Sometimes the answers busy sales teams need already exist within their tech stacks. The Home Depot Retail Media+ team knew selling ad space on The Home Depot website had great potential, but the revenue stream wasn’t flowing as freely as they knew it could.

That’s when the team looked to Sercante for guidance. They wanted to understand how to increase ad revenue from the company’s retail sales website using Salesforce CRM features that were already available to them.

Here’s how Sercante and The Home Depot partnered to significantly increase ad revenue from HomeDepot.com while simultaneously increasing the CRM database and enabling sales forecasting that wasn’t possible before. The collaborative solution earned a 2022 Salesforce Partner Innovation Award in the Retail category.

Challenge Accepted: Untapping Existing Salesforce CRM Resources

The teams at Sercante and The Home Depot had clear goals in mind when they partnered with one another to fully utilize the resources available to them. 

The primary goal was to tap into the underutilized ad revenue stream from the company retail sales website at HomeDepot.com. However, the teams had several challenges to overcome before they could reach that goal.

Although other divisions of the company were already longtime Salesforce customers, the Retail Media+ team was newer to the platform and, as a result, many standard Salesforce features weren’t being utilized. Additionally, the first round of org customizations supported disconnected sales processes that weren’t adaptable to their quickly-evolving systems and growing team. 

 

The Solution: Coordinating Existing Features to Unify the Sales Process

Sercante and The Home Depot Retail Media+ team partnered to create a flexible and scalable solution that supported a unified sales process while making better use of the technology tools available.

Bringing the team together in a single, unified sales process was crucial for ensuring efficiency, transparency, and accuracy. And a key element to achieving this was ensuring that the right team members got the right tasks at the right time for both Account management and to keep an Opportunity moving forward from stage to stage. 

The two teams brought about this solution by implementing powerful, but sometimes overlooked, Sales Cloud features. These included:

• Customizing the Opportunity Path to reflect every step in a Retail Media+ Opportunity from New to Closed and then, to ensure that end users know the purpose of each stage and what info and tasks are needed within each, they called out the most important data points using Key Fields and provided explainer text in the Guidance for Success sections.
• Implementing the use of Activity Management for end users, which creates a single source of truth for tracking the many tasks needed to support the Retail Media+ sales cycle.
• Setting up Account Teams to automate record visibility and to further solidify and add transparency to users’ roles and responsibilities across the rapidly growing CRM database and team.
• Creating Flow automations that are powered by Opportunity Path settings and Account Teams to automate task assignments, improve the visibility of key data, and loop in the right person at the right time so deals progress without a hitch.

Improving Documentation Processes

While implementing the upgrades outlined above, Sercante’s Salesforce consulting team also spent a significant amount of time establishing a standardized documentation process for The Home Depot Retail Media+ team, which was essential for two reasons. First, simply put, it’s best practice to document every customization and change made inside a Sales Cloud org and even more crucial when an org is evolving quickly. Second, the Retail Media+ team projected a significant amount of team growth in the near future and needed to be able to quickly onboard new end users.

 

Results: Increasing Revenue, Growing the CRM, and More

Overall, the project included several moving parts and required careful planning from multiple teams. And these results not only confirmed it was energy well-spent, but also far exceeded everyone’s expectations:

• The Home Depot Retail Media+ team saw a revenue increase of 44% YoY.
• The team enabled sales forecasting that wasn’t previously possible.
• They increased the CRM database by 400% YoY.
• They’re able to set up Salesforce Accounts for suppliers before or within a week of activation.
• They enabled improvement on revenue that was previously swept to margin YoY.

2022 Salesforce Partner Innovation Award Winner: Retail Category

The collaboration between the Sercante team and The Home Depot Retail Media+ team in this story was so powerful that it became an award-winning solution. The teams were selected to share a 2022 Salesforce Partner Innovation Award in the Retail category. 

The 2022 Salesforce Partner Innovation Award recipients were honored by Salesforce at an award reception that took place during Dreamforce 2022 in San Francisco, CA. 

Check out all of the 2022 Partner Innovation Award Winners here.

