Hi everyone! Welcome to another Kaizen week!!

This week, we will be discussing the Contact Roles APIs in Zoho CRM.

      The Contact Roles related list is a powerful feature in Zoho CRM that allows you to define the role of a contact in a deal, and to associate multiple contacts with a Deal.

      The Contact Roles lets you track and manage various contacts within a prospective organization, and understand their roles to have targeted and effective discussions. For example, when you schedule a meeting with the head of the department, it is important to explain the product features and functionalities, but it is imperative to discuss the cost-saving benefits with a financial manager. Likewise, you can choose to address the product features with a product manager, present technical specifications to an IT manager, or review legal or compliance considerations with a legal manager. With Contact roles, you can thus have the most relevant and productive discussions as you work on a deal.

There are a few Contact Roles like Decision Maker, Product Management, Purchasing etc that are available by default. You can also customize them according to the specific business requirements. 

      Using the Insert Contact Roles API you can create a new contact role to fit your business need. For example, you are working on a deal and have been in touch with several contacts throughout the sales process. As you near the end of the negotiation, you start talking to the legal department of the prospective organization to finalize the terms of the contract. You might want to add the legal manager as a contact role, and associate the respective contact with the role.

You can add up to 100 contact roles in a single API call.

Request method : POST

Request URL : {api-domain}/crm/{version}/Contacts/roles

If you add a new contact role in Zoho CRM to a position that is already occupied, the existing contact role will be moved down one position to make room for the new role.

You can update the name and sequence number of up to 100 contact roles using the Update Contact Roles API.

Request method : PUT

Request URL to update more than one Contact Role : {api-domain}/crm/{version}/Contacts/roles

Request URL to update a specific Contact Role : {api-domain}/crm/{version}/Contacts/roles/{contact_role_id}

Now that we have learnt how to create, fetch, update and delete contact roles, let us see how to associate a contact role with a deal. 

      You can add a contact to a deal and associate the same with a contact role. You can add only one contact role to the deal in a single API call. 

      Consider a scenario where you are working on a deal with a medium-sized company and have been in contact with the company's sales manager throughout the sales process. Towards the end, you would need to speak with the company's legal advisor to review the contract terms and compliance considerations. You can use the contact roles feature, and associate the contact with the deal. 

Request method : PUT

Request URL : {api-domain}/crm/{version}/Deals/{deal_id}/Contact_Roles/{contact_id}

      If you are working on a deal with a large enterprise, you may be in contact with several individuals throughout the sales process. As the deal nears closure, you may want to review all contact roles to ensure you have covered all necessary discussions and are aligned with the right people. You can use this API to fetch all contact roles associated with the Deal for assistance with the review.

Request method : GET

Request URL to get all Contact Roles associated with the Deal : {api-domain}/crm/{version}/Deals/{deal_id}/Contact_Roles

Request URL to get a specific contact role associated with the Deal : {api-domain}/crm/{version}/Deals/{deal_id}/Contact_Roles/{contact_id}

Request URL to get multiple contact roles associated with the Deal : {api-domain}/crm/{version}/Deals/{deal_id}/Contact_Roles?ids={contact_id1,contact_id2,...}

      As you progress through the sales process, one of the stakeholders may no longer be involved in the deal. In this case, you may want to delete this contact role from the deal to ensure that you are only working with the relevant set of stakeholders.  Using the API, you can remove up to 100 contact roles from a specific deal.

Request method : DELETE

Request URL : {api-domain}/crm/{version}/Deals/{deal_id}/Contact_Roles/{contact_id}

Request URL to remove more than one contact role from a Deal : {api-domain}/crm/{version}/Deals/{deal_id}/Contact_Roles?ids={contact1,contact2,..}