Last Updated on February 10, 2022 by Rakesh Gupta

Big Idea or Enduring Question:

How to utilize the Flow and set up email-to-lead in salesforce? 

Salesforce Flow is a powerful feature provided by Salesforce to minimize the code in your organization. By using it you can create, update, delete records everything just drags and drop. With the recent enhancements (Record-triggered Flow, Schedule-triggered Flow) Salesforce giving more power to admins to create automation with NO code.

Salesforce provides web-to-email features that allow organizations to capture leads from their website. At the same, Salesforce doesn’t offer the email-to-lead feature. There are a few apps available on AppExchange for this purpose. In this article, we will create an automation that allows users to create a lead by sending an email to a specific email address.

 Objectives:

After reading this blog post, you will be able to understand:

• When should you use Before-save vs after-save record-triggered flow?
• How to setup Email-to-case in Salesforce 
• Use After-save Record-Triggered Flow to create a record
• Use After-save Record-Triggered Flow to delete a record

Business Use case

Corey Eridon is working as a System Administrator at Universal Containers (UC). He has received a new requirement to implement email-to-lead for the organization so that when sales reps send an email to leadstosalesforce@gurukuloncloud.com, it will automatically create a lead in Salesforce. Make sure to assign the lead to the sales rep who sent the email. 

Automation Champion Approach (I-do):

Salesforce now allows you to add time-dependent actions in the Flows, similar to the Process Builder. This is a major enhancement that will ultimately bring Flow to the next level. 

There are multiple ways to solve the above business requirement. You can either use Apex trigger, Salesforce Flow, Process Builder, and more. To solve this requirement, we will use the After-save Record-Triggered Flow. Check out this article to understand why we are using after-save record-triggered flow for this scenario. 

Before going ahead, take a moment here to understand how email-to-case captures the data from email and stores it in the case record. 

Field Name	Case Fields
Email Subject	Subject
Email Body	Description
Email	Web Email
Name	Web Name

Before discussing the solution, let me show you a diagram of a Process Flow at a high level. Please spend a few minutes to go through the following Flow diagram and understand it. Let’s begin building this automation process.

Guided Practice (We-do):

There are 5 steps to solve Corey’s business requirement using After-save Record-Triggered Flow. We must:

1. Add a value (Lead) to the picklist case origin field on the case object 
2. Add a value (Email) to the picklist Lead Source origin field on the lead object 
3. Setup an email-to-case for case origin lead
4. Setup forward from leadstosalesforce@gurukuloncloud.com to the email service address
5. Salesforce Flow
   1. Define flow properties for record-triggered flow and check the case origin 
   2. Add a scheduled path – 0 hrs after created date
   3. Add a get records element to find the sales rep user’s Id
   4. Add a create records element to create a lead
   5. Add a delete records element to delete the case 

Step 1: Adding Additional Value to Case Origin Field on Case

First of all, we will add an additional value to the case origin field on the Case object. 

1. Click Setup.
2. In the Object Manager, type Case.
3. Select Fields & Relationships, then click New.
4. Click on the Case Origin field.
5. Navigate to the Case Origin Picklist Values and click the New button. 
6. Add a new value Lead, if you have any record type make sure to select the relevant record types.
7. Click Save.

Step 2: Adding Additional Value to Lead Source Field on Lead

We will add an additional value to the lead source field on the Lead object. 

1. Click Setup.
2. In the Object Manager, type Lead.
3. Select Fields & Relationships, then click New.
4. Click on the Lead Source field.
5. Navigate to the Account/Lead Source Picklist Values and click the New button. 
6. Add a new value Email, if you have any record type make sure to select the relevant record types.
7. Click Save.

Step 3: Setup Email-to-Case or the Case Origin Lead

Now we will add an email-to-case for the case origin lead. Refer to the trailhead module for step-by-step instructions. 

Step 4: Setup Email Forward from leadstosalesforce@gurukuloncloud.com to the Email Service Address

The next step is to set up an email forward from leadstosalesforce@gurukuloncloud.com to the email service address (email-to-case). It means when someone sent an email to when a sales rep sent an email to leadstosalesforce@gurukuloncloud.com, it will forward a copy to the email service address (email-to-case) which subsequently creates a case in Salesforce. 

Step 5.1: Salesforce Flow – Define Flow Properties 

As we have a requirement of creating a record in (Lead) when a case is created from email with origin lead. This is why we have to use the After-save flow on Case.

