Salesforce is used in nearly every industry and countless companies today, and its reach continues to expand. Salesforce dominates because the customer relationship management (CRM) technology is one of the most advanced in the world.
The Salesforce marketing cloud platform computing model also makes it affordable and scalable. In May 2018, IDC named Salesforce the number one CRM, sales application, customer service application, and marketing application.
The continued growth of Salesforce also drives a strong demand for Salesforce professionals.
Indeed carried out a B2B commerce business analysis of the best jobs in America, and Salesforce jobs ranked high on that list, with Salesforce Administrator and Salesforce Developer ranking in the top ten.
So, whether you are looking to get a job as a Salesforce practitioner or you’d like to get Salesforce certified to increase your marketing, HR, sales, and customer management skills, it’s helpful to find out the ins and outs of the certification process.
This article will cover the questions and information that will help you decide if a Salesforce certification is right for you.
Everyone who has achieved the base level certifications has had to work extremely hard to achieve certified status. It requires research, trailhead tutorials, and a lot of revision in your free time.
Though the certifications are not easy, they are highly achievable for everyone who puts in the dedication needed for them. There are several resources out there, both free and paid, to help take you to the next level.
In addition to resources, there are many members of the Salesforce community ready to help you at the drop of a hat – you just need to ask. You can also get in touch with flair to find out how Salesforce can be simplified and streamlined even more.
Salesforce is one of the most fantastic tools. Speak to any member of the Salesforce community, and we’re sure you will get an overwhelmingly positive response.
But everyone that has managed to get far with Salesforce has had to invest in it early on, which means an investment of both time and money.
The time you’ll invest will depend on the certification path you choose. There might also be a fee for that training. In addition to that cost, the average Salesforce exam cost is over $200, and if you don’t pass, you’ll pay a fee to retake the exam.
It is thus essential to keep in mind that different certifications have different exam and retake costs.
Which Salesforce Certifications Should You Get?
You will have to learn a great deal to conquer the entry-level exams of Salesforce as part of the Salesforce certification business process. But the battle isn’t over at the first hurdle.
Because the Salesforce platform is ever-changing and evolving, you will also have to keep up with all the latest changes to maintain your certification.
Salesforce does this in the form of maintenance exams. These exams come out three times a year in line with Salesforce product releases (spring, summer, and winter).
They test your extensive knowledge of the upcoming features and changes to ensure that you can impart this knowledge to your team members, users, and customers and apply it to your work.
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Salesforce certification options are all about revision and continual learning. One sure-fire way to pass this all-important certification is with real-world scenarios.
The Salesforce entry-level exams are heavily based on scenarios, giving you business requirements and leaving it up to you to choose the correct solution in the eyes of Salesforce.
Knowing this, you should seek out Salesforce certification training that emphasizes hands-on learning.
The two most popular foundation-level certifications are the certified administrator exam and the custom app builder. These exams are aimed at a specific type of role.
It’s important to know whether you want to pursue the administrator or developer path before starting your Salesforce certification process.
As mentioned earlier, if you’re interested in this fast-growing field, the place to start is a Salesforce certification in one of the two main areas: administrator or developer credential.
A Salesforce administrator’s tasks include helping users develop reports and reset passwords, maintaining data quality, adding fields, running backups, and many other advanced admin tasks that are crucial to the smooth and seamless performance of the software.
Whereas, Salesforce developers design, code, test, implement, and maintain Salesforce applications.
Whichever direction is right for you, you’ll jumpstart your Salesforce career or your overall experience with the tool with a Salesforce certification.
Once you’ve decided on the right certification to partner with – it’s time to start a partnership with an HR platform that understands Salesforce from point ‘A’ to ‘B.’
With checklists, data-driven solutions, and automated HR and business processes, flair is a no-brainer companion on your Salesforce accreditation journey.
In short, you get the training and register to take the exam. The exams are usually a set number of multiple-choice questions, and you have a time limit for taking the exam.
For example, the Salesforce certified administrator exam has 60 questions and a time limit of 105 minutes, with a score of 65% required to pass. Other Salesforce certification exams have differing requirements, so check a specific exam to know for certain what to expect.
Also, consider certification training that includes a practice exam.
There are different learning paths to prepare you for Salesforce certification:
The Salesforce certification is a way to show that you have an understanding of specific areas of Salesforce. Salesforce covers so much functionality, so certification can help organize your learning path efforts that would be difficult without a structure.
Each certification has an outline that lists the topics that will be covered, giving you an objective and target for your study.
Salesforce offers many different certifications focusing on different areas of the solution, and the exam format varies by certification.
Increasingly, employers (either customers or partners) will expect you to have some certification level.
In September 2015, Salesforce changed the developer certifications. Prior to this, there was the developer 401 certification and the advanced developer certification.
The developer 401 certification was a multiple-choice exam, and the advanced developer included multiple-choice questions and a programming assignment.
Even though it was named ‘Developer Certification,’ it didn’t require any skills that you would normally associate with a developer, such as programming and coding in Visualforce and Apex.
This caused some confusion as it wasn’t clear what skills a person had if they had the developer certification. Many Apex and Visualforce developers only had the developer certification, not the advanced developer one.
Salesforce has since changed the developer 401 certification into a new certification – ‘platform app builder.’ This covers much of the old developer certification but adds some of the newer basic capabilities of process builder, visual workflow, lightning, and mobile.
It also adds a section around app deployment to cover how an app deployment and lifecycle are managed in an enterprise environment. This requires understanding a typical app lifecycle, deployments between environments, change-sets, and the use of managed and unmanaged packages.
Furthermore, two new certifications have replaced the advanced developer certification.
The first one is the ‘platform developer one,’ which consists of a multiple-choice exam, and then ‘platform developer two,’ which is similar to the old advanced developer one. It also includes a multiple-choice exam and a programming assignment.