Replicate These Solutions in Your Salesforce Org 

When looking to make Salesforce a single source of truth about your customer, it’s critical to track the right data, at the right time, and make it visible to the right people. 

The opportunity management solutions we implemented lean on best-practice functionality. That includes features like Account Teams, Activity Management, Flow, Opportunity Path and Key Fields that companies large or small can learn from to better manage their pipeline. 

With easy setup for the admins and end users, their use of opportunity management is sustainable and scalable and showcases Salesforce standard functionality at its best. 

Ready to implement solutions like these in your own Salesforce org? We know you can do it! And we’re always here if you need help along the way. Drop us a line to get in contact with us.

Dreamforce is back in full force this year and we couldn’t be happier. The 20th edition of the world’s largest software conference is gathering Salesforce admins, analysts, developers, customers, and everyone in between for three action-packed days in San Francisco and online. So what’s a tech-savvy marketer to do?

Since this is THE Salesforce conference for everyone who has anything to do with Salesforce, it can seem overwhelming to sort through all of the experiences available to you. But fear not! We have you covered.

Join us in person at any of the events listed in this post. Or sign up here and tell us you’re joining virtually when you complete the form. We have a few activities planned for virtual attendees including live streams, contests, and digital swag.

Here are all the places where you’ll find the dragons of Sercante presenting, hosting, and hanging out at Dreamforce.

 

Dreamforce Sessions for Marketers

You can catch the Sercante team presenting on a few marketing- and content- focused topics at Dreamforce 2022. 

Discover How CDP Unifies All Customer Data in One Place

Bookmark
TUESDAY, SEP 20 | 2:30 PM – 2:50 PM PDT

Building a single-source-of-truth customer profile that unifies data wasn’t easy — until now. Learn how Customer Data Platform (CDP) is a game changer for marketers who use the Salesforce Platform.

Role: Marketing, Data Analyst
Industry: Communications, Technology
Product: Marketing Cloud, Customer Data Platform
Session Type: Theater
Room Location Details: Moscone West, Level 1, Trailblazer Forest

Speakers

Andrea Tarrell
CEO, Sercante
Kirsten Schlau
Director, Marketing Cloud Practice, Sercante

Turn Marketing into a Recession-Proof Competitive Advantage

Bookmark
WEDNESDAY, SEP 21 | 10:30 AM – 11:10 AM PDT

Get five marketing strategies to work smarter and rise above your competitors — even during economic downturns. We’ll equip you to execute ABM, nail nurture campaigns, and prove your worth.

Role: Marketing
Product: Marketing Cloud
Session Type: Breakout
Room Location Details: Moscone South, Level 3, Room 306

Speakers

Angelica Cabral
CRM & Marketing Automation Strategist, Sercante

Marcos Duran
CRM and Marketing Automation Strategist, Sercante

Richard Feist
CRM & Marketing Automation Strategist, Sercante

 

Blog About Salesforce 

Bookmark
WEDNESDAY, SEP 21 | 12:30 – 12:50 PM PDT

Propel your career and build your network by learning six strategies non-writers can use to start blogging about Salesforce. Blaze a trail from zero to content rockstar.

 

Dreamforce Circle of Success Sessions 

Circle of Success is a small group, discussion-based clinic led by Salesforce experts. These rountables include Salesforce customers, employees, and consultants. They’ll gather for 60-90 minute interactive sessions focused on adoption-related topics. 

The Sercante team will be facilitating several Circles of Success Sessions during Dreamforce ‘22. Learn more about each session below. 

 

Automate Your Business Processes 

Join this small group discussion on leveraging powerful process automation features like triggers, Process Builder, and Flow. Learn best practices on identifying and developing the proper automation.

Role: Administrator, Developer
Product: Salesforce Platform
Session Type: Circles of Success
Multiple dates/times | View all and bookmark here

 

Boost Productivity with Pardot

Join this small group discussion on enriching the customer experience with data-driven marketing and Pardot’s automation tools. Learn best practices on segmentation, automation, and personalization.

