Blog – Salesforce Silver

Why You Should Consider the Salesforce Sales Representative Certification

by Simone

As a Salesforce Admin, I know that understanding the fundamentals of sales is key to helping your team succeed. That’s why I decided to take the Salesforce Sales Representative Certification.

This certification is perfect for anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of the strategies that make sales teams tick. It helped me test my knowledge of the essential which drive a sales team’s daily activities. I also refreshed my knowledge about sales methodologies.

The exam focuses on everything from managing records to using Salesforce reports to analyse sales performance. It really gave me a solid grasp on sales methodologies and topics like Relationship selling. It’s not just about the technical side of Salesforce, but understanding how it helps sales teams succeed.

This certification will sharpen your insights. It will help if you’re an admin or working closely with sales. It will also help you understand your team’s needs even better. It’s not just about learning to use Salesforce. It’s about knowing how it can make your sales team’s life easier and more efficient.

If you want to level up your Salesforce skills, pursue the Salesforce Sales Representative Certification. I highly recommend it to get a better handle on sales operations. It’s a valuable resource that’ll help you support your team in the best way possible. Go for it – you’ll thank yourself later!

Useful Notes

Conditional Formatting in Salesforce: Making Life Easier (with ”)

by Simone

If you’re just starting to explore Salesforce’s Dynamic Forms, you’re in for a treat! One of the most magical (and time-saving) features is conditional formatting. Think of it as your personal assistant. It ensures your users don’t get caught by pesky validation rules. They are protected before they even get a chance to hit “Save.”

Let’s break it down with a simple example: When you fill your Salesforce Leads with data from another tool – like a Marketing tool, not all fields have a value. But have you ever had a field, like the Title of a Lead, that your users must fill out before converting the Lead? Well, Salesforce has your back! With conditional formatting, you can set a little warning symbol to pop up if someone forgets to fill it in. No more waiting for validation rules to shout at you after you’ve already entered the rest of your info. It’s like having a friend who gently taps your shoulder and says, “Hey, don’t forget about this!”

Now, setting up conditional formatting is straightforward and simple. Click + add ruleset, pick your icon and its colour and apply the conditional formatting. Easy! Easy? Well, let’s talk about something trickier – empty fields. You want this little icon to appear when the field is empty. But then, bam! Salesforce greets you with an error message. Same, when you try to use quotation marks (“”), Salesforce won’t have it.
Yet, single quotation marks (”)? Smooth sailing!

But oh, and don’t get too excited if you’re dealing with picklists. Unfortunately, any quotation marks won’t save you here unless you go through each choice and add “not equal to.” It’s a chore if your picklist is long, but hey, at least you’ll be super thorough.

In short, Salesforce’s conditional formatting can save you time. It prevents errors and makes your records look snazzy. It does all of this while keeping things simple and user-friendly. Go ahead, give it a try! Your users will thank you.

Salesforce Learning

Salesforce UX Designer – is in the bag!

by Simone

Guess Who’s Now a Certified Salesforce UX Designer? 🙌

Still sticking to my New Year’s resolution to study more in 2025!

One of my main driving factors for pursuing this certification was my passion for making Salesforce more intuitive and user-friendly. And now, I’m officially a Salesforce User Experience Designer!

Let me tell you, preparing for this exam was a bit of a rollercoaster. There were moments of absolute confidence (I’ve got this!) followed by sudden waves of doubt (Wait… am I really ready for this?). I used the Focus on Force study guide and exam questions to learn for this certificate. One tip: go through the Salesforce SLDS Guides! I encountered more questions about SLDS-related topics on the test than I did in the Focus on Force practice tests!

But in the end, all that prep paid off, and here I am, ready to take on the world of Salesforce UX design!

Collaborating with parcelLab’s brightest minds (aka our awesome developers) helped me understand some of the trickier technical questions on the exam. Their insights were invaluable.

I’m genuinely excited to put this new knowledge to work and continue improving Salesforce for everyone, whether it’s by making interfaces more intuitive or just streamlining the whole experience. I truly believe that user experience can make or break a tool and highly recommend this certificate to get some valuable information how to improve any software design.

