Salesforce Admins Podcast
Implementing Salesforce with Alexander Salatzkat

This week on the Buttonclick Admin podcast, we are speaking with Alexander Salatzkat, Head of CRM at Carl Zeiss Vision about the process of implementing and integrating Salesforce CRM into your business and of course how the role of the Salesforce Administrator is essential to the success of such an implementation.….and we’re speaking in German!

Special Co-host: Rebecca Saar

Rebecca Saar, marketing programs manager at Salesforce. I work with the awesome admin evangelists and marketers to help educate, empower and inspire Salesforce Admins. 

Und auf deutsch: Mein name ist Rebecca Saar, ich bin marketing manager bei Salesforce auf einem Team das sich um Salesforce Administrators kummert damit sie unterstützt und erfolgreich sind... und zufälligerweise komme ich aus Deutschland! Ich bin nach Kalifornien gezogen als ich 11 jahre alt war - also wenn ihr ein akzent hört dann ist es wahrscheinlich amerikanisch.

What’s involved in undergoing a CRM implementation?

Alexander talks about three core parts of executing a successful CRM implementation: using the right technology, establishing the right processes, and including your stakeholders from the beginning.

Getting feedback, or what Alex calls doing anthropological studies, helps Admins see potential issues and end-user needs that can be built into the system from the beginning. It also helps Admins anticipate future needs so they can build now to scale later.

What does it mean to be a Salesforce Administrator?

As a Salesforce Administrator, your role is much bigger than button-clicking and administering the software application. It’s about being a strategic partner within your company, ready to help different departments and teams optimize their efforts.

As a manager of multiple Salesforce Admins around the world, Alexander urges his teammates to help and advise their respective departments and see how Salesforce can help them solve their problems. His goal is to have end-users ask ‘how can we solve this with Salesforce’?

Tips for Admins Just Getting Started

  • Join the community
  • Watch webinars
  • Do Trailhead
  • Get some quick wins! And, share them with your executives and other stakeholders to get everyone excited about the many possibilities and solutions you as an Admin can make possible

------------------------
In diesem podcast sprechen wir mit Alexander Salatzkat, Head of CRM by Carl Zeiss Vision über CRM, seine Bedeutung, wie man es implementiert und wer es am besten implementieren kann.

Wie kann man CRM am besten implementieren?

Alexander spricht über drei Kernteile eines CRM Projektes. Seiner Meinung nach braucht man 3 Dinge um ein CRM tool erfolgreich einzusetzen: die richtige Technologie, die richtigen Prozesse, und man muss von anfang die Benutzer/End-User mit einbeziehen.

Um CRM richtig einzusetzen, ist es auch wichtig, Feedback zu bekommen. Oder wie Alex es macht: anthropologische studien zu unternehmen um zu sehen wie End-users das System benutzen. Wenn man das macht, kann man das System von Anfang an richtig implementieren und so aufsetzen, dass es skalierbar ist.

Was bedeutet es ein Salesforce Administrator zu sein?

Die Rolle eines Administrator ist viel umfangreicher als die eines Datenanalysten. Als Administrator sind wir auch strategischer Partner. Wir helfen den verschiedenen Arbeitsgruppen ihr prozesse zu optimieren und ihre Kunden besser zu verstehen.

Alexander erinnert die anderen Salesforce Administrators weltweit, dass sie ihren Teams helfen und beraten sollen, wann immer sie können. Ziel ist es, dass die End-users immer erst fragen: “wie können wir das Problem mit Salesforce lösen?”

Tips fur Admins, die gerade anfangen

  • Nehme teil an einer Salesforce Community,
  • Schau die Webinars an,
  • Lern mit Trailhead
  • Vor allem aber ist es wichtig ein paar ‘quick wins’ zu haben. Wenn Management und andere Stakeholders diese quick wins sehen und wie alle davon profitieren und begeistert sind, zeigt das, was Admins möglich machen können.
Direct download: BCA-EP-316.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:24pm PDT

Admin Inspiration from Down Under with Mark Tossell

Today on the ButtonClick Admin podcast, we’re speaking to Mark Tossell, a brand new admin based in Sydney, Australia. In May of 2016, Mark left his previous career where he didn’t have any CRM experience to take a job as a Salesforce admin. We’re very excited to share Mark’s inspirational story in our last episode of 2016.

