I was baking some self-made granola the other day. They completely got burned because I mixed up the temperature and my timer was set based on the correct temperature. 🙈 It started to smell strangely and it hit me, and I ran into the kitchen. All my granola turned black (literally). Well, I had to start over. Not a super big deal, I still had enough of the ingredients left.
Now, what does granola have to do with Salesforce? A LOT!
Baking is a lot like being a Salesforce Administrator – you have to take the right steps and find the perfect balance in order to end up with an edible result. Just like how I had to mix up the temperature and timer for my granola, incorrect setups in Salesforce can quickly turn sour.
When it comes to our work with Salesforce, one wrong move can have (more or less) disastrous consequences for those that are relying on us. We all want to avoid these errors and ensure our Salesforce Users don’t get “burned” by mistakes.
I’ll never forget my first time working with Salesforce when I didn’t attend any Salesforce training beforehand. I was missing out on plenty of features that could have made my job much easier, or more importantly, the job of my Salesforce Users! That’s why it’s so important that we equip ourselves with the right knowledge in order to be able to make the most of Salesforce and its capabilities.
Just as careful preparation goes into baking granola, joining a proper Salesforce training can have a huge impact on our professional lives. With all of the available resources out there, taking full advantage of the right Salesforce learning materials can increase your confidence and ensure success – both in the job itself or in any job interview leading to your Salesforce dream job.
Therefore, I’ve put together the perfect recipe and baking tools, a.k.a. Salesforce learning materials, in my Salesforce Certification Courses.
And it gets even better, we currently have an incredible Salesforce course offer! It’s your one-stop-shop to mastering Salesforce – our all-in-one Salesforce Certification Training Bundle includes our three fundamental Salesforce Certification Courses, complete with video tutorials, study workbooks and practice exams.
This is the perfect bundle to get you ready for both your job and Salesforce Certification Exam in no time. Whether you’re an experienced professional or a newbie, you don’t want to let this amazing offer slip through your fingers. Act quickly before it expires at the end of January!
You’ll get LIFETIME access to ALL of our Salesforce Certification Courses worth $1,491.
All for only $197!!
“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.”
It’s Salesforce’s app store. But wait! Why would you even care about the Salesforce AppExchange? The Salesforce platform can already do everything you need it to do, right? How about we find out! In this tutorial, we’ll discuss use cases, and at what point you should consider adding an AppExchange App to your Salesforce Org.
Let’s Talk About Declarative Development First. It’s Your Best Practice Approach, Isn’t It?
Even Salesforce says so! Salesforce Administrators should always consider declarative development whenever possible. Salesforce already provides a huge range of tools and features out-of-the-box to make most common business scenarios work. So YES, this is your Best Practice Approach!
Declarative development tools include the Lightning App Builder, Object Manager, Validation Rules, Approval Processes, just to name very few. These tools are incredibly powerful already if you know all their capabilities. Always start there first!
The Salesforce AppExchange Exists For A Reason
Now there must be a reason why the AppExchange has become so big! Actually, there is more than one reason. The main reason though is that all declarative tools have their limits. While they can usually cover common business processes, some organizations don’t follow common practices. Not because they don’t want to, but because of the way their business is set up.
The apps on the Salesforce AppExchange are an extension to a Salesforce org to support specific business needs. These include industry-specific requirements, for example, the finance industry or the health industry. These also include specific requirements for more complex business processes like large data management.
Use An AppExchange App As Your Next Best Practice
Salesforce Developers are not too happy to hear this, but before you even consider getting a developer involved to write code for you, make sure to have a look at the AppExchange first!
Why? Because the Salesforce AppExchange hosts a large range of Salesforce Applications that have been developed either by Salesforce themselves or by Salesforce’s community of AppExchange Partners. This means you get access to pre-built solutions, referred to as Managed Packages or Unmanaged Packages.
That depends! Here is a list of questions you need to ask yourself first:
Don’t Forget To Run A Test Drive Of The AppExchange Listing
Don’t take the AppExchange Offers for granted. They often require adjustments and proper installation. In most cases you can sign up for a free trial version to verify whether the solution works for your specific Salesforce Org. And that’s where your Sandbox comes in. It allows you to run a test drive of the app in a safe environment. Never install a new app straight into your Salesforce production org. You have been warned! 🤓
You will find the downloaded app in the Setup menu under “Installed Apps” where you can view all of it’s components. As part of the test drive, you will be able to determine whether there are any potential interferences with other apps, any feature gaps, or unwanted functionalities. Also, get some of the impacted users try it out too.
Finally, once you’ve completed the test drive and you’re happy with it, you can deploy the app into your production environment.
AND ONLY in case both the declarative tools, as well as the AppExchange offers, can’t solve your business problem, ONLY THEN should you consider a programmatic solution.
In this video tutorial, I will also walk you through the AppExchange and how to verify potential solutions.
