5 Top Tips to Futureproof your Salesforce Career

We are all still buzzing from the great graduation evening we had on 30th November, celebrating all of our trainees throughout 2021.

Our speakers each had different perspectives to bring on the theme, ‘Future-proof Your Career’, however there were some stand out points that were agreed upon by all. Here are our top take-aways from the evening:

Heather Black, CEO of Supermums, kicked off the event talking about our coaching programme, which empowers our trainees to launch and accelerate their career. She shared the ‘3 C Model’, which puts focus on the power of Connections, Competency, and Choice to build confidence. At Supermums we help our graduates to mobilise powerful connections with their peers, our sponsors, employers and volunteers to kickstart their new network. We enable them to build their skills and competency in a new industry as well as research and navigate their new career. During this special event guest speakers also joined us to share insights on future trends and patterns to help our graduates understand how they can ‘future proof’ their career.

Here are our top 5 take away tips:

1. Have Confidence in your Transferable Skills & Knowledge

Supermums have always placed a big value on the skills and knowledge that our graduates bring with them. From learning to multi task as a mum / mom (or dad), to communication skills honed in other roles and industry specific knowledge, it’s all hugely valuable to building a successful Salesforce career.

Vicky Nisbet, AVP Media and Comms, Salesforce UK&I, talked about how industry specific solutions are becoming increasingly important to customer success and that people with experience working in those industries bring with them valuable knowledge and insights.

Mike, VP International Operations at Atlantic Technologies even re-branded what we commonly call ’soft skills’ as ‘hard skills’ given how difficult they are to come by and truly see in candidates. Good communication skills, understanding how to convey messages to different audiences, breaking down complex issues, managing conflict… they are all the skills that drive project success.

The lasting message? You might be new to Salesforce, but never undervalue all the other things that you are able to offer and bring to the table for an employer.

“In my industries the acquisition of Vlocity has made a huge impact, we can now provide industry specific solutions but we are crying out for people who can implement them.”

Vicky Nisbet, AVP Media and Comms, Salesforce UK&I

2. Ask for that Promotion and Pay Rise!

Whether it be your first role, or if you are looking to grow within the ecosystem, don’t be afraid to ask for what you need to succeed. Now more than ever, good employees are hard to find and even harder to keep, so many employers are open to having conversations to ensure staff retention.

“The pandemic has been hard on women as they have had to work from home and do most of the caring with the whole family at home. But the upside is companies are more likely to offer flexible working, we’ve all realised we don’t need to be in the office every day to be productive – so opportunities will increase. But my overriding piece of advice is don’t be afraid to ask! Whether you’re asking for flexible hours or location, or more money and a promotion, women don’t push themselves forward and ask…..more often than not the answer will be yes, after all we make companies more successful, productive and profitable!”

Vicky Nisbet, AVP Media and Comms, Salesforce UK&I

3. Understanding Data is the Key to Unlocking Your Success

There’s no getting away from it. If you’re into Salesforce, you’ve got to get into data! Gathering it, cleaning it, analysing it, presenting it and importantly, using it.

Jen, Head of Sales Management, Capital Markets, Patrizia AG – and our first ever Supermums graduate – highlighted the importance of always getting back to basics, especially when you are starting in a new role – whether it be your first or 10th.

“When you start a new admin role, get to know your org’s data model, how the objects are linked, how the reporting works.
Find a good dashboard project to help you get started – you’ll soon find how the data is structured and all the quirks and issues. Get confident with Excel, and get really familiar with data loader: it may not seem very exciting but it’s a hugely valuable skillset. I was recently interviewing for a role in my team, and data management (plus a learning mindset) was a core skill I was looking for.”

Jen Smith, Head of Sales Management, Capital Markets, Patrizia AG

If you are confident with the basics and it’s an area you are interested in, pursuing learning about how data can be manipulated, analysed and used to make decisions with Salesforce’s AI tools will make you very employable.

“Once you have all the data together there are lots of interesting ways to apply more Salesforce AI features this time within Tableau or TCRM (formerly Einstein Analytics) to understand why something happened in the past or predict what is likely to happen in the future. We’re definitely seeing more customers want to apply AI/machine learning to their data. Therefore, we need skills in these additional clouds which really drive value from our customers’ investments.”

Vicky Nisbet

4. A Learning Mindset is Critical to Salesforce Career Success

All of the speakers agreed that showing a continuing desire to learn is critical if you are looking to succeed and grow in the Salesforce community. The rate of innovation is so fast, you’ll never be an expert in everything, but keeping as up to date as you can in the areas you find interesting is important.

There’s a lot of opportunities to learn, the trick is choosing the right thing. To avoid overwhelm, carry out an audit of the skills you already have , what you find interesting and also the opportunities your current role (or dream role) requires.

Jen is an advocate of the learning mindset having gained further certifications since graduating the Supermums Admin course. Now in a position where she’s hired people into roles it’s also something she looks for in candidates.

“I loved working with Pardot in previous roles, so I took the Certification to learn more and consolidate my skills.”

Jen Smith, Head of Sales Management, Capital Markets, Patrizia AG

Phil Lawson from Own Backup agrees and he looks out for that, along with evidence of a candidates enthusiasm for and interest in the company.

“If a job seeker takes the time to research an interviewer, proactively networks with Hiring Managers and Recruitment you will be much more memorable in an interview process”

Phil Lawson, Own Back Up

5. No Salesforce Professional is Perfect!

Having said that, a learning mindset is important…that’s not to say you need to know it all!

Anyone who understands the ecosystem will know there is far too much of it to ever know it all. That’s why it is important to be confident in your unique skills and experience and know where to find help when you need it.

The value of the community cannot be underestimated here – it’s why at Supermums we place a lot of importance on fostering the alumni network and encouraging trainees to connect with each other, their mentors and others they meet along the way. Learning who to ask for help when you need it and offering it where you can is part of what makes the #ohana work! And, know that even then, you won’t always get it right:

“You won’t always have all the answers, but you need to know how and where to find them. You also have to have a willingness to fail.”

Mike Dohrmann, VP International Operations, Atlantic Technologies

The lessons you learn from fixing things are really valuable and demonstrating the resilience to recover and go on to succeed is very powerful.

We hope you find those take away notes useful and apply them going forward to help you achieve your career goals in 2022.

If you need some motivation and pointers on how to boost your career in 2022, then take advantage of our Christmas gift! Get our ‘Boost your Salesforce Career’ module for free now!

Get your free christmas gift from supermums, worth £49!