Role: Marketing
Industry: Technology
Product: Marketing Cloud
Session Type: Circles of Success
Multiple dates/times | View all and bookmark here

 

Drive Lead Gen with Campaigns

Join this small group discussion on leveraging campaigns to help you maximize prospect engagement. Learn best practices on planning, building, and reporting on campaigns.

Role: Sales
Product: Sales Cloud
Session Type: Circles of Success
Multiple dates/times | View all and bookmark here

 

Improve Customer Service with Reports

Join this small group discussion on leveraging analytics to tackle service and support challenges. Learn best practices on using reports and dashboards to improve customer service.

Role: Service
Industry: Professional Services
Product: Service Cloud
Session Type: Circles of Success
Multiple dates/times | View all and bookmark here

 

Marketing Made Easy with Automation Studio 

Join this small group discussion on how Automation Studio and journey-led transformations deliver impact across key business metrics: time saved, more revenue, and happier customers.

Role: Marketing
Industry: Communications
Product: Marketing Cloud
Session Type: Circles of Success
Multiple dates/times | View all and bookmark here

 

Plan Marketing Cloud Journey Strategies 

Join this small group discussion on how to feel more empowered when approaching your first journey. Learn best practices and skills necessary to create your journey strategies.

Role: Marketing
Industry: Communications
Product: Marketing Cloud
Session Type: Circles of Success
Multiple dates/times | View all and bookmark here

 

Sales Metrics that Matter

Join this small group discussion on creating reliable reports and dashboards using metrics to fit your business needs. Learn best practices for identifying, creating, managing, and assigning metrics.

Role: Sales
Product: Sales Cloud
Session Type: Circles of Success
Multiple dates/times | View all and bookmark here

 

Sercante Dreamforce ‘22 Events

Come take a break and join us at The Home for Marketers or meet fellow marketers during one our five Meetup sessions!  Discover Meetup group topics or platform focuses below. 

The Home for Marketers: Where marketers meet at Dreamforce

Where: Pink Elephant Alibi | 142 Minna Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
When: September 19-22 | 4-8 pm PDT
Register Here

The Home for Marketers is where marketers on the Salesforce platform can go to find their people. It’s the perfect spot to take a break, network, refuel with amazing food and drinks, and get resources to level-up their MOPs.

Located just steps away from Moscone, you’ll find free food, drinks, entertainment, and like-minded marketing pros who love to talk shop. The best part — it’s there for you the whole week of Dreamforce.

Come find us anytime during the week to chill with your favorite marketers and fill up on things you need. Remember to check the schedule so you can catch the crew during special gatherings and off-the-rails parties. Register to get access to all the events and special activities all week long.

A Night Of Enchantment: Magical Dreamforce Party For The Ages

WHEN: Tuesday, September 20 | 7 -11 pm PDT
WHERE: Temple Nightclub | 540 Howard St, San Francisco, CA 94105
Register Here

Everyone’s going to be talking about this enchanted Dreamforce party, so register and get it in your calendar now.

The epic bash is taking place at Temple Nightclub. It includes a live DJ, mouth-watering hors d’oeuvres, memorable activities and prizes, and exclusive VIP experiences. Regardless of your vibe, there’s something for you — a dance floor to go a little crazy, a quiet art bar to network and have a glass of wine, and mesmerizing rooftop views to zone out under the stars.

Financial Services Meetup 

September 21 | 10:00 – 11 AM PDT
Register Here

Meet up with fellow Financial Services Industry marketers to network, connect, and grab some fuel (coffee, refreshments, and snacks) before grabbing a front-row seat at the Salesforce Financial Services Keynote at 11:30 AM. 

HowToSFMC Meetup

September 20 | 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM PDT
Register Here

Meet with members of HowToSFMC at Dreamforce! HowToSFMC is a helpful community for Salesforce Marketing Cloud users. This is a great networking opportunity to meet your fellow practitioners and talk tips and tricks for the SFMC platform.

Drinks and lunch will be served, but registration is limited. Make sure you secure your spot!

Pardashian Meetup

September 20 | 8-9 AM PDT
Register Here

Join the largest gathering of Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) users at Dreamforce! This is a great networking opportunity to meet your fellow Pardashians and share your tips and tricks for the account Engagement platform. We’ll be serving a hearty breakfast with drinks to power you through the day. 

