Screening for Denied Parties in Salesforce is an Investment that Elevates Compliance and accelerates Sales Velocity

The sentiment in some parts of the corporate world is that complying with denied party screening rules is a must, and money spent on it represents little more than sunk cost. Some would go so far to claim that compliance is an impediment to business growth, because the process slows the sales cycle.

Others (the more enlightened among us?), see straight away that it is true to say that budget is required for organizations to take concrete steps ensuring they are not interacting with denied, restricted, debarred, and blocked parties. In the same breath, however, it would also be true to say that money spent on compliance should be considered an investment and that this investment actually creates value as quickly as in the immediate term. Here’s why.

If denied party screening slows deal-making, it may be because the checks against restricted party lists occurs after sales closes a deal. Typically, this due diligence is performed by the legal or export compliance department, who often have a multitude of other responsibilities to take care of. More often than not, the process is manual, which could take significant time to complete, miring progress even further.

The end result is frustration and confusion within the ranks of the sales team, as they wonder for weeks or more, as their transaction seemingly languishes in the ‘limbo’ section of legal or compliance. The worst-case scenario is the news that the deal cannot go through or has to be revoked because the customer was found to be on a global sanctions screening list. For sales, that’s gut wrenching. More importantly, think of the opportunity cost to the organization.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are especially important to an organization, since all information and data related to business transactions should be entered here and updated on an ongoing basis. Among all CRMs available, Salesforce is probably the best known, as it is the most widely used in North America and around the world.

If denied party screening is implemented properly in Salesforce (or any other major CRM platform), the screening will take place prior to the sales engagement, as well as on an ongoing basis, because, as everyone knows, the names of entities on government and other official watch lists change constantly – someone not on a list today might be tomorrow.

This implementation is important because compliance risk is now minimized at the outset from first contact. And so, when the draft deal lands on Legal’s desk, the screening part is already done, and the emphasis will be on a scrutiny of terms and conditions. The vetting of the paperwork can proceed faster, and the sales velocity increases significantly, all the while maintaining a high level of compliance. And something else jumps as well – Sales’ morale!

The optimal way to implement restricted party screening in Salesforce is via integrated screening because the platform lends itself well to seamless and straightforward integrations with multiple apps.

The way it should work is this: when sales or marketing adds or updates a lead, contact, or account, screening is automatically triggered, with virtually instantaneous results that flag whether a potential customer is good to follow up on. Immediately, the organization is aware of the next steps and there is no time wasted chasing a potential sanctioned party.

Integrating denied party screening with Salesforce has several practical benefits to organizations. Because it is automated, the process is less prone to lapses in judgment or human error, which strengthens overall compliance. And, since there is immense time and resource savings, deals move through the CRM faster and more smoothly.

Ultimately, the organization benefits on two solid business dimensions: 1) compliance standards are vastly improved; and 2) more revenue is generated because sales velocity increases.

In summary, therefore, screening in Salesforce does have ROI benefits that go beyond compliance. Forward-thinking organizations are aware of this and have used it as a competitive advantage.

Descartes is a provider of an industry-leading suite of denied party screening and 3^rd party risk management solutions, including integration and Salesforce with minimal disruption, sometimes in under an hour.

Descartes Visual Compliance solutions are flexible and modular, allowing organizations to pick the specific and exact functionality and content they need for their particular compliance needs and scale up later as and when necessary.

Read our white paper to get more detailed information about performing Effective and Comprehensive Denied Party Screening Within the Salesforce CRM.