After 15 years working in the online marketing space, just over 12 months ago I accepted my first role in the Salesforce ecosystem working in a Sales & Advisory role for an implementation partner. I had extensive history and experience in Sales roles in the online marketing and digital solutions field but no real knowledge of Salesforce other than that it was the world’s number 1 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System and its Australian footprint was growing rapidly. These two points plus a need to step out of my comfort zone and learn something new were the main drivers for my change in career path.
In over my head?
Looking back now, I can see I had no idea of what I was getting into. I quickly learned that the length and breadth of what the Salesforce platform can do to streamline operations and improve business processes is insane (in a good way!) and keeps growing by the day. Salesforces complete CRM, AKA “Customer Success Platform” consists of multiple clouds which cover off specific business functions such as Sales, Service, Marketing, Finance, Commerce, Analytics, Community, IOT and Integration – it’s an absolute beast! Further to that, the platform is supported by Salesforce’s AppExchange. Think of it as the Salesforce version of Apples Appstore. It’s loaded with thousands of purpose-built apps which tie in seamlessly to provide even more functionality to what is already a very flexible foundation.
But wait, there’s more!
Dizzy yet? I was but there’s more! Salesforce leads the digital world for innovation. A key reason for this is the massive Salesforce Community consisting of Partners, Admins, Users and Trailblazers all of who continuously feed back ideas on how to make the worlds best CRM platform better. Salesforce takes the best of these ideas and rolls them out to all users across 3 annual updates – Winter, Spring and Summer.
Eureka!
Somehow, I had to find a way to get my head around all this and quick, so I could perform my role to advise clients on how they could derive value out of investing in Salesforce. That’s where Trailhead comes in! Trailhead is modern learning at its best and its FREE. Engaging, fun, theory and practical – it’s all there and broken down into easily consumed bite sized chunks. It’s also gamified with points, badges and ranks so it keeps you coming back for more. I’m proud to say that in 12 months I’ve gone from Salesforce Stranger to Trailhead Ranger though I also understand my learning journey – just like any Salesforce journey, has only just begun.
So be brave people, get out there and blaze your trail.
