If you haven’t used salesforce then perhaps you haven’t heard about this tech giant. Yes, the company employs over 60,000 people across the world and has been labeled as the top 100 companies to work for.
With such high attributes, the company does live up to its tech reputation by controlling assets over $60 billion. So what is salesforce and why is there so much hype about salesforce training?
Before we head to the salesforce training which has become a business on its own, let’s first understand the history behind salesforce, what the products are, and how it has become the 7th most popular skill set in the IT field.
Table of Contents
History – How it all began
Founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff with the help of three other determined professionals, Salesforce started as a software as a service or SaaS.
SaaS is a model that allows businesses to use software and pay a subscription fee for it. You may be sitting in your office typing on MS Office but little do you know that your employer pays for MS Office licensing fee.
5 years since its inception, the founder of salesforce introduced the company to NYSE by offering an IPO allowing people to invest in the company and become shareholders. The investment from IPOs is used to develop the company and set it on track for supernormal growth, a win-win situation for the investors and the founders of the company.
However, the company was never registered under the name of salesforce but CRM on the NYSE and this is important to know for later where we will discuss salesforce training.
10 years since its IPO, the company took the bold step to incorporate the entire consumer journey in its software solutions. The initial program now had marketing, analytical, sales, customer relationship, and many more modules added to it.
Not many people know but salesforce partnered with another tech giant, Apple to provide integrated solutions for their mobile applications. You can imagine how big of a company they are.
Products
To understand what salesforce training is and why it is so valuable, it is important to learn about the products offered by salesforce.com.
Remember how we mentioned CRM? Well, it is one of the main services offered by the company. Salesforce’s main focus has always remained on case management solutions allowing companies to tackle their customer management issues, products, returns, sales, complaints, and much more.
Here are a few products the company has successfully created to provide services to businesses and their consumers. There are other products besides the ones listed but these are the most popular ones.
Sales Cloud
The entirety of salesforce training first focused on sales and customer journey and this is where their main product comes in. Sales Cloud-first started as a B2B concept with the company providing CRM solutions to businesses to manage sales. However, with its success, the company started to expand its target market to include consumers. The software can even do sales forecasting for you!
Service Cloud
Since the sales cloud focuses on sales, the company needed to come up with a product that focuses on customer relationships by providing tools to customer support teams in businesses. The customer support team has access to ticket management, queue management, live chat, and other valuable features that ensure the company is there for its customers.
Marketing Cloud
Since most of the marketing has transitioned to digital, salesforce has provided a marketing cloud for their clients to get in touch with their customers. The cloud can connect with the previous two products to fetch consumer data and integrate it on their social media management tools.
Lightning Platform
Salesforce has a base application that is used by businesses but if you want to add a couple of modules yourself catering to the needs of the business, lightning platform allows you to do that. Developers use the lightning platform to make adjustments, changes, or additions to the basic salesforce software.
Lightning and Apex are both Java programs created by the company to add synergies to their already existing product. Thinking out of the box, the company decided that letting the business owners produce their own modules for salesforce is the best way to serve all requirements of a company.
Experience Cloud
As the world has gone towards globalization, businesses have also started working together with each other to benefit from the potential synergies. Experience cloud allows businesses to add web properties to the existing web salesforce module and integrate it with other businesses. This is a great way to manage cases and tasks making the consumer journey a lot better than what it was a decade ago.
Work.com
Heard about performance management platforms where your work is scored according to different criteria? Work.com is just that and has been a hit among HR departments across various organizations. Work.com was previously known as Rypple and was used at some of the best companies in the world such as Google, Facebook, and more. Salesforce saw the opportunity the two companies could bring if they were together and decided to acquire Rypple for an undisclosed amount.
AppExchange
Another source of revenue, AppExchange is an alternative marketplace for mobile applications. The platform has third-party apps that can be downloaded for free or need to pay subscription fees for it (monthly/annually). The applications are limited to salesforce and its modules.
myTrailhead
Here is something for salesforce training, myTrailhead. This is an online platform where training content can be found. Content is focused on salesforce training and how other applications can work with salesforce. It simply has content for salesforce training only which includes training for third-party applications and modules that work with salesforce. This content can be customized and curated by producers according to the needs of consumers and businesses.
Blockchain
Everybody has gotten on top of the blockchain hype and in 2019, salesforce too took a plunge at the future. Salesforce has a blockchain platform that helps in building the blockchain network and combines it with salesforce and its module. Here, you would definitely need some salesforce training to understand this.
