Exploring the Career of a Salesforce Consultant

In an age where the world is becoming increasingly digitised, businesses can benefit greatly from hiring a Salesforce consultant who can monitor important tasks like customer interactions and lead tracking. With a reputation for revolutionising the world of business technology,  Salesforce is a service that has been helping companies organise their customer relationship management strategies for years. 

Given the need for CRM platforms like Salesforce, it is little wonder why Salesforce consultancy has become such a rewarding and lucrative career. In this guide, we will explore the ins and outs of being a Salesforce consultant and why you should consider acquiring their services to support and elevate your business.

What Is a Salesforce Consultant? 

Considering or currently using the Salesforce CRM platform to enhance the day-to-day running of your business? You should probably consider hiring a Salesforce consultant too. With in-depth knowledge of all of Salesforce’s software products, these experts will be able to advise you on how to make the most out of your user experience. They fulfil a vital role; by assisting businesses to master the intricacies of their platform, they are actively participating in increasing profitability and consumer trust. 

You’ll need a few things to prepare for your career as a Salesforce consultant.  As far as credentials go, you should get yourself a place on a Salesforce Consultant certification program, where you can enhance your networking skills and gain hands-on Salesforce experience after you attain your consultancy qualification. 

Whether you are just starting out on your Salesforce consultancy journey or a seasoned professional who has aided countless companies, it always pays to have a clear grasp of the typical day-to-day duties of your role. Here are the key tasks you’ll be expected to perform:

• Designing and overseeing project plans 
• Creating business processes and project timelines 
• Forging and maintaining relationships with clients 
• Providing expert technical support regarding Salesforce’s software
• Managing a team of technical staff
• Conducting training sessions 
• Mapping out business processes 

However, to fully succeed in your role, you also need some valuable soft skills. Not only do you need to be incredibly organised and detail-oriented, but you also must have excellent written and verbal communication skills. 

Do you think you have what it takes to thrive as a Salesforce consultant? We encourage you to check out the latest Salesforce consultant jobs here. 

Career Pathways of a Salesforce Consultant

One of the most appealing aspects of a career as a Salesforce consultant lies in its career progression. As a beginner consultant, you’ll be focusing on mastering the basics, like user training and configuration tasks. Thanks to the abundance of certifications via Salesforce’s online learning platform Trailhead, you have plenty of opportunities to work your way up the consultancy ladder and even branch out into other areas of Salesforce. 

Life as a Beginner Salesforce Consultant 

As an entry-level consultant, you’ll spend the first couple of years honing your craft and getting to grips with your core duties. In addition, you’ll be building up a rapport with the client’s project teams while developing your skills by carrying out data clean-ups, conducting data migrations, and creating reports. To become a beginner Salesforce consultant, a great place to start would be by taking the Salesforce Administration certification and then using resources from Trailhead’s Salesforce Consultant Career Pathway to prepare yourself for the Salesforce Consultant certification. 

The average salary for a Salesforce consultant in the UK is £57,750, a competitive figure that reflects the valuable work that consultants do. 

Moving Up to Mid-Level

With a few years of Salesforce consultancy experience under your belt, you’ll be in a position to upskill and find your speciality. After around 2.5 years as a consultant, you could pursue a delivery leadership role like solution architect, or if you are more interested in the technical details, you could take the Salesforce Certified Platform Developer I course to become a developer. To best prepare yourself for a project manager position, you can enhance your knowledge by taking the Advanced Administrator and Sales Cloud Consultant courses. 

If you opt for the solution architect route, you can expect an average annual income of £90,750. 

Succeeding in a Senior Level Salesforce Role

After plying your trade in a mid-level position for four or five years, you can begin to think about reaching the top of the Salesforce career pathway. The role of Salesforce project manager would also be a logical step up for consultants with excellent leadership abilities. 

In this role, you’ll be tasked with overseeing Salesforce projects, liaising with clients and managers, and managing multiple projects at once. You could even set your sights higher and become a delivery director, a senior-level job with responsibilities including overseeing the delivery of all projects, assisting clients with financial management, and providing training and mentoring for staff. 

Project managers enjoy a starting salary of £94,125, and higher salaries are available to those with sufficient experience. 

Benefits of Recruiting a Salesforce Consultant 

Founded in 1999, Salesforce specialises in providing software solutions that help companies keep on top of things. Their stand-out product is their CRM platform, a handy tool that allows firms to consolidate all facets of their business, including sales, marketing, customer service, and analytics. By hiring an expert Salesforce consultant, you can help your business to make the most of all the advantages that the platform offers. 

Let’s explore the key advantages that recruiting a Salesforce consultant will bring to your organisation: 

• Salesforce Expertise. Salesforce consultants have an in-depth knowledge of the platform’s capabilities and how to configure it to suit a company’s needs. Once you have told them about your unique business needs and objectives, they’ll be able to customise your CRM so that it matches your workflows and processes, thereby making it all the more efficient. 
• Troubleshooting skills. While Salesforce has an array of advantages that companies benefit from, it may take a while for you to get used to the platform, and inevitable bottlenecks may hamper your understanding of the software. If you have a Salesforce consultant on your team, they’ll be able to respond to any Salesforce-related problem with an expert solution. Their know-how will help you to minimise downtime and performance issues, thus ensuring a smooth and stress-free Salesforce experience. 
• Knowledge transfer. Salesforce is evolving all the time, with new upgrades, editions, and features being released all the time. Implementing Salesforce and keeping up to date with the latest updates can be tricky and time-consuming, especially if you haven’t mastered the platform. A dedicated Salesforce consultant will be on hand to provide technical support and impart their Salesforce knowledge to enhance your own understanding. 
• Time and money savings. Though the cost of recruiting a Salesforce consultant may make some business owners wary of going through with it, it is likely to save time and money in the long run. Without a Salesforce consultant to implement and optimise your CRM, you and your staff will have to waste time on trial and error, and costly mistakes could be made in the process. 

Final Thoughts

Salesforce consultancy is a fulfilling and lucrative career option for candidates who are passionate about combining IT, organisational, and interpersonal skills. In this guide, we have examined the sort of skills required to succeed in the role, the various responsibilities, and what it takes to climb up the Salesforce consultant career ladder. Not only does Salesforce consultancy offer a wide range of opportunities for candidates, but it also provides companies with a chance to optimise their CRM workflows. 

Salesforce consultants offer expertise in configuring the platform to match your unique business needs, ensuring its efficiency and effectiveness. They also possess troubleshooting skills to address any Salesforce-related issues promptly, minimising downtime and performance problems. Additionally, consultants provide valuable knowledge transfer, keeping you updated on the latest Salesforce updates and features and offering technical support to enhance your understanding.

Looking for Support in Salesforce Recruitment? 

If you are looking for the latest Salesforce jobs to develop your career or are seeking the brightest Salesforce consultants on the market to help grow your business, we can help. Here at MA, we are Salesforce consultancy experts, and we take pride in helping clients and candidates find success in the sector.

Discover more about our work in Salesforce recruitment, or get in touch to see how we can support you today.