Salesforce Cross Training Playbook
Salesforce Cross Training Playbook
Cross-training
Playbook
And the best part is, Salesforce itself has made it as simple as possible to start
educating yourself.
The resources are available for free online, the certifications are highly
accessible, and the lucrative salaries you can earn make it far less risky to
switch careers than in other fields or technologies. We’ve created this resource
to help professionals like you cross-train into Salesforce. In it, you’ll find:
T
echnical requirements, certifications, I
nformation on building your personal
and salaries for various roles brand in the ecosystem
W
here to start when learning G
uidance on how to stand out in the
Salesforce hiring crowd
T
he top resources you can use to
learn Salesforce
If you have a tech background, or even an industry specialization you’d like to transfer into
Salesforce, this guide will help you take the first steps on a fantastic new journey in the
world’s #1 CRM.
Ready to begin your Salesforce journey now?
Businesses today are looking for delivery-ready tech talent who not only have the
knowledge gained from passing their certifications, but who can also put that
knowledge into practice. Considering the pace of digital transformation and how
quickly things are progressing, organizations need talent that can bring value to
their teams from day one, in order to stay ahead of their fast-moving competitors.
This is why cross-training in tech has become such a trend.
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Want to skip straight to a role you’re interested in? Click the relevant section below:
Developer Consultant
Career summary
Salesforce Developers are the key to every great Salesforce project. They’re the go-to tech specialists for
coding and tailoring the Salesforce platform to an organization’s needs, and making great ideas a reality.
Just like admins, developers are responsible for customizing the Salesforce platform but, unlike admins,
they will create both coded and declarative solutions.
Responsibilities
Determining CRM needs through meetings with project Developing customized solutions through the Salesforce
managers platform
Testing the functionality and stability of a broad range of Troubleshooting and fixing bugs
applications
Maintaining application software security and integrity
Designing, coding, and implementing Salesforce apps
Salaries
As they command a powerful skill set, experienced Salesforce Developers are well-rewarded, financially speaking. Here’s a breakdown of the typical salary of an
experienced Salesforce Developer, depending on their region:
Please note: The above salary information is sourced from the 2024 Mason Frank Careers and Hiring Guide.
The survey notes that there can be a small difference in salaries due to factors such as job location, cost of living in that area, years’ experience, skills required, and role complexity.
Required skills
As a Salesforce Developer, you’ll need to understand the design and the rationale behind great development, and have a strong understanding
of Salesforce’s core technologies.
As the work you will do is fairly technical, you will need to have some background in IT and experience in object-oriented programming (OOP).
Languages that are often preferred are Java, JavaScript, C#, PHP, Python, C, or C++, so knowledge of these will put you in a good position.
Additionally, experience with software development in a commercial setting will also be helpful, as will the ability to clearly communicate with
colleagues and present proposed solutions to a team.
Beyond this, experience working in an agile environmentis also incredibly beneficial.
Salaries
With a blend of interpersonal skills, consulting acumen, and technical knowledge, experienced consultants are well-rewarded, financially speaking. Here’s a breakdown of
the typical salary an experienced Salesforce Consultant, depending on their region:
Please note: The above salary information is sourced from the 2024 Mason Frank Careers and Hiring Guide.
The survey notes that there can be a small difference in salaries due to factors such as job location, cost of living in that area, years’ experience, skills required, and role complexity.
Required skills
To be a great Salesforce Consultant, you’ll need good presentation skills and you From a technical perspective, a couple of years’ experience working in a
should feel comfortable communicating your ideas to multiple stakeholders. commercial role, either as a Functional Consultant or in Business Analyst, will
set you up for success in this kind of role.
You should also love solving problems, as this will be a big part of the role!
Great consultants are also comfortable with high-level, client facing stakeholder Beyond that, experience in processes such as; business analysis, process
management, and have strong commercial acumen. In short, you should be improvement, requirements gathering, building user stories, and implementation
someone who is willing to dive into a project and start organizing things. support will be strong assets if you want to become a Salesforce Consultant.
Potential certifications:
There are currently 12 certifications available for Salesforce Consultants,
The Revolent recommendation
which are:
As with any Salesforce role, we’d highly recommend you start with the Salesforce Administrator
certification. This will help you get to grips with the basics of the platform.
Once you have that, we recommend you go for Platform App Builder. This will help you understand how
- Salesforce Administrator - Nonprofit Cloud Consultant to build and configure apps through Salesforce which, in turn, will allow you to understand what can be
done through Salesforce, which is imperative for any good consultant.
Business Analyst - OmniStudio Consultant
Once you have those, it’s simply a matter of choosing your specialty. Do you want to work in Marketing
- Education Cloud Consultant - Pardot Consultant Cloud? Then, the Marketing Cloud Consultant certification is your best bet.
- Experience Cloud Consultant - Sales Cloud Consultant Interested in working with emails? Then, the Pardot Consultant certification should be your next step.
There’s a massive range specialities as a Salesforce Consultant, so choose wisely!
- Field Service Consultant - Service Cloud Consultant
- Marketing Cloud Consultant - Tableau CRM & Einstein Discovery Consultant
As a Salesforce Consultant, you’ll have a wealth of career options open to you. From training into other
Looking for help getting started on your roles within the ecosystem, such as admin, developer, and architect, to specializing in new, exciting
Salesforce products such as Salesforce Industries, Field Service, or Marketing Cloud.
cross-training journey?
