Why Learn Salesforce? Complete Guide to Unlock Your Salesforce Career

What is Salesforce?

Salesforce is a leading cloud technology company with multiple Software as a Service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) products, and a complementary suite of enterprise applications. Its focus on customer service, marketing automation, and analytics; together with a seamless environment for application development and improvement, has made it the ultimate go-to platform for product development around customer needs.

Although Salesforce began as a CRM system that integrates every part of a customer touchpoint in a single platform, it diversified to offer more capabilities. Developers can build highly customized apps using the Heroku cloud platform for multiple language support. While its Community Cloud enables external collaboration, a continuous system of real-time feedback through Work.com aims to improve performance. The AppExchange supports the creation of business products and a marketplace for your business products. As a complete end-to-end solution, Salesforce’s myTrailhead allows customization of products to customer needs and the creation of add-on apps, using the PaaS Lightning Platform. A recent rollout, the Blockchain Platform, even facilitates building blockchain network and apps. Salesforce also has various non-CRM offerings such as Financial Cloud, Health Cloud, IOT Cloud, and so on. Ultimately, Salesforce helps to build better businesses with highly developed and customized apps that integrate well with the infrastructure.

As a cloud platform, Salesforce offers a wide range of products and solutions for SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and large companies. Salesforce entered the start-up space through subsidized license rates and later adopted various fee structures, thus ensuring universal global adoption of its suite of services. The features include all the possible aspects of marketing, sales, commerce, service, and operations.

Professionals in job roles related to development, leadership, management, and end-users are now eager to learn Salesforce, as more and more businesses are adopting it.

What Does Salesforce Offer? 

As the company website says, Salesforce brings together customers and companies. It automates sales processes and cuts down the admin.

The goal is simple.

⎯ to leverage customer, sales and market data

⎯ to create more engaging marketing content and channels

⎯ sell more and faster

⎯ support a better customer experience

⎯ bring innovation with technology use

⎯ enable the building of apps within the system for every business role

The various channels of customer interaction are integrated seamlessly with the business teams on a single CRM platform in the cloud. Departments can have a complete view of the customer, at any point, and from any location. This empowers a company with data-driven decisions in real-time. The software is scalable, can be customized, and integrates with third-party applications for a range of customer-centric services. With built-in analytics, dashboards, and reports; and a flexible pay model, Salesforce has emerged as a popular platform for businesses of all sizes. 

Salesforce is helping companies reap the benefits of automated workflows and processes. It also helps to achieve better customer service, customer relationship and brand building, customer retention, and higher returns on marketing investment (ROMI).

Is it any wonder that companies are migrating to Salesforce and looking for suitable professionals to get the best out of the system?

Reasons to Learn Salesforce 

The Salesforce platform dominates the world market, with over 150,000 companies powering their business growth with Salesforce. From small businesses to tech giants like Google and Facebook, firms are using their suite of services and products to solve business problems. Industries across the spectrum have adopted Salesforce for their everyday processes and work needs. Salesforce jobs are plenty, and the scope for Salesforce careers is vast.

According to a study by Gartner, businesses of all sizes are switching from on-premise to cloud deployments. It's predicted that in 2019, investments on SaaS will reach approximately $42 billion.

Source: Gartner

The flexibility of Salesforce to customize, build, and distribute apps within the platform has bred innovation and furthered cloud deployment in an increasingly digital economy.

Globally, the job growth within the Salesforce ecosystem is projected to be the highest in the financial services sector and manufacturing industry. The retail, communications, and media industries are also expected to be top users of Salesforce. What does this mean? If you are already working in any of these sectors, a Salesforce certification can future-proof your career. 

Businesses are in the midst of a significant digital transformation, and the cloud is a crucial factor in its success. So upgrading skills in cloud technologies like the Salesforce will be a springboard for success.

How Can Salesforce Certification Benefit Your Career? 

Many companies, who migrate to Salesforce, face issues in integrating the services within their IT system or failing to optimize their sales teams with an integrated functional plan. The outcome was that many features and functionalities were missing, and the platform could not be used to its full potential. Although the Heroku resolved the problem by integrating apps and microservices using various methods, it becomes incumbent upon the Salesforce wannabe professional to have formal Salesforce training.

