Texting is part of most people's communication these days. So it makes sense to incorporate that into your sales process. Salesloft Messenger brings the power of SMS into your sales engagement platform.
Sending SMS through Salesloft allows you to gain the benefits of reaching prospects through text messaging with your Salesloft number.
Users who have set up the Dialer and whose admins have the feature turned on will be able to send and receive text messages in Salesloft.
When Messenger is enabled, you will see the Messenger icon in the top navigation menu. The icon looks like a speech bubble with ellipses text inside it. The top navigation menu is consistent throughout the Salesloft platform, so you can access this icon no matter where you are within Salesloft.
Things to Note: The speech bubble icon may not show up until you have some messaging history.
Figure 1: Messenger button in the top navigation bar
In this article, you will learn about Salesloft Messenger, including:
Important Things to Know About Messenger
- Messenger is only available to phone numbers in the United States and Canada that contain the +1 area code. Access to Messenger requires the purchase of a Talk and Text plan. Contact your Salesloft rep for more information.
- Carrier Filtering & Consent: Carrier filtering is a highly enforced reality when using SMS. Due to strict A2P 10DLC regulations, you should only send text messages to prospects who have explicitly opted in to receive them (e.g., via a compliant web form on your website). Texting unverified lists or prospects who have not consented can result in carriers blocking your messages or suspending your company's messaging abilities entirely.
- Automatic Opt-Out Message: When you send a message to a new contact for the first time, Salesloft Messenger will automatically send an opt-out message following your text. This automatic opt-out message allows contacts to respond with "STOP".
- Please Note: This automatic message does not replace the legal requirement to obtain prior consent before texting a prospect.
- If a contact responds STOP, you will no longer be able to message that contact. Any message attempts sent afterward will not be delivered.
- Messenger will respect both "Do Not Contact" or the more specific "Restrict Messages" contact restriction.
- When a Person opts out from receiving text messages, their profile won't be automatically marked as Do Not Text. The user must do this manually.
- Sending SMS to landline numbers: If a text is sent to a number that is a landline, Messenger will attempt to send it to our carrier for delivery. Some carriers will convert the SMS into text-to-speech messages via voice calls.
- Currently, Messenger uses your provisioned Salesloft number. Passthrough and LocalDial numbers do not transfer. This means that when you send a message, the recipient will see your provisioned Salesloft number.
Enable Messenger
In order to use Messenger, an admin must enable the feature in the Team Dialer Settings.
Once Messenger has been enabled for your team, your admin will need to register the team for A2P 10DLC and enable the Messenger licenses for individual users.
How to Start a Text
If this is your first time texting someone from Salesloft, you will begin that text from the Person Quick Actions .
Using the Quick Actions is a lot like going to a contact in your mobile phone, and selecting the "Message" option.
To start a text, follow these steps:
- Open the Messenger pane: use one of the following methods to open the Messenger Pane:
- The Messenger pane will open in the bottom right window of the page.
- Send your message.
In order to send an outbound message to a Person, there must be a number in the Mobile field. Otherwise the Quick Action will be inactive.
You can tell whether the action is inactive if the button is grayed out. You will not be able to select the icon.
Figure 2: Message Quick Action from the Person Profile Information Panel
Inside the Messenger Pane
Whenever you access Messenger from the top navigation icon, the Quick Actions, or by clicking a notification, the Messenger pane will open in the bottom right corner of the Salesloft platform. From the Messenger pane, you may view and respond to any ongoing messages.
The Messenger pane is broken down into two sections:
List of Message Histories
On the left of the message window, you will see the full list of messages that you have sent/received. Select a message to view the conversation.
The selected message will have a blue vertical bar on the far left of the tile containing the Person's name, time the last message was received, and a preview of the text.
Conversation
The text conversation is on the right of the Messenger window.
At the top of the section, you can see and link to Person information. This information includes:
- Person name and link to their profile
- Account name (if linked) and link to the Account profile
- Job title
- Salesforce icon: The icon will be highlighted in blue if the Person is linked to their Salesforce Lead or Contact record.