More on Mark’s session: Join us as Mark shares his journey as a brand new admin. We’ll learn about some of the challenges he’s faced and how he’s overcome them with the help of Trailhead, Premiere Plus Support, and the Salesforce community.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Mark Tossell.

 

Make Trailhead your best friend.

“It seemed to be the right fit at the right time. I love technology; I love changing the way things work and solving problems,” says Mark when asked why he decided to take a position as a Salesforce admin.

To prepare, Mark says, “I spent a week furiously watching YouTube videos, many of which were from Dreamforce, until I met my new best friend which is Trailhead. I spend 40-50 hours a week going through Trailhead.”

Know how to visualize a process and implement it in the system.

When asked what his biggest challenge has been as a brand new admin, Mark says,

“Being able to accurately picture a process in the system that will work in the business.” You need to be able to imagine how the process can be done in Salesforce and then create it in the system.

“The second challenge for me has been the people side of things: convince people the benefits of the system, get them using it, get them active in the system, enforcing data integrity and all of those adoption issues,” says Mark.

Salesforce in a Day helps with adoption.

Adoption is something every admin struggles with. A Salesforce in a Day training session can help. “I put together a program which began with an overview of Salesforce: what it is, what it does, what it can do. Then I just touched on the basics: navigation, leads, context, reports, chatter,” says Mark.

“By the end of the day, I felt that people had a good overview of the system. I thought it was very helpful in our organization,” he says.

Use Trailhead and Premiere Plus Support to prepare for admin certification.

Since beginning work as an admin in June, Mark has received his Salesforce admin certification. I took it for the first time on Saturday, and I’m really excited I passed!” he says.

When asked what helped him prepare, he says, “once again, Trailhead was a massive help. Also we have the Premiere Plus Support, so because of that, we have videos from the Salesforce University that are made available to us. Those were really helpful.”

Documentation is key.

If he could go back and do anything different, Mark says, “I would have better documentation, not only concerning changes I’ve made to the system but also documenting conversations I’ve had with staff and management concerning their requirements, responses to questions that I have asked because sometimes those things come back later on and it’s good to have a paper trail.”

Mark also says, “Salesforce can do so much, and there are so many aspects of it that sometimes I am trying to achieve ten objectives at once. Once thing I’m learning to do is become more focused and concentrate on one or two key objectives at a time. I believe if I had done that earlier on, I’d be further along in the project than I am now,” he says.

Harness the Power of Community.

The community has had a huge impact on his journey. “The broader Salesforce community has been a tremendous help and encouragement to me over the last six months. The local Salesforce community has been very supportive and helpful as well,” says Mark.

For more insights, make sure to follow Mark Tossell on Twitter (@MarkTossell).

Links:

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast, and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc. using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.

We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do, and it helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

 

 

 

 

Direct download: Ep._317_with_Mark_Tossel.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:59am PDT

Personas with Mabel Chan and Alyssa Vincent-Hill

This week on the podcast we are speaking to Senior User Researcher Mabel Chan and Principal User Researcher Alyssa Vincent-Hill—both on the UX Salesforce team. We’re diving deep into the world of personas and discussing how our research team uses personas to help us better understand our customers.

Join us as Mabel and Alyssa define personas and examine how admins can apply personas to better understand our users and supplement the transition to Lightning.

You should subscribe to the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Mabel and Alyssa.

What’s The Big Deal with Personas?

Personas help us to formalize our understanding of our Salesforce users across the various clouds. The research team at Salesforce has been surveying hundreds of thousands of Salesforce users (including admins) and taking that information by using behaviors that people have reported to them in order to craft categories of users. These categories help them to better understand what traits, needs, and attitudes tend to float together so that they may make a generalization to help them tailor their development as well as research and communication to better serve various types of users.