Flow

Why Flow Design Matters in Salesforce

by Simone

Picture this: a flow in your Salesforce org, ticking away for years. It triggers when the Opportunity stage changes. It populates start and end dates. This is much like Opportunity History. Yet, it is easier to access for external systems.

I hadn’t touched this flow in years. My philosophy was, “Never change a running system.” But as our Sales process changed, this flow was one of the many components needing an update.

The Problem with the Old Flow

This was a fast field update flow. However, it had one glaring issue. There were way too many pink elements (you know, those “Update Records” ones). It worked, sure, but it was messy and hard to follow. Every update required wading through a swamp of elements, making it a pain for anyone to troubleshoot or change.

Starting Fresh: A Design Approach

Before diving into Flow Builder, I grabbed a pen and paper. Yes, old school! I sketched out ideas to streamline the flow, reduce decision elements, and make it easier to understand at a glance. The goal? Less complexity, more clarity.

Here’s what I ended up with:

No More Pink Elements: All updates are handled with Assignments.
Simplified Decisions: One Decision element evaluates stages sequentially, with a second check for closed stages.
Smarter Logic: Validation rules take care, that Users do not jump Opportunity stages. Our new flow triggers on changes between stages without considering stages being bypassed. For one specific Opportunity type, additional checks make sure dates are assigned correctly. We also have a second decision element on closed Opportunities evaluating the previous stage.

The Results: A Faster, Cleaner Flow

The revamped flow isn’t just easier to read and maintain; it’s also faster. The old flow clocked in at 0.78 seconds, while the new one completes its job in 0.65 seconds. It might not seem significant. However, when you’ve got hundreds of flows running in your org, those milliseconds add up.

Old Flow
Old Flow running time
New Flow
New Flow running time

Lessons Learned

Don’t Fear the Redesign: Just because something works doesn’t mean it’s optimal. Take the time to revisit and rethink old flows.
Keep It Simple: Use Assignments and Decisions wisely. Avoid cluttering your flow with unnecessary elements.
Measure the Impact: Even small performance improvements can have a big cumulative effect in a busy org.

Flow design is more than just a technical exercise; it’s an art. A well-designed flow saves time, reduces errors, and makes life easier for everyone in your org. So, the next time you’re tempted to leave that “running system” untouched, ask yourself: could it run better? Chances are, the answer is yes.

What’s your experience with cleaning up old flows? Share your stories and tips in the comments!

Salesforce Learning

New Year’s Resolution: Certifications!

by Simone

The past year has been a whirlwind of exciting projects—eliminating technical debt, building complex automations, and streamlining sales processes. It was a year full of collaboration and innovation. But let’s be real—when you’re deep in the day-to-day grind, some goals naturally take a back seat. For me, that was earning more Salesforce certifications.

Then came the wake-up call. You know that moment when you see an email from Focus on Force reminding you that your subscription has expired? Yep, that was me. My Platform App Builder (PAB) study guide and exam access had lapsed, and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Fast forward to the quiet, reflective days between Christmas and New Year. I decided to use that downtime to recharge and refresh my Salesforce knowledge. I was ready for a challenge and jumped back into the world of exam prep. Those Focus on Force practice exams prepare you for that special knack Salesforce questions and answers have, which make you question everything. For that Focus on Force is the ultimate prep tool for me.

And on January 6th, I officially added the Platform App Builder certification to my Salesforce journey! 🏆 It’s a great reminder that growth doesn’t have to follow a perfect timeline. Sometimes, it’s about making progress when the opportunity arises, even if it’s not part of some grand master plan.

A Quick Tip for the PAB Exam

Now, no spoilers about the exam (we all know the rules!), but I can share a couple of tips:

After a year of working with Salesforce, you should have a solid foundation. If you’ve created or updated Mobile Apps, Lightning Record Pages, used Change Sets, and made reports and dashboards, you already have experience to tackle some PAB questions!
Just passed your Salesforce Admin cert? Keep the momentum going! In my experience, about 60% of the PAB questions overlap with the Admin exam, so you’re already halfway there.

