Dreamforce 2023: The Ultimate Marketer Guidebook

Guess what time it is! Dreamforce season! As the weather begins to cool (please no more heatwave!) and the kids go back to school, we begin our journeys to San Francisco, CA September 12-14 to learn, network, eat, and play. And we are back with our go-to marketer guidebook to Dreamforce 2023! As always, we have been promised this will be even bigger and better than Dreamforce 2022, focusing on how AI + Data + CRM is “powering the future.”

If this is your first time attending Dreamforce or you are a seasoned Trailblazer, Dreamforce 2023 is going to be packed full of 1500+ amazing sessions and countless community events and we don’t want you to miss a thing. 

Consider this your ultimate marketer guidebook to Dreamforce 2023!

Not going to be able to attend in person this year? No worries! Dreamforce is streaming on Salesforce+ with “live sessions and keynotes, on-demand episodes, exclusive digital content, and much more.” Remember to register for free here

Dreamforce 2023 has everything – from small breakout sessions to inspirational keynotes from world leaders and celebrities. Just check out the number of different roles, industries, and topics Trail Maps Salesforce provides! Here is the Marketers Trail Map to keep you focused.

Hoping to just hang out with your favorite marketing consulting agency? Well, make sure to look for the Sercante team at these Dreamforce ‘23 sessions and events

Here are our top marketing-focused sessions, meetups, parties, and events to consider both virtually and in-person as you build your dream Dreamforce schedule. 

Let’s get planning for Dreamforce 2023! 

Day 1: Tuesday, September 12th

Dreamforce Main Keynote

Join Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff along with special guests for our newest innovations at the Dreamforce main keynote.

Sanjna Parulekar, VP, Product Marketing, Salesforce
Clara Shih, CEO, Salesforce AI, Salesforce

TUESDAY, SEP 12 | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT | MOSCONE NORTH, HALL F
Save to your agenda

Marketing Cloud Release Highlights

Salesforce announced Marketing GPT earlier this year at Connections. Attend this session to understand how the latest features can help you and your team save time with AI, understand your data, and leverage it in your customer journeys.

Heather Rinke, Salesforce Product Director, Sercante
Whitni Freeman, Lead Solution Engineer, Salesforce
Ruth Bolster, Product Marketing Manager, Salesforce

TUESDAY, SEP 12 | 1:00 PM PDT | MOSCONE WEST, LEVEL 2
Save to your agenda

Data Cloud + Einstein: Plan Your Marketing Data Strategy

The promise of CDP and AI-driven marketing is enticing—personalization at scale. Bad data gets in the way of this outcome. Learn to overcome this obstacle with a marketing data strategy.

Timo Kovala, Managing Delivery Architect, Capgemini

TUESDAY, SEP 12 | 3:00 PM – 3:20 PM PDT | MOSCONE WEST, LEVEL 2
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Enhance Marketing Automation with Account Engagement and AI

Dive deep into how artificial intelligence can boost marketing automation capabilities, optimize campaigns, and create more meaningful relationships with customers in the digital cloud landscape.

Stephen Stouffer, VP, Digital Transformation & Innovation, SaaScend

TUESDAY, SEP 12 | 4:00 PM – 4:20 PM PDT | MOSCONE WEST, L1
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5 Ways Busy B2B Marketers Can Do More with Less

Explore how marketing automation can save you time — from using AI to building reusable assets. These best practices will allow all teams, both large and lean, to work more efficiently.

Natalie Mathes, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Salesforce

TUESDAY, SEP 12 | 4:00 PM – 4:20 PM PDT | MOSCONE WEST, LEVEL 2
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How Marketers Can Create Their Own Tribe at Dreamforce (And Beyond!)

This is a session for ALL marketers! Attendees will get to share insights with their fellow marketing trailblazers, exchange war stories, and build deeper connections within the community that will lead to success!
Marcos Duran, Marketing Manager, Sercante

TUESDAY, SEP 12 | 4:30 PM PDT | COMMUNITY NETWORKING AREA
Save to your agenda

Day 2: Wednesday, September 13th

Marketing Cloud Release Highlights

Salesforce announced Marketing GPT earlier this year at Connections. Attend this session to understand how the latest features can help you and your team save time with AI, understand your data, and leverage it in your customer journeys.

THURSDAY, SEP 14 | 9:00 AM PDT | MOSCONE WEST, LEVEL 2

The (Email) Future is Now: Prepare for 2024 with Data Cloud

What awaits email marketers in 2024? Discover how Data Cloud harnesses the power of streamlined workflows, enhances CX, and provides actionable insights to wow your customers and meet business goals.

Yeva Roberts, VP of Strategic Alliances, North America, AllCloud
Chris Zullo, Practice Director, Marketing, AllCloud

WEDNESDAY, SEP 13 | 9:00 AM – 9:20 AM PDT | MOSCONE SOUTH, CAMPGROUND
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What’s the “Big Idea”? Key Trends in Marketing

Losing sight of the big picture amid the daily marketing grind? Learn how hot trends like AI can impact your business, and which other trends may stay or fade.

Martin Kihn, SVP, Market Strategy, Marketing Cloud, Salesforce
Erika McGrath, VP Salesforce Data Cloud & MarTech, Astound Commerce

WEDNESDAY, SEP 13 | 9:00 AM – 9:40 AM PDT | MOSCONE WEST, LEVEL 2
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Data Cloud + Einstein: Plan Your Marketing Data Strategy

The promise of CDP and AI-driven marketing is enticing—personalization at scale. Bad data gets in the way of this outcome. Learn to overcome this obstacle with a marketing data strategy.

Timo Kovala, Managing Delivery Architect, Capgemini

WEDNESDAY, SEP 13 | 11:00 AM – 11:20 AM PDT | MOSCONE WEST, LEVEL 2
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Scale Your Marketing Insights with Automation and AI

Data is growing rapidly and marketers need a way to keep up. Learn how Marketing Cloud Intelligence helps teams automate their data practice to speed time to insight.

Jaime Romero, Vice President Corporate Marketing, Fortinet
Dillon Baker, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Salesforce

WEDNESDAY, SEP 13 | 12:00 PM – 12:40 PM PDT | MOSCONE WEST, LEVEL 2
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Personalize Mobile Experiences with Einstein

Help your users supercharge Salesforce on mobile with the help of Einstein. Learn how admins can configure Prompt Studio and Dynamic Forms to deliver a next-gen experience for mobile users.

Keith Samuel Jr., Associate Product Marketing Manager, Salesforce
Andrew Mangano, Director, Product Management, Salesforce

WEDNESDAY, SEP 13 | 12:00 PM – 12:40 PM PDT | MOSCONE WEST, LEVEL 3
THURSDAY, SEP 14 | 1:30 PM – 2:10 PM PDT | MOSCONE WEST, LEVEL 3

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Learn Essential Habits for Salesforce Admins

Build good habits around the four core responsibilities needed for admin success and learn about growing your skills with the Salesforce Admin Skills Kit.

WEDNESDAY, SEP 13 | 12:30 PM – 12:50 PM PDT | MOSCONE WEST, TRAILBLAZER FOREST
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Marketing Keynote: Marketing in Generation AI

Generative AI is disrupting marketing everywhere. To drive growth, marketers must innovate across the campaign lifecycle. Learn how Trailblazers are transforming their business with AI + Data + CRM.

Kelly Eliyahu, Product Marketing Senior Director, Salesforce
Ruth Hartmann, SVP, Product Management, Salesforce
Prasanna Vijayakumar, VP, Product Management, Marketing Cloud, Salesforce
Steve Hammond, EVP & GM, Marketing Cloud, Salesforce

WEDNESDAY, SEP 13 | 12:45 PM – 1:35 PM PDT | MOSCONE NORTH, HALL F
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AI-Powered Strategies for Next-Level Marketing Operations

Learn how to leverage generative AI to revolutionize customer segmentation, personalize messaging, and optimize your campaigns. Experience how AI can propel your marketing ops into the future.

Adele Kurki, MarTech Lead, Aiven
Jamie López, Sr. Director, Marketing Operations, Aiven

WEDNESDAY, SEP 13 | 2:30 PM – 2:50 PM PDT | MOSCONE WEST, LEVEL 2
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Data Done Right: Admin Playbook for Ensuring Data Quality

Unlock the true value of your data with innovative strategies. Learn how to improve data with flows, lightning components, duplicate management rules, exception reports, and dashboards.

Monica Sandberg, Architect/Admin, EKIA/ PCFoy

WEDNESDAY, SEP 13, THURSDAY, SEP 14 |  2:30 PM – 2:50 PM PDT | MWEST, TRAILBLAZER FOREST
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AI-Driven Campaign Analysis with Einstein Attribution

Explore measuring campaign impact in Sales Cloud effectively. Gain insight on measuring Campaign ROI and attribution in Salesforce, incorporating AI analysis via Einstein Attribution.

Tasha Rucker, Founder, Principal Consultant, ReadyCRM
Brandon Walton, Founder & Principal Consultant, Cypress Learning Solutions

WEDNESDAY, SEP 13 | 3:30 PM – 3:50 PM PDT | MOSCONE WEST, LEVEL 2
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Day 3: Thursday, September 14th

Marketing Cloud Release Highlights

Salesforce announced Marketing GPT earlier this year at Connections. Attend this session to understand how the latest features can help you and your team save time with AI, understand your data, and leverage it in your customer journeys.

Heather Rinke, Salesforce Product Director, Sercante
Whitni Freeman, Lead Solution Engineer, Salesforce
Ruth Bolster, Product Marketing Manager, Salesforce

Thursday, Sep 14 | 9:00 AM PDT | MOSCONE WEST, LEVEL 2
Save to your agenda

Supercharge Your B2B Marketing with AI and Data

AI and data are fundamental to helping B2B marketers make smart decisions and do more with less. Learn how you can use Account Engagement and AI to align teams and supercharge your B2B strategy.

Victoria Calkins, Product Marketing Manager, Salesforce
Kelli Meador, Senior Manager, Marketing Operations, Grammarly
Danielle Grau, Director, Product Management, Salesforce

THURSDAY, SEP 14 | 9:30 AM – 10:10 AM PDT | MOSCONE WEST, LEVEL 2
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How AI Turns Your Website into a Pipeline Generation Machine

Join this session to learn how AI can power the corporate website, deliver a completely bespoke visitor experience, and generate more pipeline.

Sarah McConnell, VP, Demand Generation, Qualified
Joanne Lee, Solutions Engineering Team Lead, Qualified
Tooba Durraze, Vice President, Product (AI and Data), Qualified

THURSDAY, SEP 14 | 10:00 AM – 10:20 AM PDT | MOSCONE SOUTH, LODGE VILLAGE
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Elevate Your B2B Marketing with These Key Features

Your B2B customers’ needs are evolving, and we’re innovating to empower marketers to keep pace. Discover key features in Account Engagement that’ll maximize your B2B marketing.