How Admins Can Understand The Personas Of Their Users

Admins don’t necessarily have to use surveys to develop personas for their users. Interviews can be extremely effective, too. You can take thirty to sixty minutes to sit down with various types of users one-on-one. During these interviews, you can ask users questions about their everyday goals and what activities and tools that they use to achieve those goals. You can also ask them how tech and Salesforce savvy they are. Some additional questions to ask include:

  • What motivates you?
  • What capabilities do you have?
  • What does success mean to you?
  • What is the best part of your job?

As Mabel says, “You can really scale down a huge survey into more easy to bite interviews and conversations with your users.”

Personas vs. Job Roles

A persona deals with a group of users and what they do outside the Salesforce platform. There is, however, definitely some overlap and at first, it may seem a bit confusing at first, Mabel admits. “Personas and profiles do overlap a little bit, but profiles may include more than one persona and personas are a tool that anyone can use.” She also explains that “profiles are a way to give the right settings and permissions for what different types of users can see and do in Salesforce.”

Job behavior is essential in crafting personas. You can understand personas better by looking at core job behaviors and talking to users about what they spend most of their time doing during the day. “Most of us have core tasks that we stick to and that are consistent with our role over time, so identifying those tasks are essential in identifying personas. Personas are a great user-centered design tool and are extremely beneficial in helping to optimize Salesforce. As Mabel describes it, “understanding personas will help admins better design Salesforce to make their company run better.”

Personas Assist in The Transition to Lightning

Understanding personas are critical when transitioning to Lightning. It’s about crafting the ideal profile and permission sets for each persona, which will help you understand the various pain points your users are facing. “It helps you sort of break it into chunks. We’re going to focus on this group first—we’re going to implement it for them and then get feedback from them on how the implementation is going.” Alyssa recommends that you make tweaks to your implementation process. “Use it as a pilot group, but a really focused pilot group that as an admin you’ve done some research with, have talked to current users, and have a good understanding which hopefully would help to set that up for success,” suggests Alyssa.

For more insights, make sure to follow Alyssa Vincent-Hill on Twitter @a_vincenthill.

 

Links:

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast, and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc. using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.

We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don’t, head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It’s super easy to do, and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Love our podcasts?

Subscribe today or review us on iTunes!

 

Direct download: 315._Personas_With_Mabel_Chan__Alyssa_Vincent-Hill.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:27am PDT

Social Customer service with Kathy Baxter & Kristen Muramoto

This week on the podcast we’re speaking to Kathy Baxter, a Principal User Researcher and Kristen Muramoto, a Senior Product Designer. You may remember Kathy and Kristen from their amazing presentation on Social Customer Service at Dreamforce. They’re here to offer lots of relevant insights, best practices, and tips for marketers and admins alike.

 

More about Kathy and Kristen’s session: Join us as Kathy and Kristen share their insights and delve deep into the strategies they’ve designed for Social Customer Service. We’ll learn why customers are demanding SCS, why companies shy away from it, and what companies can do to bridge that gap.

 

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Kathy Baxter and Kristen Muramoto.

 

Have a conversation.

 

“Social Customer service is about reaching out to your customers wherever they are, whether that’s Twitter, Facebook or another global network. It’s about making it easier for everyday communication that’s conversational rather than transactional via phone or email,” says Kristen.

 

Yet, many companies are slow to adopt SCS. “There’s a fear of change and lack of knowledge. This is why we’re trying to get our experience out there and let people know that it’s not as scary as it might seem,” says Kristen.

 

81 percent of millennials prefer social support.

 

Customers now demand and expect SCS. “Not only is social really popular amongst millennials, but also we’ve found that 26% of customers will turn to social when they can’t reach a representative otherwise,” says Kathy.

 

During the design process, Kristen says it’s important to ask, “how do I make it clear in the user experience so that agents can help their customers as fast as possible as I would expect as a millennial?”

 

Prepare your support network.

