3 Ways to Transform Your Career: How to Become a Salesforce Consultant

I began my career at a telecom company where I had various roles, from hooking up cable lines in households to working in customer service call centers to managing a call center. These experiences eventually led to landing my dream job as a Salesforce Functional Consultant at Deloitte.

Trailblazing a new opportunity

Early in my career, I developed a talent for speaking with people and digging into a problem to find emerging core issues. In my current role, my leadership opportunities continue to grow and my skill sets continue to expand. Here are three things I’ve done to transform my career into becoming a Salesforce consultant.

1. Step outside your comfort zone

After telecoms, I moved from Columbus, Ohio, to the Bay Area to work as a technical support manager at a startup. This company used Salesforce, and I was excited to dive in. I went beyond my role (and outside my comfort zone!) to learn more about Salesforce CRM and how to troubleshoot it.

I started learning through Trailhead—Salesforce’s free online learning platform—and collaborated with others in the Trailblazer Community to help me skill up and grow my career.

Unfortunately, I was laid off from that startup which was a challenging moment in my life. For a few weeks, I felt lost and didn’t know which direction to go. After reflecting on my career, I noticed a common thread—Salesforce. It was an essential solution for my past companies to grow and improve their businesses.

2. Discover your unique skill set

My journey started with the Salesforce Administration certification with the goal of becoming a Salesforce consultant. I used the resources from the Salesforce Consultant Career Path on Trailhead to build my skills and apply for consultant roles within the Salesforce ecosystem.

Of course, there were bumps along the road in my job search, but I ended up receiving two solid offers for Salesforce consultant roles before ultimately choosing Deloitte.

My advice to aspiring Salesforce consultants is to explore how your skill sets fit within a consulting role. A lot of companies are looking for specific skills, and you can highlight those unique skill sets for many roles. Develop a solid understanding of what you offer and how you’re different.

For example, when I started at Deloitte, I thought I should let the more experienced team members lead the way. I now acknowledge that I’m an expert in my field and have the knowledge to help make important decisions. Becoming confident in my skills helped me take on new activities and tasks.

3. Remain a lifelong learner

Continuous learning is so important to keep up with the innovation and advancements of today. Had I not committed to skilling up, I wouldn’t have had the same career growth and opportunities. Staying curious opened doors for me as I built new skills to become the trusted advisor my colleagues and customers were looking for.

A few months ago, I joined the Consultant Trailblazer Community Group, which has been great for meeting fellow Trailblazers and learning from other Salesforce consultants all over the world. I’m able to share and get advice on strategy, trends, customer expectations, and new skills that are important for me to learn.

Participating in the Trailblazer Community, both digitally and in person, has been key to my learning journey. In addition, I continue to earn new Salesforce credentials across the ecosystem, such as Accredited Professional, MuleSoft, Slack, Tableau, and, of course, the various consultant certifications on Trailhead.

Grow as a #ConfidentConsultant

Expanding my Salesforce knowledge and customer relationship skills continue to be so important, for both my professional and personal life. Because I’m a lifelong learner, I was able to grow my career and land my dream role as a #ConfidentConsultant. Now, I strive to provide the best expertise and solutions for customers to be successful.

I consider my journey as a Salesforce consultant just the beginning. With every new customer comes a new challenge with new skills to learn and new solutions to uncover. That’s why I love being a Salesforce consultant—every project is unique and different. This variety allows me to continuously grow and, more importantly, better support my customers.

Check out my favorite resources:

• Trailhead: Salesforce Consultant Career Path
• Trailhead: Salesforce Consultant Certifications
• Trailhead: Functional Consultant Trailmix
• Salesforce Partners: Salesforce Talent Alliance
• Salesforce Partners: #AlwaysBeLearning Blog
• AppExchange: Deloitte Digital

Follow Marvin on the Trailblazer Community at trailblazer.me/id/marvincross.