Customer expectations change at a fast pace. In this digital world, smartphones have enabled people to get information within seconds. Your competitor is just a click away from the customer. If you fail to recognize the changing customer expectations, it will hardly take any time for other companies to take over.
Now, what if you get a software that bridges the gap between you and your customer? You would definitely like to adopt it. Such software is commonly known as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. It helps a company build long-term relationships with its customers by enabling them to give a more personalized experience to every customer. As CRM is really important for businesses, there are many vendors who offer CRM solutions. But, it’s Salesforce that leads the race for best CRM. Companies across the world rely on Salesforce to conquer the battle of customer expectations.
Check Simplilearn to read on to know more about the Salesforce platform, different certifications, and why you should get certified.
Salesforce Explained
Founded by Marc Benioff in 1999, Salesforce started as a Software as a Service (SaaS) company. It is widely recognized for CRM systems and more than 150,000 companies are growing their business with Salesforce. As the company website states, It helps companies attract more buyers using personalized buying, get more customers by addressing their needs and concerns, and quickly respond to customer support issues. It uses cloud technology and offers a variety of applications through which businesses can get key insights into their services.
The benefit of using Salesforce is that it allows companies to store all customer data at one central location. Complete data regarding every customer can b simultaneously accessed by employees from the marketing and customer service department as well. This allows employees to better understand their customer’s behavior and offer solutions accordingly. Being on the cloud, the information can be accessed from anywhere using any device.
Salesforce has different cloud platforms like:
- Service Cloud
- Marketing Cloud
- Health Cloud
- Community Cloud
- Analytics Cloud
- IoT Cloud
- Chatter Cloud
- Commerce Cloud
- Heroku Engagement Cloud
Salesforce Certifications
Salesforce Certifications, unlike other certifications that have foundational or expert level, are job-role based. These are the job roles for which Salesforce offers certifications:
- Administrators
- App builders
- Developers
- Architects
- Specialists
- Consultants
It provides different certifications that come under the above-mentioned job roles. Here is a brief description of the certifications that you can pursue under a specific job role.
Salesforce Administrator
As an administrator, individuals need to bridge the gap between business needs and technology. From providing Salesforce training to automating complex business processes, Salesforce administrators have varied day-to-day activities.
Salesforce offers two certifications for administrators:
- Salesforce Administrator
- Advanced Administrator
Salesforce App Builders
App Builders are professionals who know how to design, build and deploy custom applications through the Lightning platform. Designing reports and dashboards, creating and managing data models also form a part of their responsibilities.
Platform App Builder is the certification offered in this career path.
Salesforce Consultants
It consultants are expected to be skilled in project management, customer service, and business development. Such professionals have a thorough knowledge of the Salesforce platform and work with stakeholders to define requirements and customize the platform.
These are the certifications that individuals can opt if they choose to become a consultant:
- Community Cloud Consultant
- Education Cloud Consultant
- Einstein Analytics and Discovery Consultant
- Field Service Lightning Consultant
- Marketing Cloud Consultant
- Nonprofit Cloud Consultant
- Pardot Consultant
- Cloud Consultant
- Service Cloud Consultant
Salesforce Developers
Salesforce developers have strong programmatic and declarative skills and they use it to customize applications on the Lightning platform. JavaScript, object-oriented programming, system integration, application lifecycle management are some of the skills that employers look for in Salesforce developers.
Here are the certifications offered in this career path:
- Platform Developer I
- Platform Developer II
- B2C Commerce Developer
- Marketing Cloud Developer
Salesforce Architects
Salesforce architect certifications are industry-recognized, and Technical Architects are among the highest-paid professionals. The journey is a framework to help professionals build their skills and knowledge in specific domains and progress by achieving specialized domain Salesforce certifications along the way.
- Application Architect
- Data Architecture and Management Designer
- Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer
- Identity and Access Management Designer
- Integration Architecture Designer
- Mobile Solutions Architecture Designer
- Sharing and Visibility Designer
- System Architect
- Technical Architect
These certifications are three-tiered as shown:
Apart from the above certifications, there are some Specialists certifications like:
- CPQ Specialist
- Marketing Cloud Email Specialist
- Marketing Cloud Social Specialist
- Pardot Specialist
Start Your Salesforce Journey
There are varied opportunities for professionals willing to start a career in Salesforce. Whether you are a developer, consultant, marketer, or a professional, you can achieve the certification of your interest and benchmark your skills in Salesforce. Professionals having Salesforce certification have the potential to earn high salaries. Payscale reports that the average salary is $89,000 for a Salesforce certified consultant, $84,000 for Salesforce administrator, and $93,000 for a Salesforce Developer in the US. Salesforce Certified Technical Architects have even more impressive salary packages, with an average of $134,000 annually.
So, it definitely makes sense to start a career in Salesforce. While there is a dedicated Trailhead platform to prepare for any Salesforce certification, one can take this certification training from reputed eLearning platforms as well. Taking a course would save your time and effort searching for the best study material and utilize it to get trained and pass the certification exam in your first trial. So, start learning today!