Introduction
The Salesforce ecosystem has grown tremendously with the emergence of various new features which are added on with the platform every year. With the growth of our Salesforce ecosystem, new careers have become possible. There are now business analysts, implementation consultants, developers and administrators that have built their career on the Salesforce platform — and have been amazingly successful in the process.
Salesforce Administrator is one of the most important roles that all the businesses involved in Salesforce would need. A Salesforce Admin is able to customize and automate the entire business processes and other development tasks. Let’s get deep into this article and try to understand what really makes a superstar Salesforce Administrator.
What do Salesforce Administrators do?
As far as you know, the role of Salesforce Admin is crucial to making all the great benefits that Salesforce promises actually happen. A salesforce admin is in charge of championing the implementation process, training staff, and managing Salesforce Org. In general, they are the force that drives the Salesforce success.
Salesforce Admins normally work hard to fight inefficiency and champion productivity. They create awesome tools on any device – like easy to use dashboards, intelligent workflows and apps for any project.
Admins keep Salesforce users trained and educated, solve complicated business problems and keep projects moving forward. A Salesforce Admin delivers creative solutions making Salesforce users happier and the business smarter.
Top 10 qualities a superstar Salesforce Administrator should have
You might wonder what makes a good Salesforce Admin. How do you know if you have necessary qualities and skills to be a superstar Admin? This is what we will explore and help you to build strong characteristics and excel in your career.
Problem solving
This defines the Admin role as the “go to” person when there is the need to develop new programs and new processes that are supposed to be captured in CRM.
The team member in this role should be excited and energized to solve new problems as the organization grows and changes. A strong grasp of the technology will help you understand how to solve problems effectively, but a sense of curiosity and love of solving new problems will keep you excited to continue developing the CRM.
Effective communication
The Salesforce administrator is constantly communicating concerns, changes, processes and explanations across a wide spectrum of stakeholders.
Therefore, you should be comfortable picking up the phone and talking to employees, managers or IT consultants about the CRM platform successfully.
Technical & Process Driven
If an administrator doesn’t understand the processes and CRM structure, there can be serious damage that will need to be corrected at time and expense to the organization.
A Salesforce Administrator Certificate is a good way to be knowledgeable and comfortable with the software. If you don’t have a certificate, allocate a good amount of time for learning through Salesforce Trailheads. The goal would be for you to achieve the Nonprofit Cloud and/or Education Cloud certification within the first six months of being the admin.
If you have a database background, you will also transfer your knowledge very well to a Salesforce environment. Understanding a little bit of code and familiarity with other databases can go a long way when working with Salesforce.
Industry understanding
Having a firm understanding of the business and industry in which your company operates is important for Salesforce Administrators because the specific types of activities and business processes that you implement will no doubt be influenced by these.
For example, think about how differently a Salesforce company operates compared to a bank. Both operate under very different rules and regulations, have very different business goals, and serve very different customers. These types of industry factors heavily influence the way a business operates and also the way Salesforce is used and administered.
Strong leadership
Leadership can come from anyone within an organization. Being a Salesforce Admin puts you in a really unique position within a company. Having both technical and business qualities provides you with the credibility to be an innovation leader at your company.
Stakeholder engagement is another important leadership skill, as you often need to partner with other teams to deliver a project, including IT, executives, sales, and marketing users. You’ll also want to build strong relationships and network with parties external to your company, including other Salesforce Admins and partners in the Salesforce ecosystem.
Project Management
Salesforce Admins are in charge of developing and maintaining your entire sales funnel on a technical side. This is a job that requires multi-tasking, working in deadlines, cooperating with many people and serving the rest of the team. The understanding of the platform will come later, but these skills don’t develop that easily.
Therefore, not everyone can jump on board and do the job right away, but it is your responsibility to gain a proven track record in organizational skills and management.
Natural team-player
Being a Salesforce administrator means managing the system so that others can use it without giving it a second thought. And, obviously, someone who enforces the process to serve his comfort above the team is not likely to be successful in his Salesforce career.
Just like with all things in life, there has to be a balance. A Salesforce administrator should not be a person who has to do everything by himself, but at the same time having vision and managing system means saying sometimes no to people and working closely with the team members to achieve the business goal.
So, ideally, you want to become not just a team player, but also someone who commands a certain respect in your team with conviction and resilience, and a good deal of authority.
Ability to get familiar with changes
Responding to change is another important trait a Salesforce Administrator possesses. These changes could be in relation to the scope of the project or in relation to business requirements or processes. Other changes could be proactively responding to changes and identifying customisations.
Being logical and process orientated can help you a lot as this is a quality required for the maintenance and support of the Salesforce CRM system. Constant engagement through support will allow you to be responsible for needs and requirements evolve over time.
Following-up
The ability to balance business value for the user and best practices in platform development is critical for an admin. This takes creativity, and the willingness and want to keep learning and challenging assumptions.
Being comfortable and confident in following up when a new request comes along in order to ensure complete understanding and result orientation is a vital part of a superstar admin.
Continual learning
Salesforce can be extremely overwhelming. Don’t shy away from the glut of data or hesitate to explore new integrations. Stay on top of new features by reading release notes and joining different Salesforce communities.
What’s more, you can actively explore the AppExchange and ask your community about the latest and greatest integrations.
Conclusion
Salesforce Administrator is an excellent option for anyone who wishes to make a career in Salesforce, with an easily-accessible training path and many opportunities to land high-paying clients. Therefore, if you want to grasp the opportunity to become an excellent Salesforce Admin, check the top 10 qualities of a superstar Salesforce Administrator above and gradually form your traits.
Do you have more questions on how to become a superstar Salesforce Admin? Cloud Talent 360 is here to help! Tell us a little about yourself and we can give you a better idea of how to excel in your Salesforce career as well as empower yourself to use the Salesforce platform to its full potential.