1. Click Setup.
2. In the Quick Find box, type Flows.
3. Select Flows then click on the New Flow.
4. Select the Record-Triggered Flow option and click on Next and configure the flow as follows: 
   1. How do you want to start building: Freeform
   2. Trigger the Flow When: A record is created
   3. Run Flow: After the record is saved
   4. Object: Case
5. Select ALl Condition Are Met (AND). 
6. Set Conditions
   1. Row 1
      1. Field: Case | Origin
      2. Operator: Equals
      3. Value: Lead
7. Click Done.

Step 5.2: Salesforce Flow – Add Scheduled Paths 0 Hrs After Created Date

1. Under Start, select Add Scheduled Paths (Optional).
2. Under SCHEDULED PATHS, click on the  New Scheduled Path.
3. Under Scheduled Path Details, enter the Label the API Name will auto-populate.
4. Time Source: User: Created Date
5. Offset Number: 0
6. Offset Options: Hours After
7. Click Done.

Step 5.3: Salesforce Flow – Adding a Get Record Element to Find the Sales Rep User Id

The Get Records element will be used to find the sales rep user’s Id. 

1. Under Toolbox, select Element. 
2. Drag-and-drop Get Records element onto the Flow designer. 
3. Enter a name in the Label field; the API Name will auto-populate.
4. Select the User object from the dropdown list.
5. Select All Conditions Are Met (AND). 
6. Set Filter Conditions
   1. Row 1:
      1. Field: Case | Email
      2. Operator: Equals
      3. Value: {!$Record.SuppliedEmail}
7. How Many Records to Store:
   1. select Only the first record
8. How to Store Record Data:
   1. Choose the option to Automatically store all fields. 
9. Click Done.

Step 5.4: Salesforce Flow – Add a Create Records Element to Create a Lead

 The next step is to create a new lead, for this we will use the Create Records element.

1. Under Toolbox, select Elements. Drag and drop Create Records onto the canvas. 
2. Input the following information:
   1. Enter Label the API Name will auto-populate.
   2. How Many Records to Create: One
   3. How to Set the Record Fields: Use separate resources, and literal values
   4. Object: Lead
   5. Set Field Values for the Thanks
   6. Row 1:
      1. Field: LeadSouurce
      2. Value: Email
   7. Click Add Row
   8. Row 2:
      1. Field: LastName
      2. Value: {!$Record.Subject}
   9. Click Add Row
   10. Row 3:
       1. Field: Company
       2. Value: {!$Record.Subject}
   11. Click Add Row
   12. Row 4:
       1. Field: Description
       2. Value: {!$Record.Description}
   13. Click Add Row
   14. Row 5:
       1. Field: OwnerId
       2. Value: {!Find_Sales_Rep_User_Id.Id}
3. Click Done.

Step 5.5: Salesforce Flow – Add a Delete Records Element to Delete a Case

1. Drag-and-drop Delete Records element onto the Flow designer. 
2. Enter a name in the Label field; the API Name will auto-populate.
3. For How to Find Records to Delete select Use the IDs stored in a record variable or record collection variable.
4. Set Record(s) to Delete
   1. Record or Record Collection: {!$Record}
5. Click Done.

In the end, Corey’s Flow will look like the following screenshot:

Once everything looks good, perform the steps below: 

1. Click Save.
2. Enter Flow Label the API Name will auto-populate.
3. Click Show Advanced.
4. API Version for Running the Flow: 51
5. Interview Label: Email-to-Lead {!$Flow.CurrentDateTime}
6. Click Save. 

Almost there! Once everything looks good, click the Activate button.

Proof of Concept

From now onwards, if a sales rep sent an email to leadstosalesforce@gurukuloncloud.com then it forwards a copy to the email service address (email-to-case) which will create a case. On creation of case, Salesforce Flow will fire and it will create a lead and then delete the case. 

1. To test this functionality, sent out an email to leadstosalesforce@gurukuloncloud.com email address.
2. Jump back to Salesforce and check Today’s Lead View and open the lead details page.

Formative Assessment:

I want to hear from you!  

What did you learn from this post, is it relevant to you, and how will you modify the concepts taught in the post for your own business processes? 

Make a post and tag me on Twitter @automationchamp, using #AutomationChampion.