 

Kathy and Kristen have come up with 10 strategies for social customer service. The first step is to identify ownership on social media. “In many companies, the marketing department is already out there on social media, but customer support is coming later to the game,” says Kathy. Marketing and customer reps need to come together so they can decide who gets to respond to what issues and what the dividing line is.

 

“This area is moving so quickly,” says Kathy. To be successful at SCS, companies need to develop deep expertise, be where their customers are, develop a playbook and train their agents properly.

 

84% of social messages at companies are ignored.

 

If an admin wants their company to get on social, what can s/he do about it right now? Kathy suggests, “do a search social media and see who is @ mentioning your brand and products. Ask: is it meeting silence?”

 

“If it looks like you don’t have a social presence out there, go speak with the head of customer support and make a case as to why you need to be engaging in that conversation,” says Kathy. If they don’t have a plan to implement social, ask why.

 

Adapt strategies as needed.

 

Looking forward, “we want to work with our customers to make sure our strategies are working for them. We then apply them to their success metrics and monitor their changes so we can adjust our strategies as applicable,” says Kristen.

 

Lastly, share your insights. “We do our best to share out the research and the best practices that we’ve learned with our customers so that they can benefit from it. We don’t just keep it internally. We share it out to empower our customers to be the best they can be for their customers,” says Kathy.

 

Links:

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast, and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc. using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.

We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don’t head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It’s super easy to do, and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Love our podcasts?

Subscribe today or review us on iTunes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Direct download: 314._Kathy_Baxter_and_Kristen_Muramoto.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:10am PDT

Mentorship Central with James Goerke

Heading into 2017, it’s very important that we start connecting our community together.

Today on the ButtonClick Admin podcast, we’re speaking to James Goerke about his experience in mentorship. James has been working with Salesforce since 2008 and has tons of knowledge spanning various industries, customers of different sizes, and ways to build on the platform. Recently, James built and launched Mentorship Central on the Success Community.

More about James’ session: Join us as James shares his valuable insights on mentorship and the impetus behind creating Mentorship Central. We’ll learn about the benefits of mentoring and what admins can do maximize the mentor/mentee relationship.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with James Goerke.

Do your market research first.

“There are a lot of people who aren’t near a user group. So, where do they go? They’re on their own if they have a deep question or are seeking a mentor/mentee relationship,” says James. Mentorship Central was spawned from a desire to create a space that matches the right mentor to the right mentee.

But as James likes to point out, “Before you start doing anything, do some market research and see if anyone actually cares. Does your audience want this?”

The response from the community was overwhelmingly positive. “This was a gap in the Salesforce community where we realized we could give back,” says James.

Mentorship is the next step.

At a certain point in your Salesforce journey, you’re going to hit a roadblock. Sometimes a one-off post in the right community can help you overcome these roadblocks. Other times, you need more. “At a certain point in your journey you’re going to need some coaching, a plan, and someone to keep you accountable,” says James.

This is where mentorship comes in. “You’ll need someone who’s been there or is willing to spend the extra time to build a relationship with you,” says James.

Trust your intuition.

At what point should an admin seek a mentor in their career? “It’s like love. You won’t know it until you’re there. You’ll know when you need a mentor,” says James.

Whether you’re trying to figure out your path or you need to fill a particular learning gap, a mentor can help you figure out where to go next.

Speak up.

“In actuality, it’s not a top-down mentor to mentee approach; it’s actually the other way. The mentee drives the relationship and what they need,” says James.

Want to get the most out of the relationship with your mentor? Speak up.

“If you don’t ask for something, you’re never going to get it. You need to communicate what you absolutely need and don’t be shy in doing that,” says John.

For more insights, make sure to follow James on Twitter (@jamesgoerke).

Links:

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast, and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc. using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.

We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don’t head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It’s super easy to do, and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

 

 

 

 

Direct download: Ep._313_with_James_Goerke.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:21am PDT

This week on the podcast we are speaking to newly minted product manager Vladimir Gerasimov about Global picklists and some of the exciting things we can expect in 2017.