With additional certifications, you could also choose to progress your career as a Senior Salesforce
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Consultant, or even become a Solutions Architect.
Career summary
Responsibilities
- Owning and implementing a Marketing Cloud environment, including administrative and setup tasks
- Creating lists and data extensions for subscriber management
- Creating, testing, and sending content builder emails with a focus on maximum deliverability
- Reporting on emails and determining the highest performing campaigns
- Segmenting data for further use, using filters and SQL queries
- Automating messages and segmenting data through Automation Studio and Journey Builder
Salaries
As an experienced Marketing Cloud Consultant, your much-needed skills will be valuable to any organization and, as such, you’ll be able to command great rates for
your work. Here’s a breakdown of the typical salaries by region:
Please note: The above salary information is sourced from the 2024 Mason Frank Careers and Hiring Guide.
The survey notes that there can be a small difference in salaries due to factors such as job location, cost of living in that area, years’ experience, skills required, and role complexity.
Required skills
As a Marketing Cloud Consultant, you’ll be responsible for kick-starting new exciting projects and seeing them through to success. You’ll also need to be on hand to
jump in and fix a failing solution, or troubleshoot a poor performance metric.
As such, you’ll need to be comfortable gathering requirements, an analytical thinker, hungry for knowledge, creative, and have a sound understanding of the dynamic
between marketing and sales. You’ll also need strong presentation skills and should feel comfortable communicating your ideas to multiple stakeholders. From a
technical and industry standpoint, any previous experience in digital marketing, such as data marketing, email marketing, or website optimization will be useful.
Then I found out about Revolent’s training program and how they
help build relationships with clients using the Salesforce platform, I
jumped at the opportunity to both learn and work within the platform
from progressing down a solid, structured career path.
James Bonner
Marketing Cloud Consultant, Revolent
Required skills
As a Business Analyst, you’ll need to be able to analyze requirements and processes in order
to provide a more elegant solution for a customer. In this role, analytical thinking and problem-
solving skills are absolutely crucial.
You’ll also need a strong working knowledge of documentation, project and data management,
and—of course—the Salesforce platform itself! Additionally, a solid understanding of how
processes work at different levels of a business will be incredibly beneficial and will inform your
work quite often.
Salaries
As an experienced Salesforce Business Analysts, you’ll be a highly-valuable asset to any organization and, as such, could earn a great salary for your work.
Here’s a breakdown of the typical salaries by region:
Please note: The above salary information is sourced from the 2024 Mason Frank Careers and Hiring Guide.
The survey notes that there can be a small difference in salaries due to factors such as job location, cost of living in that area, years’ experience, skills required, and role complexity.
Trailhead is, without doubt, the best way to learn or upskill in If you’re preparing for a certification exam and needs tips, or are looking
Salesforce. With Trailhead, keeping your skills sharp is made easy, for the tips and techniques to be get quicker with Salesforce, Trailhead
as there are dedicated pathways and trails on how to leverage new Live is a great place to start. You can watch live or on-demand videos
features in Salesforce across your organization. from experts across a variety of skills and topics.
The Trailblazer Community is an incredible part of the Salesforce ‘Ohana’, or family. Anyone can ask questions, engage with existing queries, explore resolved questions, or
share their own tips. Plus, once you become an experienced professional yourself, it’s a fantastic avenue through which to give back to the ecosystem.
You can also get involved in discussions through the various Q&As on Salesforce Stack Exchange, or through the Salesforce Developer Discussion Forums.
There’s a bunch of collaboration groups out there where users These are more fitting for people who already have some knowledge Events are a great way to learn something new, or discover a new
and teams can ask questions relating to Salesforce, share work, or of Salesforce, as they are less focused on beginner-level topics. passion in Salesforce. Fortunately, there’s almost always a Salesforce
collaborate with other Trailblazers. event running, wherever you are in the world.
They’re an incredibly motivating place that will help you sharpen
Through them, you can discuss upcoming workshops and training your skills alongside peers and they are a great way to share your This can range from the famous Dreamforce to the highly regarded
with professionals and other trainees, or connect with people with knowledge with the community at large. World Tours. You can discover upcoming Salesforce events here.
similar Salesforce interests to you. You can even use it to find a
mentor! Check out some Trailblazer Community Groups here. There’s also Salesforce Live, which is a fantastic online event in
itself, but also has a great range of past events hosted as videos,
Here’s a handy list of potential groups to join and connect with. packed with inspiring stories across different businesses and
insightful tips for Salesforce users.
7 Community conferences
Community conferences are organized by those within the Salesforce community, and are a truly authentic way to connect with other
people from the ecosystem, while learning more about Salesforce in general.
These conferences can help you network with peers, through a series of sessions that range from beginner, all the way through to
advanced levels.
If you’re interested, check out this list of community conferences.
Our world-class programs combine tech and consultancy skills training with fully-funded certifications and paid work experience with one (or more!)
of our incredible clients. Here’s how our career programs work:
We train you!
You’ll complete one of our world-class Salesforce career programs and gain your initial certifications
Matthew De Leeuw
Salesforce Developer, Revolent
22 The Salesforce cross-training playbook
Kick-start an incredible Salesforce
journey with Revolent
Get in touch
Ready to start your Salesforce cross-training journey?
E [email protected]
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