You may have picked up a subtle wording I use often in my emails.
When I email or talk with my clients, I normally don’t use the words, “you” or “me”. As in, “You need to do this thing”. Instead I prefer using the word, “we”.… Read the rest
Related to the email Budget, scope or timeline, a reader asked, “Can you please share a sample message to push back for any of these scenarios?”
The general approach to push back is twofold:
1. When you initially ask the client which factor is most important and therefore cannot change.… 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:
These categories are subdivided into further elements, all of which are documented in the mind map below.… Read the rest
Unfortunately, far too many people forget an important observation about life.
They believe things happen to them, that perhaps the world is fighting against them, or that successful people are just lucky.
Instead, they would be better off believing they make things happen, the world is fighting for them, or that successful people just work hard.… 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
When I ask a client the question, “Why do we need to do this?”, sometimes their response is, “Well, it’s always been done”.
This is when I grin and ask them if they’d heard the story of the 5 monkeys.
Whether this story is true or not is not important.… Read the rest
For any Salesforce project, there are 3 competing factors
The client can only control one of these factors.… Read the rest
As a Salesforce consultant, you have a stressful position. Taking breaks every once in a while, just like I did for the last two weeks, is vital for your health and sanity.
However, even while on holiday, I rarely just sit on the couch and vegetate.… Read the rest
This email is a little deeper and thoughtful than most. I feel the need to work up to it, because it’s not something you just blurt out in the first sentence.
We are all familiar with the expression, “You only live once (YOLO)”.… 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
As humans, we are emotionally and cognitively influenced by our environment.
If a place is dirty and busy, our minds are more easily distracted. If a place is clean and tidy, then our mind can be free to focus on the task at hand.… Read the rest
Every once in a while, you’ll come across an individual that knows everything. At least, they act like they know everything. And they’ll make sure everyone else know they know everything.
Dealing with these individual can be very challenging, and will test your patience.… Read the rest
Despite multiple alternatives, email remains one of the most important communication tools available. It just works and everyone knows how to use it.
However, when compared to Slack or Teams messaging, email can feel slower. The back and forth nature of email usually has more gaps in the conversation.… 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
Many years ago, I fell in love with the quote from Saint Augustine, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page”.
Traveling is one of the most rewarding experiences you can have.
The Salesforce job market right now is hotter than ever, and it feels like new opportunities are everywhere.
The interview process can feel intimidating, so here are some tips to help you present yourself in the best possible way.
1. Remember that an interview is a conversation.… Read the rest
Expressions or idioms can be a powerful way to be descriptive and provide context. They can also confuse your audience if they are unfamiliar with them.
So, as a good communicator, should you use expressions?
The short answer is yes.… 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
When asked why it feels like time speeds up when you age, the common response is something like:
When you’re young, you’ve only lived a short amount of time compared to how long you will actually live. When you’re older, you’re close to the end of your life and the “used percentage” of your life is higher.… Read the rest
One of my most outspoken clients constantly boasted about his accomplishments. He was a very talented businessman, and he made sure everyone knew it.
I worked with him and his team virtually for a couple of months, without turning on our cameras during our Zoom meetings.… 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
One of the many things I love about being a Salesforce architect is the ability to work remotely. Although it wasn’t so common a few years ago, it’s pretty much the default today.
Of course, being remote doesn’t mean you need to stay in your home office.… 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
A student of mine recently asked me how to manage a particular situation. She is the tech lead on a Salesforce project and the client is notorious for scope creep.
The discovery phase of the project was quite extensive, and included both the client’s IT team and business users.… Read the rest
While working with a client many years ago, there was a full-time employee named David. David was a con artist, or at least he was in my mind.
He had an incredibly powerful way to convince people he was excellent at his job.… Read the rest
Whenever a challenge arises – usually in a business context, but it could be personal – try to think of at least three solutions.
Why at least three?
To start, it’s really important to think of more than just one option.… Read the rest
How do you know whether you’ve captured all the client’s requirements?
Let’s say they’ve asked for a new feature, and wrote it in their own words. They are probably not as technical as you, so it’ll be in business-speak. Note: Be cautious if they try to solution it (we’ll save that conversation for another day).… 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