In the first part of the Analyst versus Salesforce certifications article, I write about Salesforce certifications that can help you master technical and analytical knowledge. Now, it’s time to go a step further. In this article, I focus on the topic of broadening your knowledge about the platform, that is, how to ensure that Salesforce is a good fit for a given organization that wants to implement this solution.
With knowledge of BA and UX, you can dot the i’s and cross the t’s after earning the Strategy Designer certification. It’s important because it helps you understand how much the strategy affects the system implementation. Additionally, Trailmix has techniques useful in the analyst’s work, not only when creating the strategy. This certification combines all the other certifications together, and in this way, it gives meaning to the entire knowledge you’ve acquired in the context of the organization.
What do you need to learn to pass the exam?
- Value Design (challenge statement, business objective, user problem, solution scope, metric to define success, organization dynamic impact, external and internal context impacting strategy, strategy design, values and ethics)
- Tools and Artifacts (high-level questions on App Builder and Admin as well as user needs and Salesforce capabilities, feasibility, desirability, viability and UX)
- Intangible Deliverables (strategy for alignment, identify key relationship, presentation techniques, vision, cross-discipline collaboration)
- Averaging Adjacent Roles/Skills (roadmap for implementation, vision delivery to the solution, design/build team, facilitate collaboration, knowledge and skills infusion for vision)
Number of questions: 60 (and 5 non-scored questions)
Passing score: 70%
Difficulty level: Easy (if you earned other certifications)
My impression: It’s the certification that enriches our analytical knowledge with strategic analysis; Tailmix has several interesting techniques I didn’t know earlier. Apart from this, it’s a combination of BA and UX. It helps you understand how the Salesforce environment supports the development and operation of the organization.
Salesforce recommends that you should take the certification exam as a professional with 3 years of experience in strategy and 1-2 years of experience in Salesforce. If you’re an analyst who looks at the entire organization even when working on smaller projects, you can easily take this exam with the knowledge you have acquired in practice.
Example question: What do the individual letters mean in V2MOM?
This is the way you can earn 5 certifications that help you fully understand the system without neglecting the soft aspect. Admin and App Builder are focused on technical aspects; BA and Strategy Design are focused more on soft aspects; and UX, which is somewhere in-between, combines soft and technical aspects of creating the user-centered system. It’s a lot, but it’s not the end of challenges.
Salesforce gives an opportunity to earn a certification as part of a specialization in a specific product. Therefore, it’s worth considering the consultant path and going deeper into a given cloud technology.
Sales Cloud – the cloud technology that supports the sales teams by increasing their efficiency and performance. It supports lead and opportunity management. It improves the chance of shortening the sales cycle and increasing sales volume.
Service Cloud – the platform for customer service; it supports the management and resolution of customer queries and issues. Its main use is focused on managing cases and the knowledge base for agents as well as supporting multi-channel communication, automation, and analytics to deliver the best customer service experience.
Marketing Cloud – the platform for creating and delivering content to customers via specific communication channels. The scope of the marketing certification is very broad and opens the way for even greater knowledge of the marketing side of Salesforce.
My impression: I believe it’s worth doing the specialization, although these certifications can be relatively difficult if you haven’t been exposed to the given product. Salesforce recommends that you should take these certification exams if you have experience in a given cloud technology. In my case, I took the Service Cloud Consultant certification exam after a nearly two-year adventure with this product, and I have to admit that passing it was a pure pleasure. It doesn’t mean it’s not worth taking it without experience. If you want to work with a given product in the future, it’s a good idea to prepare well and take the exam in your preferred cloud technology. You must remember though that the questions are focused on real-life scenarios.
As you can see, Salesforce offers a wide range of products in which you can specialize depending on the business you support. The cloud technologies mentioned above are the most popular Salesforce products. Marketing Cloud helps with building and identifying leads. Sales Cloud supports the sales processes from acquiring a lead to closing the opportunity. And Service Cloud is used to support customers in case they have any queries or issues. Having access to knowledge about these products, you’re able to support the organization practically at every stage of its business operations. That’s not the end, though.
Certifications from a so-called niche are something that you may find interesting, that is, CPQ and Field Service Consultant. If you have experience with this product and you’d like to prove this with a certification, I highly recommend doing this. However, if you don’t have experience but want to acquire knowledge in this niche product, it’s also a good approach. Product niche specialists are in high demand on the market, and with this certification, recruiters can immediately notice you.
Salesforce Field Service Consultant – the certification that is an extension of Service Cloud Consultant; it supports the management of employees’ availability and their adequate assignment to specific tasks. The examples of field services are consultations, sales, repair, maintenance, or customer support. To earn this certification, you already need to have the Admin and Service Cloud certifications.
CPQ Specialist – the certification that extends knowledge of Sales Cloud. CPQ Salesforce (that is, Configure, Price, and Quote) is a sales tool for the organization to deliver product quotes, taking into account business case configurations. It helps sales representatives take into account all the types of product add-ons, improvements, quantity changes, or discounts so that they can give quotes fast and accurately.
There are also other consultant certifications you can do and a whole range of marketing certifications. The direction in which your certification path is heading depends entirely on you. If, during the course of this journey, you find the system customization interesting, you can start with looking into the Developer certification. If you’re more interested in architecture, you should look into the Architect certification. Don’t forget about the marketing path that can open up new perspectives. There’s plenty to choose from. And if you decide that the knowledge you have is sufficient, you can end your certification journey. But why stop when you’re already carried away by your own momentum?
In this part of the Analyst versus Salesforce certifications series, my intention was to focus on Salesforce certifications that play a significant role in customizing the platform to the needs of each organization. It’s not the end of the adventure with this topic yet. Right now, I’d like to invite you to the third and last part of this series in which I’ll focus on the topic of the best order of earning Salesforce certifications by showing step by step the path to becoming an expert. Additionally, I’ll share my strategy which enabled me to perform well in the certification area. Stay tuned. Discover the secrets of effective use of Salesforce certifications and gain unique competence that will contribute to your success.
Author
- System-Business Analyst
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System-Business Analyst. A graduate of Electrical Engineering as well as Electrical Power Engineering at the Lublin University of Technology, and postgraduate studies “Analityk Biznesowy – profesjonalista na styku IT i Biznesu” (“Business Analyst – a professional at the interface between IT and Business”) at the SGH Warsaw School of Economics.
He is certified with the ECBA, Salesforce: Admin, Business Analyst, UX Designer, Strategy Designer, Service Cloud Consultant, App Builder ; AgileBA Foundation, IREB CPRE Foundation, Facilitation Foundation, Change Management Foundation, ABC Scrum Master, AgilePM Foundation, and PRINCE2 Foundation.