VIDEO TUTORIAL WALK-THROUGH SCRIPT: (AppExchange demo starts at 2:14)
Open a new browser window
Type in the URL “appexchange.salesforce.com”
Here you go. Right at the top, you have a search bar where you can search by keyword or for a specific app you may already have heard about
In the menu below, you can browse for apps by type or collections. You can even search for consultants or developers
On the top right hand side, you can log in with your Salesforce account and you will get personalized listings according to your role, industry, expertise and other information provided on your user profile.
Let’s select Solutions by Type, then Apps. From here you will find additional filter options, such as pricing, editions, ratings and more
And to view more details about an app that sparked your interest, just click the app – let’s use the Conga Composer as an example
You can view a preview, see the pricing on the top right, read more details under the Overview tab, read through reviews
When you scroll down you can see a few action items like save, watch demo, get it now to install. The action items vary by app.
Additional Information You Should Know About The Salesforce AppExchange
Did you know that the Salesforce AppExchange can do much more than apps? Initially, the AppExchange was born as a marketplace for Salesforce Partner Apps. As Salesforce is evolving not only their amazing products but also their entire ecosystem, so is the AppExchange.
You will essentially find three main sections on the AppExchange:
1 – Solutions to extend Salesforce to your business’ needs
2 – Experts to work with, including a Job Marketplace
3 – Community to learn from and support each other
Take a look around the AppExchange. Do let me know if you’ve already installed an app from there and how it worked out. I’d really love to hear about it!
WHAT ELSE…
This video tutorial is part of our Complete Salesforce Certification Courses. They cover everything from Salesforce Basics to advanced Salesforce features and functionalities every Salesforce professional should know about.
Salesforce is a powerful platform with many configuration features and setup tools. In order to get the most out of Salesforce, it’s important to understand the options available to you. In this video tutorial, I will walk you through the three main Setup categories and explain what each one is for. Let’s go!
Salesforce is a powerful platform with many configuration features and setup tools. In order to get the most out of Salesforce, it’s important to understand the options available to you. The Setup menu contains every single tool you need to configure a Salesforce instance to meet specific business needs.
Where Salesforce Admins Spend Their Day
The Setup is pretty much the engine room to enable the Salesforce user interface settings for optimal performance and usability. Whatever Salesforce Users see in the front end is managed through the backend, the Setup of the platform. It’s the Salesforce Admins go-to place to customize, configure and support a Salesforce instance and its Users.
Become Confident Using the Salesforce Setup Menu
In this video tutorial, I will walk you through the different options in the Setup menu and explain what each one does. You can follow-along from your own Trailhead Playground or Developer Org. Simply click the gear icon ⚙️ in the upper right corner.
VIDEO TUTORIAL WALK-THROUGH SCRIPT:
Go to the gear icon on the top right
You will see the main Setup item
You may see more options such as the Service Setup. This depends on the Salesforce products you have acquired
When you hover over the main Setup item you’ll notice a little expand icon. This will open the Setup menu in a new browser window. So let’s click on it. It will be handy for you to keep the Setup page open separately.
On the Setup Home page you will find some handy quick links at the top.
Click arrow to the right
And below you will find recent pages you have been working on once you get started
On the left is your main Setup menu which comprises of three main categories
The ADMINISTRATION category
This is where you manage your User [USERS >] and their data access [PROFILES]
From here you will do things like adding new users [USERS],
Viewing user details [user “WeLearnSalesforce”], changing passwords and monitor login history
Under Data [DATA>] you will do data exports or set up duplicate management
Under Email you will be creating email templates and a lot more
Under PLATFORM TOOLS this is where most of your customization will happen
You can modify the user interface [OBJECTS & FIELDS] and
Deploy new features [ENVIRONMENTS/DEPLOY]
You can manage your entire data model and create new apps
And if something needs to be coded with programmatic tools [CUSTOM CODE], this is done here too
The third category is the SETTINGS where you will manage your company settings [COMPANY SETTINGS>] such as business hours and fiscal year
You can also view your org’s history [SECURITY>/Setup Audit Trail] and manage your entire security model
You’ll notice that there are a lot of menu and sub-menu items and it might be a bit tricky to quickly find a specific section. That’s where the Quick Find box at the top will come in handy
To the right of the Home tab, you will find the Object Manager tab. You will use the Object Manager to manage page layouts, add fields, create new Custom Objects and so on
The Object Manager [Platform Tools/Objects and Fields/Object Manager] is also available from the main menu. However, since this is a very prominent section, Salesforce has made it easier for you to access it by adding its own tab
Key Setup Pages To Get More Familiar With
Once you start configuring a Salesforce org you will get more and more familiar and confident using the various setup items. There are a few Setup pages you will find yourself going back to regularly:
Company Information: This page gives you an overview of your Salesforce Org and includes the unique org ID, list of licenses, data and file storage.
