Data sourced from Dakota Marketplace for Salesforce, the global LP and GP intelligence platform trusted by investment professionals. Learn More | Book a Demo
Most firms that use our Marketplace for Salesforce integration know the basics: allocator data flows in automatically, records stay current, and the team stops copying and pasting. But there is a lot more to the app than that, and V4.0 added a real amount of ground most customers haven't explored yet.
A CRM is only as valuable as the data inside it. For investment sales teams, that means having accurate, up-to-date information on every allocator your team is calling on, every contact who has changed firms, and every investment preference that has shifted since your last conversation.
When that data is stale, your team stops trusting the CRM. When they stop trusting it, they stop using it. And when they stop using it, the entire system breaks down.
That is exactly the problem our Marketplace for Salesforce App is built to solve.
In this article, we are covering 10 things most customers don't know the Dakota Salesforce App can do, from features that save hours of research time to tools that change how your team plans their entire sales calendar.
1. It Lives on the Salesforce AppExchange, Not as a Custom Build
Most CRM integrations are iframe-based or require ongoing custom development and maintenance on your end.
Our Salesforce app is a managed package on the Salesforce AppExchange, which means you find it in the Salesforce App Store, download it, and your team can be up and running in a matter of days.
No IT tickets. No custom builds. No ongoing technical maintenance required.
2. It Looks Identical to the Web-Based Version of Dakota Marketplace
Once installed, the Dakota Marketplace for Salesforce app looks exactly like the web-based version your team already knows.
Job and role changes on the left, fundraising news on the right, metro area intelligence, new fund launches, and the full Marketplace database, all without leaving Salesforce.
There is no new interface to learn and no adjustment period for your team.
3. You Can Watch Dakota Live! Calls Right Inside Salesforce
Your team does not need to leave Salesforce to stay current on any of our content. Every metro area page inside the app includes the most recent Dakota Live! Call for that market, so your team can get up to speed on what is happening in a city before they reach out to a single contact. Rainmaker podcasts, new fund launches, and manager presentations are all accessible from within your Salesforce instance too.
4. You Can Follow Specific Accounts and Get Email Alerts
A follow feature that most users still don't know exists lets individual users subscribe to specific accounts or contacts and receive email notifications whenever we update those records. A contact changes firms. An AUM figure shifts. An investment preference updates. Your team finds out immediately without having to check manually.
This is user-based, so each person on your team receives only their own notifications. A firm with 50 users across different geographies does not create a noise problem for anyone.
If your team has been using the Dakota Salesforce app without knowing these features exist, there is a lot of value sitting on the table. Book a demo.
5. It Shows You a Full Audit Trail of Every Data Change We Make
Every linked record in your Salesforce includes a Marketplace Updates log that shows exactly which fields we changed, what the old value was, what the new value is, and when we made the modification.
Most firms do not realize this exists, which means they are missing one of the most powerful transparency tools in the integration.
For teams that care about data quality and want full visibility into what Dakota is doing inside their Salesforce, this log is invaluable.
See these features live in your own Salesforce instance. Book a 15-minute walkthrough. Book a Demo.
6. You Can Link or Create Thousands of Records in a Single Pass
What used to be a single Marketplace Search tab pulling up to 500 records at a time is now split into Marketplace Accounts and Marketplace Contacts tabs, which load automatically and support saved, filterable list views. From there, a one-click Export pulls your filtered results to Excel with Dakota Reference ID included, 500 records per page with a Next Page button for larger lists.
But the feature most customers still haven't found is the guided mass linking wizard: it links up to 5,000 contacts and their related accounts in a single pass, matching on name, phone, website, or CRD number for accounts, and email, last name, full name, or CRD number for contacts. A matching mass unlink handles 2,000+ accounts at once if you need to reverse a bad match. If your team has ever avoided a cleanup project because it looked like too many records to handle one at a time, this is built specifically for that backlog.
7. It Tracks Career History, Education, and Even Hobbies for Every Contact
Every contact record in our Salesforce app includes related lists most users never open: career history, education history, and, as of the current release, a Hobbies field. Career history shows every firm that contact has previously worked at, tracked automatically by our team. Education history shows where they went to school.
A contact who previously worked at a firm your team has a strong relationship with is a warm introduction waiting to happen. Checking the career history list before any outreach takes 10 seconds and can completely change the approach to that conversation, and the Hobbies field is a small addition that's genuinely useful for building rapport before a first meeting.
8. It Has a Mapping Feature for City Scheduling, Plus Trip Planning Built Around It
The Metro Areas tab inside your Salesforce includes a mapping feature that shows you exactly where every allocator in a given metro is located. If your team is planning a city trip and trying to build a day of back-to-back meetings that makes geographic sense, this is the tool that makes it possible.
Two features extend this further. Nearby Accounts surfaces which other accounts sit close to any account or contact you're already viewing, so you can build a trip outward from a meeting you've already confirmed. Dakota Recommends fills in the logistics, hotels, restaurants, event spaces, and coffee shops by neighborhood, on the same map as your accounts.
9. Pricing Is Fully Customizable Based on What You Actually Need
Most firms assume the Salesforce integration is priced as one package. In practice, pricing is custom for every firm based on which data sets you want in your Salesforce and how many users will be accessing them. If your firm does not need endowment data or global coverage, you are not priced for it.
Hundreds of firms are using our Salesforce integration today, and every single one has a package configured around their specific use case.
10. You Have a Dedicated Integration CSM From Day One
From the moment you sign up, you are introduced to Helen Bascom, our dedicated CSM for all CRM integration customers. Helen is trained specifically on the Salesforce app and works across all of our integration customers to make sure every question gets answered. You also have access to our implementation team at all times.
Most firms do not realize they have this level of dedicated support available to them. If your team is not getting the most out of the integration, scheduling time with Helen is the fastest way to change that.
There Is More to the Salesforce App Than You Think
The Dakota Salesforce app is deeper than most firms realize, and the features that tend to go undiscovered are often the ones that make the biggest difference for day-to-day sales activity. Start with one or two of these and build from there.
Our full CRM integration suite covers everything your firm needs to get the most out of Dakota's data.
Book a demo of Dakota Marketplace for Salesforce today!
