Salesforce and our partners know that in order to realise the true power of digitisation, our customers need to have access to enough diverse, skilled and experienced people to deliver an exceptional transformation. Salesforce roles span multiple functional areas, including sales, IT, marketing, business management and operations. 

As businesses embrace a future of mobile, big data, IoT and AI, Salesforce skills are becoming some of the hottest skills to have on a resume – and that demand is only growing. But what exactly are these key roles that will be shaping the future?

User roles

User roles are the most popular jobs, typically comprising employees of Salesforce customers – so people who are already using, leading and/or benefiting from Salesforce solutions. 

These are experienced “super users” of the platform, whose learnt skills and front-level knowledge can help others get the most out of the platform. For instance, business-reporting users know how to get most out of the data, analytics and reporting in the platform to optimise decision-making. 

With experience, those in user roles can become platform/product leaders. These strategic leaders shape how their company will digitise, use Salesforce, and influence the customisation work that their admins and developers take on.

Run roles

Run roles are often the employees of our customers, but can also be contractors or outsourced workers. These are people who are critical for driving excellence and optimising platform performance.

Every customer needs access to the skills and knowledge of a Salesforce Administrator. A fully embedded Administrator will be user-facing and focused on providing support, troubleshooting and training. In addition to administrative and customisation duties, they also directly support end users.

As well as their SF skills, those in run roles often have business expertise in sales, marketing or service. Their role and responsibilities can flex with the complexity of the customer’s needs, ranging from an emerging role to an Exceptional Builder or a Super Admin with full knowledge and control of the platform’s suite of customisation features.

Implementation roles

Implementation roles involve people who are employed by customers as part of programme teams, are the employees of Salesforce partners, or are part of Salesforce’s professional services teams. They build out the Salesforce Platform to fit the specific needs of a customer, primarily through configuration, but also through code where needed.

Salesforce customers can begin working on the Salesforce Platform with just a user and an admin, but scale and complexity may call for the assistance of those in more specific implementation roles. Salesforce recommends beginning implementation programmes by building a single team around the customer. Successful digital transformation requires agility, and a team should be flexible, empowered and self-governing.

Although flexibility is an asset, specialised roles are also required: 

• A business analyst gives life to users’ stories.

• A Salesforce Consultant brings knowledge and expertise to complex challenges.

• Salesforce Developers configure and maintain lean technology stacks – as well as coding when necessary.

• Experience Designers focus on addressing the human needs.

• Architects (platform, enterprise, technical, and system) add depth and rigour to implementations, making sure design guidelines are in place to build the best solution at the fastest pace – and that the solution will be sustainable. 

Lastly, we have the roles of scrum masters, project managers, testers and trainers, which are key to managing an implementation.

A talented future

All of these roles are crucial to Salesforce and our broader ecosystem – and they add up. According to IDC, together, we will create over 4 million jobs over the next 5 years. Not surprisingly, COVID has slowed demand trends for Salesforce talent in 2020 but it’s still growing at 15-30% at last estimate. We’re working hard with our partners and the Trailblazer Community of Talent to develop the skills and experience needed by our customers, and we look forward to seeing what tomorrow brings.

Check out my first article in this series, Realising the Potential of Digitisation Needs Technology & People, to read up on why investing in people is good business, and the final article in the series on where to find job opportunities and how to tap in to the talent pool.