There are various ways you can fast-track your career with a Salesforce certification. Check out the many job roles. Each job role calls for a specific Salesforce certification. Equip yourself with the right certification to get the job you want. As the demand for any Salesforce job role is high, a certification equips you with specialized Salesforce requirements. The right Salesforce training props you ahead in a niche area where the scope for career growth and salary is sky-high.

Salesforce Certification Hierarchy 

What Are the Basic Requirements for Learning Salesforce?

Salesforce job roles can vary from admin, developers, quality analysts, business analysts, to product owners. While the part of Salesforce Administrator does not need coding knowledge, that of development needs coding proficiency. As development gets done in Apex, the latter requires some essential programming experience or familiarity with Java, .net, CSS, Javascript, REST, SOAP, and HTML 5. Those with programming background will find it easier to transition to the Salesforce developer role, while someone new to programming may have a steeper learning curve. 

As you learn and procure your Salesforce certification/s, you have the option to be hands-on at a job, while you continue to upskill. You can earn your stripes on-the-go, and lo! You are ready for more challenging job roles higher up the Salesforce ladder!

The best way to kick-start a career path in sales, marketing, eCommerce or technologies powering any of these; is to learn Salesforce. Take a certification and shore up your career prospects and salary within the Salesforce ecosystem.

Who Should Take the Salesforce Courses?

This course can be taken by anybody who is:

• an IT student keen on a developer role, or
• a fresh graduate looking for better career prospects  in Sales or Marketing, or
• a Salesforce Admin who wants to get into developing, or
• a professional looking for a career in Salesforce Development, or
• a developer keen on designing apps in the vibrant Salesforce trailblazer ecosystem, or
• a Salesforce consultant or project manager who want to explore stronger career possibilities.

However, there is a wide choice of Salesforce certifications that you need to pass. You can cherry-pick one or more to get that coveted job role.

Types of Certification and Associated Exams

Salesforce certifications are industry-validated. There are different types of Salesforce certifications, based on qualifications and the skill sets for each job function. Taking more than one can take you to the next level in your Salesforce career.

Salesforce Certifications

Source: Salesforce Developer Group

Salesforce Certification Routes

Source: Salesforce Ben

The eight types of Salesforce certifications are:

• Salesforce Certifications for Marketers
• Administrator - Administrator, Advanced Administrator 
• Developer - Commerce Cloud, Platform Developer I, Platform Developer II
• Technical Architect
• App Builder
• Certifications for Implementation Experts or Consultants
• CPQ Specialist Certification
• Pardot Expert - Consultant, Specialist

These certifications are standalone credentials based on the target job role. Each of these arms you with the expertise in the given area. However, if you are keen to be the ultimate Salesforce expert, you can pass exams of various tiers, and pursue higher tier certifications. It is a great way to get to the pinnacle of Salesforce specialization within the industry. It may seem ambitious but is doable, especially if you bundle up certifications to save Salesforce certification cost.

The various certification courses are instructor-led and offer you hands-on experience working on the Salesforce platform with real data. 

What Is the Salary Scope in Salesforce Jobs? 

Salesforce skill sets are in high demand. For instance, the Technical Architect job role bags the highest salary on the pyramid, with an average of $150,000 per year in the U.S. The salary for a Salesforce Consultant in India averages Rs 8,85,284; but can reach up to Rs13 lakh per year.

Salaries, however, are commensurate with the company, location, experience, and certification type. Of course, the packages are higher if you have more certifications up your sleeve.

Whether you want to land a new job with an arsenal of sought-after skill sets or migrate laterally to a well-paying Salesforce job for better career prospects; get yourself one or more Salesforce certifications. Simplilearn makes it easier for you to achieve these certifications by offering Salesforce courses allowing you to dive deep into the concepts of Salesforce. Simplilearn's Salesforce Platform Developer I certification training will transform your ability to develop custom applications on the Salesforce platform utilizing the Apex programming code and Visualforce user interface framework.