So, as you can see, it gives you the upper hand and competitive edge to invest in these Salesforce certifications.
A Salesforce certification provides you with a broad platform understanding, besides increasing your sales and customer relations expertise. It also helps you ponder deeper into the platform and discover new tools you might not have encountered before.
The Salesforce certification programs provide work efficiency with detailed experience. The modules are packaged with case studies and live projects, including real-life examples.
Acquiring a Salesforce certification helps you understand the platform’s nitty-gritty. As a result, it enables you to quickly navigate the application lifecycle and handle customer requests at a rapid pace with a high precision rate.
If you are Salesforce certified, it means you are in a position to help your company optimize its Salesforce and customize it according to specific requirements. Salesforce certifications also help you enhance your skills to configure Salesforce and become a star performer.
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In this sales cloud and service cloud computing generation, businesses of any volume are looking to derive the maximum output from applications and cloud platforms in the most optimum way possible.
Salesforce expands a business’s effectiveness and offers enormous achievement scope. Thus, it creates an immense interest for Salesforce certified experts.
Salesforce provides a study guide for each exam and some guidelines on what material to be familiar with. The study and exam guide is very useful as it lists the topics you should know.
It also tells you the weighting of the subject to know where to focus your efforts. Because Salesforce covers so much functionality, it is likely that even if you have worked with Salesforce for some time, you haven’t used some of the features that are covered in the exams.
Get familiar with the facts, but also try to use the functionality yourself in a trial or test version.
Salesforce uses the Webassessor online training module and testing platform to administer the exams.
On the Salesforce certification page, there is a small process automation ‘register’ link that will take you to the Webassessor login page. If you don’t already have a Webassessor account, you will need to create one.
Once you have created your login, you will get an email confirming that the account has been created. Once logged into your Webassessor account, you will be able to register for one of the certification exams.
When you register, you will need to choose a testing center to take the test (or you can take it at home) and a date and time from the list of available dates.
Once you have registered and paid, you will receive an email with the payment receipt and the date and time that the test is scheduled.
If you are going to a center, you need to arrive 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start date, and bring two forms of identification.
The receipt email also contains a test take code, which you will need to supply. You can either print the email or show the code to the test administrator on your phone.
Once you are done with the test, you will get the result straight away. You can then breathe a sigh of relief that you passed and are now a Salesforce certified consultant, a service cloud consultant, or a sales cloud consultant, or think about the areas you were not sure of if you didn’t pass.
This will allow you to focus on studying the functionality of those areas for your next attempt.
But besides familiarizing yourself with the exam's functionality, it’s always helpful to think about the next steps.
A step to consider down your road with Salesforce is how it – and an integration partner like flair – can make your most important asset, your staff, as fruitful as possible.
flair enables you to make data-driven decisions by having all your data in one place and being able to cross-reference it within Salesforce. So, give it a try to see for yourself.
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Knowing your test-taking style is important when choosing between the online training module and in-person exams. If you’re a test taker who needs to write things down to help you recall information, you would want to take the exam in person.
In a testing center, you’re given a couple of pieces of paper and a pencil – something not allowed when taking the exam online.
On your mark, get set, go. It’s a scramble to see who gets to the finish line. Is this what you feel like when taking an exam? Not to worry, the exam does not start until you say so.
Whether you decide to take your certification holder exam at a testing center or via online proctoring at home, all exams are timed. But the timer doesn’t start when you arrive at the testing center or take your seat. The exam begins when you select the start button.
So, take a deep breath, take a moment to prepare, and know you control the start of your certification exam.
How much time do I need to study for a Salesforce Certification Exam?
There’s a lot that goes into preparing for a certification exam. Managing your time during the exam is just as important as the broad knowledge you’ve gained leading up to it. Ask yourself, “How long should I plan on working on each test question?”
Let’s break down a typical certification exam to help answer that.
You may be taking a two-hour exam with 60 questions. By managing your time correctly, you can allocate two minutes for each question and be able to get through all of the exam questions in the time given.
A good rule of thumb is to answer all of the questions you know and then go back to questions that require additional time to complete.
You’re at the end of your exam and have marked several questions to go back and review. But you’ve noticed the order of the answers has changed.
It’s important to note that the answers will be in random order when you come back to review a question.
So, you need to focus less on jotting down the order of the answers you’re selecting and more on jotting down keywords to help you make those final answer selections.
“A question that sometimes drives me hazy: Am I or are the others crazy?” – Albert Einstein
Sitting for a Salesforce certification exam can be stressful. Stay calm, and don’t commit the classic mistake of not fully reading (and rereading) the question.
Before selecting your answer, read the entire test question and answers thoroughly. Some questions can be long-winded, and this step is essential to ensure you understand what each question is asking.
Salesforce is creating a buzz with its advancements and career path opportunities. Most Fortune companies seek mostly skilled Salesforce professionals with extensive experience with proven extra knowledge.
A Salesforce certification is a flexible and quick way of validating yourself as a professional. Its certification credentials prove your working knowledge and expertise of distinct Salesforce platforms, cloud applications, and tools.
But even though you will have the expertise to operate Salesforce, a certification alone can’t tell you how to adapt targeted processes for your organization.
This is why we started flair on Salesforce. It enables us to provide companies and practitioners with the foundation they need to master their operational requirements from the inside out.
We developed a suite to use one solution for almost all HR and recruiting processes a company needs. Combining it with Salesforce, where all your data is already in one place, allows companies to integrate it with their other internal functions.
Thanks to the platform, it is possible to create your workflow automation based on your own decisions. Moreover, you can customize almost every aspect of your onboarding, performance management, and more.
Are you ready to get certified for success?
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