Up your professional qualification for a career in Salesforce 

What good will a Salesforce certification do? Plenty! As you know, Salesforce is the world’s leading Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. It is used by 175,000+ customers and helps them identify and capitalise on customer relationships through social media, complex analyses and comprehensive reports. Salesforce also provides solutions for managing several other aspects such as marketing, service and human resources.

Salesforce certifications are a way to prove your knowledge of specific areas of the Salesforce platform. It covers so many functionalities that getting a certification helps you organise your learning efforts, which would be difficult without a strategy. Each certification has a study guide that lists the topics covered, providing you with an objective and target for your study.

Salesforce offers a range of certifications that can be tailored to suit specific needs. These certifications are broken down into two main categories – Technical and Sales & Marketing. Each certification varies in its required depth of understanding of the Salesforce platform.

Why invest in Salesforce certifications?

The Salesforce certification program is designed to ensure that people who use Salesforce are skilled and knowledgeable. It is the only way to demonstrate that you have the knowledge to deliver on customer requirements, improve business outcomes and inspire your teammates.

Having a certification in Salesforce demonstrates your skill set to potential employers, who are more likely to hire someone with a certified background in the same. Salesforce certifications are recognised globally as a measure of expertise for professionals in this space. You can take any of the certifications at any time because they’re all available online!

Salesforce certifications allow you to:

• Being recognised as a Salesforce industry expert

• Become a key figure in the organisation’s success by implementing best practises across the latest Salesforce rollouts and releases

• Advance your career within your current company or as a consultant

Preparing for Salesforce certifications

Salesforce has a wide range of certification levels, from designers to marketers to admins and developers. The Salesforce certifications are different from other types of IT certifications. They test the candidates’ ability to communicate with stakeholders and their general level of knowledge about the company's products and services.

Trailhead

Trailhead is a free learning platform that offers guided projects to help students practice the skills they'll use in the real world. With the Salesforce Trailhead Playground, you can try out test scenarios and complete tasks based on real-world scenarios. The Playground is an interactive environment that learners can use to test their skills.

Unlike most test-prep platforms, Trailhead doesn't just focus on technical skills. You also learn the soft skills they will need to be successful as a professional in the Salesforce ecosystem.

Choosing a suitable certification

Salesforce is a company with a variety of job roles that can be a good fit for most skill sets and interests. Whether you're technical, creative or people-focused, there's a Salesforce job role that will pique your interest.

Choosing which Salesforce certificates to go for can be tricky. For someone at the beginning of his/her career, starting with the Salesforce Certified Administrator qualification could be a good option to start with, enough to land an entry-level job as a Salesforce administrator. From there, the Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator qualification could help an admin earn much-desired promotions. Some certifications cover tools like Visualforce or Salesforce Lightning, others focus more on using the service or managing data.

Certifications for administrators

Salesforce administrators work with stakeholders to define requirements, customise the platform, and enable users to get the most out of Salesforce.

• Administrator: The Salesforce Administrator Credential is for those with experience in Salesforce and are constantly looking for opportunities to help their company acquire additional features and skills.

• Advanced Administrator: The Salesforce Advanced Administrator Credential is designed for seasoned Salesforce executives who have mastered the ability to use advanced Salesforce features and functionality to oversee a wide variety of business issues.

• CPQ Specialist: The Salesforce CPQ Specialist Credential is for people who have experience running CPQ Salesforce. These documents are a great way to demonstrate skills and understanding of designing, creating and executing citation streams with Salesforce CPQ.

• Platform App Builder:

 The Salesforce Platform App Builder Credential is designed for those who can demonstrate skills and knowledge in designing, building and implementing custom applications using the declarative customisation capabilities of the Salesforce Platform.

Certifications for developers

Many Salesforce developers already have programming experience and have other vendor-specific certifications. Previous experience outside of the Salesforce field, such as full-stack development, can be helpful. Some common certifications include:

• B2C Commerce Developer: Salesforce B2C Commerce Developer Credential is aimed at people with experience as an integrated Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Developer.

• Industries CPQ Developer: The Salesforce Industries CPQ Developer Credential is for those with experience developing, configuring, pricing and delivering applications for the media, energy, Salesforce Communications and Utilities Cloud.

• OmniStudio Developer: The Salesforce OmniStudio Developer Credential is for those who have the knowledge, skills and experience developing cloud applications using OmniStudio meta-development tools.

• Platform Developer II: The Salesforce Platform Developer II (PDII) Credential is for those who have the skills and experience in the advanced software capabilities of the Salesforce platform and data modelling to develop complex business logic and interfaces.

• JavaScript Developer I: Certified JavaScript Developers I have experience developing front-end and/or back-end JavaScript applications for web stacks and working with JavaScript-related technologies such as Lightning Web Components.

