What is Salesforce?
Salesforce is a cloud-based software company that hosts web apps and applications for businesses and customers to access online. It has a pay-as-you-go business structure. Since entire information and related data are stored on the cloud, we can access Salesforce from any device at anytime.
When we look at Salesforce as a platform, it is well known in the field of customer relationship management. A Customer Relationship Management platform is generally used by organizations to establish a better relationship with current customers and open doors for possible future customers. Salesforce is by far the most popular CRM tool, one that stands on par with industry standards. It offers multiple services that enable businesses to engage with their customers to increase user satisfaction.
Salesforce also has its cloud computing marketplace called the App Exchange. The Salesforce App Exchange enables users to download, install, and access countless pre-built salesforce.com applications that can integrate with Salesforce. For instance, PowerSync is an application that is used to sync data between Salesforce and the well-known eCommerce platform Magento.
Why organisatipons use CRM?
So, if we look at the present today, organizations like T-Mobile, Aetna Health, Carvana, and Adidas trust Salesforce to manage and handle their CRM requirements. CRM technology helps companies in managing all of their interactions and relations with existing or potential customers and other businesses. It is a fact that customer satisfaction and loyalty both drive the revenue of a company. Hence, brands go for a good CRM strategy and platform to increase their profits.
Salesforce, as a CRM tool, provides organizations with a holistic view of their customer base, making the service appealing. It also helps in team management and aligning all the team members to be on the same page by aligning service, sales, and marketing effectively.
According to Salesforce, it enables businesses to get more customers by understanding their needs accordingly. It also helps businesses attract more users using personalized marketing strategies. So apart from the apps available on the app exchange, users can also build custom apps that can automate time-consuming tasks. Also, if we look from a customer’s service point of view, Salesforce helps organizations respond in a faster and more efficient way to their customers’ support issues.
So How does Salesforce do this?
The answer to this question is Cloud platforms provided by Salesforce. Salesforce provides different kinds of cloud platforms to users that are suitable for different purposes according to users’ requirements. Let us take a look at some of the cloud platforms provided by Salesforce:
Sales Cloud:
This type of Cloud platform includes resources and tools related to sales, marketing, and providing better customer support. It empowers businesses to provide their customers with personalized buying experiences in business-to-business and business-to-customer contexts.
Marketing Cloud:
In this cloud, businesses can interact with their customers using the appropriate channels at the right times. The platform provides a unique experience for every user based on their specific interests, online behaviours, and other data. This data may belong to a person’s social media interactions, individual purchasing patterns, or from other sources.
Analytics Cloud:
This kind of cloud platform is sometimes also known as Einstein Sales Analytics, which gives businesses the ability to interact with data to get all possible insights and ultimately get more deals. With data visualization features, companies can figure out trends, grab opportunities at the right time, track team performance, and more.
Salesforce Health Cloud:
It is an industry-specific solution that aids practices and hospitals for better health results and operational efficiency.
Who is known as Salesforce Administrator?
A Salesforce Administrator is an individual who has the experience and thorough knowledge of working with Salesforce’s CRM products. A Salesforce Admin is an individual who possesses deep knowledge about how the company operates, is interlaced in making all departments efficient through process automations, and thus plays an integral part in running a smooth and lean business.
Salesforce administrators are the one man who is responsible for answering queries related to development processes, organizing data, executing reports, and training other employees on how to use Salesforce in an efficient manner. In addition, admins can create useful tools in any organization – like informative dashboards, intelligent workflows, and apps for some projects. In simple words, they possess a thorough knowledge of Salesforce and hands-on knowledge of its secondary products, services by Salesforce, and other third-party providers that are available for the platform.
Salesforce Admins work hard with a motive to reduce the inefficiency and achieve better productivity from the team. Admins help in keeping the Salesforce users well trained and updated with the platform, to handle complicated problems in the project, and keep pushing the project in a forward direction. Now when an organization relies more on data and analytics for everything related to sales and marketing to planning and customer management, Salesforce Administrators continue to remain in demand in approximately all industries, from the software industry to banking, or from the healthcare to the entertainment industry.
Who Is An Ideal Candidate?