Merivis Meetup

September 22 | 12:30-1:30 PM PDT
Register Here

Merivis supports veterans preparing for their next mission through training, mentorship and job placement for Salesforce cloud technology careers. Join us to connect with military veterans and milspouses who are at all stages of their journeys into the Salesforce ecosystem.

Learn from others and share your story so we can all grow together. We’ll be serving lunch and drinks, so bring your appetite.

Diverse Founders Meetup 

September 22 | 4 – 6 PM PDT
Register Here 

Close out the week of Dreamforce by networking with fellow diverse partners and founders in the ecosystem. This happy hour is open to founders and CEOs of businesses who identify as Black, Latinx, AAPI, LGBTQ+ or women owned / led / founded — along with the allies who support them! Join us for drinks, delicious food, and a chance to unwind and debrief from the week.

 

See you at Dreamforce

So, why are we doing all of these things for marketers at Dreamforce? Because we know how marketers are so often the behind-the-scenes masters of these events. And they are often forgotten in favor of people with shinier roles and areas of expertise. 

We want to show love to all the marketers so we can connect, grow, and do cool things together. Join us!

Like many African-American men and boys from Rancho Cordova, California, OK (Our Kids) Program alumnus Marlow Rockwell had limited opportunities for personal success and growth. 

Lacking resources and positive role models, Rockwell fell into a life of crime during his teen years. That’s when the OK Program helped him to turn things around.

Image Credit: OK Program

“I was at the point where I was tired of running the streets and engaging in some of the crimes we had done. It just wasn’t me anymore,” Rockwell said, referring to a time when his participation in the OK Program made him rethink his path in life.

OK Program founder Donald Northcross, who started the OK Program while working as a Deputy Sheriff in Sacramento County, connected with Rockwell through the program. 

Image Credit: OK Program

Northcross saw African-American males entering the criminal justice system and becoming the victims of homicides at alarming rates. So, he created the OK Program in hopes that it would bridge the gap between law enforcement and African-American men and boys.

Since its inception in 1990, the program has connected at-risk community members with volunteer mentors with a single focus in mind. That focus is to “reduce the homicides and incarcerations of black males through a mentoring program that develops their leadership capacity, critical thinking skills, and promotes academic excellence,” according to OK Program.

 

OK Program nationwide expansion

More than 30 years after Northcross originally laid the groundwork for the OK Program, the organization now spans five cities. The OK Program is working to strategically expand into communities with high populations of at-risk African-American men and boys.

These strategic nationwide expansion plans led to the 100,000 Strong National African-American Male Mentor Initiative. 100,000 Strong is an initiative OK Program is spearheading to enlist new mentors in communities where they can make the greatest impact on the populations they serve.

While the OK Program has seen great success leading to the ambitious initiative and other special programs, the organization faces operational challenges that make it difficult to achieve ambitious goals.

Video Credit: OK Program

 

Preparing the OK Program for growth

Like many nonprofit organizations, the OK Program relies on a small team of dedicated individuals. They have limited access to the technology they need to reach more people and build long-term relationships, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for volunteers to find time for administrative tasks.

“Basically, officers were spending too much time in spreadsheets and not enough time with the kids,” said OK Program Executive Director Sergeant Robert L. Smith.

In late 2021, Salesforce swooped in to help the program by providing CRM tools that moved operations at their Oakland chapter into a cloud-based system that organizational administrators and volunteers can access through mobile devices.

Smith said since implementing Salesforce Sales Cloud at the organization, their volunteers are able to enter data in real time onsite rather than spend a day each week entering organizational tracking data into paper spreadsheets.

They now use the Salesforce CRM to digitally track relationships and performance metrics as well as automate communication with stakeholders. Specifically, Sales Cloud tracks relationships between law enforcement officers and the schools the OK Program serves.

In 2022, Salesforce provided the OK Program with a $20,000 grant, which the organization is using to purchase iPads for the program members. The Salesforce team also awarded the OK Program with a license for Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) as the cherry on top.

