How to prepare for the Salesforce Admin certification?

Earning a Salesforce certification in the Software Industry means that you have met some expected criteria as a Salesforce professional. As a certified Salesforce admin professional, you have some bragging rights about the gravity of the skills you possess and your expertise in using the Salesforce CRM platform. 

If you aim to certify as a Salesforce Admin, this article explains how you can prepare for the Salesforce Admin certification exam. It helps you pave your path to success while you also may choose to attend a Salesforce admin certification course. 

Why are Salesforce Admin certifications gaining popularity?

Many Fortune 100 companies worldwide use Salesforce. Salesforce has been gaining massive respect in the cloud domain as a top CRM platform. 

Also, considering that a wide range of companies comprising various industries such as Marketing companies,  Real estate agents, brokers, Retail businesses, Hotels, the hospitality industry, etc., use Salesforce,  the demand for certified Salesforce Admins is very high.

A Salesforce professional with hands-on experience and certification has an extra edge over another professional with just hands-on experience. This is because a client would lookout for accreditation as a strong proof of the professional’s capabilities.

So, what can you do to prepare for the Salesforce admin exam? Let us explore!

How to prepare for the Salesforce Admin certification? Some tips!

Tip 1 – Be aware of the various levels of the certification exams. 

There are several levels to the exam. Hence, before you decide to enroll for a Salesforce admin certification course, it is essential to understand which level of exam you plan to write. For example, on the Salesforce Admin certification path, we have the following exams –

• The Salesforce Certified Admin exam –  targeted for those associated with essential experience performing the role as a Salesforce Administrator. There are no prerequisites for this exam. 

• The Salesforce Certified Advanced Admin exam – targeted for those associated with advanced experience performing the role as a Salesforce Administrator. You need to be a certified Salesforce Certified Admin before you certify for this level.

• The Salesforce Certified CPQ Specialist exam – targeted for those associated with experience having executed Salesforce CPQ solutions.

• The Salesforce Certified Platform App Builder targeted those associated with experience having designed, built, and implemented custom applications using the Force.com platform.

Next, you need to understand the syllabus for the exam.

Tip 2 – Understand the syllabus for the Salesforce Admin certification.

You need to know what the exam is all about. Go through the syllabus of the exam and understand the primary responsibilities of a Salesforce Admin so that you can relate to the topics as you learn. 

For example,  you would know that some of the responsibilities at the primary level for a Salesforce admin are –

• Managing the CRM users, the customer data, and the security 
• Maintaining the Sales Cloud and the Service Cloud applications
• Customizing  the Sales Cloud and the Service Cloud applications
• Building the graphical reports, dashboards, and workflows useful for the management 

And for the advanced level, the responsibilities are –

• Performing the advanced admin capabilities of Salesforce CRM
• Optimization of the Sales Cloud and the Service Cloud applications
• Scaling the Sales Cloud and the Service Cloud applications
• Designing advanced BPAs along with dashboards and reports 

Accordingly, remember that you will need to prepare your mind to perform the following – 

• Understand the weightage of marks in the exam as per the several topics.
• Practice each topic with programs
• Solve previous examination papers
• Practice mock papers

Now, doing this alone is not easy. A good Salesforce admin certification course can make your job of learning easy. Else it can get overwhelming doing it all alone! 

So, here is the next tip – Enroll for a good Salesforce admin certification course!

Tip 3 – Enroll in an excellent Salesforce admin certification course

Now that you have the mindset ready to study for the certification, it is time to enroll in a Salesforce admin certification course. It may even be a Salesforce admin course online, which will help you, particularly if you can pursue the course at a self-paced speed.

Any reputed Salesforce admin certification training, be it online or at a classroom setup, helps you master the core features of Salesforce administration.

You will learn to perform the following activities on a 360-degree outlook in such courses –

• What are the implementation responsibilities of a Salesforce admin?
• What are the configuration responsibilities of a Salesforce admin?
• What are the management and maintenance responsibilities of a Salesforce admin?

Accordingly, as a Salesforce admin, you will eventually be able to implement on the Salesforce platform –

• Automation enablements, 
• Security implementations, 
• troubleshooting,
• user interfaces, 
• customized apps, and much more.

Tip 4 – Join a community who are learning for the certification

To understand more about the scenarios, do not shy from getting on to a group study! Join a community. You will meet many experts in communities who will be more than happy to share their knowledge. 

Also, it will help to explore the Trailhead gamified learning platform offered free by Salesforce.  It is a great place to gain in-demand skills and connect with mentoring and career possibilities in the Community.

 Tip 5 – Perform hands-on projects.

Nothing beats preparation for the exam than hands-on experience!

During the course, and even after attending classes, it helps gain hands-on experience on the learned concepts.  

For example, extended scenarios such as the following executed by Salesforce admin are best understood when you perform them on a real-time project – 

• How to maintain dashboards and reports?
• How to manage user accounts?
• How to conduct internal system audits?
• How to regularly update and prepare the plan for future updates?
• How to ensure that Salesforce data streams are up to date?

As a Salesforce Admin, you will eventually serve as a point of contact for the CRM users, vendors, and development teams. You will be the “go-to” person for them. Hence, you should be well versed with what you learned at your Salesforce admin certification training.

Conclusion

Now that you have all the 5 top tips in handy, you are sure to be confident of scoring well in the exam.  Just have a relaxed state of mind, and you are good to go! Eventually, with knowledge in hand, it will help you gain new career opportunities with ease and accelerate your career growth as well. Earning a Salesforce Admin certification will help you showcase your hard work and abilities while also demonstrating your expertise to yourself,  your company.