What’s Next for Me?

Next up: UX Designer! 🎨 I’ve started exploring Trailhead and found some similarities with Business Analyst topics like User Stories and Business Process Mapping. I’m curious to see if these connections will appear in the exam.

What about you? What are your goals for the year? Whether it’s earning your first cert or tackling a new one, let’s keep learning and leveling up together! 🚀

Project

Building a Salesforce Playground: Interview edition

by Simone

When I was preparing for interviews, it was easy to get lost in theory and tutorials. Pre-built orgs for mileage tracking or job search processes have their place. However, they didn’t always provide the hands-on experience I wanted to show for practical scenarios. After some reflection, I realized that the best practice environment wasn’t one someone else came up with. It was one that mirrored the challenges I faced daily. It would also be useful for challenges I would encounter in an interview.

That’s when the idea hit me: build a Salesforce playground based on the exact improvements and functionalities I wanted in my current org. This approach not only sharpened my skills but also gave me an edge when solving realistic problems.

Here’s how I structured my playground, inspired by an interview exercise:

Task 1: Partner Lead Forms Creating Leads

The Challenge
Partners referring opportunities needed a seamless way to submit leads to the sales system. This task involved designing a form using HubSpot to gather partner and prospect details. It also required integrating it with Salesforce via an API to automatically create Leads.

Salesforce Playground Solution
In my playground, I did:

Design the Form: I created a basic web form using HubSpot that included fields for partner and prospect details (e.g., names, emails, company info, and reason for interest).
Connect HubSpot and Salesforce:
- I built a middleware layer using Zapier, as HubSpot integration wasn’t available in the free HubSpot version.
- I mapped HubSpot form fields to Salesforce Lead fields.
Automation Processes:
- I used a Flow to assign Leads to the relevant Partner Manager based on prospect location or type.
- I set up notifications to inform the Partner Manager upon Lead creation.
Reporting: I created dashboards to track the number of Opportunities generated by partners and their conversion rates.

If I had more time, I would have expanded this setup to include Experience Cloud and Screenflows. However, this task focused on Salesforce Sales Cloud capabilities.

Task 2: Optimizing Salesforce for Sales Contracts

The Challenge
The goal was to generate contracts with:

Products and pricing accurately configured.
Standard legal terms embedded.
PDFs generated and attached to Opportunities.

Salesforce Playground Solution
In my playground, I:

Set Up Products and Pricing:
- I created product catalogs in Salesforce.
- I added price books and discount structures for different customer types.
Automating Legal Terms:
- I designed templates for Contracts using SDocs.
- I included dynamic fields for terms, conditions, and customer-specific details.
Automating PDF Generation and Storage:
- I automated PDF creation upon Opportunity stage progression.
- I stored generated documents under the Opportunity records.
Built Automations:
- I used a record-triggered Flow to create Orders, Contracts, and Renewal Opportunities when an Opportunity moved to Closed Won.
Monitored Processes:
- I built reports to track order completion times and document accuracy.

Why I Built This Playground

Focusing on challenges like these ensured my skills stayed relevant and practical. For instance, my playground org was inspired by Splash Computers, a fictional company I created to reflect real-world needs.

Business Model: The playground could easily adapt its appearance and theme to align with any interviewing company.
Customer Types: Unique sales processes could be introduced as needed. The sales process, which went through Opportunity stages and contract creation, was both adaptable and realistic for different requirements.
Website Forms: Creating forms in Salesforce or HubSpot demonstrates an understanding of tasks that could also involve the Marketing team.
Sales Operations changes you could add:
- Managing requests through emails to case for after sales support.
- Utilise account teams for large clients.
- Document solution consultant support during the sales process via a custom object.

Takeaways

Creating a Salesforce playground based on actual business scenarios bridged the gap between theory and practice. It allowed me to demonstrate not only technical skills but also business acumen during interviews.

