How to Become a Certified Salesforce Administrator

When you’re a student passionate about a certain subject, you study hard, learn, practice and eventually gain a degree. Imagine these people are Salesforce Administrators.

Post-graduate students go back to university to enhance their skills and gain a Masters and a PHD. They then, statistically, go on to work in better job roles and consequently earn a higher salary. Imagine these people are Certified Salesforce Administrators.

But how do you become a Certified Salesforce Administrator?

Desirable Skills

A Salesforce Administrator uses their knowledge of Salesforce to find ways to drive user adoption and generate ROI on the implementation of Salesforce. A Salesforce Administrator can be anyone although there are important qualities to consider before diving headfirst into the role:

• Good communication skills to enable you to work across the company and help user adoption
• Be able to build reports, dashboards and workflow rules
• Ability to analyse data and know about security
• Innovative and open-minded (there will always be tools that can help increase the ROI of Salesforce and decrease the biggest Salesforce challenges)

Certified Admin’s Salary vs Uncertified Admin’s Salary

According to a Denver User Group survey on the salary of a Salesforce Admin, they found that the average pay of those without a certification was $69,600 and the average pay of those with one certification jumped to $86,850. This is a huge $17,250 per annum difference due to the Salesforce Admin certification. How can you ensure you are paid the same as a Certified Salesforce Administrator? You utilize the training facilities that are on offer to you.

Training

There are multiple training services available to help you become a Certified Salesforce Administrator that can work around you. Whether you want 5 days, 2 days or a one off day, there are training sessions to cater to your needs but always remember to keep practicing in and out of your day job because as the old cliché goes – practice in CRM definitely does make perfect.

Instructor-led Courses

If you want training spread across 5 days, instructor-led training courses are available for £3250 with Administration Essentials for New Admins or 2 days for £800. This may seem like a big investment but according to our 2015 Salesforce Usage Survey, 52% of those surveyed said that the most important aspect of a Salesforce Administrator’s role is to improve productivity and operations within their business which can drive sales, marketing and customer success.

Trailhead

Salesforce understands the importance of having Certified Salesforce Administrators and that’s why they made Trailhead – a free training and tutorials resource. This allows people to learn and practise at their own pace and give them the added challenge of motivating themselves to continuously study.

Not sure if you could hack it? Our most unlikely candidate, Content Marketer Katrina Holmes, decided to dive into a Trail and see if could help her develop her knowledge of the platform. Safe to say she let out a squeal when she was awarded her first Trailhead badge.

Resources

Like with any looming exam, it’s important to utilize the resources around you. From online blogs by an array of MVP’s and Certified Administrators that offer personal guidance and top tips such as Salesforce Ben to books like Salesforce for Dummies, you can gain a deeper insight into the wonders of Salesforce secrets. Plus, a lot of resources provide practise questions and use cases for you to remember – perfect for an A* student!

Taking the Exam

Typically, people tend to train for 6-12 months before taking their Certified Salesforce Administrator exam. This will differ for people depending on their current job roles and the amount of spare time they have to dedicate to training.

Once you are so full with Salesforce knowledge that you’re spilling it onto people in the street, on the Tube and over the phone at weekends, you are ready to take the plunge that so many have succeeded in in the past. Believe in your ability to take your company’s Salesforce to the next level and understand what changes you can make to drive user adoption and enhance data quality.

Simply register for your exam online by going to www.webassessor.com/salesforce and fill in your details. You can then schedule an exam and be well on your way to achieving Salesforce greatness. We salute you!

This guest post is authored by Katrina Holmes, Content Manager at Ebsta. It is syndicated from Ebsta’s blog with the author’s permission.