Essential Skills Every Salesforce Admin Should Have

Salesforce is rapidly gaining popularity as a strong ecosystem with its multiple offerings. Every organization that wants a strong tool or platform looks up to this software to make it happen. Salesforce Admins are the professionals that have various skills to customize this platform for businesses.
There are plenty of essential skills that every Salesforce admin should have. After all, they optimize an organization's work practices by customizing this platform. It is not an easy task to accomplish, which has led to the rise in their popularity. Among their multiple responsibilities lies handling user data, organizing reports and solving real-time problems.
This blog is for those who are interested in this job title. Getting a closer look at the necessary skills is a great way to better understand the responsibilities and future associated. Let’s begin with who these professionals are, what they do around an organization and what skills one must possess to get started.

Who is a Salesforce Admin?

A Salesforce administrator is a professional who is in charge of solving various business problems by optimizing this platform. These experts build, automate and configure technology solutions to ensure business value is extracted. They work alongside stakeholders to ensure the platform is customized and system requirements are defined.
They are ones who completely understand the platform’s working to achieve company goals. While some organizations employ a single admin, many organizations employ multiple people for it. Their key responsibilities include managing data, delivering actionable analytics, supporting users and maintaining security standards.

Salesforce Admin Responsibilities

Every Salesforce admin must perform certain tasks on a daily basis, some on a monthly basis and some on a yearly basis. Each of these tasks are important and these professionals have the right skills and knowledge to carry them out. Thus, they are given these responsibilities.
In most cases, the key responsibilities are talked about during the interview phase. However, as a company or the team grows, these responsibilities might change. Thus, they must always be willing to learn and grow as per the changing demands of the organization. Their key responsibilities are -

• All tasks related to data maintenance.
• Run complete system backup on all integrated apps and systems.
• Analyze and monitor system performance consistently.
• Conduct regular analysis of Salesforce license costs.
• Keep a track of new functionalities and features that are adopted.
• Review and manage user access permissions.
• Maintain the dashboards and reports.
• Conduct comprehensive health checks for systems.
• Evaluate and enhance all processes.

Don't forget to check out: Difference between a Salesforce Administrator and a Salesforce Developer

Essential Skills for Salesforce Administrators

There are different skills needed to carry out different jobs. In the case of a Salesforce admin, the professional must have some key skills to even be called an expert. These skills might vary according to their job role, experience, company and even as years pass by. Today, however, these are essential to have in one’s basket.

1. Data Management Skills
Having skills around managing data that is stored on this platform is integral. It is important to ensure that the data is secure, accurate and fit for optimization and analysis. Good data management ensures the organizational goals are being met.

2. Project Management Skills
A project must have an optimal and organized flow. These professionals ensure that all the key aspects of project management are streamlined. These include communication, planning, quality control, execution and scheduling.

3. Understanding of Sales
These admins work together with the organization’s sales team. To ensure there is a quality flow of conversation, they must have a good understanding of the fundamentals of the sales processes. This further aids in forming solutions and raising apt queries.

4. Knowledge of Process Building
Process building requires knowledge of various methods and knowledge of them is essential for admins. Building a good process is imperative to ensure good communication and eliminate all confusion.

5. Developer Mindset
To ensure they are in control of the key processes, a developer mindset is important. They must know about coding and building logical frameworks. The entire software outcome is dependent on their mindset.

6. Technologically Sound
Technical knowledge is important for anyone who wishes to be a part of the tech world. Skills regarding coding are imperative. Knowledge of computer languages like Perl, C++ or Java will also help.

7. Organizational Skills
Planning and strategizing are at the center of their skill set. It is important for every organization to have properly planned processes and schedules. These help the admin in identifying potential problems easily, executing solutions as needed and even setting up the timeframes for future plans.

8. Salesforce Knowledge
Software around Salesforce usually gets frequent updates. Thus, a professional in this area must always stay updated on the changing trends and techniques with salesforce admin online training. They must communicate with experts and find answers to all queries.

9. Optimization Skills
They must have the prowess to notice any potential obstacles and flaws. Once identified, they should begin working on preventing them and optimizing the process workflows.

10. Safety Management
These professionals must always ensure that the IT systems and infrastructure are running flawlessly. They also make sure that all the users have uninterrupted access to associated notifications, tools and reports. They keep a track of any errors arising in the system and resolve any problems that might arise.

11. Knowledge of Salesforce Services & Products
As important as administration skills are, technical skills play an equally important role. Thus, these admins must have knowledge of the various Salesforce services and products, along with associated technologies.

Check out another amazing blog by Eden here: 10 Must-Know Tips for Aspiring Salesforce Admins

Wrap-Up

Becoming a Salesforce admin is not a piece of cake. The path is long and goes through training and a certification exam. However, this only confirms to the fact that anyone who actually does go all the way through will yield amazing results out of it.
It is best to begin with a good training program and prepare well for the exam. Consequently, one should gain experience and take on challenges as they come. There is a great future out there for professionals with such skills.