Moving operations out of paper binders and into digital systems, the OK Program is poised to continue working toward their expansion goals.

 

Future-proofing marketing operations with Salesforce

After experiencing success from their Salesforce Sales Cloud implementation in Oakland, they are ready to implement the same system at the organization’s other four locations in Little Rock, AR, Kansas City, KS, Topeka, KS, and Miami, FL. In addition, the OK Program is now diving into the marketing side with a sparkling new Pardot instance. 

Pardot is part of the Salesforce platform. That means the organization can share data between both systems as they grow their footprint and add chapters to new cities. 

The Pardot implementation is providing much-needed scalable marketing automation capabilities to set them up for success now and as they grow. They’ll use it to communicate digitally and build relationships with the people who support and benefit from the organization.

 

Sercante steps in to provide pro-bono Pardot implementation support

With a history of providing pro-bono support to organizations in need, the Sercante team rose to the challenge and started work right away by pledging more than $15,000 in pro-bono support. 

“I 100% believe in the mission of the OK Program, so of course I said ‘yes’ when Kevin asked me about it. I’m honored to have team Sercante support their mission in any way we can,” said Sercante Founder and CEO Andrea Tarrell. 

Tackling the project in tandem with volunteers from the Salesforce team, Sercante is supporting the organization’s migration from a paper-based system and Mailchimp to Salesforce Sales Cloud and Pardot. 

The Sercante team will help OK Program us Pardot to complete nurture campaigns for the different personas they serve. They’ll use digital marketing tactics like email templates, Engagement Studio Programs, and landing pages to deliver consistent messaging to the right audiences. And the team will use Salesforce to track results to inform marketing and operational strategies.

The Ok Program tech stack is ready for the future

The greater team will work to get these digital systems up and running so it’s easier to build relationships with the people the OK Program serves. And in the future, the organization will have better reporting capabilities to show the impact of their work as they build better communities from within.

Moving to Salesforce is allowing the organization to connect through a unified platform anyone can access through their mobile devices. And they can continue to grow and tap into that platform by connecting other tools as the organization launches into the future.

Ready to get your nonprofit organization out of paper spreadsheets and into digital systems? Drop us a line!

As you may know, our mascot is a dragon.

A question our team frequently gets on this:

“What’s the backstory here?”

The real story is… there is no backstory about the dragon. We could probably make one up.  But the truth is, we just like them.

Mike Creuzer was going to submit a topic to Southeast Dreamin’ 2019 called “Slaying Your Data Dragons with Pardot,” and we talked about creating a dragon mascot specifically for that session.  Or creating the session for the mascot?  Anyway — the session didn’t happen, because somehow we managed to miss the submission deadline.

Still, we needed something soft and adorable to bring to THE marquee Salesforce conference of the Southeast. So we ran an internal poll because, democracy:

The dragons had a solid lead, but the real deal sealer was this video from the Creuzer clan:

It was just too cute.

And so, a mascot was born.

The Sercante dragons are not all identical, however.  You may encounter FIVE variations of Sercante dragons in the wild, at any given point in time.

Lil’ Handful

Lil’ Handful is the smallest, cutest member of the Sercante thunder (thunder is, in fact, the correct term for a herd of dragons.)  Lil’ Handful got its name from the catalog we ordered it from, also from the fact that it just makes you want to scoop it up its cuteness in your hands.

Midwest Dreamin’ here I (we) come! Just a consultant with a bag full of dragons & Pardot in her heart. ✈️ ❤️

Will likely be carrying a purseload of these at all times, so if you want one find me and say hi! 🐉 ✨ #dragonmule #mwd19 #salesforce #sercante #sporforpardot pic.twitter.com/Q6mg2CcAjB

— Andrea Tarrell (@andreatarrell) August 7, 2019

It is also very popular among cats.  Exhibit A:

Look at this girl, #Tiger. She is careless about the political chaos, she enjoys her #naptime with @Pardot #Dragon– her favorite buddy. Is she dreaming big? Lol, who know? @SercanteLLC @andreatarrell @jdfassett @hrinke @trailhead #Martech pic.twitter.com/E9XLtqJf0F

— Brandy Chi (@brandy_chi) September 2, 2020

Lil’ Handful with a Sailor Hat On

This is exactly what it sounds like — a dragon with a penchant for boating.