A former software engineer at Microsoft, Vlad is now the product manager of Global picklists at Salesforce. He understands the ubiquity of picklists at Salesforce, and as a new product manager, he’s looking forward to using community feedback to create the best possible solutions for admins.

More about Vlad’s session: Join us as Vlad gives us an inside look into the development of Global picklists and how his team is working to help people with the transition and merge process. We’ll also walk through picklist best practices, learn about the benefits of Restrictive picklists and hear about how Vlad’s team are using community idea exchange points to create some of the exciting updates that are set to roll out for Spring 2017.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Vladimir Gerasimov.

It takes a village.

Over 45,000 idea exchange points went into the creation of Global picklists. As Vladimir shares, “it’s amazing how you can get feedback from the community on what they want and incorporate it into your own map.”

“In every state, we have a great community of administrators and developers. As a product manager my goal is to reach out to them when I need their feedback,” says Vladimir.

Merging into the future.

Global picklists allow you to use one value set across multiple fields. This is obviously an incredibly valuable feature for new Salesforce users, but what if you’re a seasoned admin and you already have picklists in your org? Vlad and his team are currently working on solutions for people who want to transition and merge those picklists into Global picklists.

“We understand there’s a high-demand for this and we’re trying to solve it by providing the best possible solutions to administrator’s problems,” Vladimir says. This means working on ways to merge picklists and provide some level of automation for customers.

Manage your values more efficiently with Restrictive picklists.

We’ve all downloaded a .CSV file only to realize it contains outdated values. “Restrictive picklists (which are rolling out alongside Global picklists) prohibit you from doing that. You cannot have a value in your records that does not exist on the picklist itself,” says Vladimir.

As he points out, with Restrictive picklists, the performance of a page will no longer be affected by inactive values. “Whether it’s a regular or Global picklist, you’ll now be able to see a list of inactive values,” shares Vladimir.

Exciting news for 2017.

Some of the exciting features to roll out this Spring include improvements for record types and picklist integration. As Vlad shares, “this is also coming from the idea exchange. Soon you’ll be able to add a picklist value to use for full integration purposes between external applications and Salesforce.”

For more insights, make sure to follow Vladimir on Twitter (@vladimge).

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast, and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc. using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.

We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don’t head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It’s super easy to do, and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: Ep._307_with_Vladimir_Gerasimov.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:47pm PDT

This week on the podcast we are speaking to David Liu about learning code as an admin. You might remember David from his intensely popular Dreamforce session, Admins: You Can Code Too.

David is such a success story­—not only because he’s an admin that learned to code, but because he’s also teaching admins how to code and inspiring them in the process. David is a Salesforce MVP, a self-proclaimed “accidental admin” who worked his way up to his position as Technical Architect at Google.

More about David’s session: Join us as David shares his coding tips and delves deep into what he calls his magic formula. We’ll also walk through the highlights of his Dreamforce session, including how he didn’t even show a single line of code. The goal of his session was to inspire people to learn.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with David Liu.

 

David Liu’s magic formula.

It all comes down to perseverance. As David puts it, “I’m not the smartest person, but I never give up.” If you’re looking to succeed, David has what he calls his 38% rule. “If you improve yourself and your knowledge by 1% every day, by the end of the year you’ll be 38% smarter than when you began,” he says.

“You can do a lot more than you give yourself credit for,” says David. But you have to be persistent and do it every day for 5 minutes.

Learning to code is daunting, to say the least. A huge part of teaching admins to code is helping them get over that initial fear, says David. As he points out, “there are so many people who have taught themselves to code. That’s incredibly inspiring for anyone who wants to follow the same path.”

Be a jack of all trades.

Success comes from being well-rounded. As David shares, “I know a little bit of everything.” From being able to speak about admin and coding technology to presenting on Salesforce and being able to interact with executives, David says, “I think that’s something that’s at a premium in the Salesforce industry. Being a jack of all trades is more useful than someone who might be the best Salesforce developer in the world.”

