If you’re here, you’re probably tired of leads slipping through the cracks. You want Salesforce and Qualified to actually talk to each other, with zero manual data entry and fewer headaches. Maybe you’ve tried to glue them together before and wound up with duplicate records, missed notifications, or sales reps grumbling about “yet another tool.” This guide is for you: the marketer, ops person, or sales admin who wants a simple, working setup—no fluff, no hype.
Let’s get right to it.
Why bother integrating Salesforce and Qualified?
If you’re using Qualified, you’re probably chatting with leads in real time on your website. But if those conversations don’t end up in Salesforce, you’re left piecing together a mess of spreadsheets, emails, and sticky notes. The integration is supposed to:
- Create leads/contacts in Salesforce from Qualified chats or forms
- Route leads to the right owners automatically
- Add chat transcripts and useful context for sales follow-up
If that’s not happening, you’re missing out. But—fair warning—just connecting the two won’t magically fix your sales process. You still need to think about lead quality, assignment rules, and what info you actually care about.
Step 1: Get your prerequisites sorted
Before clicking any “Connect” buttons, you’ll want to:
- Make sure you have admin access in both Salesforce and Qualified.
- Decide which Salesforce environment you’ll connect (sandbox vs. production). Test in sandbox if you can.
- Know your lead/account/contact setup. Do you create every visitor as a Lead? Only known users? Figure this out first.
Pro tip: If your Salesforce is cluttered with custom fields or automation, map out which data from Qualified matters. Don’t shove everything in just because you can.
Step 2: Connect Qualified to Salesforce
Qualified tries to make this part easy, but here’s what actually matters:
- Log in to Qualified.
- Go to Settings > Integrations > Salesforce.
- Click Connect Salesforce. You’ll be prompted to log in. Use an admin account (not a random sales rep’s login).
- Pick your environment (sandbox or production).
- Authorize the connection.
You’re done when you see a “Connected” status—no errors, no spinning wheels.
What can go wrong? - If you get permission errors, double-check that your Salesforce admin account has API access and can create/update leads. - If you’re using Salesforce Shield or extra security, you might need to whitelist Qualified’s IPs.
Step 3: Set up field mapping
This is where most integrations fall apart. Be picky about what you sync—garbage in, garbage out.
- Go to Settings > Integrations > Salesforce > Field Mapping in Qualified.
- Decide which Qualified fields (name, email, company, chat transcript, etc.) go into which Salesforce fields.
- Avoid mapping everything “just in case.” Too many fields make reports useless and annoy sales.
- If you use custom fields in Salesforce, make sure they’re visible to the connected user.
Key fields to map:
- Name, Email, Phone: Obvious, but check for formatting issues.
- Company: If you use account-based routing, get this right.
- Chat Transcript: Drop this into a custom field or as an Activity for context.
Ignore: Tracking junk like browser type or geolocation unless your sales team actually uses it. It just creates noise.
Step 4: Decide what triggers lead creation
Qualified can push leads to Salesforce automatically, or only when certain conditions are met (like after a chat, or when a visitor fills a form).
- In Qualified, set up rules: e.g., “Create a Lead in Salesforce when a chat is completed and email is captured.”
- Avoid creating a new Lead for every random visitor. You’ll drown in junk records.
- Set up exceptions for internal users, test traffic, or bots.
Honest advice: Start with a tighter trigger (e.g., only create leads for real conversations) and loosen up if needed. Cleaning out thousands of junk leads from Salesforce is no one’s idea of a good time.
Step 5: Set up lead assignment and routing
If every new lead ends up unassigned in Salesforce, your reps will ignore them. Fix this now:
- Use Salesforce’s Lead Assignment Rules to route new leads to the right teammate based on territory, product, or other criteria.
- Or, use Qualified’s routing logic to assign leads during the chat, then sync the owner to Salesforce.
- If you care about round-robin assignment, make sure both systems agree on how it works.
Watch out for: Conflicting assignment rules. If Salesforce and Qualified both try to assign the lead, you’ll get weird results. Decide which system is the “boss” for ownership.
Step 6: Sync chat transcripts and activities
Context matters. Make sure your sales team sees what happened in Qualified, not just a blank lead record.
- Configure Qualified to push chat transcripts into Salesforce—usually as a completed Task or custom field.
- Check that the transcript is readable (not just a blob of text).
- For high-volume teams, consider only syncing transcripts for leads that actually convert. Too much info and reps will tune it out.
Step 7: Test everything—twice
Don’t trust that “Success!” message. Test the full workflow:
- Pretend you’re a website visitor. Go through a real chat or form flow.
- Check Salesforce: Did a new Lead (or Contact) appear? Is it assigned correctly? Is the transcript there?
- Try edge cases: What happens if the visitor is already in Salesforce? What if they give a fake email?
Pro tip: Document what you test. This isn’t just for compliance—it helps when, a month from now, someone asks “Why did this lead end up assigned to the wrong person?”
Step 8: Keep an eye on sync errors
Integrations break. Sometimes it’s a Salesforce update, sometimes Qualified changes its API, sometimes it’s just Tuesday.
- Qualified has an Integration Logs or Sync Errors section. Check it weekly.
- Set up alerts for failed syncs, especially if you’re pushing a lot of leads.
- Don’t ignore errors about permissions or missing fields—they usually blow up at the worst time.
Step 9: Train your team (and get feedback)
This is the step everyone skips, then wonders why no one uses the integration.
- Walk your sales reps through what they’ll see in Salesforce after a Qualified conversation.
- Show them where to find chat transcripts, what’s auto-filled, and what they still need to do.
- Ask for feedback after a week. Fix what’s confusing. If reps don’t trust the data, they’ll work around it.
What to skip (unless you really need it)
- Syncing every field: More data isn’t always better. Focus on the 5-6 things sales actually needs.
- Custom code/webhooks: Most teams don’t need custom scripts unless you have a truly weird workflow.
- Auto-creating Opportunities: Unless your process is super mature, stick to Leads and Contacts first. Opportunities are trickier to automate.
Real world pain points (and how to dodge them)
- Duplicates: If Qualified and Salesforce both try to create leads for the same person, you’ll have a mess. Use email as a unique ID when possible.
- Data mismatch: Salesforce might reject a sync if required fields are missing. Keep field requirements sane.
- Over-notification: If sales gets pinged for every website visit, they’ll ignore all alerts. Be picky about triggers.
Final thoughts: Keep it simple, iterate often
Don’t overcomplicate this. Start with just the basics: connect the systems, map the most important fields, get a few real leads flowing. Watch what breaks, fix it, then add more bells and whistles if you actually need them.
The goal isn’t “perfect” integration—it’s a setup that saves you time and helps sales follow up faster. If you keep it simple and stay skeptical of shiny features you don’t need, you’ll avoid most of the usual headaches. Good luck!