Users: This is where you will find all User accounts and their details. Popular action items for Salesforce Admins include password resets, creating new Users as well as freezing and deactivating User accounts.
Login History: You will find this section on each User record. It will help you troubleshoot login issues such as incorrect passwords, login IP address, login date, time and more.
Profiles and Permission Sets: These pages are highly relevant to data security and what Users can see and do in a Salesforce org.
Setup Audit Trail: Troubleshooting Setup issues will also become a key element of Salesforce Administration. The Setup Audit Trail provides information about changes in the Setup, including what type, when and by whom the changes were done.
I hope you feel more comfortable with the Setup menu now. Don’t worry you will get a lot of practice throughout our Salesforce Certification course.
Is there any particular Setup area you would like to learn more about? Let me know in the comments!
WHAT ELSE…
This video tutorial is part of our Complete Salesforce Certification Courses. They cover everything from Salesforce Basics to advanced Salesforce features and functionalities every Salesforce professional should know about.
Based on your background, getting your foot into the Salesforce Career Market can feel easy or it can feel overwhelming. If you belong to the latter category, then this article will help you understand what it takes to make an informed decision whether or not a Salesforce Career is for you. We’ll then explore how you can turn your Salesforce Career Aspirations into a logical and organized process. This will leave you feeling at peace and confident that you can reach your Salesforce Career Goal indeed, which often starts by getting a Salesforce Certification.
Have you been getting confused by all the information out there?
Do you struggle to understand what Salesforce is and how it works?
Do you feel like you keep forgetting what you have already learned?
If the answer to at least one of the above questions is Yes, then keep on reading. The concept I’m going to walk you through applies to any new topic or area you are getting into. Therefore, this article is for everyone who is either brand new to the Salesforce ecosystem or wants to revive their Salesforce talent.
WHY ARE YOU LEARNING SALESFORCE 🤔
Whenever you start learning about a new topic, or you got a new device or you want to learn a new hobby, it helps to understand why you want to learn more about it, or better, why you should learn more about it.
Why is the Why relevant? If you don’t know what you are learning something for, you may lose interest as well as motivation very quickly. Understanding the Why and how you will benefit from it, will not only give you purpose but also reason and motivation to keep going, even when the process gets tough along the way.
For example, if you have no idea why you should learn Salesforce or whether you will actually be able to find a job in the Salesforce ecosystem, why should you even get started? Only because everyone else around you does? Only because someone said you can earn so much money with a Salesforce job? These are potential motivators for sure, but not the reasons why a Salesforce job would actually be something for you to pursue.
The good news is, Salesforce jobs have very different faces and pretty much everyone can potentially find a suitable role. You don’t have to have any IT background whatsoever. Salesforce jobs range from Salesforce Administrator to Salesforce Developer to Platform App Builder to Salesforce Consultant, to Business Analyst, Product Manager, and on and on.
This means the first thing you need to look into are the requirements of the Salesforce job role that sound most appealing to you. Or rather, browse through all of them and pick those that seem most attractive.
‘Appealing’ or ‘attractive’ means, they speak to a skill or belief or philosophy that you agree with. Let’s take the Salesforce Administrator job role as an example. This role is primarily about working with people on a daily basis, such as answering questions, setting up users, fixing issues, managing change requests and so on.
Therefore, if you are someone who is more of an extrovert person and happy to deal with daily requests from business users, plus you like getting your hands on an IT-based system, then this might be the job to go for.
However, if you are more of an introverted person who prefers to work quietly in a quiet environment, then a Salesforce Developer or Platform App Builder role might be better suited to you.
Therefore, make yourself familiar with the different Salesforce job roles and Salesforce career paths to see if any of these may suit you: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/career-path/
Source: trailhead.salesforce.com
HOW DO YOU REACH YOUR SALESFORCE CAREER GOAL
Once you’ve decided that a Salesforce career might indeed be something to pursue, you’ll move on to the next phase. And this is exploring Trailhead.
You have probably heard of Trailhead, Salesforce’s own learning platform. It includes a lot of information about Salesforce career profiles, Salesforce Certification paths and even more content on all the learning topics around their entire Salesforce product line and Salesforce ecosystem, and even beyond that.
Trailhead is huge and it can be rather confusing to find out where exactly you should get started. What you need to get your head around is that it takes time and patience. It won’t take forever, but it’s important to take it step by step. Avoid trying to understand and learn everything at once. 🤯 Your brain can handle a lot but it’s still not a machine.
In order to get started, I’d recommend taking the following steps:
Identify your preferred Salesforce career path (as mentioned earlier)
Familiarize yourself with the corresponding Salesforce Certifications and their requirements, for example the Administrator Credentials
Follow the provided learning units of the selected Salesforce Certification, for example the Administrator
Get involved with the Salesforce Community, a.k.a Trailblazer Community to connect with peers, ask questions or share your own experiences and knowledge
Of course, there is so much more to explore. But again, don’t rush it, you’ll get there. I promise! 🤓
HOW DO YOU STAY MOTIVATED THROUGHOUT YOUR SALESFORCE CAREER-BUILDING PROCESS
The toughest part in all of this is staying motivated and seeing your progress. You may be a self-driven person, you may be not. In any case, it can be helpful to follow a guided structure and build a routine to stay on track and see how you are getting closer to your Salesforce career goal. Or maybe, you’re still not yet sure whether a Salesforce career is for you, I’d say get to know it better first.
