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Blaze Your Salesforce Trail

Kevin Michie • March 14, 2019

Whether it’s tracking a part for repair using Service Cloud or creating a marketing campaign using Marketing Cloud, figuring out where to start learning Salesforce’s many offerings can be difficult. Luckily, there is Salesforce Trailhead, which is a great resource to get you started.  

Trailhead has an expansive library of rich, curated content, but it can be difficult to decipher what is useful and what might be too far beyond the scope of what you are trying to accomplish.  This is why it’s important to take a ground-up approach with Trailhead as you develop your Salesforce skills. Your first goal should be to learn the foundations of Salesforce Core to quickly ramp-up in any of the Salesforce clouds.

So, let’s take a look at a few of the best learning Trails to kick things off!

Getting Started

The first thing to do is go to trailhead.salesforce.com and sign-up for a free account. This account is important to your learning journey because it will also connect to any Salesforce certifications you accumulate and maintain.

Your First Trail

The most important spot to start learning about Salesforce Core is through the Salesforce Admin journey. Whether you are planning on developing in Salesforce or being System Administrator, understanding how Salesforce manages data and how you can manipulate this data at the Administrator level is the first step in really building an understanding of the platform.

In the Admin Beginner Trail, you’ll learn:

  • Salesforce Platform Basics
  • Data Modeling
  • Data Management
  • Lightning Experience Customization
  • Salesforce Mobile App Customization
  • Reports & Dashboards for Lightning Experience

A Fork In The Road: Continuing the Administrator Path or Deviating to the Development Path

Continuing the Administrator Path

After going through the Admin Beginner trail, you should have a good grasp on how to use the Salesforce Core Platform to manage and transform your data. What really makes Salesforce shine is the ability to have a “Low-Code” interface. You can continue down the path of “Low-Code” and really do fantastic things with the platform. If you want to continue this path, I would suggest working through the Prepare for Your Salesforce Administrator Credential Trailmix and then complete the Business Administration Specialist Superbadge.

After completing both of these learning modules, you will be more than ready for the Salesforce Administrator Exam.

Deviating to the Development Path

After getting a grasp of how data is modeled in Salesforce, you should know more about how accessibility, lookup, and master-detail relationships work. Deviating off of the Administrator path and going into a more dev-heavy track will show you how to further extend the Salesforce platform through development.

Developer Beginner Trail

What you will learn:

  • Admin Beginner Trail Items
  • Apex Basics & Database
  • Apex Triggers
  • Apex Testing
  • Visualforce Basics
  • Developer Console Basics
  • VS Code for Salesforce Development
  • Search Solution Basics

After completing this trail, you will have a strong background in Salesforce Development. Put your skills to the test with the Apex Specialist Superbadge and Advanced Apex Specialist Superbadge. After completing the two super badges, you will be in a prime position for successfully completing the Salesforce Platform Developer I Certification.

Closing Thoughts

Before digging too deeply into the Salesforce Platform Developer I Certification, I would recommend completing the Salesforce Administrator Certification. The reason being is that Salesforce Core will always push to be a “Low Code” platform, and the continued understanding of what the platform can and can’t do will significantly reduce the likelihood of unnecessarily extending the platform.

The journey to a deep understanding of the Salesforce Core platform is a long and rewarding experience. Be sure to check back for continued guidance from LYONSCG, and we’ll see you on down the trail.






Kevin Michie

About the author

Kevin Michie

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