user.
- Contact is related with an Account owned by a Syncing Sales Navigator user.
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The custom Not at Company field will be hidden by default. To easily test this feature, it is recommended to add the field onto an admin page layout or form so it is visible.
- Confirm the contact record shows the Not at Company field (will be hidden by default).
- Manually change the contact record’s Not at Company field to be true.
- Confirm the contact shows on the applicable system view or report listed above.
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Optional: Wait 24-48 hours after Sandbox connection to allow for all the records to process and Data Validation flags to appear.
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Optional: Navigate to the System Views or Reports within your CRM to check if there are results.
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Optional: If there are results, Data Validation was successful.
If there are no results, review the following steps:
- Data Validation works off criteria of ownership. If the contact does not fulfill any of the criteria outlined in step 3, the contact will not return a Not at Company flag.
- Data Validation relies on correct matching from your CRM to Sales Navigator. A lead is matched in Sales Navigator to a contact in your CRM when you see a CRM badge on the lead’s profile. Learn more about matching logic here.
- Large reports may take awhile to load, try setting another parameter on the report to shorten the report.