And that’s why we have created a 21-Day Salesforce Beginner Challenge. It takes you through every single step in your Salesforce discovery process in bite-size chunks. Every day we will send you an email with tasks to complete. This starts pretty much with the steps above, then moves into setting up your Trailhead Account and Trailblazer.Me career profile then takes you all the way into the Salesforce platform to gain hands-on experience and start building your Salesforce skillset.
Throughout this challenge, you’ll get to know both the Salesforce platform as well as the Salesforce ecosystem. This helps you understand whether or not Salesforce is the place to be for you. It also gets you set up already in case you decide to keep going.
Now, why is this challenge 21 days long? This period of time is generally considered to be required in order to form a new habit. While we are talking about learning Salesforce, we’re also talking about keeping on track as well as staying motivated by building a routine. You’ll get into the habit of logging into Salesforce on a daily basis. Some days you’ll spend 15 minutes in there, others may take up to two hours or more. That depends on the complexity of the task and your own personal curiosity to explore the Salesforce Platform. You will probably want to spare some days for other things, but what matters is, that it becomes a more natural task.
Trailhead by Salesforce have not only switched their certification exams over to the Winter ’22 Release, they have also updated the exam outline of the Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator Exam Guide. We have summarized all important updated for you. Plus, you will find links to topics you may not yet be familiar with so you can study up in no time.
Trailhead by Salesforce have not only switched their certification exams over to the Winter ’22 Release, they have also updated the exam outline of the Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator Exam Guide.
First up: NO NEED TO FREAK OUT! If you have booked your cert exam or you are planning to register, please know that the majority of topics have not changed. We have summarized all important updates for you. Plus, you will find links to topics you may not yet be familiar with so you can study up in no time.
As for the most part of the new exam outline, you will find changes around wording, structure and then a few additional topics. HOWEVER, as with every release cycle, you need to be familiar with the relevant Release Notes anyways. Some of the new topics are now considered baseline knowledge and as an Advanced Administrator, you will likely have heard of most of them already.
Many exam objectives from the original 10 exam topics are the same. Some topics have simply been moved to another section, reworded or extended to cover more complex scenarios.
A few new topics have been added, however nothing dramatic you wouldn’t already have come across as an Advanced Administrator. These topics are:
The following exam objectives are being removed entirely:
Salesforce Experience Cloud Security Settings
Salesforce Content
Mapping Table of New to Current Salesforce Advanced Administrator Certification Exam Outline
Our Salesforce Advanced Administrator Certification Course follows the current exam outline of 10 exam topics. This means the course contents you need to prepare for the certification exam still cover the majority of relevant exam topics, including the main part of the above-listed topics. We’ll be adding the few remaining topics very shortly.
Here’s an overview of how our course curriculum (a.k.a. exam outline) matches with the New Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator Exam Outline.
The Salesforce Certification Exams have just switched over to Winter ’22. That’s right! Even though all Salesforce Orgs are already well into the Winter ’22 release cycle, the Salesforce Certification Exam cycles follow a slightly shifted time frame to give you a chance to catch up.
The Salesforce Certification Exams have just switched over to Winter ’22. That’s right! Even though all Salesforce Orgs are already well into the Winter ’22 release cycle, the Salesforce Certification Exam cycles follow a slightly shifted time frame to give you a chance to catch up.
Whether or not you are planning to get a Salesforce Certification, keeping up-to-date on the latest Salesforce features gives you a competitive advantage. Let’s get to know the TOP 10 Salesforce Release Highlights that we believe are most important to YOU:
#1 Flow Builder becomes less scary
For many Admins or Salesforce beginners, Flow Builder can feel very overwhelming. But, it really doesn’t have to be. As with everything, it just needs time and practice for you to become confident. Plus, Salesforce is adding more and more click-not-code features into Flow Builder with every release, truly making Flow Builder so much easier to work with.
Developing Flow Builder is one of Salesforce’s priority items. Please note that you still need to be familiar with Workflow Rules and Process Builder because many Salesforce Customers have many of those in place. Check out my article on Why You Should Still Learn Workflow Rules and Process Builder.
And because Flow Builder is a priority, there are so many exciting updates, here is a list of some of my favorites:
The Record Sharing Model consists of Org-Wide Defaults, Role Hierarchy, Sharing Rules, Team and Manual Sharing. You will now have another tool at your hands to manage any remaining exemptions with Restriction Rules. Restriction Rules were previously in Beta and have now become generally available which is awesome.