If you’re preparing for your next big opportunity, think about creating a playground. Ensure it reflects the systems and workflows you aspire to manage. For me, it wasn’t just a learning experience — it was a step toward mastering real-world challenges.

Project

Talentstacker Project – Web-to-Lead form

by Simone

A web-to-lead form was among the project’s specifications.

The web-to-lead form you generate in Salesforce right now is ugly. Not at all. In reality, it looks like this:

We didn’t want to submit our proposal with a form that looked like this! I still had some recollection of HTML and CSS from my early WordPress days. I used the Chrome Extension CSS Peeper to gather the Talentstacker colour scheme and took some inspiration from their webform to make one like this:

This web form generates an email in a lead queue that can be accepted by any of the queue team members.

Flow

Talentstacker Project – Flows

by Simone

We handed over our Non-profit-org a few weeks ago. Now that the dust has settled, it’s time for a quick recap.

The project included a brand new NSPS sandbox and three strangers had to form a team. We did receive more than 60 requirements, we did elicit in follow-up meetings. For our project, we used the Agile methodology with JIRA for User Stories and tasks. JIRA was also used to organise our backlog and sprints. We used Confluence for our requirement gathering and clarifications. The User Acceptance Training (UAT) and the user manuals were also written in Confluence. The User tutorial videos were recordet using Loom.

The learning curve for this project was steep.

I was surprised to see so many custom objects. Our team struggled with validation rules in Master-Detail-Relationships, which cost us valuable time. I finally added roll-up-summary fields on the master object. This provided the dynamic counts on the records that our validation rules required.

I found the flows to be the most enjoyable task by far! Since then, I’ve made a few more flows, and I’m in love!

I made a short video of the first record-triggered flow I made for this project:

Salesforce Business Analyst

Studying: Salesforce Business Analyst

by Simone

How does Storytelling work? How do you find the right people to interview? How do you interview users to find their issues?

First, you need a research plan. Find out if someone has researched this issue before. Is there any documentation about it? Are any attempts done to solve it?

After that, we need to set up a research plan. We need to plan for these three questions:

how long will this project take? What is the timeline?
who do we want to interview?
how do we want to interview?

Knowing how we want to interview, we should draw our questions. Consider asking neutral questions without emphasizing the outcome. Divide questions into openings, the middle and the wrap-up.

Opening questions:

what tasks does your job include?
how long have you done this job?

Middle:

what is your expectation from this solution?
how do you process this specific task?

wrap-up gives you a chance to ask for ideas or thoughts, we haven’t talked about yet:

if you could, what would you change?
do you have any further feedback for us?

The next step includes sorting all the gathered data. Find common ideas and pain points and mark them.

Now it’s time to pack your information into a presentation! Time for storytelling!

A good story includes

an audience
a champion, a problem, a journey to a solution
has three stages: a beginning, a middle, and an end (and they do not have to be in this order!)

Common motivations are:

Saving money
Making money
Reducing work
Increasing time on task
Proving value
Looking great

Salesforce Administrator Exam

Salesforce Admin Exam – The Takeaway

by Simone

Some bullet points from the Admin Exam, I want you to know:

You are nervous about the exam? I was super nervous too when I took it, even during the exam, I swung between doubt and confidence.
Read the description. Read the question. Also, read how many answers you are expected to give.
A lot of the exam questions are filled with information which are not too relevant to the actual question and answer.
Read the question again, what information is given?
Pick the answer and do not forget, to check how many. Do not rely on Radio buttons and Tick boxes
Not all answers you can choose have the exact same description as in the Salesforce setup. Your understanding of the concept is tested
Workflow and Process Builder retire soon, I had to my surprise quite a few Flow questions already in the exam. I certainly did not expect this
Go through the test twice. Try not to sit too long over one question. You can mark it for review and go back to it later
I highly recommend the $20 Practice Test from Kryterion to find the topics you still can improve. For me, the practice test and the real test’s overall percentage were just 1% apart
Finally: don’t be afraid to fail.
“The Road To Success Is Paved With Failure” Joey Green