For anyone who is looking to start a career in the Salesforce world, the Salesforce Certified Administrator exam is the best way to prove that you have the relevant experience and knowledge of the Salesforce platform. It is also perfect for “Newbie Admins” or anyone already working as Salesforce Admin (without certification). If you are a Salesforce Certified Administrator, it will provide employers a sense of confidence that you will be able to maintain, administer and extend the Salesforce platform by utilizing the custom functionalities that are available on the Force.com platform.
The Salesforce Administrator Certification exam also acts as a prerequisite for many other Salesforce certification exams, so it is advised to understand the basics of this certification first before moving on to other certifications that are more advanced.
Skills required to be a Salesforce Administrator
Salesforce Administrators should be able to utilize their knowledge and experience of Salesforce to guide user adoption and generate a better Return on Investment in the implementation of Salesforce solutions.
An admin can be anyone, but some important qualities would be helpful before diving into the role:
- Good communication skills help in working across the company and enable user adoption. It will also help one to share ideas and viewpoints effectively with users.
- One should be able to build reports and dashboards and work with Salesforce flows.
- An Admin should be able to analyze data and should be able to handle sharing and security of data.
- Innovative approach and open-mindedness to learn any new concept or functionality at any time.
What does a Salesforce Administrator do?
Since Salesforce as a platform can be used in multiple ways, the role that a Salesforce administrator plays will differ from organization to organization and from industry to industry. However, there are some responsibilities that a typical Salesforce administrator handles while working in an organization. Some of the responsibilities that Salesforce Admins have include:
Overseeing User Profiles And Their Access Levels
Salesforce administrators have the responsibility for the safety of an organization’s data, which might even include some critical information related to sales and marketing, products and services, customer demographics, and purchases.
Admins can create user accounts and assign access levels based on organizational roles and responsibilities. It usually includes onboarding newly hired employees who require some access to Salesforce. Furthermore, Salesforce Admins are responsible for handling off-boarding and removing access of former employees and others who no longer have the need to use Salesforce.
Import New Leads And Data
Since, in the real world, users add leads and other data to Salesforce from time to time, administrators must develop standards for these processes and newly added data to ensure data consistency across the organization without affecting the existing solution.
Design and develop Processes For Reporting
Salesforce Administrators are experts in CRM data management because of which organizations depend heavily on Salesforce Admins to keep their data clean and organized. Salesforce Admin are also required to get the data whenever needed in order to support training efforts and justify business decisions.
Set Up And Run Different Tools
Over a long period, the contact data and user behavior can be replicated by users because of reasons such as web form submissions and imported lists, so it is the responsibility of Salesforce Admin to run deduplication tools to clean the data and remove duplicate records.
The frequency at which an Admin needs to perform this task will vary depending on organization tools and their needs. Some of them operate automatically in real-time, while others are triggered at a fixed interval to keep Salesforce running at its full capacity.
Testing Updates In The Sandbox
Salesforce is designed to update regularly and automatically. However, a practice which is adopted by some of the best admins is to proactively test and install these updates in a sandbox to get familiarity with the changes and explore the capabilities of the newly added functionalities in advance before updates go live. This practice usually helps in ensuring that the organization’s data stays as secure as possible and that Salesforce runs at full capacity.
Run Maintenance Reports
Another duty of a Salesforce administrator is that they are responsible for executing tests and reports in order to ensure that the database remains in an efficient working state. If we look closely, some of these tests and reports might even include field utilisations, Apex tests, role and profile-specific reports, and other industry-specific reports per the requirement.
The Salesforce administrator’s system knowledge and access to data make them a most demanded resource for these kinds of tasks. They can also automate the tests and reports processes when needed.
Solve Issues And Challenges As They Arise
When new issues arise with Salesforce, the Admin is responsible for figuring out what is happening and finding a fix for the issue according to its root cause so that the complete solutions do not get affected. In addition to that, admins are also responsible for training and guiding both old and newly added employees on updates, changes, and processes. They might also conduct surveys from users and management to get new ideas and plan, build, test, and execute them into real-world working solutions.
Optimization of the processes
Salesforce is a powerful tool that is generally used for sales and marketing. If used effectively, it can give you astonishing results. In order to ensure that an organization is utilizing the application’s functionalities to its limit, admins are responsible for developing contact sequences, A/B tests, designing processes for data entry automation, and making reports in order to check the efficiency of sales and marketing initiatives taken. Then according to the reports and analysis, admins will optimize these processes to make them even more effective.
Special Responsibilities
Salesforce is used by different organizations in different industries, indicating its potential to handle diverse tasks. For instance, Salesforce Admin who belongs to the medical industry will have to acquire knowledge of HIPAA data protection requirements in addition to their Salesforce expertise. Other industries also have specialized requirements, so a good admin must understand both Salesforce and industry-specific requirements to handle users’ requirements effectively.
Hiring managers and other HR experts, at the end of the day, will maintain up-to-date lists of the skillsets and expertise Salesforce admins must-have. However, it is not an easy task to separate candidates with in-depth knowledge and hands-on experience from those candidates who does not have much experience or are, in some cases, non-existent. To address this problem, Salesforce has created a set of certifications that will measure an Administrator’s knowledge and experience with the platform in an effective manner. And here’s the catch these are not so easy-to-complete certifications that just about anyone can pass easily. In addition, each certification requires thorough study and work to master the relevant skills.
How to become a Salesforce Admin?
There is a good chance that the process explained below might sound a bit too much to handle, but in reality, becoming a certified Salesforce Administrator is very straightforward if you are consistent with your efforts. Let us make one thing clear first, in order to become an administrator, one does not need to have any prior knowledge or experience with the Salesforce platform employer. If an individual who wants to become and certified Admin has a reliable internet connection and a working laptop or a computer, these are the only tools that will be required to start their career. To start working as a Salesforce admin, the first thing to do is to familiarise himself with the platform and its basic working.
The exam for Salesforce Administrator Certification is conducted via Salesforce Trailhead. The Salesforce Trailhead platform is the first stop to Salesforce’s official training resources, documentation, and exams. It is a user-friendly platform that contains course modules and other learning tools that one can use to get a better understanding of the concepts while preparing for the exam. However, these tools alone might not be enough to prepare and pass the exam, especially when someone is brand-new to the Salesforce environment. As a result of this situation, many new candidates end up signing up for more comprehensive Salesforce Administrator programs. These courses comprise interactive projects, personalized feedback from professionals, and career support.
When you are looking for a Salesforce Administrator Certificate program, it is advised that you should select the program that Salesforce consultants created in collaboration with Salesforce Trailhead. Else, the chances that you might end up wasting your hard-earned money on an illegitimate or ineffective training course are very high.
Salesforce Administrator Certification Exam Pattern
The Salesforce Administrator certification exam is designed in a way to measure the knowledge and skills of the individual related to various features and functionalities of the platform. The test contains several topics with defined weightages.
- 20% of the questions related to Configuration and Setup
- 20% of the questions related to Object Manager and Lightning App builder
- 12% of the questions related to Sales and Marketing Applications
- 11% of the questions related to Service and Support Applications
- 7% of the questions from Productivity and Collaboration
- 14% of the questions from Data and Analytics Management
- Lastly, 6% of the remaining questions are from Workflow/Process Automation.
In order to pass the exam, you will be required to correctly answer 65% of the questions within the 105-minute time frame. Hence, it is advised to dedicate most of your time and efforts to the topics that make up the larger portion of questions to improve the chances of scoring high. In simple terms, you should not spend the same amount of time studying productivity and collaboration (which is only 7% of the exam) as you spend learning about the Object Manager and Lightning App Builder (which is 20% of the exam).
Salesforce provides you with both options for giving in-person exams and online exams. In both cases, the exams conducted will be proctored in order to ensure the person taking the exam attempts the exam judiciously. If someone is taking the exam online, that person will be required to download software that sets up your machine for taking the exam and allows the proctor to see your screen as you attempt your exam.
Salesforce Administrator Certifications
Salesforce offers four basic certifications designed for Salesforce Administrators. Getting certified for any one of them would demonstrate that you have mastered certain skills and expertise and have knowledge of the Salesforce platform. In addition to that, getting one or more of these certifications indicates that you have the required skills and knowledge which is needed to support an organization’s Salesforce solution.
Salesforce Certified Administrator (SCA)
The Salesforce Certified Administrator exam is the first step that many Salesforce professionals take in order to start their journey in the path of Salesforce Admin. It is a good choice for those individuals who have some experience with the Salesforce platform and who want to help organizations get the most out of their CRM software.
Individuals who pass this certification will be able to apply for Salesforce Administrators in different organizations. To earn this certification, one must have good knowledge of the platform’s processes and capabilities, understand different cloud apps such as Sales Cloud and Service Cloud apps, must have knowledge on how to design advanced reports and dashboards and automate business processes using Salesforce. In addition to that, Admins should have the knowledge to create custom configurations, utilize various platform apps, and create a good experience for end-users. It is highly recommended to pursue the Salesforce Certified Administrator path if you are new to the industry, it will help you in the long run for sure.
Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator (SCAA)
The Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator exam is specifically designed for professionals who have a significant amount of experience working as an admin and want to take their skills to another level. It will require a lot of hands-on experience in implementing the core concepts of Salesforce administration. These candidates should be able to define record and field data access, create custom objects inside the platform, have an understanding of Salesforce’s forecasting capabilities, configure Salesforce apps, move data between different environments, and use dynamic dashboards and dashboard filters effectively when required.
An advanced administrator candidate should be able to demonstrate expertise in the entire set of Salesforce features. They should be able to utilize all the functionalities of Salesforce to solve complex problems for their organization.
CPQ Specialist
This certification is best suited for those candidates who have a decent amount of experience in working with Salesforce CPQ software. This certificate will help them showcase their administrator capabilities while designing, developing, and implementing workflows for product price configuration. Administrators with this certification can help their organizations in earning the trust of their clients with better estimation and pricing processes.
Platform App Builder
Some organizations have the requirement for customized applications within the Salesforce platform. In this situation, Platform App Builder certification helps administrators to prove their skills and ability to design and develop custom apps inside the Salesforce platform with the customization capabilities of Salesforce.
Resources to help you in your Preparation
If you try to look for resources on the web, countless resources are available to prepare and pass the various Salesforce Admin certifications. However, if you want to learn from genuine and trusted sources, the following resources will definitely help you.
salesforce.com:
This is the starting point and home for all resources of Salesforce-related certifications. Here you will be able to find official information about the platform and certification.
Trailhead:
This is Salesforce’s training resource for Salesforce programs. Here you can find training modules, community discussions, learning paths, and more to help you learn about Salesforce certifications in a better manner.
Salesforce also offers a paid training course for people who can afford it. It costs $4500 for this course. These courses are good, but before buying, you must decide if the investment is worth it for you or not.
Salesforce Admin Youtube Channel:
Another official yet very common training resource with lots of videos of concepts is the official youtube channel of Salesforce. You will find a lot of information here, but since the information is for targeting a larger audience, it might not be useful for the exam.
Practice Test:
In order to get a rough idea of what topics the test covers and what the pattern will be, one can go through the practice test provided by Salesforce. There are options to take a timed version of the test that mimics the actual test and an untimed version of the test that gives you more time to go through the test thoroughly.
Pluralsight:
This tech-industry training resource currently has 15 in-depth courses designed just to help one learn in-depth about the Salesforce platform and prepare them for the certification exam.
Exam Strategy
Whenever you feel that you are ready with your preparation and confident enough to take the exam, go to Trailhead, choose the respective role you want, and register for the exam by clicking “Schedule Now.” Then follow the next steps to schedule your exam. Here are some of the tips which might help you in your exam for Salesforce Certifications:
- Firstly, if there is any concept that you feel you are not confident in enough, just go through that topic once before you take the exam, it will not only stay in your mind for some time, but this process will clear a sense of fear from your mind before the exam.
- Please go through each question thoroughly in the exam before answering it. If you need, use the pen and paper provided (when giving an exam in a center) to help you visualize the answer in a better way. For scenario-based questions, huge clues will be provided to you to get the correct answer, you just need to observe them carefully.
- Try to use the elimination method to eliminate incorrect answers. Salesforce usually likes to throw in answers that are made up of features. You can figure out answers by simply focusing on standard Salesforce concepts and features.
What Happens After The Exam
Clearing the exam and earning a certification is not the end of this path. Salesforce is continuously updating itself, so keeping yourself updated and your Salesforce admin certification updated is important. Salesforce will notify you before your certificate is about to expire, so you can schedule a slot to take the exam again.
Conclusion
The Salesforce Certified Administrator Exam is a must for all individuals who want to start their journey in the Salesforce world. It will give you and employers the confidence that you can successfully and responsibly work with Salesforce. Once you get this certification, you will be confident enough to make your next move in the journey of learning Salesforce.