While your baseline Record Sharing Model pretty much opens up access to records, restriction rules take away access. It’s like setting a filter criteria to display only selected records of those that a User already had access to.
Tip: Restriction Rules are currently only available for custom objects, contracts, tasks and events.
This feature was only available for individual Permission Sets and can now be used for entire Permission Set Groups. Permission Set Groups are used to allow assigned Users to complete very specific tasks. Access to these permissions can be limited to pre-defined sessions like a certain time frame during a workday. This is typically applied when highly sensitive data is involved.
I can’t believe it’s finally here, even though it’s currently in Beta. So let’s hope it stays for good. Managing the many Profiles and Permission Sets plus Permission Set Groups is hard enough, but removing permissions when no longer needed just adds to the pile. You can now have permissions sort of remove themselves by setting an expiration date. It can be used for both individual Permission Sets or entire Permission Set Groups. Once enabled you’ll find another button at the top. Go check it out!
Tip: Must be enabled in Setup under User Management Settings.
With each release, Salesforce’s own AI tool Einstein becomes even smarter. One of which is Einstein Search. It has been available for a while though but now it’s turned on by default, and most importantly, at no extra cost. Einstein Search supports three key features: Personalization, Natural Language Search and Recommended Results.
Tip: Einstein Search features can be enabled/disabled in the Setup under Einstein Search Settings. Note: Developer Orgs/Trailhead Playgrounds are not supported.
Charts used in Dashboards reference the data of the underlying report. However, when you apply a Gauge Chart the KPIs you wish to track against the data in the report, need to be defined manually. Therefore, the targets stay static. With the new ‘Dynamic Gauge Chart’ feature, you can make the entire Gauge Chart respond dynamically based on the filter criteria specified in the underlying report.
Note: This feature is currently in Beta and may not become generally available.
Tip: In order to make use of the Dynamic Gauge Chart, you need to enable this feature in the Setup under Reports and Dashboards Settings.
Not sure why this is in Beta, Inline Editing in Reports is not new but is being improved. I guess Salesforce is still finetuning its capabilities. With this release, Users can even inline edit date, picklist or lookup type of fields (not all but most of them 😉).
Tip: Inline Editing must be enabled in Setup under Reports and Dashboards Settings.
Forecasting becomes more flexible. Salesforce has added a new category called “Most Likely” which sits in-between Commit and Best Case.
Tip: In Object Manager, select Opportunities and open the field ‘Forecast Category’. Note: You can label the field with any name you like, however it won’t match the category and can confuse yourself and the Forecast Users. And don’t forget to match relevant Opportunity Stages to this new Forecast Category!
Territory Assignment Rules typically run through all your Accounts which can take a fair amount of time. No more! You now have the option to choose a subset of Accounts only.
No tip, just enjoy the new pop-up when you click the Run Assignment Rules button.
This may not be as exciting for Admins as it may be for Users. This one is a great addition for any Sales or other User who relies on Task and Event management. Salesforce has added an option to sort the list of Upcoming and Overdue Activities by oldest or newest.
No tip, just use it. 😉
Source: help.salesforce.com
There are so many more features to explore. Go check them out and remember you can earn points for learning all about them: Winter ’22 Release Highlights
Let us know in the comments which feature you enjoy the most. We’d love to hear from you!
Getting a Salesforce Certification will unlock career opportunities you didn’t know were out there. But first, you need to get it, before you can add it to your CV and LinkedIn Profile. Let me share my 8 hot tips with you how you can pass the exam at 1st attempt so you don’t loose any time to find your Salesforce Dream Job.
Getting a Salesforce Certification will unlock career opportunities you didn’t know were out there. But first, you need to get it, before you can add it to your CV and LinkedIn Profile. Let me share my 8 hot tips with you on how you can pass the exam on 1st attempt so you don’t loose any time to find your Salesforce Dream Job.
Of course, I can’t promise you will pass the exam, but I can promise that your chances to pass will increase significantly.
It’s been created for a purpose. 😉 It contains all the information you need to know about the certification and the exam, such as timing, cost and most importantly the exam objectives and their weighting. The greater the weighting, the more complex the topic, the more you need to deepen your skills.
🌶 HOT TIP #2 – Study the right Salesforce exam relevant topics.
You’ve got the exam objectives right there. BUT… they can be hard to interpret. Each exam topic contains a number of sub-topics. To help you understand better what the exact topics actually involve and what they mean, I’ve created a Study Checklist for you. Each exam objective, which is represented as a section, is broken down into individual topics in chronological order. It includes the obvious topics plus topics beyond what the exam outline tells you. Because I don’t want to leave you guessing. 🤓
This comprehensive Study Checklist will help you focus on all Salesforce exam-relevant topics and learn in a structured way. You want to be able to connect the dots otherwise you will get lost in the maze of Salesforce features and functionalities. As amazing as they are, you can’t possibly learn them all at once.