Becka Miller, Senior Consultant, Rosetree Solutions
Blake Miller, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Salesforce
Shonica Mitchell, Global Marketing Automation Manager & Community Manager, BrightDrop (GM)
Stephen Stouffer, VP, Digital Transformation & Innovation, SaaScend
Nathan Maphet, VP, Product Management, Salesforce

THURSDAY, SEP 14 | 11:30 AM – 12:10 PM PDT | MOSCONE WEST, LEVEL 2
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Measure Impact with Engagement and Google Analytics 4

Make the most of your data for your journeys with Google. In this session, we will dive into how you can utilize this partnership for more effective marketing.

Sara Fefferman, Marketing Cloud PMM, Salesforce
Kyle Robbins, Senior Product Manager, Salesforce

THURSDAY, SEP 14 | 12:00 PM – 12:20 PM PDT | MOSCONE SOUTH, CAMPGROUND
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Develop, Measure, and Optimize Your ABM Programs

80% of marketing teams lead customer experience initiatives across the business. Join us for a hands-on workshop to sharpen your ABM strategy, learn best practices, and gain insights from your peers.

Jared Roy, Senior Managing Director, Salesforce
Daniel Newman, Executive Strategist, Media & Communications, Salesforce
Jeffrey Stollenwerk, Principal Solution Engineer, Salesforce

THURSDAY, SEP 14 | 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM PDT, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM PDT | SOUTH, LODGE VILLAGE
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Our Favorite Dreamforce Meetups, Events, Parties, & Places

The Home For Marketers

This is where marketers meet at Dreamforce! The Home For Marketers (HFM) @ The Pink Elephant Alibi is where marketers on the Salesforce platform can go to find their people. It’s the perfect spot to take a break, network, and get resources to level up your marketing operations.

MONDAY, SEP 11 – THURSDAY, SEP 14 | THE PINK ELEPHANT ALIBI
Bookmark this

The Lodge for Marketing Trailblazers

The Marketing Lodge is a home away from home for marketers at Dreamforce, with networking, meals, and more.
Learn more

Connect and Learn in the Admin Meadow

Theater sessions, four demos, a quiz-based activation and 1:1 Consultations: all for admins, by admins!
Learn more

Marketers Welcome Bash

Come find a friend (or two) to experience everything that Dreamforce has to offer. We will have plenty of food, drinks, and goodies to give away throughout the night.

MONDAY, SEP 11 | 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM PDT | THE PINK ELEPHANT ALIBI
Register here

Dreamforce Party: An Intergalactic Night

Get ready for an out-of-this-world party! From delicious appetizers to signature drinks, you’ll find all your friends at this incredible party.

TUESDAY, SEP 12 | 7:00 PM – 12:00 AM PDT | CITY NIGHTS CLUB
Register here

Dreamfest Pump Up Party

Ignite your festivities with upbeat tunes from a live DJ and your favorite cocktail to get amped up before the concert trailblazers will talk about for decades!

WEDNESDAY, SEP 13 | 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM PDT | THE PINK ELEPHANT ALIBI
Register here

Dreamfest 

The biggest Dreamforce party is back! Dreamfest 2023 is once again supporting UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals Foundation and this year’s main live act is Foo Fighters.

WEDNESDAY, SEP 13 | 6:00 PM – 9:30 PM PDT | CHASE CENTER, WARRIORS WAY
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OpsStars 2023

Join 2500+ sales, marketing, and CX operations professionals and explore how to reduce friction in every aspect of your go-to-market strategy to fuel business growth, gain a competitive edge, and get deals done faster.
Learn more

B2B Marketer’s Lounge

Step away from the madness at Moscone and refuel at our B2B Marketer’s Lounge featuring live content and delicious snacks throughout the day.
Learn more

Pipeline Summit at Dreamforce

Join us for an evening of networking, thought leadership, and fun with leaders from some of the biggest names in B2B.
Learn more

Marketing Career Growth Meetup 

Moving to the next level in your marketing career is so much easier when you have people in your corner. So, get into the Marketing Career Growth Meetup and form the connections to make that happen. This is also your opportunity to connect with marketers like you who are plugged into the Salesforce platform. You’ll expand your network, see things from another perspective, and share laughs over drinks.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2023 | 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM PDT | THE PINK ELEPHANT ALIBI
Register here

Marketer’s Afterglow Party

Join us for a quick drink before heading out at our wrap-up happy hour on the last day of Dreamforce. Come say goodbye to all your newfound friends

THURSDAY, SEP 14 | 4:00 PM – 6:30 PM PDT | THE PINK ELEPHANT ALIBI
Register here

Dreamforce Virtual Event

Marketer’s (Virtual) Networking Event

Not heading to Dreamforce this year? We’ve got you covered.

Join us on September 14th from 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET for the Marketer’s (Virtual) Networking Event to exchange ideas and share takeaways from buzzing topics, keynote sessions, and network with your fellow trailblazers from across the globe.

We discuss the magic of AI + Data + CRM as a group and then engaging in breakout sessions to dive even deeper.

Salesforce+ will be streaming select Dreamforce sessions and main keynotes. Don’t forget to tune in and bring your insights to the virtual networking event.
Register here

Let’s Be Friends Forever!

Pardashians

Join all the cool new Slack groups you learned about including our favorite, The Pardashians.
Apply To Join

MarDreamin’

Register for MarDreamin’ for free – a 3-day virtual conference focused on all things marketing on the Salesforce platform.
Sign Up For Mardreamin’

See You Soon!

Remember, this is just your ultimate marketer guidebook to Dreamforce 2023. Definitely leave wiggle room for changes in the schedule, crazy weather, extra snack and nap breaks, and great networking.

Feeling more of a party vibe this year? Check our SalesforceBen’s Ultimate Dreamforce Parties & Events 2023.

Want a quick refresher on last year’s marketing moment and events? Check these out:

And remember, you are not alone. This is an inclusive community of like-minded individuals who will be just as lost as you, even if they are seasoned Dreamforce professionals. Stop by and say hi!

Original article: Dreamforce 2023: The Ultimate Marketer Guidebook

©2023 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

The post Dreamforce 2023: The Ultimate Marketer Guidebook appeared first on The Spot.

By |2023-08-29T17:13:09+00:00August 29th, 2023|Categories: Career Development, Community, Events|

WITness Success 2023: An Inspirational Experience

WITness Success 2023 was undoubtedly empowering. As a first-time attendee, I found the experience to be quite remarkable. A gathering of women in tech and allies in Minneapolis, Minnesota, offered me and fellow Sercante employees the opportunity to learn and network with like-minded Salesforce professionals.

WITness Success is an annual event planned and hosted by the Salesforce Women in Tech user group with a mission to “empower, support, and invest in Salesforce Women in Tech.” With membership at 4000+ members and continuous growth, I only see this conference becoming more prominent and better as we move toward the future.

Empowering Women in Tech

There were a multitude of moments that left me feeling truly empowered, but there are a few that specifically stand out to me. I had the honor and privilege of being able to speak at WITness Success, which left me feeling like I could do anything, alongside an inspiring session I was able to attend that left me feeling a sense of renewed energy and confidence.

Accessibility in Digital Marketing

I was honored to be chosen as a speaker for WITness, and not only to be chosen but to be able to speak on a topic I am passionate about — accessibility in digital marketing

Was I anxious? Absolutely! Was I terrified I would mess up, or no one would show up? 1000%, yes! Did I power through, have a wonderful presentation, and have amazing discussions afterward? Sure did! The unknown can be fearful but also bring you to new heights. 

Women in Tech showed me that by allowing this experience and inspiring me to continue speaking and sharing my thoughts on such an important topic.

Microaggressions as a Woman in the Workplace

Shahida Robertson-Davis’ session on microaggressions left me in a state of awe. I never truly realized or registered what microaggressions were or that they were happening to me, and more importantly, they were happening to others around me, and I was silent. 

Shahida offered relatable examples, and insightful conversations during and after the session and gave us the tools to speak up for ourselves and others if needed. Overall, this was a great session to kick off my experience at WITness and left a lasting imprint I will carry with me.

Supporting Women in Tech

We ended our first day of the event with a tradition that spouted nothing but support and honor of fellow women — the Ally dinner. And at the end of that dinner, the Trailheart Award was presented to someone so deserving it came as no surprise. This was the icing on the cake to an eventful first day and left us feeling proud to be who we are doing what we do.

The Ally Dinner and Women’s Entrepreneur Panel

The cocktail hour and dinner to follow was a wonderful experience full of networking and exchanging of stories, hard truths, and a peek into the future. For me, it was the panel of female entrepreneurs that stood out to me. The panel was composed of Hayley Tuller, Tiffany Spencer, and Marisa Hambleton

These women shared about their support people and allies, and how they have achieved success in the world of technology, and how they continue to support and mentor other women in tech. 

For Hayley, it is through her work with her company, Navigators, and her work with Hiring Our Heroes

Tiffany is the founder of a non-profit, Tech Forward, runs her own consulting business, Tech Forward Solutions, and is the founder of Dreamin’ in Color; through this work, she inspires and mentors young men and women daily. 

Founder and CEO at MH2X, Marisa strives each day to empower men and women as they seek their best by helping them implement Salesforce solutions. 

All three left me feeling inspired and wanting to do more to support my fellow women in tech.

Guilda Hilaire Presented the Trailheart Award

Following the amazing panel of women, the Trailheart Award was given out in honor of the legacy Tami Esling left behind. This award is given to a woman in the Salesforce ecosystem who “gives to this community wholeheartedly and without the expected reciprocation of notoriety.” 

After speaking about the award, it was no surprise to anyone in that room that the recipient for this year was Guilda Hilaire, Director, Product Marketing at Salesforce. I was fortunate enough to have met Guilda for the first time at this conference (I was starstruck!), and she is everything that this award signifies and more.  To see so many people recognizing and sharing their support for Guilda, was something to behold. 

Congratulations, Guilda!

Investing in Women in Tech

When investing in women, that was the entire conference. Every opportunity and session presented itself as doing just that, providing support and guidance to invest in our future and our roles in tech overall and specifically within the Salesforce Ecosystem. However, two specific sessions stood out most to me and resonated with me as an investment — the networking and the coloring sessions.

Mentor/Mentee Speed Networking

Talk about making a spin-off of speed dating; this event crushed it! So many participants joined, and somehow, we worked out to an even number of mentors and mentees. The session was 90 minutes, but it flew by as we went down the line, collaborating and speaking with one another. I was looking for guidance on expanding my footprint within the Salesforce community and was driven to be a mentee for this round, though I could see myself joining as a mentor the next time. 

The entire experience was uplifting, and I got such great advice; plus I met a few people I could connect with. This session should be offered across all Dreamin’ events, allowing new and up-and-coming Trailblazers to network without pressure to create small talk. Dive into the conversation and get valuable feedback that you can expand upon beyond the conference setting.

Mental Health + Illness Group Coloring Session

Who doesn’t like to color? What an incredible experience it was to step away from the hecticness that every conference has to take a breath, talk in small groups or work alone, and simply color or do a puzzle, or fill in the crossword puzzle. 

This was exactly what I needed, a break in my day to calm my jitters, and I was fortunate enough that this session took place right before my speaking session, so I was cool, calm, and collected until I stood up at the podium and the nerves went all wacky again. But seriously, I think this was an awesome session sponsored by the Mental Health + Illness community group, and based on attendance, I was not the only one who felt that way. 

