Salesforce 101 - How to Get Started
If you’re connected with me on LinkedIn you’ve almost certainly seen me post about Salesforce regularly over the last few months. For those who aren’t familiar with Salesforce - it markets itself as the world leading CRM (Customer Relationship Manager). A SaaS model offering companies a one stop solution to control how they interact with their customers to create a better end user experience.
In simple(r) English - Salesforce is a paid web-based program that allows companies to be smart with how they talk to their customers through some fancy spreadsheets.
If you have a spare 12 minutes in your day I can highly recommend this video by Salesforce guru David Liu that explains in broad terms how the platform works, and why its so beneficial companies are paying more than USD$1000/user/year for it. Which okay - that’s great, but why should you dear reader care about this?
Per the 2021 study by IDC Salesforce will create 9.3 million jobs by 2026
Per that same study Salesforce will create $1.6 Trillion in New Business Revenue within that period
The Salesforce industry has a talent gap currently for both developers and admins.
Training is free and you require no degree.
Entry level Admin roles start around USD$60000, with three year experience being above 6 figures.
Talent Stacker Pay Summary
Sounds interesting? Lets get you started in three simple steps:
Step #1 is understanding the Salesforce career pathways.
This won’t be immediately beneficial however I find it worthwhile to have this knowledge to establish a framework for your own development. It is useful to have a broad understanding of what careers exist on the platform because there are SO many options. Check out this free resource from Salesforce here.
Step #2 is starting to get some hands on experience with the platform.
Thankfully Salesforce has created a free gamified training platform called ‘Trailhead’. Trailhead leads you through multiple choice questions, projects, challenges, and hands on experience across all things Salesforce.
I highly recommend starting with this trailhead - it’s a great combination of knowledge about Salesforce and careers in the system and having fun making a Salesforce ‘app’ to run your own Death Star effectively.
Step #3 is getting help in your corner.
I cannot recommend signing up for the Free Talent Stacker 5 Day Challenge enough - this challenge will help get your LinkedIn up to speed, provide focus on where to continue on Trailhead and involvement in the Salesforce Ohana (or community). Three steps to get started. By no means is the end of your Salesforce journey. Define some goals and start working towards them.
If you are new to Salesforce and the tech industry and don’t know where to start with the 40+ certificates the typical entry point is the Salesforce Certified Administrator certificate. Once complete consider setting your sight to the Platform App Builder certificate, Advanced Administrator and then Sales or Service Cloud Consultant certificates. These 5 certificates represent the core functionality of the Salesforce system. If you come from a development background I still highly recommend starting with the Salesforce Certified Administrator certificate to understand what Salesforce can do with declarative versus programatic methods. From there - Platform App Builder or Platform Developer I certificates are great next goals.
By the time you’ve got your first certificate you’ll have completed multiple ‘Superbadges’ (challenges that give you business requirements for you to solve yourself). You can create a personal portfolio to show off your work. You can create some Personal Projects. You can get involved with the Salesforce Community. From here you are well on your way to getting your first job in Salesforce - congratulations.
Until next time,
See you on the Trail.