The Study Checklist is also a great way to tick off each topic as you progress and add notes to help you learn and review.
Of course, just knowing the topics won’t help you understand how they work. So…keep reading….
🌶 HOT TIP #3 – Study and practice with Trailhead, that’s what it’s there for.
Hands-on practice is the best way to memorize all that knowledge you are learning about. Use our WeLearnSalesforce Trailmix. It is based on the official Trailmix that you will find in the exam guide. However, I’ve optimized it into a more logical structure and added some modules and projects to fill some gaps giving you a well-rounded learning experience.
🌶 HOT TIP #4 – Don’t freak out!
It can feel overwhelming and you may find yourself lost with all that content on Trailhead. Trailhead is mainly text-based which can be cumbersome to work through. Plus, not all topics are actually covered on Trailhead yet.
That’s why… I have created Study Workbooks for you to keep you calm and focused. The Study Workbook covers all topics you will find on your Study Checklist and explains each topic with diagrams, flowcharts, checklists and best practices along with detailed descriptions. Each learning unit also contains additional learning resources like links to the corresponding Trailmix modules or projects and links to other supporting Salesforce Documentation.
And for those of you that love watching videos and prefer learning in a more guided way, I have created a comprehensive Salesforce Video Tutorial for you that gives you the complete learning experience. It almost feels like you are sitting in a classroom with the instructor upfront teaching you all about each topic, showing you around in Salesforce to see how things come to life. And we’ll do plenty of hands-on exercises together.
🌶 HOT TIP #5 – Check out Salesforce customer stories.
Why? Wouldn’t it be nice to see how Salesforce works in the real world? Indeed it would! While I’m including real-life business cases in our study materials, reading about Salesforce customer stories is a great addition. Salesforce has an awesome collection of customer stories showcasing how and why they are using Salesforce. These stories give you an idea of which Salesforce Products and features they are using. This helps you build the bridge between business and system requirements.
You can even use these scenarios to design your own version of a solution in your own Trailhead Playground or Developer Org. You get more hands-on practice plus you are building your own system experience which you can showcase with recruiters and potential future employers.
Source: salesforce.com/customers-success-stories
🌶 HOT TIP #6 – Check your exam readiness.
Once you have learned everything and gotten familiar with business use cases, you have probably forgotten half of what you have been studying. That’s perfectly normal.
That’s where Practice Exams come in handy. Practice Exams are the perfect way to test your knowledge and identify your strength and weaknesses. And, they give you a chance to get familiar with the exam format and complexity of exam questions and answers.
I have created a bundle of realistic Practice Exams for you so you can check your exam readiness. The results include detailed explanations and plenty of resources to help you deepen your learnings.
🌶 HOT TIP #7 – Register for the exam when you feel confident and you are ready to take it.
You will need to register through a Webassessor account. If you don’t have one yet, you can easily create a new one.
Some say that you should register for the exam ahead of time, like three months into the future. This gives you a deadline you can work towards. However the exam is easy to reschedule and you may find yourself postponing it, or, taking it, just for the sake of it because it’s booked, but then you may fail. You may not. But if you do you’re not only losing time but also money. The certification exam is US$200 and the retake is US$100.
What I recommend instead, is, yes, absolutely plan for it. Put a date in the calendar by when you’d like to be ready. When you get closer to that date, check in on your learning progress, for example with Practice Exams. If you reach at least 80-90%, you have a pretty good chance to pass the real exam, meaning you can go register. Of course, I can’t promise you will pass but the more you practice the more likely you will.
Upon registration, you will have to choose your test taker style. You can take the exam onsite at a Kryterion test center or online from home or work or anywhere you choose, as long as you have a computer, internet and a webcam. Both options are of course proctored.
The online option will require you to install some software to access the exam. Exams taken at a Kryterion test center only require some form of ID and a happy smile. You are even given scratch paper too, which you won’t be allowed to use in an online exam.
Get familiar with the requirements for each test taker style and choose the one you prefer. Many locations offer plenty of time slots throughout the week, so you should be able to book something not too far in the future.
🌶 HOT TIP #8 – Keep practicing! Practice practice practice.
Get your hands on the system. Trust me. That’s the best way to memorize what you are learning. You still have time, go back to the Practice Exams, do them again, practice weaker areas even more. This will give you so much more confidence.
I’ve put all these steps into a comprehensive Salesforce Certification Guide. It contains even more useful tips and tricks. No go ahead, and download it right away. It’s free, with no strings attached.
I hope you’ve been finding these hot tips helpful. Is there anything else you’d like to know? Please leave me a comment. I’m here to help! 🙂
Are you a little bit like me? A co-worker comes over to you asking if you could help with this particular report they need, and then you jump right into the Report Builder to see what you can whip up. Not anymore! Let me explain why. This will save you a lot of headaches.
