Preface

Greetings! Welcome to the world of Salesforce administration. The Salesforce CRM Administration Handbook is a comprehensive analysis of the functionalities of Salesforce that you need to know to become a Salesforce Certified Administrator. This book also includes practical tasks that you will be able to perform with us.

As you may already know, Salesforce is a platform that empowers businesses with its robust automation and management capabilities. In the realm of Salesforce, administrators play a pivotal role in overseeing the platform’s functionalities, ensuring smooth operations, and driving business success. This book serves as your comprehensive guide to mastering Salesforce administration, specifically tailored to prepare you for the Admin exam.

Many resources cover features related to Salesforce, but in this book, we also focus on exam preparation and future career development. Additionally, we detail two of Salesforce’s most popular products, Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, so this book serves not only as a resource for Salesforce Certified Administrator exam preparation but also as a first step toward obtaining additional Salesforce certificates, such as Sales Cloud Consultant and Service Cloud Consultant.

Drawing from years of experience in the Salesforce ecosystem and insights gathered from interviews with industry-leading Salesforce administrators and consultants with whom we have worked over the years, this book provides practical advice, best practices, and real-world scenarios to equip you with the skills needed to excel in Salesforce administration.

As per the latest analyst reports, Salesforce is a leader in the CRM space, with continued exponential growth projected in the coming years. With this growth, the demand for skilled Salesforce administrators is set to skyrocket. This book prepares you not just for the present but also for the future, ensuring you’re equipped to handle the evolving challenges and complexities of Salesforce administration.

Whether you’re embarking on a new career path or seeking to enhance your existing skills, this book is your roadmap to success in Salesforce administration. Let’s dive in and unlock the full potential of Salesforce together.

Who this book is for

This book is for those embarking on their journey with Salesforce for the first time, aspiring to become Salesforce Certified Administrators in the future, and all Salesforce users who want to extend their current knowledge related to Salesforce.

The primary focus of this content is directed towards three key personas, namely the following:

People without hands-on experience with Salesforce – If you’ve ever thought about working in the Salesforce ecosystem but don’t know where to start, then this book is for sure for you. It’s sufficient to have a basic understanding of how the software works. The rest you will learn from us.

Salesforce beginners wanted to pass the Salesforce Certified Administrator exam – People with a few months’ experience with Salesforce who want to prepare themselves for the Salesforce exam.

Salesforce junior consultants – These people will be able to complete their knowledge with this book, as we cover elements that can easily be overlooked in our day-to-day work.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started with Salesforce, offers a thorough introduction to Salesforce, the premier CRM platform. Discover its powerful features for enhancing sales, service, and marketing processes. Learn about the Salesforce Admin role, essential skills, and the prestigious Salesforce Admin Certification Exam. We provide step-by-step instructions for setting up your account and efficient navigation techniques. Additionally, a comprehensive glossary helps you master Salesforce terminology.

Chapter 2, Salesforce Architecture, uncovers Salesforce’s platform architecture in detail. This chapter covers topics such as multi-tenancy, understanding Salesforce Orgs’ role in managing users and customization, and Salesforce instances and pods. You will gain insights for building a robust Salesforce environment.

Chapter 3, Getting to Know Data Management, offers a deep dive into Salesforce’s data realm. It covers the data model, including objects and fields and their organizational roles. You’ll explore data import/export techniques, mapping, and best practices for maintaining integrity. By the chapter’s end, you’ll master managing objects and fields, as well as importing/exporting data within Salesforce.

Chapter 4, Lightning Experience, covers the move from Salesforce Classic to Lightning Experience and how to personalize Lightning pages. Explore the benefits, plan for user adoption, and learn to create custom Lightning components. This chapter describes how to use the Lightning App Builder for page customization to gain skills to transition smoothly and enhance the user experience in your Salesforce Org.

Chapter 5, Objects in Salesforce, delves into the world of Salesforce objects to discover standard and custom objects, junction objects, and external objects. The chapter covers how to tailor Salesforce to your business requirements.

Chapter 6, User Management and Security, guides you through the intricate world of user permissions. The chapter discover the roles of user profiles, roles, and permission sets in defining access, explores sharing settings, organization-wide defaults, and field-level security to ensure data protection. You will also learn about login policies and two-factor authentication for enhanced security.

Chapter 7, Automation Tools, provides a comprehensive guide to mastering three critical aspects: approval processes, Flow Builder, and Apex triggers. This chapter brings practical insights and step-by-step instructions to streamline Salesforce customization. Additionally, the chapter will explore the AI features available in Salesforce.

Chapter 8, Reports and Dashboards, covers creating reports, report types, and building dashboards. The chapter gives insights and guidance on generating powerful reports and customizing them. The chapter also covers building interactive dashboards for data-driven decisions.

Chapter 9, AppExchange and Custom Applications, explores AppExchange, Salesforce’s marketplace for pre-built applications. The chapter covers navigating AppExchange, selecting and installing apps effectively, and managing and maintaining apps.

Chapter 10, Service Cloud, provides a comprehensive guide to Salesforce’s Service Cloud and delves into the intricacies of case management. The chapter covers key features and capabilities, as well as effective case management techniques, including case creation, assignment, escalation rules, and resolution best practices.

Chapter 11, Sales Cloud, provides a comprehensive guide to Salesforce’s Sales Cloud, focusing on lead and opportunity management. This chapter explores key Sales Cloud features, including campaign management, lead capture, qualification, and opportunity management. The chapter also covers Account and Contact management and pipeline forecasting.

Chapter 12, Salesforce Administrator Exam Preparation, provides a comprehensive guide to preparing for Salesforce certification exams. The chapter offers insights into the exam format, scoring criteria, study strategies, and tips for exam day. This chapter helps you understand the exam structure, develop a study plan, and practice with sample questions. This chapter also covers the techniques for managing exam-day stress and maximizing performance.

Chapter 13, Continuing Education and Career Development, explores continuous education and career development in the Salesforce ecosystem. The chapter covers strategies for staying updated with Salesforce releases and leveraging resources. The chapter explores the benefits of joining the Salesforce community and offers insights into advanced certifications and career pathways.

To get the most out of this book

When reading a book about Salesforce, it’s essential to have a basic understanding of the Salesforce platform and its fundamental concepts, such as data management, automation, and customization. Familiarity with IT application administration, support, and monitoring will also be beneficial for comprehending more advanced topics covered in the book.

Software/hardware covered in the book	Operating system requirements
Salesforce	Windows, macOS, or Linux
Apex	Windows, macOS, or Linux
Salesforce Lightning Web Components	Windows, macOS, or Linux

The Salesforce test environment, called Salesforce Developer Edition, should be created. This can be done at https://developer.salesforce.com/signup. Additionally, the reader should have access to the Salesforce Trailhead platform (accessible at https://trailhead.salesforce.com/), as access to both will be needed to perform the tasks described in the book.

Disclaimer on images

Some images in this title are presented for contextual purposes, and the readability of the graphic is not crucial to the discussion. Please refer to our free graphic bundle to download the images. You can download the images from https://packt.link/gbp/9781835085691.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: “The use of the setPassword() API for resetting passwords.”

A block of code is set as follows:

trigger myLeadTrigger on Lead (before insert) { 
    // Your code here 
}

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “Place some action buttons on the record page such as Edit, Clone, Delete, and so on.”

Tips or important notes

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