Taking time to invest in ourselves goes beyond our learning and growth, it includes our physical and mental health as well. We can’t be great women in tech if we aren’t taking care of ourselves.

WITness Success final thoughts

Was WITness Success worth it? Yes! Will I be attending again next year? Of course! The only question left to answer is whether or not I will see you there. I hope the answer is ABSOLUTELY!

Original article: WITness Success 2023: An Inspirational Experience

©2023 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

The post WITness Success 2023: An Inspirational Experience appeared first on The Spot.

By |2023-08-29T13:13:06+00:00August 29th, 2023|Categories: Career Development, Community, Events|

Find Sercante at These Dreamforce ‘23 Sessions and Events

We are less than a month away from the tech conference unlike any other where trailblazers will “experience the magic of AI + Data + CRM!” There will be 1500+ sessions to choose from for Dreamforce 2023 and 75+ AI thought leaders jam packed into 3 days. 

Whether you are attending virtually or in person, it can be overwhelming to sort through all the options as you make your schedule. To help make it a little easier, we have highlighted a few sessions and events where you can find Sercante at Dreamforce to build the ultimate Dreamforce 2023 agenda!

Join us in person at any of the events listed in this blog post. Or sign up here for any of the Sercante-hosted Dreamforce events listed in this post. Also, keep watching this space when we announce details for our virtual Dreamforce networking party, which we’re hosting along with community friends during Dreamforce (Sept. 12-14).

Dreamforce ‘23 Sessions Featuring Sercante Experts

As you create your agenda this year, Salesforce MVP, Marketing Champion, and Golden Hoodie recipient, Ben LaMothe, encourages marketers to consider sessions that are outside of their typical concentration. 

An example of that this year is all of the AI and Data Cloud sessions there will be. With all the features coming out, marketers should continue to explore new ways they can leverage them for their daily operations to make processes more efficient, solve challenges, and reach new heights.

With this in mind, here are the sessions to have on your radar to find Sercante at Dreamforce ‘23.

Leverage AI Across the Salesforce Platform

Bookmark
Tuesday, Sep 12 l 12:30 – 12:50 PM PDT

This session is relevant for all trailblazers across all levels and product focus. From core to marketing, the experts are going to share how AI can help make all users more impactful in their day-to-day roles.

Role: All trailblazers
Industry: All
Product: All
Session Type: Campfire
Room Location Details: Einstein Community Campfire

Speakers

Marcos Duran
Marketing Operations Manager, Sercante

Marketing Cloud Release Highlights

Bookmark
Tuesday, Sep 12 l 1:00 pm PDT
Thursday, Sep 14 l 9:00 am PDT

Salesforce announced Marketing GPT earlier this year at Connections. Now, you can attend this session to understand how the latest features can help you and your team save time with AI, understand your data, and leverage it in your customer journeys.

Role: Marketing, Sales
Product: Marketing Cloud
Session Type: Theater
Session Level: Intermediate
Room Location Details: Moscone West, Level 2

Speakers

Heather Rinke
Salesforce Product Director, Sercante

Whitni Freeman
Lead Solution Engineer, Salesforce

Ruth Bolster
Product Marketing Manager, Salesforce

How Marketers Can Create Their Own Tribe at Dreamforce (And Beyond!)

Tuesday, Sep 12 l 4:30 – 5:00 pm PDT

Role: Marketing
Room Location Details: Community Networking Area

This is a session for ALL marketers! Attendees will get to share insights with their fellow marketing trailblazers, exchange war stories, and build deeper connections within the community that will lead to success.

Speaker

Marcos Duran, Marketing Operations Manager, Sercante

5 Tips for Getting Started with Data Cloud

Bookmark

Wednesday, Sep 13 l 12:30 – 12:50 pm PDT
Thursday, Sep 14 l 12:00 – 12:20 pm PDT

Role: Marketing, Sales
Product: Marketing Cloud
Session Type: Theater
Session Level: Intermediate
Room Location Details: Data Cloud Theater (Moscone West, Level 2)

Are you wondering if Data Cloud is right for you or has your team discussed implementing Data Cloud and you are searching for the best path forward? Then this session is perfect for you. Experts will discuss five realistic tips and takeaways that you and your team can use for implementing Data Cloud successfully. Covering the use cases, data ingestion, modeling, harmonization, and more, this session will help you kickstart your Data Cloud journey and advance with some best practices.

Speakers

Adam Erstelle 
VP of Technology, Sercante

Joyce Avila
Program Lead, Data Cloud, Sercante

Arvind Raman
Director, Partner Delivery Success (Data Cloud)

Dreamforce Agenda Building – Words of Wisdom from Marketing Champions 

As you are building the ultimate Dreamforce 2023 agenda, a piece of advice to keep in mind as you plan your schedule is to not overload yourself. Marketing Champions on the Road to the Home for Marketers series shared:

“Don’t overdo your schedule. Give yourself time in between sessions to absorb all the information.” – Shonica Mitchell, Global Marketing Automation & Community Manager at BrightDrop

“Don’t pack your schedule with 30 things. Pick your top sessions and leave room for the magic to happen.” – Jaime López

“Plan for the transition time in between sessions. It could take you almost 20 minutes to get from one session to the next. Also plan backups just in case.” – Pato Sapir

Therefore, make sure you have your goals set, so you know what you want to accomplish at Dreamforce this year and then prioritize the sessions you want to attend based on your goals, but still leave room for transition periods and spontaneous connections.

Sercante Dreamforce ‘23 Events (Just outside of the conference)

On Ben LaMothe’s Road to the Home for Marketers Interview he shared that he wished he would have attended more off-site events at a previous Dreamforce conference. He exclaimed, “There is so much going on outside of Dreamforce proper.” 

While the unforgettable tech conference is THE MAIN focus, the streets surrounding the Moscone Center will be filled with events, meetups, panels, roundtables, and festivities where trailblazers can enjoy more intimate spaces to network, form deeper connections, refuel, recharge, and advance their skills.

Here are just a few of the many events happening where you can find Sercante at Dreamforce ‘23:

Sercante Presents: The Home for Marketers

Where: Pink Elephant Alibi l 142 Minna Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
When: Sep 12 – 14
Register Here

In collaboration with Stensul, Print For Less, Gridmate, Appinium, Goldcast, and The Spot, Sercante hosts The Home for Marketers, where marketers meet at Dreamforce. Located just around the corner from the Moscone Center, it’s the spot to create deeper connections away from the crowd, network and meet someone new or see a familiar face and reunite with friends. The team is hosting electric events and meetups all week designed specifically for marketers and all trailblazers alike!

As Kelli Meador, Senior Manager Marketing Operations at Grammarly said in her Road to the Home for Marketers interview, “It was the in-person connections with the other marketers that really made it be The Home for Marketers. All marketers are welcome.”

The Home for Marketers also has you covered with learning opportunities and solutioning sessions. You can sign up for a time slot at the Genius Bar and receive recommendations and best practices from Sercante experts. Located in the Learning Lodge, attendees can also discover the latest in marketing technology solutions to advance their operations and achieve their goals.

In addition to the invaluable connections and great learning opportunities, the Home for Marketers will also have complimentary food and beverages to keep you fueled and a lounge where you can recharge and either rest or have some fun!

Marketer’s Welcome Bash

Where: Pink Elephant Alibi l 142 Minna Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
When: Monday Sep 11 | 6:00 – 9:00 pm PDT
Register Here

This is THE EVENT for marketers to kick off their Dreamforce experience. The ultimate Welcome Bash blowout, attendees will get to meet and be reunited with Salesforce MVPs, Marketing Champions, User Group Leaders, and hundreds of marketing trailblazers from around the world! Accompanied with your favorite beverages and delectable food stations, be sure to sign up and add this one to your calendar!

An Intergalactic Night

Where: 715 Harrison (formerly City Nights) 715 Harrison St, San Francisco, CA 94107
When: Tuesday Sep 12 | 7:00 pm – 12:00 am PDT
Register Here

The celestial soriée like no other, this cosmic celebration will take trailblazers on an exciting journey through the galaxy with stellar beats from a live band and spectacular DJ. Attendees will be dazzled by jaw dropping entertainment and sparkling decor as they indulge in out-of-this-world specialty cocktails and mouth-watering hors d’oeuvres. 

Dreamfest Pump Up Party

Where: Pink Elephant Alibi l 142 Minna Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
When: Wednesday, Sep 13 l 4:30 – 6:30 pm PDT
Register Here

There is only one concert that will have trailblazers talking for decades… it’s Dreamfest! Join the ultimate pregame event and get hyped for all the excitement. Enjoy upbeat tunes from the DJ, make a toast with your favorite beverage, and fuel up with delicious snacks. Make one more cheers and meet up with your fellow marketing trailblazers before everyone heads in to experience the tech conference entertainment of the season!

Marketer’s Afterglow Party

Where: Pink Elephant Alibi l 142 Minna Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
When: Thursday, Sep 14 l 4:00 – 6:00 pm PDT
Register Here

It’s the Dreamforce wrap up networking event designed exclusively for marketers. Get to see your fellow marketing trailblazers one last time as we prepare to say farewell to all the meaningful connections that we made. Enjoy complimentary food and drinks and raise a glass to an incredible conference and the trailblazer community until we all gather again next year.

See You At Dreamforce ‘23

The Sercante team is counting the days until Dreamforce! We cannot wait to connect with our fellow trailblazers and this amazing marketing community. 

We’ll have several members from our team there in person including Andrea Tarrell, Erin Duncan, Marcos Duran, Adam Erstelle, Joyce Avila, Adam Berry, Heather Rinke, and Jordyn Jaffer just to name a few. 
You now know our sessions, about the Home for Marketers, and where we’ll be. Come find Sercante at Dreamforce ‘23!

Original article: Find Sercante at These Dreamforce ‘23 Sessions and Events

©2023 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

The post Find Sercante at These Dreamforce ‘23 Sessions and Events appeared first on The Spot.

By |2023-08-17T13:51:58+00:00August 17th, 2023|Categories: Career Development, Community, Events|

Lessons Learned While Delivering Salesforce Training in Spanish

The majority of Salesforce training you’ll find in the world is conducted in English. But things are changing as the platform grows in other parts of the world. We’ve seen a few self-guided Salesforce courses and Trailhead content in other languages, including Spanish. But the options are limited when it comes to getting hands-on and instructor-led Salesforce training in Spanish or other languages.

In this post, we’ll cover the lessons learned while delivering a Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) bootcamp in Spanish so more organizations can offer training in languages beyond English.

How did the Spanish Account Engagement bootcamp come to fruition?

My name is Marcos Duran and I am a Marketing Manager at Sercante. In my role, I support our team with the development and delivering of Salesforce training to our customers. I have been a Salesforce user for almost a decade and Salesforce consultant for the past 7 years. 

Part of being a #MomentMarketer is that you need to not only stay ahead of the latest trends and hot topics but also bring your tribe with you. My old Spanish professor used to use the term “Compartir la riqueza” or “share the wealth” in English.