Lil’ Handful with a Sailor Hat On was made specifically for Dreamforce 2020 for our nautical themed B2B Marketing Bash, “Into the Blue.”  We had Yacht Rock, edible bubbles, and our beloved mascot with a jaunty hat.

I do understand that it is slightly confusing to people why a dragon would wear a sailor hat outside of the context of that party, but I would invite you to just roll with it. 🙂

The only piece of swag that matters post #DF19 @SercanteLLC 🙌🏼 pic.twitter.com/pAFFv2UOi3

— brittanyrhyme (@brittanyrhyme) November 25, 2019

Blitz

Blitz is similarly colored, but bigger and mightier than Lil’ Handful.  She stands about 10 inches tall.  Don’t call her cute — she’s FIERCE.

Blitz is named for her role model, Adam Blitzer, the founder of Pardot.

Dragons roll out!
We’re ready to learn all the things and help fellow Pardot users at the Genius Bar in the Palace Hotel. #pardotpress #DF19 pic.twitter.com/p2G25El0Jt

— Jacqueline Fassett (@jdfassett) November 19, 2019

Beni

Beni is the biggest of the Sercante dragons.  She’s seriously massive… she’s challenging to even fit in a backpack.

Only people who are serious about swag appreciate Beni.  And by “serious about swag” I mean “pack an extra suitcase to carry home plushies from Dreamforce” level serious.  She is large and in charge.

Beni gets her name from her celebrity hero, Marc Benioff.  Who I suspect is also challenging to fit in a backpack.

Dragons everywhere!! @eperry and I are looking forward to seeing our @SercanteLLC and @Pardot friends at #DF19 #b2bbash tonight pic.twitter.com/ZOigBdqbUO

— Rebekah King (@rebekah_king) November 21, 2019

Goldie

Goldie was also created as a “special edition” for Dreamforce 2019.  She got her name from… you guessed it, her color, along with our dwindling taxonomic creativity by dragon #5.

Goldie is also the world traveling star of the #WheresParDragon series counting down the days to ParDreamin’ 2020.

It was a long flight but ParDragon caught up with some mates and had a busy day sight seeing! Check back on Monday to see who ParDragon is hanging out with this weekend #WheresParDragon pic.twitter.com/qerq9g3X6u

— ParDreamin (@ParDreamin) November 20, 2020

So there you have it!  These are the 5 plush Dragons of Sercante.  If you see one in the wild, please remember that they bite unless you take a picture and post it to Twitter.

PS — If you want one of your very own, be sure to sign up for ParDreamin’.  We will be raffling one of each 5 varieties at the event!

I don’t usually celebrate birthdays.  Mostly because mine is January 2nd — the day when the entire globe goes on a diet and sets New Year’s resolutions (lame).

But when it comes to Sercante?  Now that’s a birthday I’ll gladly celebrate.  Even the one in the dumpster fire that is 2020.

It’s been a strange year filled with strange headlines.  We’ve battled a super virus and murder hornets. We saw communities come together to speak up and say that yes, Black Lives Matter. We navigated a historic U.S. election and mourned the loss of political and cultural icons.

2020 has been anything but boring.  Yet looking past the headlines… it seems to me that we are surrounded by silver linings, including:

• Opportunities to spend more time with family and loved ones
• Businesses doubling down on digital transformation
• Marketing taking a more strategic role as a revenue driver
• A heightened awareness of the role that small businesses play in the economy
• Virtual work becoming the rule, not the exception
• Greater appreciation for physical health and mental wellbeing
• An opportunity to re-imagine industry events and make learning more accessible across the globe
• Delta extending Medallion Status for another year (whew, close one)

The challenges posed by 2020 have also made me so incredibly proud of my team and the way they’ve rallied to support each other, our clients, and the Pardot community.  A few highlights from the past year, if I can brag on the Sercante crew for just a moment:

• Achieving 88% year over year growth, in the midst of a global pandemic
• 6 team members being named 2020 Marketing Champions
• 7 team members giving back as User Group Leaders
• Working with customers in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Finland, Switzerland, Belgium, Romania, Israel, Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand
• Living our 5 core values of Extreme Ownership, Wayfinding, Simplifying Complexity, Generosity, and Relentless Zeal (also our secret core value, Rule No. 6)
• 4 speakers at Snowforce 2020… one of the very few community events that managed to pull their gathering off before the virus hit
• Taking the 1% Pledge and serving dozens of non-profits at a discounted rate
• Introducing a COVID-19 and Veteran Scholarship program that has allowed over 50 students to participate in our Pardot Admin Bootcamp, free of charge
• Being recognized as a Gold/Crest Partner
• Earning the Pardot “Master Navigator” designation (one of only 3 companies to earn this distinction!)
• Growing to become the 3rd largest woman-owned business in the Salesforce ecosystem
• Launching the Campaign Influence Starter Pack & the Automated Opportunity Contact Roles App
• Publishing Postman Collections to help accelerate learning about the Pardot API
• Planning a Virtual Ed Summit to help our higher ed clients navigate change
• Launching ParDreamin’, the first ever virtual Pardot conference

If I had to pick one word to describe how I feel about 2020, it would be “grateful.”

Words can’t describe how much I appreciate the individuals that have chosen to give their time and talents to Sercante, the amazing clients that continue to push this limits of the platform, the team at Salesforce who cultivate a strong ecosystem… and last, but definitely not least, the Pardot community who constantly cheers each other on and has each other’s backs (I’m looking at you @ifeellikemacmac, @JenTalkTech2Me, @jennamolby, @theashleyanger, and too many other awesome people to count).

Can’t wait to see what the next year will bring.

P.S. — sign up for ParDreamin‘.

P.P.S — we’re hiring. 🙂

For many organizations, especially our friends at nonprofits, non-governmental organizations, and even start-ups, making time to learn can be difficult. Would you be interested in a flexible, easy to digest, free tool to learn about Salesforce or Pardot prior to purchase, post-purchase or simply at will to skill up in specific features in 30 minutes or less?

Well, let me introduce you to Trailhead!

What is Trailhead?

As described by Salesforce –

“Trailhead is a learning experience platform—a library of educational content that you can access whenever you like.”

And guess what? It is absolutely free.

How can Trailhead benefit you?

Trailhead provides you with resources to prepare you for the start of a new career in the Salesforce ecosystem (or supplement your evolving journey with your current employer). In a way, Trailhead acts as your virtual Salesforce career support hub. You can also download the Trailhead app on your iPhone (sorry fellow Android users – our time will come…soon I hope).

To help, Trailhead outlines a few general roles in the Salesforce family and gives you statistics around them, these include: Administrator, Marketer, Business Analyst, Developers, Consultant, Services, Sales and System Architecture.

Taking it a step further, you can even sign up to become a mentee or a mentor to others who are starting to explore a career change or simply learning Sales Cloud/Pardot for their current role. You might get lucky and get paired up with someone from team Sercante (I have signed up to be a mentor twice!).

You can also set up a profile (like the one below) so you can use it as your Salesforce portfolio with your own URL. Then attach it to your different social media profiles.

What Type of learning resources are available on Trailhead?

With Trailhead you can customize your learning to tailor it exactly for you (or your team’s needs) and, similar to an online course, complete on your own time.

Some of the resources available once you create a free Trailhead account include:

• Modules: Modules are snippets of learning material around a specific topic. (e.g. Email Templates)
• Trails: Trails are a short chain of modules that explore specific features or use-cases (e.g. Email Marketing)
• Trailmixes: A Trailmix is a series of custom trails, in other words you mix modules from different trails into a new learning set.
• Projects: Like the name implies, projects are hands-on exercises with “recipes” you can follow to accomplish specific tasks. 
• Superbages: Superbadges are like projects in that they assign specific tasks, but unlike projects, superbadges do not provide you with step-by-step directions to solve specific challenges. They’re great for applying what you have learned to common situations you’d encounter as a real admin. 
• Supersets: These are a compilation of superbadges, which help you grow in proficiency in the skills required for specific industry roles. 
• Quests: These act as incentives to gamify Trailhead and provide users with prizes; 

The more of these resources you complete, the more badges you earn and the higher your point count/rank will be within the Trailhead universe. In fact, some universities are starting to give college credit for these trailmixes in specific programs.

