Salesforce’s Party Model is a framework that unifies customer records across different clouds and systems. It plays a crucial role in enabling consistent identification of individuals and organizations, ensuring that marketing, sales, and service teams all refer to the same core entity.
In this blog, you'll learn what the Party Model is, how Party IDs work, and how Salesforce handles identity resolution across various sources.
What is the Party Model in Salesforce?
The Party Model represents a unified architecture where each real-world person or company is identified as a "Party." This abstraction allows for combining data from different objects like Leads, Contacts, Accounts, and Individuals into one view.
Salesforce uses this model in various clouds including:
- Sales Cloud
- Service Cloud
- Marketing Cloud Personalization
- Customer Data Platform (CDP)
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Key Components of the Party Model
| Component | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Party | Core entity representing a person or organization | John Doe (individual), XYZ Inc. (organization) |
| Party ID | Unique identifier for the party across systems | 12345678-ABCD |
| Role | The party's context or relationship (lead, contact, etc.) | Lead in Sales Cloud, Contact in Service Cloud |
How Identification Works
- Salesforce collects identifiers from multiple sources (email, mobile, CRM IDs)
- These IDs are matched using deterministic and probabilistic logic
- Matched records are assigned a single Party ID
- All future data updates reference the same Party ID
Real-Life Example: Unified Customer Profile
Imagine a user named Sarah:
- She fills out a lead form (Lead object)
- She calls support and becomes a Contact
- She makes a purchase in Commerce Cloud
Using the Party Model, all of Sarah’s actions are linked to a single Party ID, giving you a unified view of her behavior and improving personalization across channels.
Common Identifiers Used for Matching
| Identifier | Use Case |
|---|---|
| Email Address | Most common identifier across digital touchpoints |
| Mobile Number | Used in SMS and support channels |
| CRM ID | Internal system record IDs (Lead ID, Contact ID) |
| External ID | Identifiers from third-party systems |
Best Practices
- Ensure all systems send consistent identifiers (e.g., email, CRM ID)
- Minimize duplicate records by implementing identity rules
- Use Salesforce CDP for advanced matching and segmentation
- Train your team on how Party IDs unify the customer view
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