Are you a little bit like me? A co-worker comes over to you asking if you could help with this particular report they need, and then you jump right into the Report Builder to see what you can whip up.
WELL … I used to pro-react like that too, but not anymore. After I’ve gone through the pain of recreating what I started too many times, I’m now tackling this differently.
And if you have been following me for a little while you know that I have been a Salesforce Trainer for many years, on top of my Salesforce Administrator experience. Which means, I’ve not only learned myself how to approach Salesforce tasks like creating Reports and Dashboards in more a logical way, I’ve also seen the same pattern repeated by many of my students.
If you recognize this pattern in yourself, then let me walk you through the steps you need to consider BEFORE you create any type of report.
THE FIRST STEP IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP
Salesforce Reports aggregate the data which is stored in any of your Salesforce Objects, such as Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Cases and so on. The data in these objects is being analyzed to understand business relevant metrics like user adoption, data quality, sales revenue, customer enquiries, you name them.
This means, you need to understand what type of data is stored in which Object and how some data is related to data living in other Objects. Take Opportunities for example: Opportunities store data about the customer, the amount to be invested, order number, delivery status etc. However, the information about the service or product the customer is interested in, is stored in another Salesforce Object, the Product Object. Products are then attached to the corresponding Opportunity through a link, or in Salesforce terms, through an Object Relationship.
Therefore, the Report Type you will need to select as your very first step when building a new Salesforce Report, determines what type of data you will be able to include in your report.
In our example, you will need to select the Report Type ‘Opportunities with Products’ in order to ensure you can add data from both Objects, Opportunities as well as Products. If you were to select the Report Type ‘Opportunities’ you would not be able to add Product details.
Source: welearnsalesforce.com
Did you know? -> In case you realize you selected the wrong Report Type later in life, after you’ve already added a lot of items to your report, you won’t be able to switch to another Report Type. No, you will need to start from scratch! 🤯
UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU NEED TO INCLUDE IN YOUR SALESFORCE REPORT
We often get desperate requests which sound something like this: ‘Can you quickly run a report on our latest sales numbers?’
Nice try! It’s actually a little more complex than that. Meaning, you would need to know what sales numbers they are talking about. Sales numbers of whose records and what time frame are they referring to?
Your next question should be about the details. ‘Details’ is what is stored in the different fields like the Opportunity Name, Amount, Close Date and so on. How much of this do they care about?
And that’s not all. Is there anything which should be filtered in or out? Do they want to see sales numbers of all customers or only a particular region or a particular product?
Source: welearnsalesforce.com
FIND OUT HOW THE REPORT NEEDS TO BE PRESENTED
Now that you know WHAT you need to include, what about the look of the report? HOW do they want the data to be displayed?
Reports have different purposes, such as analyzing data entry gaps, executive strategy meetings, sales forecast planning and so on. This means, the way the report is grouped and summarized will make a big difference.
Therefore, you also need to ask whether they need to see every single detail, or just a summary by sales rep or by customer or else. Do they require sub-totals or grand totals? And, do they wish to add a Report Chart or even require an entire Dashboard to get a visual representation. Visuals are great additions for PowerPoint presentations in meetings. Or even better, a live demo in Salesforce during the meeting.
Source: welearnsalesforce.com
As you can see, creating Salesforce Reports requires a lot of detail and understanding how the data in Salesforce is stored and managed.
If you follow the above steps, I can promise you that your reporting life will become so much easier and more fun. Creating Reports and Dashboards became one of my personal favorites amongst the many Salesforce tasks. The results which come out of these reports can reveal so much about your Salesforce Users as well as your business success.
If you want to learn more about creating Reports and Dashboards, it’s included in our Salesforce Administrator Certification Course. Our PDF Workbooks contain lot’s of checklists, flow charts, diagrams and best practices, like the above. You can even download and pin them to your office wall. 🤓
Let me know in the comments if this is helpful. And, of course, if you have another cool technique you use, let me know too.
The Salesforce Certification Exams have just switched over to Summer ’21. While you might already get excited about the Winter ’22 features, make sure to get familiar with the release highlights of the current Summer ’21 release.
The Salesforce Certification Exams have just switched over to Summer ’21. What? Isn’t everyone already talking about Winter ’22? That’s right. However, we’re still in Summer ’21. The Salesforce Certification Exam cycles follow a slightly shifted time frame to give you a chance to catch up.
Whether or not you are planning to get certified, keeping up-to-date on the latest Salesforce features gives you a competitive advantage.
At WeLearnSalesforce we follow a declarative-first development approach which is in-line with what Salesforce recommends. It’s therefore with great excitement to see that Salesforce are adding more and more click-not-code functionality.
Not only does Salesforce focus on integrating more click-not-code features, they also focus on providing the necessary productivity tools. Some of these tools already existed in the old Salesforce Classic interface and were loved by many, but haven’t gotten transferred over into Lightning. This included ‘Topics for Objects’ which is now available in Lightning Experience too. One less item to cross off your ‘Switch-to-Classic-items’ list.