How long does it take to get through a trail or trailmix?

The real answer is, it depends. However you can always tell by the duration time at the beginning of each module. This allows you to use 15-30 minutes during lunch to tackle a part of the module and come back later or after you put the kids to sleep for the night.

Does Trailhead update their content regularly?

In short, yes. Most of the content on Trailhead is relevant to any role in the Salesforce ecosystem.

For those trailblazers trying to stay ahead of the curve, I recommend checking out:

• Trailblazer Radio – Provides you with access to podcasts like: The Admin Podcast, the Developers Podcast and The Trailblazer’s Guide To Careers that can provide you quick knowledge snippets that are easy to digest during your downtime
• Trailhead Live – Need fresh content? Trailhead live provides you with a series of new content webinars and virtual seminars around different topics directly from Salesforce Evangelists.

There are also several additional community components (pictured below) that you can explore to build a community both online and IRL. 

How can I use Trailhead at my company?

Trailhead can be leveraged at the individual and team level. However, Trailhead has limited content and isn’t very flexible when it comes to adding 3rd party content. For that purpose, many companies use myTrailhead to onboard their teams or develop new courses around their Salesforce use cases. You can embed videos, text, images, 3rd party links and even quiz your participants. By using myTrailhead you can even recommend modules for your team to review throughout Salesforce.

Not ready to dive into myTrailhead? Another way you can track your team’s progress is by using the Trail Tracker App. With this app, you can incentivize your team to manage their own learning by making monthly or quarterly badge challenges and also provide everyone (or management) with the visibility necessary to have impactful conversations around career development.

We just got Pardot. How do I use Trailhead to get up to speed quickly?

Trailhead is a great tool to leverage in-house expertise. If this doesn’t exist in your organization around Pardot, then I would encourage you to seek support from a knowledgeable Partner who has experience in your industry. Implementations can be tricky to do. It may seem like another cost but the amount of technical debt you can build from a partial or incorrect configuration could prevent you and your team from leveraging Pardot to the maximum.

We lost our Pardot Admin (or I’m the Pardot Admin now…), what do I do now? Can Trailhead help?

In short, yes. However, similar to Salesforce Administrators everyone has a style of doing things and if you don’t have experience working in the tool, even Trailhead can be hard to digest. I would recommend you reach out to a Partner for a system audit to help you create a roadmap of how to pinpoint any deficiencies and help you find solutions that fit your business. This would Once you have a base understanding of the system and ideas for how you want to use it, you can pinpoint which areas of Pardot you can learn from Trailhead.

For training, I would recommend signing up for a virtual course like our Pardot Admin Bootcamp, especially if your timeline is tight and you need to get up to speed quickly.

Additionally, these three Trailmixes can provide you with an excellent starting point to prepare you for your first taste of Pardot:

• Getting Started With Pardot: For Training – This trailmix is tailored for those who want a more in-depth look at Pardot or are pursuing certification and would like to supplement their learning. Get Started > >
• Getting Started With Pardot: For Operations – This trailmix is tailored for the day-to-day operations to get up and running as soon as possible. Get Started > >
• Power User Topics: Pardot Technical Setup, Reports, and B2B MA – This trailmix combines a series of additional topics for Pardot power users. Get Started > >

Take Control of Your Career with Trailhead

You can take control of your career by leveraging Trailhead to learn about roles in the Salesforce universe and also become trained on them fairly quickly. Although Trailhead on its own is not a substitute for real-world experience, using this tool and actively engaging with it can help you prepare for your first junior role as a Salesforce or Pardot Admin.

For leaders exploring how to engage their teams further while they’re remote, Trailhead can become a good way to gamify the process of self and team learning with its point system, quests, and community dashboards.