City scheduling is one of the most important and most time-consuming parts of running an investment sales team.
You are trying to figure out which allocators are in a given city, which ones are worth meeting, where they are located, and how to build a day of back-to-back meetings that actually makes sense geographically.
Without the right tools, it is a manual process that takes hours and still leaves gaps.
A CRM is only as valuable as what it helps your team do, and for investment sales teams, city scheduling is one of the highest-leverage activities it should be supporting.
The Metro Areas tab inside the Dakota Marketplace for Salesforce integration is built specifically for this.
In this article, we’ll review how to use the metro area tab and to make every city trip count when using Salesforce as your CRM.
What the Metro Area Tab Is
The Metro Areas tab is one of the core features of the Dakota Salesforce integration, and for good reason. It brings Dakota's full metro area intelligence directly into your Salesforce instance, so your team can plan, research, and act on city scheduling without ever leaving their CRM.
When you open the Metro Areas tab, you see Dakota's full list of metro areas. Each one contains a description giving you context on the market, a map of the area, and a full list of allocator accounts within that metro.
Everything you need to plan a productive trip is in one place. For a full overview of what the Salesforce integration includes, see Does Dakota Have a Salesforce Integration?
How to Use It for City Scheduling
Step 1: Click into a metro. Select the city you are planning to visit. You will see a description of the market, giving you a read on the allocator before you start building your schedule.
Step 2: Watch the most recent Dakota Live! Call. Every metro area page includes the most recent Dakota Live! Call covering that geography, so you can get up to speed on what is happening in that city before you reach out to a single contact.
Step 3: Use the map. The mapping feature shows you exactly where the allocators or other professionals in that metro are located. If you are trying to build a day of meetings that makes geographic sense, this is the tool that makes it possible. You can see at a glance which accounts are clustered together and plan your day accordingly.
Step 4: Use the checkbox to shortlist your targets. The checkbox on the left side of each account lets you flag exactly who you want to meet with on your trip. Use it to build your target list before you start reaching out, so you are not making decisions on the fly once you are already in the city.
See how investment teams are building smarter city schedules directly inside Salesforce using Dakota's Metro Areas tab. Book a demo!
Link and Create Directly From the Metro Areas Tab
One of the most useful aspects of the Metro Areas tab is that it is not just a research tool. It is also an action tool. You do not need to navigate back to the main integration to add accounts to your Salesforce instance.
If an account in the metro already exists in your Salesforce, you can link it directly from this page. If it does not exist yet, you can create it and its contacts without leaving the Metro Areas tab. The link icon next to any account tells you at a glance whether that record is already connected and receiving real-time updates from Dakota Marketplace. Anything without the link icon is an opportunity to act on immediately.
This matters for city scheduling specifically because you are often discovering new accounts in a market as you are planning a trip. Being able to link or create those records on the spot, rather than switching between tabs and tools, keeps the planning process moving.
Getting the Most Out of Every City Trip
The firms that use the Metro Areas tab most effectively treat it as their first stop every time they are planning travel. Before any outreach goes out, before any calendar invites are sent, they open the tab for that city, review the market description, scan the map, and build their target list.
That sequence matters.
It means your team arrives in every city with a clear picture of who is there, where they are, and which accounts are already warm versus which ones need to be added to your CRM first.
For a deeper look at how the Salesforce integration supports this kind of workflow, see 5 Key Features to the Marketplace for Salesforce Integration.
Make Every Trip Worth the Flight
City scheduling is too important and too expensive to leave to guesswork. The Metro Areas tab puts the intelligence your team needs directly inside Salesforce, so every trip is built on accurate data, a clear geographic plan, and a target list your team actually believes in.
You can learn more about the full Dakota CRM integration suite or book a demo to see the Metro Areas tab and the rest of the Salesforce integration in action.
Book a demo of Dakota Marketplace for Salesforce today!