This year I decided that I wanted to challenge myself with creating and delivering an Account Engagement (Pardot) bootcamp 100% in Spanish. My goal is to support Spanish speakers in earning their Pardot Specialist certification

For a little bit of background, this platform gave me my “real” start in the ecosystem years ago. Although I am a native Spanish speaker, this is still a challenging feat since all the content has to be dubbed into Spanish and has to be tweaked to make sense technically and also culturally.

Here’s a hot take: Google Translate can get you 70% there, but that last 30% is what differentiates a speaker versus just dropping it into a translator. Before you say anyone can do that, I’ll ask why do you think more people haven’t?

This course lasted five weeks for a total of 8 one-hour classes. During three of those five weeks, we met twice.

Six big takeaways from developing a Salesforce training course in Spanish

Here’s a few lessons I learned along the way of doing this bootcamp. I hope they will help you plan better if you are interested in offering virtual webinars/programs as a user group leader or in your own organization.

1. Lean heavily on pre-promotion

A rule of thumb for webinars is that at least 50% of your signups won’t show. 

In my case, this was close to my final numbers. I ended up with a 30% signup rate between announcing the bootcamp on LinkedIn and getting people to actually sign up. 

Lesson Learned: My mistake here was that I didn’t have the form ready when I was gauging interest. As a result, I lost on that initial wave of hype. If you do this internally, get people to register once you gauge interest.

LinkedIn post I shared to see if people in my network have interest in Salesforce training in Spanish

And the poll I posted…

Question Translation: Would you be interested in a bootcamp to prepare for the Pardot Specialist exam in Spanish?

2. Reach out to your community

From promotion to content creation, I reached out to people in my network who had been through this experience, looking for advice. 

I received a lot of positive advice — special shout out to Lara Black, Daniela Galmes, Victor Alberto Pantoja, and Ben LaMothe for all their support. 

Thanks to their encouragement, I was able to support 30 students from 13 countries around the world in their native language with Account Engagement content.

Marcos Duran with fellow marketing Trailblazers from the Salesforce community

Lesson Learned: Message the people you know who can offer advice, introduce you to people in their network, or help you to promote your efforts.

3. Optimize your course content

This particular bootcamp was focused on getting ready for the Pardot Specialist certification

We used the study guide material from Trailhead to guide the format of our bootcamp and essentially focus on the goal of passing the exam. In addition, I provided our students live demos of the essential parts of Account Engagement (for the visuals), presentation decks, and links to documentation from the Salesforce Help Center for additional guidance.

Lesson Learned: Build your training course using resources from Salesforce. That’s who designed the exam you’re attempting to pass and the tools you’re using. So, that’s definitely the best place to start.

4. Encourage student engagement

This was my favorite part. To get our course going, I engaged our students with questions about their own experiences. For many, this meant comparing features with Marketing Cloud Engagement to help create the bridge between their experience with that platform and this new platform material. 

We had several long conversations throughout the course that really showed the real-life business challenges they were facing. Thank you to everyone who shared with us!

Lesson Learned: Have a sense of humor when things go wrong. Having to say automations in Spanish 30 times in one hour is not fun — it is definitely a tongue twister. Thanks to everyone for putting up with me as I searched for the correct words to illustrate my point. 

5. Send plenty of reminders

This is a tip from Google Calendars: send reminders close to the webinar start time. I would send out a message a few hours before class to remind students, “Hey – class is today, make sure you show up.” 

This was the hardest for me because through this course I would see our attendance numbers fluctuate. At the end of the day, I understand we all have lives outside of work. So it’s best to be patient and as helpful as we can with others. 

Lesson Learned: Keep on sending those course reminders. Your students appreciate them!

6. On-Demand

Finally, at the end of each week, I would send everyone the slides and recordings. I would suggest you do this once at the end of the course.

Lesson Learned: Offering the course recordings on demand is essential. Life happens, students may miss a session or two. This content is also a lot to take in, so giving the option to revisit is going to help your students to be more successful.

Changes I would make to future Salesforce training in Spanish

Now that you read a little about how this course went for me, you may be wondering what’s next?

Well, here’s a few things I would do differently:

  1. I would love to be able to do this in person to really give the students the most support I can.
  2. I would continue to team up with other Account Engagement rock stars and divide the work to ensure we bring in different experiences to the classroom.
  3. I would probably promote this a little longer than I did (initially we had just north of 100 people interested in Spanish Pardot training).

Other than that, I feel it always pays to help others power up. I look forward to continuing to support Spanish and English speakers on the Salesforce platform and continue to make the most out of their investment. 

If you are interested in watching the Spanish Bootcamp series please click here.

Sign up for marketing-focused Salesforce training courses

If you’re ready to take your strategy, technical, and creative skills to the next level, we have the marketing-focused Salesforce training courses you need.

You can join our regularly scheduled courses or ask us about private training options — like this one that was offered to Spanish speakers in the Salesforce community.
Check out our training options here.

Original article: Lessons Learned While Delivering Salesforce Training in Spanish

©2023 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

The post Lessons Learned While Delivering Salesforce Training in Spanish appeared first on The Spot.

By |2023-07-03T20:57:30+00:00July 3rd, 2023|Categories: Career Development, Community, Real Talk, revive|

Introducing the 2023 Salesforce Marketing Champions: Dragon Edition

Congratulations to the 2023 class of Salesforce Marketing Champions! We are honored that some of our own Sercante dragons were selected as part of this prestigious group this year.

Let’s get to know them.

The Program: Salesforce Marketing Champions

First! What even is a Salesforce Marketing Champion?

Salesforce knows a career as a marketer can be a hectic, fire-emergency-filled job. You are communicating across departments, across the globe, and in large amounts of acronyms.

We truly enjoy our work, but sometimes it can be thankless. Salesforce provides this program as a way to recognize champions in the Salesforce marketing space and help amplify the marketing voice, both in and outside the Trailblazer Community. 

Champions are nominated through the community and have a wealth of knowledge in marketing and the Salesforce platform. Each champion is a #MomentMarketer, Googling their way to success, always learning and improving their skills through certifications, and truly demonstrating their strategic love through training sessions, speaking events, and content creation. 

We want to send another big congratulations to the entire Salesforce Marketing Champion class of 2023! See the complete list here

Don’t forget to check out the 2023 Salesforce MVPs, too — Congrats to The Salesforce MVP Class of 2023!

MVPs are similar to the marketing champions. According to the Salesforce MVP Code of Conduct, MVPs are “lifelong learners who go above and beyond to share their expertise and help the entire community succeed… [and] leaders in the Trailblazer Community who encourage each other, celebrate others’ successes, work collaboratively to make our community and the world a better place, and have a lot of fun along the way!”

The People: Meet The New Sercante Marketing Champions

Let’s meet the Sercante dragons who worked hard in their communities and made it into the Salesforce Marketing Champions class of 2023.

New Marketing Champion #1. Cara Weese

Thoughts about joining the program

“It is an honor to be named among such an esteemed group of professionals. I have been working in the Salesforce community for 10 years now, and I am excited to combine my passions for Salesforce and Marketing to help drive growth for organizations and fellow community members who are learning the Marketing Cloud platforms or looking to up their marketing game to the next level by providing advice, best practices, and through networking events.”

Fav tool!

“I don’t know that I can choose just one. I guess I would have to go with Salesforce Analytics and bucket all of the reports, dashboards, Intelligence, and B2BMA in one umbrella. I have a great passion for analytics!”

Something fun!

“I love books! Whenever I have downtime, whether that be traveling, sitting outside, or even working at my desk, I have to be listening to an audiobook. I also pick up books from time to time, but as a busy working mom, it’s often easier to listen. I love Fantasy, Mystery, YA Fiction, and Historical Fiction, but honestly, I could read just about anything.”

New Marketing Champion #2. Cate Godley

Thoughts about joining the program

“I’m excited to join the Marketing Champions program and connect with other marketers in the Salesforce community. I’m passionate about education and can’t wait to help more people learn how to effectively use and manage Account Engagement.”

Fav tool!

Salesforce Reports/Dashboards. I love data and getting to create my own reports and dashboards to display that data is one of my favorite things.”

Something fun!

“I love going to concerts, house plants, dogs, and playing board games. If I’m not doing something related to Salesforce I’m most likely doing something related to one of those things.” 

New Marketing Champion #3. Jacob Catalano

Thoughts about joining the program

“I’m extremely excited to be a part of the 2023 class of Marketing Champions with so many of my colleagues in the Salesforce community. Being included in such a brilliant group of marketers is a dream come true and I can not wait to learn and grow alongside some of the brightest minds in the Salesforce community.”

Fav tool!

Flows is one of the most powerful automation tools out there and I love when I can just take an hour or two and find new ways to use Flow.”

Something fun!

“I spend most of my time performing in musicals locally and playing golf. These two things are totally different but give me the most joy and let me step away from things going on and relax.”

New Marketing Champion #4. Julian Janssen

Thoughts about joining the program

“I’m really excited to be named to the 2023 class of #MarketingChampions alongside some of my amazing colleagues at Sercante, and be more involved in the community around Salesforce’s amazing marketing automation tools! This ecosystem has provided me amazing opportunities in my own career, so I am excited to give back and guide others in this space.”

Fav tool!

Campaign Influence: I love the Campaign Influence reporting models available in Salesforce. It’s an amazing tool to help marketing departments recognize and validate the value of how their campaigns help affect pipeline and realize revenue — a massive impact on most businesses that often goes overlooked.”

Something fun!

“I spend most of my time not working being a music nerd — going to concerts, browsing through records, playing guitar, or running to carefully curated playlists I have put together.”

New Marketing Champion #5. Kelly Ryan

Thoughts about joining the program

“I am so excited to be here! I have relied on this marketing community since day one in my digital marketing role, trying to connect all the backend dots across channels and platforms. I am honored to be a part of the Marketing Champions and share my knowledge with the next round of accidental admins and one-person teams!”

Fav tool!

Creuz Your Data! Long lists of data are the daily pain of Pardot and Salesforce admins. So why not make your life easier? Just copy paste the data, select if you need a comma or semicolon, and you are good to go!”

Favorite meme

Something fun!

“I really enjoy reading, especially historical fiction because I also love facts. I love getting literally lost in all the little local bookshops when I travel, too. I’ve been known to just sit on the floor and sift through huge stacks of old books until I found the ones with the most ridiculous titles.”

New Marketing Champion #6. Mike Morris

Thoughts about joining the program

“Since joining the Salesforce ecosystem, I’ve learned so much from members of the community, the team at Sercante, and the Marketing Champions. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to share my knowledge and help inspire the next class of Marketing Champions.”

Fav tool!

“I’ve got to go with Kelly on this one. Creuz Your Data is an awesome little app and has saved me countless hours. If you are building dynamic lists in Account Engagement or reports in Salesforce, check it out! I’m also very partial to the Protected Campaign Member Statuses app as a way to manage campaign members’ statuses in Salesforce.”

Something fun!

“I spend a lot of time in my office, so when I’m not working, I prefer to be outside. I enjoy hiking, kayaking, and running. I’m not very good at relaxing and prefer to be active.”