Tip: Enable ‘Topics for Objects’ from Setup, then add ‘Topic’ component to Lightning Record Pages
There wasn’t much you could do with ‘Recently Viewed’ List Views apart from seeing a list of recent records. It’s now being recognized as a fully worthy list view and also allows Custom Actions to be made available.
Tip: From the Object Manager, select ‘Search Layouts for Salesforce Classic’ in order to manage which buttons appear on List Views. Even though it says Classic, it applies to Lightning Experience too. 😉
For those Salesforce End Users who have been using inline editing on List Views, they will love this feature being available from within Reports too. Previously, you were able to include the record ID in the report to allow Users to open a record in a separate window for editing. This is no longer necessary. Just make updates right in the Report viewer.
Tip: This is currently in BETA. While you don’t necessarily need to contact Salesforce to use features in BETA, for this one though you will.
You might have noticed a new checkbox ‘Auto add to custom report type’ when creating Custom Fields. In organizations where you work with tons of Custom Report Types, this feature is super handy to have.
Tip: It’s pre-selected by default, which I personally think is a little too pro-active of Salesforce. You may have Custom Report Types where you do not want to add the field to, so you have to remember to deselect this checkbox.
You can now download an image of an entire Dashboard, not just an individual Dashboard component. This is a great addition and perfect to use in PowerPoint presentations or any other place.
Have you been using the Sharing button in Classic? Not only is the Sharing button now natively available for many Objects in Lightning Experience, you can now also see the Sharing Hierarchy. You can choose to view the access shares using the ‘Sharing’ button or using the dedicated ‘Sharing Hierarchy’ button which Salesforce have added for your convenience. I’d say it’s one button too many but probably more intuitive to use for some.
Tip: You can see the Sharing and Sharing Hierarchy buttons when you are either the System Administrator, the Record Owner or a User in a Role above the Record Owner.
Managing assignments of Permission Sets with Permission Set Groups has already been a major improvement. You can now even add an expiry date to the assignment to auto-expire the permissions. So you don’t have to worry about keeping track manually.
Tip: This is also currently in Beta. As a Customer you can opt to try this service at your own discretion.
Dynamic Actions are getting even more dynamic. While you can dynamically adjust the action buttons in the Highlights Panel on Lightning Record Page, you can now add additional action items onto your record pages.
Tip: This is currently in Pilot and only available to selected customers. Enquire with your Salesforce Customer Support Rep.
Building meaningful Screen Flows can be so rewarding. With each release Salesforce are adding tons of new features to Flow Builder. One of which is that you can now add more than one column to your Screen elements. This not only gives you more freedom to build out Screen elements but also adapts dynamically to smaller screens like mobile devices.
Tip: Use the ‘Section’ component, add your columns, then drag other components into each column.
When you have dozens or more Processes and Flows set up, you had to search your inbox to find the error emails for the ones that failed. No more tedious searching, you can now go straight to where the ‘Paused Flow Interviews’ were. This has been rename to ‘Paused and Failed Flow Interviews’.
Tip: Switch the List View selection to view either Paused or Failed Flow Interviews.
Source: welearnsalesforce.com
There are so many more features to explore. Go check them out and remember you can earn points for learning all about them: Summer ’21 Release Highlights
Let us know in the comments which features you enjoy the most. We’d love to hear from you!
Official Salesforce News: After June 23, 2021 Trailhead has updated the content of the Salesforce Certified Administrator Exam Guide. We provide you with a mapping table of NEW vs. OLD Topics and their Weightings.
Salesforce Administrator Certification Exam Guide has been Updated
After June 23, 2021 Trailhead has updated the content of the Salesforce Certified Administrator Exam Guide. We provide you with a mapping table of NEW vs. OLD Topics and their Weightings.
First up: NO NEED TO WORRY!
If you have bookedyour cert exam or you are planning to register, there is no reason to freak out! Because the exam objectives as such are not changing much. The knowledge topics and concepts you need to be proficient in are still the same.
What is changing is mostly the grouping and order of the exam outline. Meaning, Trailhead is taking the current exam objectives and groups them into more logical buckets.
There are just very few somewhat newer topics. HOWEVER, as with every release cycle, you need to be familiar with the relevant Release Notes anyways. Some of these topics are now considered baseline knowledge, that’s why they will be mentioned more officially in the exam outline. That’s about it!
What is changing?Salesforce Administrator Certification Exam Guide Topics & Weighting
The previously 12 Exam Topics have been re-grouped into 7 Exam Topics.
The weighting has increased significantly on the following topics, which means you will get more Certification Exam Questions on these:
Workflow/Process Automation (16%) -> will be twice as much, increased by 8%
These New Certified Administrator Exam Objectives have been added:
Most exam objectives from the original 12 exam topics are the same. There will be a few new topics to be added which you should already be familiar with from the Release Notes:
