Am I solving the wrong problem? Trying to get Contacts, Accounts, Leads, and Deals to link and stay synced

Platform discussions
, , ,
1

I’ve been fiddling with this setup for days now and I’m still having trouble. It seems like this would be a super obvious and common need, so maybe I’m just thinking about it all wrong?

I’m setting up an instance of the Sales CRM for my org. It seems obvious to me that leads, deals, contacts, and accounts should all be interlinked so that we don’t have to re-enter or re-select data on each board, and so that when something is changed in one place, it’s changed in another.

More specifically:

I want the leads board to have columns that link/display the associated contact and account.

I want the deals board to have columns that link/display the associated contact and account.

I want the contacts board to have columns to link/display associated accounts, deals, and leads.

I want the accounts board to have columns to link/display associated contacts, deals, and leads.

Furthermore, I want to generate the contact, and account items when either a new deal or lead is first created, and I don’t want to have to manually select the associated links on each board. All items and links should be created when the first item is created in either leads or deals.

I’ve been able to accomplish a lot of this with connect and mirror columns, the match automations (in beta), and other automations, however it’s SUPER messy, complicated, and still really doesn’t work.

I can generate a new contact item and/or account item when a new deal or lead is created, but then the contact isn’t linked to the account, for instance. That requires a manual selection.

Let’s stay I make a new deal item. When I do, I add a contact. The contact item is automatically created in contacts and linked back to the deal. All is good. But then later I realize I need to add the contact’s account to the deal. If I use the deal board to make/link the account, it will work and the account will be created in the accounts board as it should. But the contact and the account will not be linked, meaning, if I go to the account board, I won’t see the associated contact. Or if I go to the contact board, I won’t see the associated account.

For the same reason, if I want to update or change a link somewhere (like which account is connected to a deal) somewhere, there will be places (like in the contacts) where that update will not be reflected.

Maybe I’m crazy, but it seems like this kind of interlinking should be a basic function of a system like this, right? Is there an obvious way that I’m missing? Has anyone else tried to do this?

Thanks all!

2

Hey there! Try using the app “same item multiple boards”. It sounds perfect for your needs

3

Thank you. Seems like this is probably a great app. I’m having a hard time justifying paying a new monthly plan for something that should be a base function of the Monday software I’m already signed up for.

I’m still just confused by this whole ordeal. The Monday Sales CRM come set up with Contacts, Deals, Leads, and Accounts, as if these would be boards that could talk to each other and stay in sync without a bunch of manual entry. Are the 150,000 other businesses that Monday has just not using multiple boards?

After days and days of puzzling, I’m landing on the solution that I should only use one board with many columns that would account for deals, contacts, accounts, and leads, and just filter down to the thing I’m looking for at any one time. In other words, pretend Monday is a spreadsheet.

4

I can assure you this can be made to work as you expect.

The key is you need fields on the Lead which you type in the contact info and the account info. You create the contact from the lead (using a create item automation), the which transfers account info to the contact board as well as contact info. Then when a new item is created on contact, it will create the new account from the account info. Then when the account is created, a match automation will look up back on the leads and connect the account.

The only downside is that if you have leads for an account coming in from multiple contacts.

5

This is helpful Cody. Thanks.

I understand you’re suggesting I use the Lead board to create the contact (with account info included) and then use the contact board to create the account item (automatically when the contact is created.) That makes sense.

I have come to similar solutions, but unfortunately they all have the problem you mention here. If I make new leads referencing old accounts or contacts, then new, duplicate accounts and contacts are created in those boards rather than adding to the existing ones.

Furthermore, if I then merge the duplicate accounts and contacts, the connected columns DO NOT merge and my connections are lost.

I thought I was pretty clever in coming up with a system where I could generate a contact and account from a new lead, then, by using the Lead’s item ID as a common identifier posted to each new item, I could “match” the ID on the contact and the account items and link them that way. Unfortunately, this fails when you’re trying to reference an existing account or contact, because the existing account or contact doesn’t contain the item ID of the new lead.

It seems we need a way to add info to connected/mirrored columns via the create automations - but even that just feels like a chewing gum solution.

6

Did you find a solution to this?
I’ve only just started using Monday and the more I use it, the more I’m thinking the CRM part was just thrown together. There are no videos or tutorials that help explain this.

I had such high hopes!

7

You know, I don’t think I really did. I’ve been using Monday for a while now, and looking back at my complaint/request here, I see why others had hard times helping me. Monday just can’t do a lot of things and eventually you just lower your expectations and use it for what it does… or not.

I don’t use the CRM anymore. I think I’ve custom built all my processes at this point. I do use multiple boards. I do rely on some manual selection in linking columns…

I feel ya and I wish you good luck.

1 Like