Skills that you’ve acquired in other industries are an asset. David who has a marketing degree says, “my marketing skills help me in my daily job responsibilities.”

Great admins make good developers.

Not everyone is looking to code 40 hours a week. In fact, the majority of David’s students are people who want to have coding in their skill-set so they can talk to developers and manage projects more efficiently. As David puts it, “you have to be a great admin to be a good developer. I don’t think there’s any way around that.”

David suggests starting with the basics. As he points out, there are so many Pure Apex resources that are really good. “Learn Pure Apex and learn Java on the side. That’s the way to go nowadays.”

Lightning for everyone.

What is David most excited about? “I’m excited to see where Lightning goes, what updates come out and how people innovate with Lightning,” he says. As David shares, “at our organization, in 2017 we’re going to have Lightning for every single user on every single page.” Exciting, indeed.

Links

#ButtonClickGuest

 

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast, and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc. using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast. We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don’t head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It’s super easy to do, and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

 

Love our podcasts?

Subscribe today or review us on iTunes!

 

 

Direct download: Ep._306_with_David_Liu.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:15pm PDT

This week on the podcast Gillian and I get your ready for Dreamforce! For the past 8 weeks we have been interviewing Salesforce Admin presenters about their sessions at Dreamforce, so for this episode we take a moment to give you some insider tips on Dreamforce. We also take a moment to reflect back on the previous Admin keynotes, zones, and fun stuff we did that lead up to this years amazing event. So take a moment to give this episode a listen, and we will see you in the Admin Meadow!

Links

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast and we need your help! In every podcast episode we talk to many amazing admins, and we are op So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.
We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: BCA-EP-305.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:11pm PDT

This week on the podcast we are getting you ready for Dreamforce by looking at how you document process in Salesforce before you begin the building process. First-time Dreamforce presenter Jennifer Lee joins us for a discussion of all the amazing sessions she is presenting at Dreamforce in both the Admin and Developer tracks.



More about Jennifer's session: You’ve just received a request. You log into Salesforce and start making changes, right? WRONG! Put your business analyst hat on. Understanding and documenting the processes on paper is the first and most important step to take before you log into Salesforce to build a new process. This session teaches you to think like a developer and act like a business analyst by asking the right questions to document process, understanding the manual steps for the happy and exception flow(s), documenting them on paper, then building and using the information as a basis for testing.

Links

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.
We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: BCA-EP-302.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:58pm PDT

This week Mary Scotton drops by to diversify our feed. Mary is a leader at Salesforce who holds many patents and helped paved the way for Salesforce admins to build using declarative tools. Now Mary is paving the way to make sure that everyone is included and that we are building stronger relationships with each other. Mary gave the keynote at SE Dreamin' and wanted to share her message with us so that we can begin to recognize our unconscious bias and grow our understanding of different cultures, races, creeds, ethnicities, and identities. I'm so honored to have Mary share her wisdom with us and I would encourage you as the Salesforce Admin to pass this episode along to your users, friends, and coworkers!

Links

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast and we need your help! In every podcast episode we talk to many amazing admins, and we are op So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.
We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: BCA-EP-310.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:37am PDT

This week on the podcast we talk to Luis Suarez who is a Chief Emergineer, People Enabler and Charter Member of Change Agents Worldwide. He is a well seasoned Social / Open Business evangelist and 2.0 practitioner with over 15 years of experience on knowledge management, collaboration, learning, online communities and social networking for business. Since February 2008, Luis has been working without email challenging the status quo of how knowledge workers collaborate and share by promoting openness, transparency, trust, sustainable growth, engagement, connectedness and overall smart work.

This episode is packed with information!

Luis mentions the 2012 McKinsey report "The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies" which is a great read for an Salesforce Admin. Can you believe they estimate the average worker spends 28% of their workweek managing email?!!

And if you want to find out more information about the Pomodoro technique you can click here.