Certifications for consultants

Those looking to enter the world of consulting can benefit from a broad portfolio of certifications. Some helpful certifications include:

• Service Cloud Consultant: The Salesforce Service Cloud Consultant Credential is for individuals who have experience implementing Service Cloud solutions in a customer-facing role. Candidates must be able to successfully design and implement cloud service solutions that meet the customer's business needs, are maintainable, scalable and contribute to the customer's long-term success.

• Sales Cloud Consultant: The Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant Credential is intended for those who have experience implementing Sales Cloud solutions in a customer-facing role. Candidates must be able to successfully design and implement scalable and scalable sales cloud solutions that contribute to long-term customer success.

• Field Service Consultant: The Salesforce Field Service Agent Credential is for people with Salesforce management and configuration experience who can advise customers on field service activities.

Get Familiar With Salesforce Cloud

Certifications for architects

Salesforce Architects are the most trusted digital consultants and team leaders in the ecosystem. They are great thinkers and profound solvers who take pride in creating systems that can withstand anything. Salesforce Architect credentials include multiple certification paths that recognise your expertise and skills, as well as your growing experience with the Salesforce platform.

• Technical Architect: The Salesforce Technical Architect Credential is intended for those who have an in-depth understanding of multiple development platforms and use their skills and experience to assess customer needs and architecture to develop secure, high-performance technology solutions that leverage the capabilities of the Salesforce platform.

• Application Architect: The Salesforce Application Architect Credential is designed for those who have a deep understanding of native Salesforce functionality and functionality, as well as the ability to design appropriate role hierarchies, data models and interaction mechanisms.

• System Architect: The Salesforce System Architect Credential is designed for those who focus on off-platform systems, integrating and securing access between systems and managing governance and testing functions for implementation and ongoing Salesforce customisation needs.

• Heroku Architecture Designer: The Heroku Architecture Designer Credential is designed for those who have extensive knowledge, skills and experience in scalable design solutions, application deployment and management, managing teams and creating workflows in Heroku.

Certifications for marketers

A Salesforce Marketer creates targeted marketing campaigns to connect with customers and deliver effective 1:1 customer journeys.

• Marketing Cloud Administrator: The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Administrator Credential is for managers who can configure Marketing Cloud products with industry and product-related best practises. Authorised cloud marketing managers can successfully resolve account configuration issues and user requests.

• Marketing Cloud Developer: Certified Marketing Cloud Developers have hands-on development experience across the platform. They create dynamic custom posts and landing pages and are fluent in the programming languages ​​of the Marketing Cloud. They also specialise in advanced segmentation, reporting, analysis and data formation.

• Marketing Cloud Consultant: The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant Credentials is for those who can set up and implement Salesforce Marketing Cloud email application tools and deploy solutions for tactical and strategic email campaigns. Candidates must have a thorough understanding of the Salesforce programs, regularly configure and manage Salesforce and work with stakeholders to define requirements.

• Pardot Specialist: The Salesforce Pardot Specialist Credential is for those who can demonstrate their skills and knowledge in designing, creating and executing marketing workflows through the Pardot platform.

Quick Steps On How To Set Up Your Pardot Integration

• Pardot Consultant: Salesforce Pardot Consultant Credential is for those who have experience implementing Pardot solutions in a customer role. Candidates must be able to design and implement Pardot solutions that meet clients' business needs and contribute to their long-term success.

Certifications for designers

Salesforce Designers solve complex problems and design ethical, equitable and sustainable solutions on the Salesforce Platform that serve both businesses and communities.

• User Experience (UX) Designer: The Salesforce UX Designer Credential is intended for individuals who are aspiring or experienced designers who want to create and design user-centric experiences on the Salesforce platform.

In addition to the certifications listed above, you may want to acquire some of the entry-level certifications if you don't already have them. Since certification renewal is simply a matter of ongoing training, having a large portfolio of qualifications is seamless.

Taking the certification exam

After you have chosen the certifications to go for, you must schedule your Salesforce certification exam on the Webassesor portal through Trailhead. You can choose to take the exam at a nearby test centre or as a proctored online exam. You will need to create an account on Webassesor either to schedule your exam at a test centre or to obtain the login credentials required to take the exam online at a scheduled time and date.

>Conclusion

To conclude, Salesforce certifications provide people with the knowledge, experience and skills they need for a specific job and are the easiest way for an employer to verify both your basic skill set and your appetite for learning.

With nearly 40 different Salesforce certifications, it's never been easier to find the perfect fit for your career. Whether you're looking to do customer success, work with non-profits or become a user interface & user experience (UI & UX) designer, there are certifications available to help you reach your goals.

So what are you waiting for? Go, Get Salesforce certified!