Top 5 Tips to Advance Your Salesforce Career in 2023
Salesforce is the world’s number 1 Customer Relationship Management platform. With its inbuilt, extensive and all comprising solutions and capabilities across different verticals and industries – IT IS indeed the GO-TO platform for any shape, size, and form of businesses these days.
According to an IDC study it is said that the Salesforce economy will create 9.3 million jobs and $1.6 trillion in new business revenues by 2026.
With this ever-expanding need and demand of Salesforce skills- it’s the right time to get into this ecosystem if you aren’t already.
Here I am sharing the top 5 tips to progress your salesforce career- I hope this writeup helps freshers/new starters as well as experienced professionals alike.
As a fresher/ newly out of college and looking to choose your path- Getting that foot in the door is the first step to starting your journey.
So, let’s get set and go!
Tip 1: Never Stop Learning! Trailhead Is Your BEST BUDDY!
I can’t stress enough the importance of being thorough in what you do! If you are a fresher trying to learn and understand what Salesforce does, what’s this platform all about, what are the capabilities, what are the functionalities supported, what businesses/industry solutions are present, etc.-go no further!
Just register on Trailhead and the fun learning journey begins.
There are n-number of resources available for you to learn the areas of interest.
Be it the platform knowledge (which I highly recommend before getting into any specific cloud), different cloud offerings, technical implementation knowledge by doing Trailmixes, doing hands on projects on the orgs offered for free, understanding the ways and means to appear for any certification- Trailhead has everything needed for you to SUCCEED.
Just go and sign up here: Trailhead
Tip 2: Expand Your Skill Set and Product Knowledge
As a fresher or even as an experienced professional- I would suggest MAKE SURE you know the platform in and out!
I suggest starting with learning the basics of the platform-go to Trailhead and explore the Admin Beginner trail. This trail gives you a complete picture on the basic topics for understanding a Salesforce platform-
- Salesforce Platform Basics
- Data Modeling
- Data Management
- Lightning Experience Customization
- User Engagement
- Reports and Dashboard
Once you get a good idea of what this platform offers- you could expand on your knowledge on the advanced concepts by understanding how to configure and customize the applications-by studying around the platform development.
You could refer to the below Trails and Trailmixes:
- Prepare for Your Salesforce Platform Developer
- Study for the Platform Developer I Exam
- Study for the Platform App Builder Exam
Once you have a good grasp on how to customize the platform-you can step up to understand how you could use Apps to enhance the functionalities and to speed up your development.
More advanced concepts around Integration, Identity and Access Management, Sharing and Visibility, Data Architecture, Development and Deployment architecture could be gathered from Trailhead.
Once you know the basics and understand the system capabilities on how those could be expanded-it’s the right time to grow your knowledge widthwise, broaden your horizon.
There are so many cloud solutions offered by Salesforce-start looking into these:
- Sales
- Service
- Marketing
- Commerce
- Data Cloud
- Tableau
- Mulesoft
- Slack
- Net Zero Cloud
Understand how functionally these clouds operate- getting to know and explore the real time use cases and their applicability with these clouds would help you grow your business knowledge.
Apart from the above OOTB solutions-there are industry specific solutions also which Salesforce provides-its worth deep diving into the libraries, resources for these to get to know each of them in more detail.
Industry specific solutions:
- Automotive
- Communications
- Consumer Goods
- Education
- Energy and utilities
- Financial Services
- Healthcare
- Manufacturing
- Media
- Non-profit
- Public Sector
- Retail
Tip 3: Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone
It’s a natural tendency to stick around something which is of less or no challenge.
If you want to progress, and progress faster-you need to learn, unlearn and relearn faster!
You need to take a path which you have not walked earlier- you need to accept challenges and ensure you prepare yourself to overcome those challenges.
I have been given very tough roles in different technologies early in my career – the only way to progress was to learn and learn quicker- otherwise you miss the bus!
Be open to taking up new roles, responsibilities- don’t get crushed under pressure. Consider the new challenge as an opportunity for progression.
If you are Salesforce Admin- why not try your hand at development? If you are a developer-try to think holistically and you could progress as either BA or Consultant.
If you are very good at the platform, customizations, configurations- the next step is to go into Architect roles.
If you are functionally sound, then you could try and grab the BA, Design, Management opportunities.
So, don’t shy away from challenges-you will learn as you grow and will surely achieve better results.
Also, don’t just stick to a particular domain-for e.g., you have implemented Sales cloud earlier, why not try learning marketing/CPQ/Service, etc. This will help you prepare for any upcoming roles or opportunities.
Tip 4: Cultivate Growth Mindset
Whatever role you are currently on- it’s very important to look beyond that!
If you are a developer- try to cultivate a habit to know why a particular requirement is given to you- it’s not just about developing what’s asked for- but to know the requirement as a whole- which user group has this requirement, what are the processes they follow day-in day out- how could you help to make their jobs easier, whether the requirement that’s given to you should be handled as its asked for- OR you feel the approach would be cost intensive- in terms of system performance, efforts, output, etc.
Having that 360-degree view and knowledge of your ecosystem, customer, requirements, and processes will take you places.
It’s important to develop a consultative and an Architect mindset- good architecture and right solutioning, approach for your customer is everyone’s responsibility.
Each role plays an important role in customer and engagement success- so be on top of your game and help with suggesting right solutions, approaches which are scalable and performance effective.
One of a great resource while being on architect or consultative journey is Salesforce Architects
Apart from this there are innumerable resources provided by Salesforce to develop your design, consultative and architect mindset and grow in your career.
You could also check the below useful links to get any help needed-just at your fingertips:
If you want to know what role fits you the best and how you can transition to the next successful role-you could check Salesforce Career Path site.
Tip 5: Grow Your Knowledge by Giving Back
Trailblazer, Ohana community is one of the most vibrant and dynamic communities of 19 million individuals across the ecosystem who love to learn and to also give back!
There are salesforce communities all around the world- and what you need to do is to be a PART of your local community and start participating in the sessions, meetups and events that happen around the world.
You could find and join your local groups on Trailblazer Community Groups portal.
It’s important to grow your knowledge and skills by meeting new people in the salesforce ecosystem, learning new things, skills- technical, functional, and soft skills, learning from their experiences and also by asking “questions”.
Another important learning – Never shy away from admitting you need help OR you are not clear with something.
This is why the community/local trailblazer groups are the best way to enhance your knowledge and gather a new/enhanced view of the ecosystem.
Speaking at the community events also helps to make sure your learning is complete, and that your learning can guide others too!
The questions and the interactions you may have with the community members would surely help sharpen your skills and expertise.
Another way of expanding your skillset and helping others is to become a Salesforce Mentor OR get help from Mentors. You can apply at Trailblazer Mentorship site.
With these 5 top tips I am sure you are going to make it BIG in the Salesforce ecosystem. Just start with the journey and ask for help whenever you are stuck.
This is an amazing community always ready to help- so just get going! 😊
Always remember (and my personal favourite) – “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”- By Steve Jobs.
Written By…
Shreeya Rashnikar is a Program Manager (CRM, CPQ, CME- Salesforce, Vlocity) at Tech Mahindra. She was a Speaker at WITDreamin, Salesforce Architect Summit, partner discussions at Salesforce London and virtual meetup at Trivandrum User group.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of DineshYadav.com. DineshYadav.com does not endorse any of the third party organizations or applications mentioned in the article, including their legality, integrity, quality, accuracy or any applicable intellectual property rights.
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