New Marketing Champion #7. Rich Feist

Thoughts about joining the program

“I can’t wait to continue my learning about all things Salesforce. I’m really looking forward to attending more events!  I honestly still can’t believe I get to be a part of this amazing program!”

Fav tool!

“My favourite Salesforce tool is Flows, I love what you can do with them. My favourite other tool is Pomodoro Marinara which is a great time-keeping app to keep you focused.”

Favourite meme 

Something fun!

“Favourite holiday location is a tie between Oaxaca and Sicily, the food and drink is insane!”

New Marketing Champion #8. Kirsten Schlau

New Marketing Champion #9. Laura Curtis

Repeating Sercante Marketing Champions

We’re super proud of our new Salesforce Marketing Champions. But let’s all take a moment to recognize members of the Sercante team who were named Marketing Champions in the past (once you’re in, you’re in for good) and are already seasoned pros when it comes to championing marketing for Salesforce.

Connect with the Marketing Champion Community

So what should you do with all this information? Definitely connect with this group so they can help you out! 

Salesforce Marketing Champions put themselves out there so they can be helpful to people in the community like you. They all write blogs, present sessions at Salesforce events, lead user groups, or answer questions online. 

Consider this your invitation to hit them up!

Do you need help from a marketing champion? Are you the next champion?

Ready to become the next Salesforce Marketing Champion? Keep an eye out for the call for nominations and applications here.
And as always, leave us a comment with your favorite tools and apps! Or let us know when you need help with something only a marketing champion can solve.

Original article: Introducing the 2023 Salesforce Marketing Champions: Dragon Edition

©2023 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

The post Introducing the 2023 Salesforce Marketing Champions: Dragon Edition appeared first on The Spot.

By |2023-06-10T12:50:18+00:00June 10th, 2023|Categories: Career Development, Community, Community Spotlight, revive|

Texas Dreamin’ Recap: May 2023

Deep in the heart of Texas, where the bluebonnets bloom and the sun works overtime, community members gathered in Austin to celebrate, share knowledge and inspire others with the impact of Salesforce. Powered by Salesforce community leaders from across Texas, the Texas Dreamin’ conference is committed to empowering “users, admins, developers, and partners by creating an energetic environment for strong connections, learning core skills, and building great careers.”

Team Sercante at Texas Dreamin’ 2023

The Sercante team had a strong showing with 8 attendees presenting 5 sessions! 5 of our team members were first time attendees of a Dreamin’ event, and we had 4 of our Marketing Champions present. The conference was held at the AT&T Conference Center on the University of Texas at Austin campus, so a couple of alums on our team convinced us to brave the Texas heat and walk across campus for a school spirit photo in front of UT’s famous tower.

Conference Kickoff

We kicked off the event with a warm, Texas sized welcome from the event organizers, and we met the team behind ROCK, Ride On Center for Kids, the recipient of a $5,000 donation via the Community Give Back initiative. ROCK shared how Salesforce allowed them to focus on providing equine-assisted services to children, adults, and veterans with physical, cognitive and emotional challenges, declaring that “data drives the impact.”

Salesforce Vice President and CTO for Internet of Things, Charlie Issacs, then came on stage, filmed a group message to our friends at India Dreamin’, and launched straight into a lively Demo Jam. Pharos, an observability application for Salesforce errors,  was crowned the winner after their song-filled demo and we were off to join an array of diverse, insightful and thoughtful sessions. 

Sessions

Texas Dreamin’ hosted a variety of sessions around the Salesforce ecosystem, including guidance on career development, admin tips & tricks, developer resources, and marketing strategy. Below are some session highlights:

Keynote

Zayne Turner leads Architect Relations at Salesforce. A poet by education, her team creates resources and tools to help everyone doing architectural work with Salesforce create well-architected implementations.

With anecdotes about her own career background to guide the conversation, she spoke about how to become “disruption proof” in the face of great technological change. AI tools were the primary topic at hand, and she suggested proactively understanding this great paradigm shift with the Skill Up on AI , a Trailmix offered by Salesforce. 

Texas Dreamin’ 2023 Keynote

From her perspective, the key to being “disruption proof” is resilience, which often equates to being graceful in the face of adversity and keeping a focus on the big picture.

Five Critical Steps to Change Management

Zack Baker and Alycia Wright with Silverline CRM led a session on change management as a focused area of practice for Salesforce projects. The change manager is a role outside of project management, focused on supporting and enabling adoption of a finalized development project.  Their critical steps for approaching the process are Alignment, Communication, Training, Reinforcement, and Measurement – incorporating these steps and this role early in the development helps ensure adoption of the solution design. Some technical tools in the Salesforce ecosystem that can help support this include In-App Guidance, Knowledge Articles, and MyTrailhead.

Discovery as a Dialogue with Jodi Hrbek

Jodi Hrbek, Author of Rock your Role as a Salesforce Admin, led us through the 5G Framework, which is described as “an approach for conducting discovery sessions that ensures you’re solving the right problems with the right-sized solutions.” Jodi discussed the importance of rapport among stakeholders, and expounded on how the pandemic and remote work have exposed how critical rapport is when it comes to keeping a pulse on how others feel about a project to avoid going off the rails. She also encouraged us to make sure everyone involved agrees that conversations about ideas doesn’t necessarily mean you’re committed to moving forward with the ideas – getting everyone on the same page will help all stakeholders be more willing to have exploratory conversations.

Best Practices for Building Strategic Customer Journeys

Sercante’s Marcos Duran led a session introducing marketers in the audience to the concept of building strategic customer journeys. His advice was starting with a simple and realistic concept and prioritizing 3 key principles: Consistency, Personalization, and Real-Time Engagement. Marketers should review their data and content and pick a limited selection of channels to begin the process – then with internal alignment draw out the process on a whiteboard or in a flowchart tool. Taking these concepts into consideration in the planning stage will enable a smooth building and testing process in your marketing automation tool.

 

Marcos Duran presents at Texas Dreamin’ 2023

Fantastic Frameworks for Fast, Feature-Filled Flows

Salesforce consultant, Evan Ponter, led a great technical session on flow optimization. The key to his presentation was limiting the number of elements and queries in flow to ensure they run as smoothly as possible. He walked us through a variety of technical hacks to keep the elements – including limiting all before-save automation to a single flow, using lookups in formulas instead of “Get Record” automations where possible, leveraging record collection variables, and referencing the org url with API to make deployment between orgs easier.

Getting Creative with Lead Assignment using Flow and Apex

Sercante’s Erin Duncan and Jacob Catalano presented a clever solution to improve lead routing using flow and APEX. They covered how lead assignment rules work in Salesforce, along with the limitations on how the rules are only fired when the lead is initially created.

Their demonstration showed how to utilize a flow and APEX to trigger those assignment rules to run again and re-assign leads in certain situations.

Erin Duncan and Jacob Catalano present at Texas Dreamin’

Solve Your Reporting Challenges With Formulas

David Carnes from OpFocus takes us back to the basics of formulas in excel and of course Salesforce. It is clear that David enjoys this topic and was even able to share in a few secrets around Salesforce reporting like hidden operators, cross-block summary formulas, and formula prompts (shh, just don’t tell anyone). If find yourself hitting a wall with reports try one of these “hidden” prompts.

Solve Your Reporting Challenges With Formulas

How AI Neural Nets like ChatGPT are Empowering Salesforce Professionals

If you have been following ChatGPT, generative AI, and similar trends on LinkedIn, then you probably know Mark Good, Founder of AI Force Training

Mark shares the basics of ChatGPT and how it will contribute to the way that business continues to transform well into the future. He hit the message home by emphasizing on specific examples of how ChatGPT along with business leaders can put AI to work to help people become more efficient.

Examples included driving team learning, formula generation, and validation rule creation in the Salesforce ecosystem. If you haven’t gotten started with AI and GPT yet, we recommend you follow Mark on LinkedIn. 

Vendors & Sponsors

Between the sponsors that participated in the kickoff Demo Jam and the vendor alley way between session rooms, we got to see demos of a lot of awesome Salesforce tools that can supercharge your org. 

  • Copado – Copado is a DevOps tool that helps manage releases in Salesforce software development pipelines. This includes a comprehensive set of tools for managing development requests, ensuring thorough testing, and assistance in deploying configurations between orgs.
  • GetAccept – A Sales enablement tool that helps salespeople provide a great digital experience to buyers. Their demo jam showed off a sales person quickly customizing and sending a contract for signature based on well-designed templates through an easy-to-understand assembly wizard.
  • Pharos – Pharos supports admins and developers with dashboards that categorize and visualize any errors encountered in the org. This enables quick resolution by reducing time needed to unpack the error. 
  • RenderDraw – a useful tool for any company with complex catalogs or parts ordering interfaces. You can load existing product catalog imagery into the tool, then map diagrams into interactive links in the platform, creating a visual interface to construct quotes quickly with the appropriate line items.
  • Revenue Grid – positions their tool as a method to identify any potential revenue leaks or opportunities by increasing activity visibility in your Salesforce org.  Their activity capture tool goes a step beyond Salesforce inbox and Einstein Activity Capture tools by logging more info and relationships from email communications into Salesforce. They also provide pre built reports on productivity and a tool for organizing sales cadences.

Conclusion 

It was great to meet up with colleagues, customers,  and community members in Austin! As a community-led event, you can definitely feel the emphasis on professional development and learning from each other.

The sessions were nicely balanced between detailed technical guidance, overall business strategy, and suggestions on how to better personally present and manage your presence in the ecosystem. Overall, well worth attending if you’re a Texas Salesforce professional or looking to break into the industry – the conference is loaded with resources to help everyone find their niche and become successful on the platform!

Thank you to Tamara Buran for collaborating on this post!

Original article: Texas Dreamin’ Recap: May 2023

©2023 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

The post Texas Dreamin’ Recap: May 2023 appeared first on The Spot.

By |2023-05-24T17:48:15+00:00May 24th, 2023|Categories: Career Development, Community, Events|

Salesforce Administrator Certification Exam Tips & Tricks

So, you’ve decided to take the next steps in your career and earn your Salesforce Administrator Certification. Yay!

This might be your first journey into the Salesforce platform or maybe you’ve been an Accidental Admin for years and are finally going to make it official. Either way, we hope this guide provides the extra boost you need to get started and pass! We asked our fellow #AwesomeAdmins and Sercante Dragons for their feedback on the exam, what they wish they had done differently, and what study strategies worked best for them.

Here are our favorite tips and tricks to passing the Salesforce Administrator Certification exam. Grab your go-to brain boosting beverage and let’s get started!

Step 1. Review the Salesforce Administrator Certification Exam Guide

You probably have already looked at the exam guide a couple times, but do it just once more. Salesforce occasionally updates the exam guide and the test itself so it is always a good idea to review the most recent version (the last test update was June 2021).