The conversation will be represented by text bubbles that contain the message. You will see the following in the bubbles:
- Inbound: Gray bubbles are from the Person you are texting. They will contain the message and time the text was received.
- Outbound: Blue bubbles represent messages you have sent from Salesloft. The bubble will contain the message and the time you sent the text.
- Finally, the bottom of the conversation section is where you can type and send your messages.
Figure 3: Messenger Pane with text thread
When You Receive a Text
Inbound messages are matched to a Person in Salesloft based on the following criteria in order:
- Most recently contacted with that number
- Most recently created with that number
This keeps us from having to move to requiring phone numbers to be unique.
Whenever new messages are sent to your number, you will be alerted by a notification badge on the Messenger icon. The badge icon displays the number of unread messages.
Figure 4: Messenger Notification badge signaling new message
You will also see a Chrome notification for the inbound message. Select the notification to open the Messenger pane.
Figure 5: New message Chrome notification
Send an Outbound Message
Sending an SMS message from Salesloft is very similar to sending the same style message from your mobile phone. So, unless you are holding onto your Motorola RAZR or Nokia and using T9, you're probably pretty familiar with how to send a text.
Still, for the sake of being thorough, let's walk through the instructions of how to send an SMS message.
Things to Note:
- Message length is 320 characters.
- Currently no GIFs.
- Salesloft Messenger supports emojis, but they are not natively in the keyboard. Because Messenger functions via SMS, you can only send text and emojis (though you must use Unicode to send emojis). For instance, on a Mac hit command-control-space to access an emoji.
- Images (MMS) can only be received in the Messenger panel, not sent. In addition, no part of the image (content, name) will be reflected within the Salesforce Activity. It only says <media attached>.
- When you send a message to a new contact for the first time, Salesloft Messenger will automatically send an opt out message following your text. This automatic opt-out message allows contacts to respond with a STOP. If a contact responds STOP, you will no longer be able to message that contact. Any message attempts sent afterwards will not deliver.
- First-Time Messaging & Opt-Outs: When you send a message to a new contact for the first time, Salesloft Messenger will automatically append an opt-out message (allowing them to reply "STOP"). Remember, to remain compliant with telecom regulations, you must ensure the prospect has explicitly opted in to receive texts from your brand before you send this initial message. If a contact responds STOP, you will no longer be able to message them.
To send an outbound message, follow these steps:
- Access the Messenger from the top nav, Quick Actions, or an inbound notification.
- Select the Person you want to text from the Messenger history (if applicable).
- Type your message in the text box.
- Click Send or hit Enter on your keyboard.
Texting a customer is a great way to discuss updates of a deal, terms, negotiations, and more. Usually you may incorporate texting as a communication channel as a deal is progressing and getting closer to closing.
In order to simplify your communication methods, you can send SMS text messages directly from the Buying Group panel inside the Deal View. This way, if you are viewing a Deal and realize you want to quickly connect with someone, you can send them a quick text rather than calling them or sending a full email.
Things to Note:
- Sending SMS Text Messages from the Stakeholder panel does NOT require access to the Chrome Extension.
- Texting comes with its own set of regulations that must be followed. Please review the Messenger Regulation Guidelines prior to initiating texts.
- Below are the permission checks Salesloft completes before SMS texting is possible to a Stakeholder:
To send an SMS message from the Buying Group panel, follow these steps:
- In the Buying Group panel of a deal, find the Stakeholder and select the ellipses (...) to the right of their name. A dropdown menu will appear.
- In the menu, click Message. When you click Message, the message pane will open on the right-hand side of the screen.
- In the Messenger window, you can message the stakeholder and have a back-and-forth dialogue. In addition to the conversation with the stakeholder, you will also see any other ongoing text conversations. Click on the other conversations to continue messaging with other prospects. The message activity will log to the stakeholder and will appear in the activity feed on the person and opportunity pages.
Messenger Activity Logging
Texts sent using Salesloft Messenger are logged in Salesloft on Person Activity Feed and in your CRM. To learn more these logs, check out the Salesforce Activity Logs or Dynamics Activity Logs article.