Connect with Luis on twitter at @elsua

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.
We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: BCA-EP-309.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:37am PDT

This week on the podcast we talk to Principle Customer Success Manager, Kevin Richardson. Kevin shares with us a great approach that he uses with customers to understand features and functionality by asking Why. While this may sound simple this is a powerful way to understand feature requests. Kevin also gives us a great example of why asking why is important.

Whether you are a solo admin or one who works in a group, this is a great podcast to help you understand business process and deliver functionality that exceed your users and executives expectations. And we give big shoutouts to Salesforce MVPs Shell Black (@Shell_Black) and Geraldine Gray (@GeraldineGray).

You can follow Kevin on Twitter at: @klrichardson

Here is a great example from Kevin-

Problem: The Washington Monument was disintegrating

  • Why? Use of harsh chemicals
  • Why? To clean pigeon poop
  • Why so many pigeons? They eat spiders and there are a lot of spiders at monument
  • Why so many spiders? They eat gnats and lots of gnats at monument
  • Why so many gnats? They are attracted to the light at dusk.

Solution: Turn on the lights at a later time.

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.
We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: BCA-EP-308.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:36am PDT

This week on the podcast we interview Salesforce MVP Cheryl Feldman. Cheryl has been working with Salesforce for a long time and is very active in the Salesforce community. In this episode we talk about mentoring new Salesforce Admins, getting started mentoring, and the best places to go to find Salesforce mentors.

 

Links

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.
We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: BCA-EP-306.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:36am PDT

This week we talk to Paul Greenberg who has been called "the godfather of CRM, the "Walt Whitman of CRM" and even "the Bob Dylan of CRM". He is the author of the best selling book "CRM at the speed of light: Social CRM Strategies, tools and techniques for engaging your customers. Now in its fourth edition it has been called the "bible of the CRM industry" and is used by more than 70 universities as primary text. He is the President of The 56 Group, LLC, a customer strategy consulting firm focused on cutting edge CRM strategic services and Contributor to ZDNet.

In this episode we talk about Dreamforce and get Paul's first impressions as well as a discussion about CRM technology within companies, the changing role of the CIO, and fun discussion about bourbon, whiskeys, and ryes.

You can follow Paul on twitter at @pgreenbe

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.
We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: BCA-EP-307.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:36am PDT

This week on the podcast we are getting you ready for Dreamforce by looking at how you can prepare to make the switch to lightning by replacing all of your URL hacks. Michael White will be presenting two sessions called "Preparing for Lightning: Replacing URL Hacks with Actions". These are a must-attend session for any Admin who has URL hacks in their org, or wants to learn more about actions and the switch to lightning.

More about Michael's session: Join us as we teach you how to replace common URL hacks with global and object-specific actions that work in Classic, Lighting, and Salesforce1. Using the Success Community as the primary source, we'll take a few commonly posted URL hacks and walk through the process for duplicating the functionality using Actions and demo the results in Lightning, Salesforce1, and Classic. You'll leave with the knowledge necessary for replacing URL hacks in your org with Actions that will help you in your migration efforts from Classic to Lightning.

Links

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.
We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: BCA-EP-304.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:35am PDT

This week on the podcast we are getting you ready for Dreamforce by looking at how you can make great reports! Krystal Carter's session on Reporting 101: Understanding the How, What, and Where- will help you dive deep into understanding what reports you users really want!

More about Krystal's session: Go from Reporting Rookie to a Metrics Magician. Every report starts with a question, and great reports start with the right question. Join us to learn how to coach your users into asking the right question so you can deliver reports and dashboards that provide the most value. Take the simplicity of five question words and deliver reports that end users and execs will love.

Links

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.
We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: BCA-EP-303.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:35am PDT

This week on the podcast we are getting you ready for Dreamforce by looking at how you can re-introduce and re-boot your Salesforce Strategy. Do you have a stalled implementation? Or maybe one that needs to be looked at with a beginner's mindset? This session is for you! Bill, as you will hear on this episode, is full of energy and enthusiasm about Salesforce and passionate about what he is working on.

