For businesses, the important challenge they face is to increase sales and thereafter retaining them. The sales records can be manageable when the business is at its earlier stage. But when the business grows, they face numerous challenges such as varying preferences of customers, regional and cultural background, customer service, managing complaints, sales forecasts, etc. There, Customer Relationship Software such as Salesforce comes into play. Salesforce is cloud-based and provides customized solutions to business.
It has proven to be effective in managing the massive data of sales, analyzing the important customers, and giving them preference. Salesforce is also helpful in analyzing the growth of the business.
For example, if you want access to all the company reports, statistics and metrics pertaining to revenue, sales, growth, footfalls, traffic, subscribers and leads, then tools like Salesforce operation reports or a sales operation report can prove to be really beneficial.
So, when the business will invest in Salesforce, they can actually focus more on other services and operational activities. Let us know more about Salesforce and why we should invest in Salesforce admin training.
What is Salesforce?
Salesforce is Customer relationship management (CRM) based software solutions that aim at delivering the best quality experience to the businesses. Whether your business is small, startup, or a company, salesforce provides solutions for all! It is an American cloud-based software company that was founded in 1999 by former Oracle executive Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez.
Salesforce helps in attracting more buyers with the help of personalized marketing. It understands the needs and concerns of the customers. Whenever the customers are stuck with some issues, it responds faster on any channel. Thereby, it meets the expectations of customers by delivering an amazing shopping experience. Also, it automates time-consuming tasks by building custom applications.
Salesforce was named #1 CRM provider by Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker by International Data Corporation(IDC) in 2017. An effective CRM can help to increase sales by up to 29%, productivity by 34%, and sales forecast accuracy by 42%.
How to get started in Salesforce?
Being the No 1 CRM based software, salesforce provides certifications to those individuals who prove their excellent abilities, skills, knowledge, and expertise in the various fields of cloud specialists. The certifications are provided for the roles of administrators, app builders, architects, consultants, developers, specialists. There are 25 certifications in total. If you want to build some web application like stunning forms ,custom documents etc you can check Salesforce document generation.
The certifications for the role of an administrator is the popular one. The certifications that salesforce provides in this field are:
1. Salesforce Certified Administrator
The Salesforce Certified Administrator exam is intended for an individual who has salesforce experience of 6-12 months performing as a salesforce administrator. Some of the concepts that this certification includes are managing users, data, and security, Customizing and Maintaining sales cloud and service cloud apps and building reports, dashboards, and workflows.
2. Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator
The Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator certification is designed for those who have advanced level experience as salesforce administrator. Some of the concepts that this certification requires you to know well are: leveraging the advanced administration capabilities in salesforce, optimizing and extending sales cloud and service cloud apps, designing advanced reports, dashboards, and business process automation.
When you can operate in salesforce effectively from 6-12 months, then go for salesforce administration certification. After gaining the administration certification, upgrade yourself to the Salesforce certified advanced administrator. Both of these certifications will act as proof for your expertise in the respective fields.
How to Pass the Salesforce Admin Exam?
a. Get to know the details of the exam
It is very important to go through all the details regarding the exam. The candidate should be aware of the topics to study, the criteria required for the exam, the number of questions, pattern, weightage of marks, resources to look for, etc. All this knowledge forms an initial step towards any exam preparation. Often people overlook these details and start studying the topics.
The negative consequence may be that the candidate ends up studying those topics which are not included in the syllabus or might waste too much time on fewer weightage questions. In a nutshell, these details will help you prioritize your topics, make you progress while preparation.
Also, the Broad knowledge about customizing salesforce as per your company’s instance is required. Additionally, you need to have expertise in configuring the platform, managing users, and finding ways to completely use its features and capabilities.
b. Create a schedule
The next step is to create a schedule for your certification. Allocate all the concepts to different timeframes. In this way, you can keep a track of what all you have prepared and what is left to study. This will help you to be focused and motivated. Do not forget to take up some mock tests online, to enhance your preparation.
c. Connect with people
Find some people who are willing to give the certification exam with you. Connect with these people on a regular basis. A group that has the same objective to achieve in the future, strive to work together as a team, and motivate each other. It will help you address some of the important concepts and consider it. This way, you all will be actively participating in your work. The salesforce certification study group in the trailblazer community offers you to connect with peers who are studying for the exam.
d. Practice trails
The concepts which you have learned so far, are important to practice because it ensures that you remember it well in the long run. So, practice every day all the important topics. Practice will make you handle situations in challenging work environments. These scenarios sometimes require quick actions. And these quick actions are successful only when planned properly with expertise. So practice with “Admin Beginner” and “Admin Intermediate”, trails on the trailhead. Another way is to learn app making from scratch.
e. Access the admin certification trail
Salesforce trailhead has prepared trails for practice that are: “Admin Certification Prep Trial” and “Admin Certification Trail mix”. These trials will help you become an exam ready. These trails show the percentage of topics going to be covered. So the candidate should focus more on higher percentage areas and low on lower percentage areas.
f. Attend the free webinar
Salesforce provides an opportunity to attend the free webinar to its candidates, whereby they can get an expert opinion on the exam. Also, they can clear their doubts about it. So, it will be beneficial for the students by utilizing this opportunity.
g. Give the exam
Finally, take the exam for which you have prepared so far. Reading all the questions very carefully is an important initial step. Use your time wisely by not wasting too much time on questions that you do not know. Also, you can write some important points on the scratch paper provided in the exam.
Do not worry if you haven’t passed the exam in your first attempt. The important thing to know is that sometimes several attempts are required to clear your exam. Analyze your stronger and weaker areas from the exam report. Therefore, work on the weaker areas until you are confident enough in your concepts. Give your best whether you are preparing for the first time or for another attempt.
Conclusion
As you know, salesforce is important for businesses and why they should invest in it, so start preparing for it. Gain expertise in salesforce by enrolling in courses today. If you haven’t been using it, start and gain experience of 6-12 months. After that, you can go to “Salesforce Admin Certification”. After that, go for the advanced level.
Gain expertise in salesforce that will boost income and will prove valuable for your business. Salesforce is important, especially for people working in the sales and marketing domain.
Also read: Pass CompTIA N10-007 Exam with Practice Tests and Add Network+ Certification to Your Resume