Plus, Salesforce recently released a new certification for those looking to break into the Salesforce ecosystem and aren’t quite experienced enough for the Administrator exam. The Salesforce Associate certification is a great place to begin and you can get started here with our blog ‘A Pocket Guide to Earning the Salesforce Associate Certification’.

salesforce administrator certification exam

Salesforce Administrator Certification Exam Outline

  • Configuration and Setup: 20%
  • Object Manager and Lightning App Builder: 20%
  • Sales and Marketing Applications: 12%
  • Service and Support Applications: 11%
  • Productivity and Collaboration: 7%
  • Data and Analytics Management: 14%
  • Workflow/Process Automation: 16%

Here is a quick link to bookmark the Salesforce Certified Administrator Exam Guide, which includes the exam overview, resources they recommend (free and paid), and a detailed breakdown of the topics you will see.

Bookmark these too! Both of these resources are the best  go-to study guides as they are Salesforce created and kept up to date. If you are overwhelmed by the amount of resources out there, just focus on studying and working through these. 

Step 2. Schedule Your Salesforce Admin Cert Exam

Nothing makes studying more productive (aka panic-studying-becasue-it-is-actually-happening-and-you-can’t-ignore-it) when you have a real date to prepare for. Yes, it will be scary to hit that schedule button. But it would be even worse to do all this work and never actually take the test. 

I promise that you are smart and capable, even if you are super worried! Once you get this out of the way, you can truly focus on the content without that hanging out in the back of your mind.

Choose your testing location 

One thing to consider is what type of test taker you are. Salesforce gives us the option of taking a test in person at a local testing center or remotely from the comfort of your or someone else’s home. 

Think about what makes you your best test-taking you. I prefer taking the certifications remotely online because I like being at my desk with my favorite chair in my comfy clothes and I don’t have to worry about traffic or a strange new place. Other team members prefer the testing center because it gets them out of their loud house of children and pets and helps their brain activate test mode.

Ready to schedule your Salesforce Admin certification date? Good! Do that here. Step two = complete!

Step 3. Organize Your Resources

The Sercante team are certification masters, and we all agreed that organizing your resources, study guides, prep decks, practice tests, etc., beforehand saves a lot of time later down your study road. Plus, they can act as a sort of to-do checklist of study tasks.

Here are some of our favorite resources that we’ve relied on.

Free Study Day

This is my favorite resource for all Salesforce certifications. You can sign up multiple times as well so I would recommend once at the beginning of your study schedule and then again close to your exam date. 

  • Salesforce Certification Days
    • Free, half-day webinars to help you prepare for your certification
    • About 1x every two months
    • Not recorded, no taking screenshots
    • Get a $40 test voucher code, can be used for retakes

Videos

Blogs

Trailheads & Trailmixes

Superbadges

Topic Problem Area Resources

Step 4. Take a Practice Test & Understand Where You’re At

You are smart! You know things! How else would you convince yourself to take the Salesforce Administrator Certification? 

So, this also means you probably know a good portion of the topics the exam will cover. Instead of deep diving into EVERYTHING, let’s focus on the medium confidence and low to no confidence topic areas. Remember to refer to the exam outline above to understand what will be on the test.

You can use this simple Google Sheet calculator for a quick confidence check: 

When you are ready, just jump in and take a practice test. Try to remember which one so this can be your truth beacon as your work through your study materials. By having this baseline score, you will be able to identify confident and if-y topic areas, plus get into the test-taking, Salesforce-speak brain space. 

Practice Tests

Be careful with relying too heavily on the questions and answers from these paid and free practice test resources outside of Salesforce. As the test and Salesforce ecosystem continue to evolve, some of these tests don’t update with it. Trust your gut and Google if you think something isn’t quite right. You can always ask the Salesforce Trailhead community to double-check, as well. 

Step 5. The Actual Study Step

Ok! Time to study!

Pace yourself and try to avoid last-minute week of the test full studying sessions. Yes, reviewing some key topics right before your certification might be helpful, but working through the Trailheads the month or two leading up to the test is probably easier on your brain and work/life schedule. 

I like to study one or two hours a day before and after my work day so it tends to take me more time to prep compared to teammates who schedule a couple of full study days the month of their exam. Try out different study schedules and find what works best for you! 

Keep in mind that you could prefer video courses to the text-based Trailheads or maybe you like creating your own flash cards with a study friend. The knowledge is out there, you just need to figure out the best way for you to unlock it.

Step 6. Rinse & Repeat

Once you feel like you have absorbed some more information or completed a couple of topic-specific Trailheads, give the practice test a shot again. This will confirm if you are focusing on the right or not quite right topic areas.

Remember, Salesforce certifications are difficult and are worded in Salesforce ways. Taking these practice tests and working through the Trailhead courses will help you understand how they phase scenarios, what they consider best practices for a standard organization, how they refer to their ecosystem, and hopefully, see which answers you can eliminate to reduce your answer options. 

Some Study & Test Taking Tips

  • Find keywords in questions that indicate the answer or what you can eliminate as an answer.
  • Keep in mind the names of Salesforce products, features, and functionality as they will try to trick you with similar-sounding answers.
  • Answers can put the Salesforce platform in a good light meaning the answer wouldn’t be something they don’t support or is outside of the standard packages (in most cases).
    • Example: How many records are saved in the recycle bin? The highest option was the answer.
  • Always refer back to the full question when you are starting to second guess yourself, there might be something key you missed when you first read it. 

Step 7. Go Eat A Snack & Take A Nap

There is only so much studying and memorization a human brain can handle. Especially with these Salesforce-style wordy technical questions and answers. We fully recommend taking breaks throughout your study journey and at least a couple of days leading up to your Salesforce Admin exam date. 

Remember to relax and breathe! You being overly stressed out is not going to help you pass the test.

Step 8. Pass The Salesforce Administration Certification Exam!

Trust us, you’ve got this!

The Day of Your Exam Tips

  • Make sure you read the requirements for your in-person exam or the online proctored exam.
    • For in-person tests, remember to arrive 15 minutes early with your ID, another form of identification, and your authorization code.
    • For online tests, double-check that your camera and microphone are working, that you have downloaded the correct software, and that your desk area and background are clean and without distractions.
  • Consider the amount of time you have as you go through the test.
    • Answering every question is more important than not finishing.
  • Mark questions you are hesitant about for review.
    • Salesforce has a built-in checkbox for this within the test – take advantage of it.
    • As you have time at the end, go through your marked questions.
    • If you start noticing that you are changing more than a handful of answers, you are probably in your head too much and overthinking things. It is best to go with your gut and your first answer unless you know for sure that it is incorrect.
  • Don’t be afraid to fail! You can always retake the Salesforce admin certification exam – trust me, I did. We recommend scheduling your retake within two months of your previous exam date so the information is fresh and you are still in testing mode.

Good luck taking your Salesforce admin certification exam!

Don’t forget to come back here and brag about your accomplishment and share any other Salesforce Administrator Certification exam tips and tricks for the next round of admins!

Original article: Salesforce Administrator Certification Exam Tips & Tricks

©2023 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

The post Salesforce Administrator Certification Exam Tips & Tricks appeared first on The Spot.

By |2023-05-10T17:45:38+00:00May 10th, 2023|Categories: Career Development, Community, Real Talk, revive|

Congrats to The Salesforce MVP Class of 2023

Like many big software companies, Salesforce has an honor they bestow to most influential supporters. They call this the Salesforce MVP program. The Trailblazer Community team recently announced the 2023 Salesforce MVP program inductees, and we were thrilled to see many of our favorite marketing voices on the list.

Marketers don’t always get the recognition they deserve, which is why we’re on a mission to showcase all of the amazing things marketers do. We’re especially excited to highlight the people who are shining the limelight on Salesforce marketing tools for a change.

Background of the program

If you haven’t already noticed, there’s a whole lot to learn about using marketing automation and CRM tools. Salesforce does everything they can to make resources available to customers so the tools are easier to use and customize, but everyone learns in their own way. 

Sometimes we need real people who have been working closely with these tools to teach us what’s possible with them. (You know, like, other customers and people with an outsider’s perspective)

That’s where the Salesforce MVP program comes in. These are all people who share what they know about the platform and personally connect with others who are still learning. 

According to the Salesforce MVP Code of Conduct, MVPs are “lifelong learners who go above and beyond to share their expertise and help the entire community succeed… [and] leaders in the Trailblazer Community who encourage each other, celebrate others’ successes, work collaboratively to make our community and the world a better place, and have a lot of fun along the way!”

Here’s the MVP Hall of Fame and Member Directory, which goes into complete detail about the program.

How Salesforce MVPs are Selected

Wondering how people get a spot in the program? Here’s how the process works:

  1. Salesforce opens nominations for MVPs around November each year.
  2. Community members either self nominate or can share stories to nominate others.
    • Current MVPs do not need to take action, they are automatically reviewed for renewal.
  3. The Trailblazer Community team completes the first round of nomination reviews. 
  4. Then, the nominations go through a second round of reviews from a team of Salesforce employees who are active in the Trailblazer Community
  5. After that, current Salesforce MVPs provide feedback to new nominations and nomination renewals. 
  6. The Trailblazer Community team completes a final review before the Salesforce leadership team makes final calls and approvals.

The 2023 Salesforce MVP Class

Congratulations to everyone who was selected to join the 2023 Salesforce MVP Class! 

Aaron Crosman Michael A. Grandel
Andy Engin Utkan Mihoko Yamashita
Ankit Taneja Oleh Mykytyn
Asterisk Loftis Patricio Sapir
Ben LaMothe Phaneendra Arigachetta
Gian Piere Vallejos Bardales Rachel Park Brayboy
Johann Furmann Samantha Shain
Kannan Narayanan Skye Tyler
Kristi Brown Swati Taunk
Kristin Hubbard Thomas Theunen
Lilith Van Biesen Vicki Moritz-Henry
Maham Hassan Warren Walters

Marketers Who Made the New 2023 Salesforce MVP List

We were thrilled to see two people we know from the Salesforce marketing community who made the list. Special congratulations to Ben Lamothe and Vicki Moritz-Henry and thanks for all the work you do for the community!

In fact, we know these two MVPs thanks to their work with the MarDreamin’ conference. Both have presented at MarDreamin’ in past years and have contributed in other ways. 

Our team reached out to them to get their thoughts on their new Salesforce MVP honors. Here’s what they had to say:

Ben Lamothe

“Being selected as a Salesforce MVP is an honor and is truly humbling. Giving back to the Salesforce and Account Engagement (Pardot) Trailblazer community that has changed my life and given me so much, is so important to me.”

Vicki Moritz-Henry

“When I transitioned careers into Salesforce, I was astounded by how supportive the community was. There were so many people who encouraged, mentored and taught me over the years. I honestly wouldn’t be where I am now if it wasn’t for them. My motivation is to spread that impact and be that same person for others.”

Andrea Tarrell Added to the Salesforce MVP Hall of Fame

Last but most certainly not least, we wanna send a huge congratulations to the person who started this whole blog (and Sercante) in the first place. Andrea Tarrell has been an influential voice in the Salesforce community for close to a decade, and she’s served as a Salesforce MVP enough years for Salesforce to add her to the MVP Hall of Fame in 2023.