More about Bill's session: Are short-sighted design decisions from 5 years ago keeping your company from fully leveraging Salesforce? Are your users constantly reaching out to you because they can't perform a simple task? Does the system seem like a burden to everyone involved instead of a time-saver? It can be hard to introduce users to a new system, but it can be even harder to re-engage them when there's a history of admin missteps. Whether you're dealing with a fixer-upper or a demo job, we'll help you understand the implications and best approaches to starting over, how to learn from past mistakes, and how to set proper expectations and re-launch Salesforce with a brand new, user-centered perspective.

Links

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.
We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: BCA-EP-301.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:00pm PDT

This week on the podcast we are getting your ready for Dreamforce by focusing on growing you skills to help you grow your career. Teresa Garcia-Bovenmyer will be presenting at Dreamforce this year to help you grow your career- something she is super passionate about. As a Salesforce Admin and Developer at Nationwide she shares with us her secret to getting over 105 badges on Trailhead. Teresa is passionate about talking technology so she is presenting her session in Spanish. Her passion and energy is addictive and this will be a must-attend session!

Links

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.
We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: BCA-EP-300.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:52am PDT

This week on the podcast we are getting your ready for Dreamforce by focusing on awesome adoption numbers. To do that we chat with Salesforce Admin presenter Louise Lockie. Louise is presenting in the Admin theater and in a breakout session about Adoption. Louise is super passionate about adoption and has really great tips for Admins who want to have highly enaged users.

Links

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.
We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: BCA-EP-299.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:43pm PDT

This week on the podcast we are getting your ready for Dreamforce by focusing on managing user permissions with a Governance Strategy. Now I know this sounds like a lot to tackle but Justice Sikakane is a pro and he gives us great insight into how important it is to manage user permissions effectively. We also have a great discussion about how Admins can chat with executives to better understand what permissions a user should have.

Links

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.
We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: BCA-EP-298.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:41pm PDT

This week on the podcast we kick off our countdown to Dreamforce 2016 series where we are highlighting a few of the new AwesomeAdmin presenters and their sessions at Dreamforce. To get us in the collaborating mood we chat with Sarah Grove, aspiring Salesforce guru from Council Bluffs Iowa. Sarah gives you insight into her session, what she is most passionate about (hint: collaboration), and a brand new lightning round!

Links

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.
We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: BCA-EP-297.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:07pm PDT

This week on the podcast we interview Zac Otero, who took control of his destiny, stuck to his goals, and was determined to build his career. Zac's story is one of passion and perseverance despite your current situation. Telling Zac's story is the reason we podcast, despite having to overcome work-related restrictions he invested in career and used the podcast along with community-generated content to up-skill himself.

Zac describes himself as "the Blue-collar Admin" because of his manufacturing background. But Zac is anything but blue collar- in my book he is a rockstar. I am so glad that we could help to tell Zac's story because it embodies the passion and commitment that Salesforce Admins have to advancing their careers. 

After the recording...

I want to share a behind the scenes story that happened after we wrapped up our recording with Zac. As we were packing up the podcast equipment we asked Zac if there was "anything we could help him with?", expecting his answer to be about some feature or something he was stuck or trying to learn. His answered floored us. He said "Yeah, actually I'm trying to get in to present at the Career Center in Springfield so that I can present Salesforce to other people looking to change careers." Barely a year into being an Admin and Zac is already thinking about how he can pass on what he learned to others! Thank you Zac, that is truely the Ohana Spirit we embrace at Salesforce.

Links

#ButtonClickGuest

We want to get your suggestions for guests on the podcast and we need your help! So tweet your guest suggestions, support, etc using the hashtag #ButtonClickGuest to help us get more AwesomeAdmins on the podcast.
We want to remind you that if you love what you hear, or even if you don't head on over to iTunes and give us a review. It's super easy to do and it really helps more Admins find the podcast. Plus, we would really appreciate it.

Direct download: BCA-EP-296.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:16am PDT

Direct download: BCA-EP-295.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:58pm PDT

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