Category: Salesforce

Let’s pickup from yesterday and jump right into the details.

Here is the list of artifacts to consider including in the sales to delivery team hand-off:

• Proposal or Statement of Work (SOW)
• Master Services Agreement (MSA)
• Brief client overview
• Primary business objectives & goals
• Project estimates & scope/budget assumptions
• Key contacts & roles
• Project constraints or considerations (timeline constraints/expectations, travel expectations, notable differences of uniqueness, etc.)

When organizing Salesforce projects, it’s critical that the sales to delivery team hand-off is done well.

Prior to this moment, sales was managing the client relationship, and the client probably fully trusts them (which is why the deal was successfully closed!).… Read the rest

It’s truly awesome how customizable things are within Salesforce.

You can do pretty much anything with it. The downside? You can do pretty much anything with it.

Thus the question really isn’t, “Can this be done in Salesforce?”. Instead, the question is actually, “Should this be done in Salesforce?”… Read the rest

One common complaint I hear from new Salesforce clients is something like, “Why is it that Salesforce cannot do what I want it to do?”

These clients usually originate from the custom web development space, in which just about anything they want can be realized.… Read the rest

Yesterday I spoke about the option of using a dedicated license to load data into Salesforce. This Automation User (perhaps it should be called “Unautomation User” or “No Automation User”) is similar to another kind of dedicated license – the API User.… Read the rest

During a Salesforce project, when planning for data migrations, it’s common to review automations and validation rules to determine which ones should be temporarily disabled.

Not all automations usually need to be deactivated, but keeping some active might accidentally cause unwanted behavior.… Read the rest

As a Salesforce consultant, there’s a balance between investing your time and energy into learning more about Salesforce or developing other skills.

One of my students asked me what it would take to obtain the Certified Technical Architect (CTA) certifications, the pinnacle of Salesforce technical expertise.… Read the rest

Being good at Salesforce isn’t enough.

To be a strong consultant, you need to have skills in four main categories:

1. Technical knowledge: of which Salesforce is just one aspect
2. Personal skills: to know yourself and have good individual habits
3. Interpersonal skills: to connect and build relationships with others
4. Industry knowledge: to know general trends and common issues

These categories are subdivided into further elements, all of which are documented in the mind map below.… Read the rest

In the Windows operating system, the blue screen of death (BSOD) is an error message that appears when Windows reaches a fatal system error. The system cannot continue and your only choice is to reboot.

Salesforce has its own BSOD, and it’s called GACK.… Read the rest

For any Salesforce project, there are 3 competing factors

1. Cost: how much the client needs to invest
2. Scope: which features are included in the project
3. Timeline: when the project needs to be completed

The client can only control one of these factors.… Read the rest

Imagine for a moment, a bird perched on a tree branch.

It’s very windy, and the branch is waving around frantically. The bird doesn’t know this particular branch. It just landed on it moments ago.

Despite the chaotic situation, the bird is not afraid.… Read the rest

Michelangelo was regarded as one of the most important artists of all time. His most well-known sculpture is a masterpiece called David, which is made of a single piece of marble. This statue is currently on display in Florence, Italy and I highly recommend you see it in person.… Read the rest

There’s a trend on LinkedIn where people put the number of Salesforce certifications in their headline. It’s usually the leading word, and sometimes it’s the only thing in their headline.

Something like “7x Salesforce Certified”.

Do you realize this headline doesn’t actually say anything?… Read the rest

People often ask me what are the most common apps/tools/websites I use while implementing a project.

Here is a list of several free resources I use on a regular basis:

1. Declarative Lookup Rollup Summaries (DLRS)

What it does:
– Allows you to declaratively create rollups using lookup relationships (which is not possible natively)
– You can add filter criteria
– It can perform operations as first, last, min, max, count, and concatenate
-These rollups can be executed in real-time or scheduled
– FYI, I call it “Dolores”

2.… Read the rest

I’m helping a client using Salesforce integrate with their website.

Most of their customers are from the US or Canada, but we need to support all countries. So enabling State and Country picklists in Salesforce seemed like a no-brainer.

(Note: In case you don’t know Salesforce well, enabling this feature changes the fields “Country” and “State” from a text field to a picklist.… Read the rest

I just finished a Slack conversation with a nonprofit client.

The conversation started because I recently implemented a nightly batch job that automatically generated tax receipts for their donors. This is what she requested.

Her exact words were, “Do you think we could automate the tax receipts when a donation from an individual (over $20) comes in through the website?”… Read the rest