Tip of the Week – Bring the cream to the top by sorting Related Lists in Salesforce

by Mike Walsh | Sep 12, 2014 | Salesforce Tips

One of the most valuable benefits Salesforce provides is the ability to get a 360 degree view of your customers at a glance. What does this mean? With a quick look at a Contact or Account, you can see previous conversations, products purchased, interactions with customer support, and notes from your colleagues, letting you offer more valuable assistance, better product recommendations, and show your customer that their business is important to you and your company. While there are tons of tools to give you the background you need (like dynamic reports and embedded charts), Related Lists are the Swiss Army Knife in your arsenal. A quick scroll or hover and you’ve got the info to upsell your latest widget, thank your customer for 13 years of business, and wish them a happy birthday. But Related Lists have limited real estate and don’t always show you the information you need. Deals 5 years old may not be useful, and Cases closed in under a day may not be the ones that are going to tell you what you need to know. Don’t fret, just try sorting Related Lists in Salesforce.

Start out on a page with a few Related Lists showing records that are less than helpful. Click Edit Page Layout. Now, scroll all the way down to your related lists and choose the one that is giving you the most headaches and double click it (or just click the edit button). You may already be familiar with the Columns section – choose the fields from the Available Fields you want to display in the list, add them to the Selected Fields list, and put them in the order you want (top-to-bottom will come out left-to-right on the page). Now for the fun part! Right below the columns section, there’s a little, oft overlooked Sort by section. Choose a field from the dropdown, then pick ascending or descending to pick which values go on the top. You can pick from most field types, meaning you can sort by whatever is most useful to you and your team. Now that you know where to go, give it a try and let us know if you’ve come up with any creative ways to sort your lists to save time, sell more, and basically be awesome!

-Jared and the Salesforce Guys

Mike Walsh

CEO of CloudMyBiz Salesforce CRM consulting services with a deep knowledge in the lending industry. Taking keen interest in the project management side of operations, playing a vital role in the 31% YOY company growth. Strategic leader, mastering the ability to problem solve at every level of the business, providing effective solutions for clients.