What it takes to be a successful Salesforce Administrator?

Author: Prem Kumar

Nearly 60 % of Salesforce Implementations are unsuccessful.

The chief reason behind this is the problem in adoption process. Salesforce Administrator is crucial for an organization as Administrator has an important role in the CRM implementation process.

Setting up, customization and the required non-technical changes are to be done by the Salesforce Admins. Though coding is not included in their job responsibility area, Salesforce admins play an important part in successful implementation of the solutions. Also they are in constant communication with the client and hence have a better understanding of the client’s specification. Consequently a Salesforce Admin acts as a node of connect between the client and development team. A Salesforce Administrator does not need to be an IT person but the following qualities make them more employable:

  • Understanding of the business processes
  • In depth knowledge about the organizational structure and familiarity with the culture in order to maintain healthy relationships with key groups
  • Efficient Project management Skills in order to ensure smooth running of the projects
  • Analytical bend of mind in order to respond to the requested changes and customization requirements
  • Excellent communication, motivational, and presentation skills

Who would make an ideal Salesforce CRM administrator? Experience shows that successful administrators can come from a variety of backgrounds, including sales, sales operations, marketing, support, channel management, and IT. A technical background may be helpful, but is not necessary. The role of system administrators varies from company-to-company, but in most cases, the system administrator (or individuals with system administrator rights) will be responsible for:

  • Adding/Removing users from your salesforce.com org over time
  • Resetting passwords if users get locked out
  • Creating additional dashboards used by the organization as needs arise
  • Bulk data management such as re-assigning portfolios when rep assignments change
  • Deploying new salesforce.com features
  • Creating additional custom fields as needed by the organization
  • Modifying/maintaining pick-list values
  • Importing bulk lists (leads, customers, etc.)
  • Creating additional public reports used by the entire organization as needs arise
  • Creating and maintaining workflow rules (EE, UE)

Getting Trained

The best route to break in the domain is to get the Admin certification. Training and certification will ensure that the candidate has the proven expertise in the processes and has the full confidence to handle the full Salesforce process. The training empowers the learners with the required skill set. Apart from it, they are prepared for the certification exam. Stay tuned to get the details about the upcoming batches.