Why is Salesforce this Popular?
Being referred to as one of the best companies to work with every year, it’s no doubt that the SaaS company is very popular, to begin with, and therefore the hype behind salesforce training. But why is that? Why do large tech companies and conglomerates and even multinationals have chosen to stick with salesforce?
A Single Platform
The main reason why salesforce is so popular among businesses that have used the products to provide a phenomenal customer experience is that all the products can be found on a single platform. Not only that but businesses can easily create their own tools and integrate them with their platform so that everything is present in one place.
From sales to customer experience to marketing and more. Since there are so many modules included, the need for salesforce training is there. Businesses spend considerable resources towards salesforce training for their employees because they know that the rewards will pay off in the future through fantastic customer experience, great brand, and stellar sales.
Those that receive salesforce training are referred to as salesforce administrators. We will discuss these later on.
Marketplace
Just like how users download apps from Google play store or Apple store to extend their phone’s functionality from a simple alarm clock to high definition games and more, salesforce also has a similar marketplace.
Salesforce marketplace has third-party applications that add to the functionality of salesforce allowing users to add more power to their tools. You can find an application like DocuSign on the marketplace allowing businesses to electronically sign contracts, business papers, and other relevant documentation.
Portable
When we say portable, we mean that you can have salesforce on your mobile phone. Applications that have been converted to mobile versions often are a lite version meaning there is very little functionality to it than the real deal.
But with Salesforce, it’s different. Whatever you see on your desktop from all data categories to functionalities, all of them are present on the mobile allowing business owners to view data while on the go. What’s even great is that users can customize their mobile applications to their business needs. This is why many business owners enjoy salesforce and invest in salesforce training for their employees.
Salesforce Training – Your Guide to Becoming a Salesforce Administrator
Types of Salesforce Training
Salesforce is one of the most widely used technologies in companies around the globe. With so much demand and many more companies hopping on board, it has become inevitable that the company provides salesforce training to ensure that the technology is being used the right way and efficiently.
There are 6 certifications if you want to undergo salesforce training to add a new skill set to your resume. These 6 include the following.
- Salesforce admin
- Architect
- App builder
- Consultant
- Developer
- Specialist
The salesforce training doesn’t just end on these 6 certifications as each of these has around three to six certifications with salesforce admin holding around 5 different certifications.
Certifications – Salesforce Admin
The five different certifications for salesforce admin are administrator, advanced administrator, CPQ specialist, marketing cloud administrator, and platform app, builder. There are a lot of prospects for salesforce admin and this is why a lot of people are hurrying to get salesforce training. But what exactly does a salesforce administrator do?
Examination
Candidates need to give a 105-minute exam that has 60 multiple choice questions and 5 non-scored questions. They are required to at least score 65% or above to pass the salesforce examination.
However, it is recommended that the candidates have at least 6 months to a year of experience using salesforce. This helps a lot and makes it easier to achieve the certifications. There are many resources that candidates can use such as YouTube and online platforms but we recommend checking out Trailhead.
However, it is to be noted that once you complete your certification, that is not the end of salesforce education. You need to make sure that you are up to date with all the developments in the world of salesforce, from modules to apps to policies, and more.
This is one of the reasons why Salesforce is regarded as a prestigious and respected career choice in the IT field.
Roles and Responsibilities of Salesforce Administrator
The platform has been regarded as a one-stop solution for many businesses and salesforce administrators play a huge role in this. Although not a technical role like an app builder or a developer, a salesforce administrator is the connecting person between all departments.
A salesforce administrator works with all the relevant departments in understanding their needs and ensures that they are implemented in the platform.
The job role requires the person to be updated on all news in the salesforce world, any updates, changes, policies, and more. They are also required to maintain the platform and ensure that it is made in such a way that a person of any level can easily understand it.
You can say that salesforce administrators are like project managers. So if a company uses a sales cloud for their sales team, they need a salesforce administrator to ensure that the company can use the solution effectively.
A Salesforce administrator works with the sales team knowing their requirements and what kind of data they are looking for and ensures that the solution is customized according to their needs. This way, the sales department knows their targets and has a complete dashboard in front of them.
The example explained above is just one of many. There are so many different departments in an organization, therefore, increasing the need for salesforce administrators. This has ensured that the profession remains in high demand.
The company has revolutionized how corporations see consumers as and has given consumers more power. This helps the brand position itself better as a business that cares about its customers creating brand loyalty. Needless to say, the products will keep on improving with business needs and ensure a steady job opportunity in this IT sector.
