What exactly separates the experienced Salesforce consultant from the junior?
From my perspective there are four main factors:
A famous saying that stuck with me for years is, “You must learn from the mistakes of others – you will never live long enough to make them all yourself.” This quote is attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt and can be applied to the Salesforce world.… Read the rest
Many years ago, I didn’t have the ability to hire professional movers. Instead, like most university students, I would rent a truck, like U-Haul van, pack everything myself, and then ask some friends to help me load and unload.
It was a cheap but effective option when friends were willing and available.… Read the rest
I had a recent conversation with a student of mine with an interesting question, and I thought you might be interested in hearing the key points.
He is a full-time employee at a Salesforce agency and liked the predictable income, but wanted to know his options for long-term growth.… Read the rest
There’s a popular song from the 1908’s called “Working for the Weekend”. It’s by Lover Boy, a Canadian rock band with lots of cowbells. One of the lyrics of the chorus is, “Everybody’s working for the weekend”.
Well, it turns out, 40 years later, everybody’s actually working ON the weekend.… Read the rest
One of the advantages of starting a career in Salesforce is its low barrier of entry.
I’ve heard of several success stories in which someone with no prior Salesforce experience teaches themselves using free resources, gets the admin certification, and then lands a $80,000/year job, all within 6 months.… Read the rest
I often advocate for being a Salesforce specialist instead of a generalist. There are numerous benefits to selecting a specific focus and then diving deep to become a specialist in that group.
When looking from a higher perspective, however, we are all already specialists: While we continue work with Salesforce, we are platform specialists.… Read the rest
Let’s finish with part 3 of 3 of the “usual suspects” for the technical deliverables in Salesforce discovery projects.
3. Environment Release Strategy
Purpose:
Usage:
Let’s continue with part 2 of 3 of the “usual suspects” for the technical deliverables in Salesforce discovery projects.
3. User Flows
Purpose:
Usage:
Required:
Example:
4.… Read the rest
I recently read yet another article talking about the impacts of working remotely or hybrid. The summary of this article is: We need to change the way people are managed.
Breaking this down, there are three key points.
1. People are stressed, regardless of where they are physically located.… Read the rest
When conducting a Salesforce discovery project, there are a number of technical deliverables. Here are the usual suspects:
1. Current and Future System Landscape
Purpose:
Usage:
Required:
Example:
2.… Read the rest
Here’s a cheeky hack to avoid certain projects: Overprice yourself.
I’ve only done this a few times myself, as it sometimes feels a little dirty. Necessary, but nevertheless dirty.
For example, let’s say a potential client has unreasonable expectations of what Salesforce can actually do.… Read the rest
Let’s continue the conversation from yesterday about navigating delays in a Salesforce project.
The question was, when a project is built, tested, and approved and is just waiting to be scheduled, should you allow changes if the scheduled date is in the short-to-medium future?… Read the rest
Here’s a realistic hypothetical situation for you, the Salesforce consultant.
The build phase of the MVP is complete. Internal testing, user acceptance testing (UAT), and training is done. The client is overall happy with the results and is excited to using it.… Read the rest
As it turns out, shifting from a full work-at-home schedule to a full work-from-work schedule isn’t good for us on many levels. Here’s another to add to the list.
As you may know, our brain is a highly adaptable organ. It is constantly changing at a physical level, a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity.… Read the rest
As a Salesforce consultant, one simple and effective way to build a connection with a new client is to compliment them. This can also be used to deepen a connection with an existing client.
As you know, people love receiving compliments!… Read the rest
There are a couple methods to report on changes to Salesforce data.
The most common is field history. To summarize, once enabled, you can report on when field changes occur, the old value and the new values.
To enable this feature, navigate to the desired object in Object Manager and click “Set History Tracking” from the Field & Relationship menu.… Read the rest
Since several readers were intrigued by the conversion rate email from yesterday, here’s more food for thought.
I was reading the webpage Measuring Conversion Rates in Salesforce and Gabrielle has another perspective on this topic.
She defines the conversion rate as a transition.… Read the rest
A client of mine told me they want to have a Salesforce dashboard component that displays a conversion rate. I asked for clarification, and how this metric would be used. As you know, asking why is an important step before you begin the design phase.… Read the rest
As I travel from city to city as a digital nomad, I find a checklist helps me pack and track what items I use and need. If I find I’m missing something on a particular trip, I add it to the list for the next time.… Read the rest
Recently I did a Salesforce audit for a client. They had a number of issues with their instance, and wanted a review from an independent expert.
The main person responsible was an Accidental Admin, and wasn’t given sufficient time to design a modular and scalable data model.… Read the rest
Depending on the client and the project, or even for a particular moment, being a Salesforce consultant can feel like being a firefighter or a janitor.
A firefighter is someone who jumps into risk and uncertainty, and saves the family from the burning building.… Read the rest
Being a Salesforce consultant means being able to adapt your language based on your audience. We often need to explain what Salesforce is to a non-technical person, but not so often to a techie. So, how would you explain what Salesforce is and how it works to a techie?… Read the rest
Every once in a while, you’ll need to use static variables in a Salesforce automation. These variables may be different in sandboxes and in production. But once they are set in a sandbox, they don’t change often.
To illustrate the option, imagine a simple example where we want to assign accounts to a specific user.… Read the rest
Despite all the news about organizations forcing their employees to return to the office, remote working isn’t going away. As such, executives are starting to realize they need to support a hybrid or fully remote staff.
One of the key ways to do that is to build a strong work culture.… Read the rest
As a Salesforce consultant, you constantly need to make decisions.
Some are easy, such as whether you should rename standard objects (the answer is “no”). Some are more challenging, such as what will be the long-term impacts of adding a custom field to this object (the answer is “it depends”).… Read the rest
There’s a temptation that just because you can rename standard objects, you should. Common examples are
Here are several reasons why this is a bad idea.
1. Inconsistency
It’s generally bad design practice to have the label and API name be different.… Read the rest
There was more great feedback from another fellow reader. This time, it was related to selecting your Salesforce champion.
I’ll paraphrase, but the question was basically, “what about choosing your champion BEFORE the project starts?”
My reply was: the champion can be picked before the actual project implementation.… Read the rest
A fellow reader provided some feedback on the email How to display warning messages using the Salesforce Lightning Design System.
His main question was, why not use Salesforce’s Einstein Next Best Action (ENBA)? That’s a great question, and so I thought to share and expand my answer with you.… Read the rest
Did you know there are currently 58 countries that offer some kind of digital nomad visa?
The number keeps growing every year, and some visas are harder to obtain than others. So which ones are the easiest, cheapest and fastest to receive, in places you would actually want to go?… Read the rest