Launching The Spot for Pardot blog is only a small fraction of everything Andrea has contributed to Salesforce Trailblazer Community through the years. She’s spoken at countless events including Dreamforce, Connections, Dreamin’ conferences and user group meetings. Andrea even launched the first virtual conference for marketers on Salesforce in 2020 — MarDreamin’ (formerly ParDreamin’).

Keep being helpful and the rest will fall into place

The Trailblazer Community team received over 2,400 MVP nominations in 2023, so of course some people were disappointed to learn they weren’t among the 24 new MVPs who were selected. The most important takeaway though is to keep going! While the MVP program brings inherent benefits along with it (i.e. free entry to conferences, getting asked to participate in high-profile marketing content), the true benefit is that helping others helps you, too.

When the community grows, we all grow together. And there’s room for us all to be successful in the community. So, keep sharing what you know. Start a Salesforce blog (or you can write for this one!). Apply to speak at community events. Volunteer with a Salesforce mentorship program, like Merivis, for instance.

The possibilities to give back are endless. Tell us how giving back to the tech community has enriched your life in the comments section.

Original article: Congrats to The Salesforce MVP Class of 2023

©2023 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

The post Congrats to The Salesforce MVP Class of 2023 appeared first on The Spot.

By |2023-03-18T14:50:56+00:00March 18th, 2023|Categories: Career Development, Community, Community Spotlight, Industry News|

TrailblazerDX: 2023 Conference Preview for Marketers

We’re getting ready for TrailblazerDX 2023 (formerly TrailheadDX) — which was previously known as the big Salesforce community conference event for anyone who builds on the Salesforce platform using developer or declarative solutions. However, we’re finding that people who fill roles from all corners of the Salesforce ecosystem are traveling to TDX in recent years. That can include Salesforce admins and general users, consultants, and analysts in addition to developers and architects.

In this post, we’ll cover all the things our marketing friends should know about the 2023 TrailblazerDX conference.

2023 TrailblazerDX Details

TrailblazerDX is taking place March 7-8, 2023, in San Francisco as well as virtually through Salesforce+ live streams and on demand after the event ends. Salesforce is expecting around 25,000 attendees who can choose from 200+ technical sessions, product demos, workshops, and hands-on learning.

Go here to check out the official Salesforce description for the event.

If you’re a marketer or support a marketing team from any one of those roles and nerd out about the backend of Salesforce, then there’s a good chance you’ll want to catch a few TrailblazerDX sessions this year. 

Sercante Team TDX Sessions

Team Sercante will be out in full force at TrailblazerDX. If you’re going to be there in person, let us know so we can meet up to chat. 

You can find our dragons dropping knowledge during these sessions:

Account Engagement Extensibility: Automation to the Extreme

Tuesday, March 7 | 12 PM PT | Learn More

Learn how to expand communication channels and expand the event experience with marketing app extensions. Discover how to reduce manual efforts with API V5 for Flow.

Speakers:

Discover How Data Cloud for Marketing Unifies Customer Data

Tuesday, March 7 | 1:30 PM PT | Learn More

Customers are constantly changing and your data needs to evolve with them. Learn how to make every digital moment smarter using the power of unified data within Data Cloud for Marketing.

Speakers:

  • Adam Erstelle, VP of Technology, Sercante
  • Heather Rinke, Salesforce Product Director, Sercante

Evaluate and Make Critical Design Decisions 

Wednesday, March 8 | 12 PM PT | Learn More

Learn how an admin, architect, consultant, and developer approach critical design decisions. See how each role evaluates challenges when solving for specific user needs.

Panelists:

  • Skye Tyler, Solution Architect, Exponent Partners
  • Adam Erstelle, VP of Technology, Sercante
  • Karmel James, Senior Salesforce Administrator , Viz.ai
  • Hayley Tuller, Founding Partner & Head of Services, Navigators
  • Michelle Hansen, Principal, Slalom

Marketing-focused TrailblazerDX sessions

We’re always on the lookout for sessions our fellow marketers should catch. 

You’ll want to attend these sessions if you’re attending TrailblazerDX in real life this year. But if you’re not gonna be there in person, then check out the full schedule of sessions you can watch virtually on Salesforce+.

Dive into Data: CRMA vs. Salesforce Reports and Dashboards

Tuesday, March 7 | 1 PM PT | Learn More

Review Salesforce reports and dashboards and introduce learners to the world of CRM Analytics. Compare product features, uncover nuances, and take your analytics insights to the next level.

Speakers:

  • Rahul Shah, Manager, APAC Delivery, Salesforce
  • Mari Greenburg, Principal Instructor , Salesforce

Best Practices for Implementing Data Cloud

Tuesday, March 7 | 12 PM PT | Learn More

Learn to unlock value across the implementation journey for Data Cloud, Salesforce’s customer data platform, from use case discovery to data ingestion, unification, segmentation, and activation.

Speakers:

  • Arvind Raman, Director, Cloud Solution Alliances , Salesforce
  • Andrew Lee, Product Marketing Manager, Salesforce

Find Your Community in the Cloud

Tuesday, March 7 | 12 PM PT | Learn More

New to the Salesforce ecosystem? Building professional connections and strong relationships requires work. Learn how to forge your own path and create your community with Salesforce.

Speakers:

Marketer Networking Knowledge Hour

Tuesday, March 7 | 12:30 PM PT | Learn More

Marketing is as hot as a firecracker, but how do you ignite that spark? Marketers need to constantly be plugged in. Learn about the power of brand advocacy and nurturing community to achieve success.

Community Cove Networking Event

Maximize Mobile Engagement

Tuesday, March 7 | 3 PM PT | Learn More

Learn how to increase user engagement with your mobile app by taking advantage of event-driven journeys, in-app experiences, and push messages.

Speakers:

  • Caitlin Dwyer, Senior Product Manager, Salesforce
  • Monica Marathe, Product Manager, Salesforce

An Architect’s Guide to Cross-Cloud with Data Cloud

Tuesday, March 7 | 3:30 PM PT | Learn More

Learn the foundations of successful cross-cloud architecture across the Lightning Platform, Commerce Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Data Cloud from data mapping to integration to environment management.

Speakers:

  • Craig Poirier, Sr. Director, Slalom
  • Mike King, Sr. Director, Global Salesforce Commerce, Slalom
  • Gillian Reynolds, Slalom

Deep Dive into Marketing App Extensions for MCAE (Pardot)

Tuesday, March 7 | 3:30 PM PT | Learn More

In this session, we will examine the different use cases for MCAE External Actions & Activities and demonstrate how to leverage external actions within Engagement Studio to send a webhook.

Speakers:

  • Brandon Walton, Consultant, Cypress Learning Solutions
  • Tasha Rucker, Founder, Principal Consultant, ReadyCRM

Architect the Ultimate ABM Experience

Wednesday, March 8 | 11 AM PT | Learn More

Learn how Copado leverages Sales Cloud to connect and power ABM journeys across digital ads, BDR outreach, automated nurtures, sales engagement, and field programs.

Speakers:

  • Cameron Tyler, Senior Director, Demand Generation, Copado
  • Halie Vining, Sr. Director of Field Marketing, Copado

Explore the Marketing Cloud Programming Languages

Wednesday, March 8 | 11:30 AM PT | Learn More

In this session we will cover the programming languages available on the Marketing Cloud Platform and how to use them. We will explore AMPscript, SSJS, GTL, SQL, and more.

Speakers:

  • Danielle Larregui, Marketing Cloud Developer Advocate, Salesforce

5 Tips to Optimize Your Data Lifecycle

Wednesday, March 8 | 12:30 PM PT | Learn More

During this session you will learn the five stages of the data lifecycle, common mistakes, how Salesforce can support your data lifecycle  and actionable advice for optimizing the data lifecycle.

Speakers:

  • Andrew Fragias, Product Manager, Validity

Activate Customer Data in Journey Builder

Wednesday, March 8 | 1 PM PT | Learn More

Data is the key to personalizing customer journeys. Learn how to activate data from the Customer Data Platform to inform, activate, and alter journeys in Marketing Cloud Engagement.

Speakers:

  • Abbe Spaans, Senior Director, Product Management, Salesforce
  • Miku Konsolas, Principal Architect, Salesforce
  • Tyler Staley, Director of Product Management, Salesforce

Dynamic Content: Personalization Taken to the Next Level

Wednesday, March 8 | 1 PM PT | Learn More

In this session you’ll learn how dynamic content and personalization can reduce unneeded friction points in the buyer’s journey. Powered by Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot).

Speakers:

Personalize Customer Journeys with Vonage Communication APIs

Wednesday, March 8 | 1:30 PM PT | Learn More

Businesses need to streamline customer journeys across channels. Learn to create customized conversations with Salesforce CRM and Vonage communications APIs and bring together data, systems and users.

Speakers:

  • Oscar Rodriguez, Senior Director Global Solutions Engineering, Vonage

Increase Productivity: Customizing the Marketing Cloud

Wednesday, March 8 | 3:30 PM PT | Learn More

Learn how to leverage Package Manager and custom activities to supercharge your customer engagement with Marketing Cloud and empower your marketing teams to do more.

Speakers:

  • Mark Rosato, Senior Solution Engineer, Salesforce

TrailblazerDX 2023 Musical Guest: Fallout Boy

Did we mention Fallout Boy is the TDX musical guest this year? 

Those of us who aren’t attending IRL are fighting the FOMO in hopes that the show will be broadcasted live on Salesforce+.


Image: Salesforce

See you at TDX 2023!

So, TrailheaDX was known as the developer conference, but TrailblazerDX opens the doors for everyone on the Salesforce platform to learn how it works. 

And while marketers don’t always get the attention they deserve, we see lots of exciting things on the horizon for our pals. It’s especially evident at this year’s TrailblazerDX conference.

Attending TrailblazerDX in person?

If you’re lucky enough to catch TrailblazerDX in person this year, then we should meet up! 

Visit this page to let us know you’re going. We’ll reach out to find the perfect time to talk. And remember to say “hi” to our dragons who are part of the following TDX sessions:

  • Discover How Data Cloud for Marketing Unifies Customer Data | Learn More
  • Account Engagement Extensibility: Automation to the Extreme | Learn More
  • Evaluate and Make Critical Design Decisions | Learn More

Have a favorite memory from last year’s TrailblazerDX conference? Tell us about it in the comments.

Original article: TrailblazerDX: 2023 Conference Preview for Marketers

©2023 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

The post TrailblazerDX: 2023 Conference Preview for Marketers appeared first on The Spot.

By |2023-02-19T00:32:56+00:00February 19th, 2023|Categories: Career Development, Community, Events|

Explore the Journey to Salesforce Certified

It’s been a few weeks since Andrea Tarrell and I spoke at Salesforce World Tour NYC about the journey to getting Salesforce certified. As someone with five years of experience in the ecosystem, I have been able to earn many Salesforce certifications along the way and have always wanted to help others achieve their certification goals as they have helped me. 

That’s why I am still so happy I was able to join Andrea as a co-presenter. Our team was excited to share our certification journeys and knowledge with the community, and we hope this post that recaps our World Tour presentation is helpful as you work toward earning Salesforce certified designations.

Jordyn Jaffer and Andrea Tarrell presenting at Salesforce World Tour New York in December 2022.

