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Full Next Best Action Strategy entry
How-to guide

How to set up Next Best Action Strategy in Salesforce

Next Best Action Strategy is the declarative "flowchart" that decides which Recommendations to surface for a given record — load recommendations, filter by context, optionally rank with Einstein scores, output a list. Built in Strategy Builder. The companion piece to Recommendation records and the NBA Lightning component.

By Dipojjal Chakrabarti · Editor, Salesforce DictionaryLast updated Apr 20, 2026

Next Best Action Strategy is the declarative "flowchart" that decides which Recommendations to surface for a given record — load recommendations, filter by context, optionally rank with Einstein scores, output a list. Built in Strategy Builder. The companion piece to Recommendation records and the NBA Lightning component.

  1. Open Setup → Next Best Action → Strategy Builder

    Setup gear → Quick Find: Strategy → Strategy Builder.

  2. Click New Strategy

    Top-right. Wizard prompts for Strategy Name, Description, and Object scope.

  3. Pick the Object the Strategy operates on

    Account / Case / Custom Object. Strategy reads context from current record of this type.

  4. Drag elements onto the canvas

    Element types: Load Recommendations / Filter / Generate / Map / Branch / Sort / Predict / Limit / Output. Connect with arrows.

  5. For Load Recommendations: pick the source object

    Usually Recommendation but can be any object. Filters narrow which records load.

  6. For Filter: configure criteria

    Drop Recommendations not relevant to this record.

  7. For Predict: bind an Einstein Discovery model

    Optional — score recommendations using a predictive model and rank by score.

  8. For Output: set the final list

    Output is what the NBA Lightning component shows. Up to N recommendations.

  9. Save and Activate

    Strategies must be activated to fire. Inactive strategies return nothing.

  10. Bind to a Lightning Page via the Einstein Next Best Action component

    Lightning App Builder → Account / Case page → drop NBA component → bind to this Strategy.

Key options
Element Typesremember

Load / Filter / Generate / Map / Branch / Sort / Predict / Limit / Output.

Predict (Einstein scoring)remember

Rank by Einstein Discovery model output.

Branchremember

Conditional paths based on record context.

Limitremember

Cap the output list size.

Gotchas
  • Strategies must be activated. Built-but-inactive strategies return zero recommendations — the most common debug issue.
  • Predict element requires a deployed Einstein Discovery model bound to the Strategy. Without one, ranking is rules-only.
  • Heavy Load Recommendations + Filter operations can be slow. Strategies running on every record page load add latency — keep them lean.

See the full Next Best Action Strategy entry

Next Best Action Strategy includes the definition, worked example, deep dive, related terms, and a quiz.