Category: Salesforce

An earlier project with a challenging client quickly became a vast source of knowledge. Knowledge of what NOT to do. Here’s one example.

This client was challenging to work with, because they wanted everything. They didn’t believe in a MVP, so in their first release of Salesforce, they wanted

• A replacement of their existing 10 year old custom CRM (which I previously built years before using PHP)
• New functionality and processes to manage their daily operations
• An integration with an upcoming web portal, which wasn’t fully designed yet.

How many Salesforce projects should you be working on at the same time?

As a consultant, and especially when you’re good enough, you’ll be in demand. Whether you work in an agency or are a freelancer, the option to work on simultaneous projects is available.… Read the rest

When working with Salesforce flows, you often need to refer to static strings.

For example, let’s say you have a custom text field called `Entity` on the account, which you want to set to “Organization” in a flow.

Option 1: When setting the Account record variable, just set `Entity` = “Organization”
This is definitely the quickest and easiest method, but it’s the hardest to maintain.… Read the rest

When updating or creating records in screen flows or autolaunched flows, you have two main choices for determining how the record is set:

1. Use all values from a record
2. Use separate resources, and literal values

Admittedly, option 1 takes slightly longer to set up.… Read the rest

In Salesforce flows, having a proper and consistent naming convention is important. It helps with readability, understanding, and logic processing.

When working with a single record, it makes sense for the variable to be singular. Similarly, when working with multiple records in a collection, it makes sense for the variable to be plural.… Read the rest

Yesterday’s email sparked some great feedback from readers, so let’s expand the topic of building your Salesforce network.

LinkedIn was mentioned, but it doesn’t really matter which social media platform you participate in. For example, Twitter/X has a vibrant Salesforce community.… Read the rest

Having a strong professional network helps attract clients and projects. Once you are known, you can refer business to others, and they can refer business to you.

So how do you become known?

There are three main ways to build your professional network.… Read the rest

People have various opinions about naming conventions for Salesforce variables in flows. Some draw their opinions from old VB code, others from C or Java.

As a previous C developer, below is my approach, which follow specific design patterns.

1. Keep it simple and concise
If a variable name can be written shorter, then shorten it
E.g.:… Read the rest

There was a recent discussion on LinkedIn about the input variable “recordId”.

Most flow developers know about the special variable “recordId”. (Note: the “I” must be capital, but the “r” can be upper or lower case). In a screen flow, when you set this specific variable as an input and text, it’ll automatically be populated with the Salesforce Id of the current record from where it was called.… Read the rest

Not so long ago, there were only two Salesforce editions, Professional and Enterprise. Then they introduced Developer, Starter, and Unlimited. After that, Essentials was introduced.

Note: If you want to know the differences between these editions, checkout https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.overview_edition.htm

Last week they announced Unlimited+ (UE+), which is a bundle of services.… Read the rest

This week Salesforce announced their Scale Test is now generally available.

This automated testing tool provides the following:

• Ensures that the software performs reliably under increasing user loads and data volumes.
• Safeguards a positive user experience.
• Identifies and addresses potential issues before they impact operations, reducing the risk of costly downtime or data loss.

When looking for a new Salesforce position, there are many channels available for you to advertise.

• General employment sites (ZipRecruiter, Monster, etc.)
• LinkedIn (set yourself as “Open to Work”)
• Professional recruiters
• Referrals

And now there’s a new option: Salesforce directly.

As of last week, Salesforce has its own career center.… Read the rest

When doing a Salesforce discovery project, the deliverables are usually a series of documents. Here are the usual suspects, sometimes with different names:

• System Landscape
• Data Model
• Security Model
• Sandbox Management
• Data Migration Strategy
• User Flows
• User Stories
• Test Strategy
• Training Plan
• Project Plan

In one particular project I’m finishing up, these documents were originally written in Google Docs.… Read the rest

As a Salesforce consultant, what are you actually providing to a client? Do you believe you are providing a new Salesforce feature, an integration, a series of reports, or anything like that?

You’re not.

You’re providing the results of the new feature, the integration, or series of reports.… Read the rest

I have a confession to make. I’ve lied on my resume.

Now, some would call it a bold-faced lie, while others would call it an exaggeration. Either way, I wrote something that wasn’t true.

This was a very long time ago, so I’m open to sharing this now, but it’s always been a sensitive topic for me.… Read the rest

Let’s say you’ve dedicated time to work on your own Salesforce practice. One of the first steps is to determine who is your ideal client and what services you plan to offer.

To determine your ideal client and positioning, start by yourself the following:

1.… Read the rest

Let’s say you’re an employee working at a Salesforce agency, with dreams of becoming a freelance consultant.

What’s the best way to make that happen?

Let’s start by talking about how it shouldn’t happen.

You probably shouldn’t just drop your full-time position and announce to the world that you’re now a freelancer.… Read the rest

They say the shift from 0 to 1 is harder than from 1 to 2, or any greater number.

Let’s say you’re a full-time Salesforce employee with ambitions to start your own business. You may be working on several projects at the same time, but you don’t own any of them.… Read the rest

All the cool Salesforce kids are using flows these days. As a result, it’s not as popular to write apex code anymore.

However, there are moments in which flows aren’t the best choice. Apex classes can fill in those gaps and can perform some really heavy lifting.… Read the rest

I’ve previously talked about how, as a Salesforce consultant, it sometimes feels like we are a janitor or a firefighter.

Other days, we can feel like a pirate.

A pirate is someone who doesn’t get seasick while navigating troubled waters.… Read the rest

As your Salesforce instance grows, you’ll appreciate following a standard naming convention.

What exactly is a naming convention and why would you bother?

It’s a standard on how to name your objects, fields, buttons, permission sets, flows, flow variables, apex classes, apex variables, reports, and so on.… Read the rest

Marc Benioff just announced that Dreamforce 2024 will remain in San Francisco. Until this moment, there was a time in which he considered moving the conference to another city.

Now that Dreamforce is secure for at least one more year, here are 3 tips on how to get the most out of your time at this conference.… Read the rest

There’s a common mantra in the Salesforce world: Never configure anything directly in Production.

Generally, this is a good idea, but we’ve all broken this standard. And probably more than once 😉

So, when is it OK to configure something directly in Production?… Read the rest

A student of mine recently asked me for advice regarding a Salesforce proposal he was about to submit.

The submission included a presentation of his proposal, and my student wanted to be well prepared for any arguments the client had. One of his concerns was, what if the client says my prices are too high?… Read the rest

Last week was the Nonprofit Dreamin 2023 in Chicago. It’s a Salesforce conference for partners and clients working with nonprofits.

Provisio, a Salesforce partner, hosted the event at their really cool new office. It’s right next to the Chicago river, with spectacular views of the water and surrounding building.… Read the rest