Salesforce Certified 101

If you’ve been in the ecosystem for a little bit, then you’re probably familiar with the process of becoming Salesforce certified and what certifications are available. But, you should still pay attention. 

The Salesforce certification program is constantly evolving. What used to be a collection of a handful of certifications has expanded to over 40 certifications across Salesforce roles over the years. The certifications are typically connected to a specific role customer and partner role persona that Salesforce has defined.

Salesforce Certified Persona Roles

 Salesforce certified personas are spread across six roles:

  • Admin
  • Developer
  • Marketer
  • Designer
  • Consultant
  • Architect

These certifications are globally recognized achievements that Trailblazers can earn to highlight their expertise and skills in a specific topic or product. Varying in skill level from the initial Salesforce Administrator exam up to the Technical Architect board review, there are plenty of certifications for you to consider in your journey. 

Check out the amazing visual on this page, which our friends at SalesforceBen put together to highlight the different certification pathways available to you.

Certification Exam Details

Each exam typically consists of 60-65 multiple choice questions. You’ll notice that each exam provides a specific percentage of questions you need to answer correctly to successfully pass the exam. 

These passing percentages are important to pay attention to as you prepare for your exam date. For example, you may be able to pass the Data Architect exam with only 58% of the questions correct, but the newer Business Analyst certification needs 72% correct for you to pass. 

For those who have attempted exams but might not have passed, some exams are moving toward just 3 multiple choice answers for each question and could make the experience easier for those who have a hard time picking the best answer for each question.

Why Should You Get Salesforce Certified?

So now you have some knowledge of what Salesforce certifications are, but you might be wondering “why should I bother getting certified?” 

Boost Your Career

As mentioned earlier, Salesforce certifications are widely recognized and can even potentially help when transitioning into other careers. That’s because they showcase transferable industry skills. They are also considered a resume-worthy accomplishment that will definitely help you stand out in the job market. 

According to a survey from the 2022-23 Mason Frank Careers and Hiring Guide, 86% of respondents said Salesforce certifications help professionals stand out in a competitive job market, and 90% of Salesforce certified respondents said their certifications make them more marketable. 

Source: Mason Frank

Prove it to Yourself

For myself and many others, certifications have become a source of personal gratification. If you are doubting yourself when it comes to a specific topic, it’s amazing when you’re able to prove to yourself and to others that you have the knowledge of that Salesforce topic. 

It is worth noting that going after a Salesforce certification with minimal experience is not usually advised as a certification can never stand in the way of actual experience of a Salesforce product/feature. Finally, certifications showcase your commitment to your personal and professional development and can ultimately provide you an opportunity to boost your earning potential.

Story Time! How We Got Our Salesforce Certifications

Andrea and I have had very different experiences when it came to our Salesforce journeys, as with everyone else. But I love that our journeys have slightly connected as we both strive to provide the best experience to our clients at Sercante. 

I knew who Andrea was, especially since we were both based in Atlanta for two years. But I never imagined working for her company or speaking next to her at a Salesforce event. 

This is why I love when trailblazers share their journeys; people realize that they can have similar experiences as long as they show a willingness to learn and lean on the community. Who knows, maybe you’ll join us at Sercante in the future as well… (we’re hiring!)

Andrea’s Certification Journey

Andrea Tarrell, CEO and founder of Sercante and The Spot, began her Salesforce career as most of us have: as an accidental admin. 

Working as the one-woman marketing department for an insurance brokerage, Andrea was tasked with learning Salesforce at HNI Risk as the company didn’t have a Salesforce administrator at the time.

Andrea wasn’t interested in getting a certification during this time because she didn’t see the value in them. But, she started to appreciate the Salesforce ecosystem when she caught the Salesforce bug at Dreamforce in 2011. “Without exaggeration, attending Dreamforce was truly a pivotal moment in my career trajectory,” Andrea said. This was also her first introduction to Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot), and the experience led her to implementing Pardot at HNI shortly after.

Joining the Salesforce Partner Community

During the Summer of 2016, Andrea decided to leave the Wisconsin area to head down to Atlanta, Georgia without any jobs or friends in place. She later joined the Salesforce partner, Configuro, as the Pardot practice lead and director of marketing and suddenly had a reason to get certified. 

Salesforce consultancies usually request their employees get certain certifications to determine their tier ranking in the Salesforce AppExchange. So, Andrea knew she had to make up for lost time. 

Over the course of a year at Configuro, she achieved six Salesforce certifications, including the retired Marketing Cloud Social Specialist certification. During this time, she also leaned on the Trailblazer Community heavily to network as much as she could.

Founding a Salesforce Consulting Firm

After starting The Spot for Pardot (now officially The Spot) in September 2017, Andrea started to consider opening up her own consultancy as well. Sercante was born and has grown into a nearly 70-employee consultancy with expertise in Salesforce, Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot), Marketing Cloud Engagement (OG Marketing Cloud/Exact Target), and various other services such as analytics and digital services. 

Andrea noticed a new fire to continue learning things relevant to her clients early on and achieved an additional six certifications over the course of a few months. She has also been named a Salesforce MVP as well as a Salesforce Marketing Champion and serves on a few Partner Advisory Boards as she continues to strive to make marketers successful on the Salesforce platform.

Still not sure about getting Salesforce certified? Read Andrea’s hot take on the value of certifications in this blog post.

My Certification Journey

Similar to Andrea, my Salesforce career began right out of college when I moved down to Atlanta, Georgia to join the Atlanta Braves as a CRM and Analytics Trainee. 

The Braves were using Microsoft Dynamics at the time, and they were beginning their migration to Salesforce. While completing data analysis tasks, I started to learn Salesforce on my own when I saw a need within the organization. 

Getting Promoted to an Accidental Admin Role

By the time we went live with the implementation in July 2018, I was promoted to CRM specialist and served as the Salesforce and Pardot admin while working closely with the newly hired Salesforce developer. I went for my first certification in December of that year. Then I tackled three more in an effort to prove to myself and my coworkers that I was worthy of the Salesforce and Pardot admin role. 

When I decided to move on from my role at the Atlanta Braves, I took three certifications in the same weekend (Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Advanced Admin) to bolster my resume for future roles right before I left Atlanta.

Focusing on Community

In December 2019, I moved back up to Boston, Massachusetts with no job prospects in place. Thankfully, I was able to find a job with my alma mater, Northeastern University. 

During this time, I took a step back from my focus on learning to focusing on getting more involved in the Salesforce community. I was happy to serve as a co-leader of the Boston Women in Tech community group. 

The community group leadership role inspired me to apply for a spot in the inaugural Salesforce Marketing Champion class, to which I was accepted. It was definitely a shock to me at the time since I was no longer in a marketing-related role when I worked at Northeastern. That’s why I worked to earn my Pardot Consultant certification.  I wanted to prove that I was worthy of being a Marketing Champion. 

After achieving the Pardot Consultant certification, I earned one more certification during two years at Northeastern: Education Cloud Consultant. I ended my time with Northeastern just one certification shy of my ultimate 10 certification goal.

Becoming a Salesforce Consultant

Now onto my third and current Salesforce job. I started my consulting career with Sercante in September 2021. I came in with certification goals in mind, but working at Sercante has provided me with a new perspective on certifications. 

My focus should not only be on my personal growth, but also on the company’s growth as we look to take on new clients with different needs. I went for three certifications in the first few months to reach my goal of 10 and display some of the more recent experience I had, such as Experience Cloud from Northeastern, and Nonprofit Cloud from my first major Salesforce implementation at Sercante.

Now as I have moved into a more technical role at Sercante and have failed exams that I was nowhere ready to take (looking at you CPQ Specialist), my career and certification goals have become more defined. I am now looking to move toward the Application Architect and B2B Solution Architect certifications over the next year while continuing to learn new features and products to serve my clients’ needs. 

If you want to learn more about my overall Salesforce journey and my answer to the commonly asked question: “Can someone have too many certifications?” stay tuned for more articles from me. You can also get my take on how to keep imposter syndrome at bay in this blog post.

Tips for Success

Now that you’ve learned about Andrea’s and my certification journey, you may be wondering what certification you should work toward. While I believe everyone’s journey is different and do not need to follow the same path, we wanted to highlight which certifications are best to start with depending on which role path makes the most sense for you.

Which Salesforce Certification to Earn First

Here’s where you should start on your Salesforce certification path depending on the type of role you currently hold or are looking to fill.

Which Salesforce Certification to Earn First

Everyone —> Salesforce Associate
Awesome Admin —> Salesforce Administrator
Daring Developers —> Platform Developer 1
Dream Designer —> User Experience Designer
Moment Marketer —> Marketing Cloud Administrator / Pardot Specialist
Confident Consultant —> Business Analyst
All-Star Architect —> Platform App Builder

Regardless of which role path you take, we also recommend that you start with the new Salesforce Associate certification as a great introduction to the Salesforce platform as a whole. Read a guide to earning that certification in this blog post.

How to Study for Salesforce Certification Exams

When if comes to studying for your exams, there are multiple places you can go to get the expertise and knowledge you need to take the exam:

  • Trailhead: This should be your first stop on any certification journey as you’ll be able to find the following for nearly every certification. View all Salesforce credential guides here.
    • Certification Exam Guides
    • Certification Trailmixes
    • Superbadges
  • Community User Groups: There are user groups all over the world that are run by members of the community, similar to myself. The discussion topic of the meetings vary by time of year and by group, but some might be specific to certain certifications. I helped develop an annual (virtual) certification camp amongst the Boston groups that have met two years now and already have plans to come back in Fall 2023 to tackle another certification. Find all Trailblazer Community Group listings here.
  • Training Courses: You will find many training courses out there, but I highly recommend you look at reviews and make sure the content in the course is accurate. If you are in the marketing space, I highly recommend you check out one of Sercante’s training courses in the new year. I’m taking the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Bootcamp Course starting in January and would love to see some of you there as well!
  • Salesforce Certification Days: These are half day webinars that Salesforce periodically runs for multiple certifications such as Admin, Sales Cloud Consultant, Platform Developer 1, and more.
  • Amplify Study Groups: Amplify is a nonprofit organization that amplifies historically excluded voices in technology, and those who support them, to become fearless leaders. They offer study groups to their members, typically on a seasonal basis, for certain certifications. You can also sign up to be a facilitator for these study groups as well if you’re looking to share your knowledge. Become a member here.
  • Blog Posts: This one might seem obvious as you’re already on our blog site, but many Salesforce blogs share articles on specific certifications to help provide tips and tricks on how to pass them. Here’s the blogs that Sercante has produced so far:

Next Steps Toward Getting Salesforce Certified

We hope the resources and perspectives in this post are helpful to you as you work toward your own Salesforce certifications.

Hot Tip: Check out this page to read more about the certification journeys of my colleagues. 

We would also love to hear from you on your certification journeys! Please leave a comment below or mention us online using the #certificationjourney hashtag.

Original article: The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

The post <strong>Explore the Journey to Salesforce Certified</strong> appeared first on The Spot.

By |2023-01-03T17:15:13+00:00January 3rd, 2023|Categories: Career Development, Community, Real Talk, revive|