💃 SalesforceChaCha Interviews a Senior Salesforce Consultant 🕺

Good morning, Salesforce Nerds! SalesforceChaCha readers are the best 💯…and we are going to prove it ✅!

Salesforce professionals are passionate because you have, and continue to, exceed your professional and personal goals 🏆.

The Salesforce ecosystem offers a unique environment that gives more people an opportunity to contribute, to manage, to lead, and to excel 🙌.

And this has created so many amazing Salesforce Professional stories!

Now, readers are graciously sharing their stories with us 🤝!

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Let’s hop 🐇 into the interview!

Today we are speaking with a Senior Salesforce Consultant with 10yrs of Salesforce experience and 14x certified!

Tell us about how your Salesforce journey began? What has your career progression looked like?

The company I worked for needed a new CRM and we chose to go with Salesforce.

I was the project lead within the company and worked with a great Salesforce implementation partner to help us navigate the complex and involved, 2-year project to design a solution for several internal departments as well as our external users.

Over several years we continued to enhance our solution, I became our ‘accidental admin,’ and got to see first-hand the impact a successful CRM implementation can have on a company.

I realized this was the best part of my day and what I looked forward to the most, so when I moved to another state I decided I would change my career and explore Salesforce consulting.

It has been 10 years since I started my journey and I have since joined a Salesforce consultancy where I’ve enjoyed reliving the experience of implementing great solutions for my clients and helping transform their businesses.

What was your inflection point? When did you understand that Salesforce was going to be your career?

I enjoyed working with Salesforce, but there are a lot of factors that go into a job turning into a career.

After a drastic career change (from COO of a contact center to technology consulting), I was excited to tackle something new but I considered this career’s viability test to be my first full implementation project for a client.

Having made it through my first Salesforce implementation project, I could see that this career would be a challenge that would keep my curiosity for a while.

What are some of the significant events that have progressed your career? Was it a light bulb that went off for you? A mentor? A twitter thread with wise words?

Ultimately, I think I was lucky to have joined a Salesforce implementation and consulting firm with really great people.

^{Editor’s Note: A rare recruiter success story - she was reached out to by a well-known recruiting agency who connected her to her first consulting role.}

As important as the overall culture fit, was me being assigned to ‘goldilocks’ size clients that synergized well with my personality and work style.

I was set up for success, allowed to explore my interests, tackle continually more interesting and complex projects, and really enjoy consulting as a result.

The role of “consultant” often has a negative stigma attached to it. What are your thoughts on that, and what is your perspective on the role of a consultant?

When I worked with consultants myself I needed guidance navigating through complex design decisions and understanding the implications of the decisions I made; the decision fatigue was real!

I was able to see very quickly who on the team was able to fill that role well and who was simply waiting for me to tell them what to build.

That experience shaped my perspective and my interpretation of what a consultant should be.

For me the word consultant does not carry negative connotations. I have worked with numerous vendors over the years and had the opportunity to interact with technical architects, solution architects, developers, consultants, admins, business analysts and project managers.

My understanding of this ecosystem improved greatly after having worked in a consulting firm.

Each of these roles demand different skill sets and strengths and various resources may be needed throughout the course of a project.

What should your take-away be from this? ….that just because someone works for a consulting firm, does not make them a consultant. :)

The consulting profession has a reputation for being difficult with long hours. How has your personal experience been?

Consulting is not for the faint of heart and does require a large dose of mental strength and stamina. To add to this, for many consultants this is compounded with long hours that, over time, take a toll and lead to burnout.

Great consultants leave this industry because they were not afforded the breaks and support to enjoy a long lasting career in consulting.

While I’ve had long weeks, this is definitely not the norm for me. The culture of the companies I’ve worked in have fostered a collaborative environment where the team supports each other and helps lighten the burden so that work / life balance is achievable.

This has been key to my staying in this industry for years.

Consulting is a people + relationship business. How do you manage “people problems” - difficult stakeholders, clients, bosses, coworkers?

Empathy and good communication are extremely helpful in overcoming conflict; I find leaning into these foundational skills allows all parties involved to get on the same page more often than not.

Everyone can have good days and bad, could be dealing with something in their personal life, and may have other pressures you are not aware of.

It helps to assume good intent, to assume nothing was meant personally, and align regarding the shared goals as well as responsibilities of parties involved.

After that I focus on what I can control: my performance and output, my ability to problem-solve and overcome conflict, and seek advice from mentors to get a different perspective on an as needed basis.

What is your preference between consulting and in-house roles? Why?

I am definitely on the consulting side, I need variety!

I have been fortunate over the last 4 years in consulting to have worked with many clients, many of whom continue to request more enhancements.

This allows me to work with familiar solutions well after the initial implementation and get deeper insights into my clients’ needs over time.

However, staying with only one organization and environment would be more limiting than I would like.

What advice do you have for someone thinking about a career switch into Salesforce? How can they best get prepared to work, and be effective, in this space? How long will this switch take?

Do it!

There is room to explore a variety of different career paths and work styles, room for all.

Salesforce offers Trailhead to the public, a free online learning platform to help individuals skill up and start their career.

The level of effort involved in transitioning will vary for each individual, depending on their experience and the unique blend of transferable skills brought to the table.

Recruiting firms that specialize in technology resourcing can help evaluate your options and assist in finding a position. For those that have no experience and are new to the workforce, there are internships available that allow you get your foot in the door and learn on the job.

What advice do you have for in-house admins who are looking to get into consulting? What should they be aware of? What about their admin role will carry-over well into consulting? What won’t?

In-house positions offer different insights than you typically have access to while working for consultancies, lots of lessons to be learned there and they should not be underestimated.

However, in a consulting firm you will have access to other environments and can see how different business needs can be for companies even within the same industry.

It is a fast paced environment where learning opportunities do not end; a great time to be a sponge and level up your salesforce career.

Business Analyst skills and Project Management skills will carry over extremely well from in-house roles to consulting, especially the insights and lessons admins gain from seeing data and solutions evolve over time.

A word of caution however, the pacing and work expectations will vary from client to client (and you may be working with several) so it is best to get a good understanding of how your new consultancy will want you to manage your time and switch gears between your clients.

How do you stay current with Salesforce releases, news, and other things that impact your role? Any favorite websites or communities?

Trailhead is great about sending regular notices and updates on everything Salesforce as part of their quarterly release notes, including new features that help Salesforce stay the leader in the CRM space.

Additionally, webcasts are held regularly to showcase and demo changes and new features which can be found on YouTube for reference historically.

I enjoy perusing a wide variety of websites in addition to the official Salesforce documentation sites, and depend on my browser searches to bring me a wealth of resources to ensure I get a full picture of the feature/functionality I’m seeking.

What does the next 1-3 years look like for you? What role do you want to be in? What projects do you want to be working on? What do you want your day-to-day to look like?

I enjoy the work I am doing now - I work with clients to solve various business challenges!

Over the next few years I would enjoy exploring a Solution Architect role, management consulting, and more integration projects (from the comfort of my home office).

In time, I want to transition to a part-time or contractor basis to give me more time with my family and to travel.

😃 Thanks for taking the time with us! What parting words of wisdom do you have for us?

I need this reminder just as much as anyone… What we do for a living takes up the biggest chunk of our waking hours, and it is worth switching gears to improve the quality of your life so do not procrastinate.

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