Salesforce for Beginners: A step-by-step guide to optimize sales and marketing and automate business processes with the Salesforce platform, 2nd Edition

Learn how to leverage the Salesforce platform for sales, service, marketing, and automating business activities from a 360-degree perspective.

Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free eBook in the PDF format.

Key Features

• Automate business processes with Salesforce Flow, the new replacement for workflow rules and process builders on the Salesforce platform
• Discover key data integrity and security concepts with new, specially dedicated chapters
• Take your first steps in basic testing and debugging as a Salesforce professional

Book Description

The second edition of Salesforce for Beginners provides you with a holistic introduction to the Salesforce platform. Whether you need help with the lead generation process, Salesforce user management and data security, or automating tasks with Salesforce Flow, this book is for you.

Throughout this new edition you will find real-world business use cases to demonstrate concepts, screenshots of the latest UI displayed for screen navigation, and exercises at the end of every chapter to test your newfound knowledge.

Working with the world's leading CRM software, you will learn how to create activities, manage leads, develop your prospects and sales pipeline using opportunities and accounts, and understand how you can enhance marketing activities using campaigns. You will be able to take your administration skills to the next level as you approach real-world user management topics such as ownership skew. You will learn about data security on the Salesforce platform, with an introduction to the role hierarchy, system and user permissions, and much more.

In this new edition you'll get to explore the popular automation tool Salesforce Flow. You'll learn about the different flow types to employ, how to construct your first flow, and how to extensively test your flow. This will allow you to come away from reading this book with a real, functional flow for your business processes.

What you will learn

• Explore business development with leads, accounts and contacts in Salesforce
• Find out how stages and sales processes help you manage your opportunity pipeline
• Achieve marketing goals using Salesforce campaigns
• Perform business analysis using reports and dashboards
• Practice automating business processes with Salesforce Flow
• Gain a high-level overview of the items in the administration section
• Grasp the different aspects needed to build an effective Salesforce security model

Who this book is for

If you are new to Salesforce and want to learn it from scratch, an administrator looking to build your Salesforce skills, or a student looking to start a career in Salesforce, this book is for you. No prior knowledge of the Salesforce is required to get started with this book

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started with Salesforce and CRM
2. Understanding Salesforce Activities
3. Creating and Managing Leads
4. Business Development with Accounts and Contacts
5. Driving the Sales Cycle with Opportunities
6. Achieving Business Goals Using Campaigns
7. Enhancing Customer Service with Cases
8. Business Analysis Using Reports and Dashboards
9. Setup and Configuration
10. An Overview of Sharing and Visibility
11. User Management and Data Security
12. Managing Projects with Sandboxes and Change Sets
13. Using Data Modeling to Configure Objects for Your Business
14. Lightning Experience Customization
15. Extending Functionality with Third-Party Applications and Salesforce Mobile
16. Salesforce Flow
17. Approval Processes
18. Assignment Rules
19. Data Integrity with Formulas and Validations
20. Testing and Debugging

Sharif Shaalan was first introduced to Salesforce as an end user in 2007. His range of experience, from a sales rep to technical architect, helped him successfully lead more than 100 implementations including projects that were showcased on the main stage at Dreamforce. In 2013, Sharif was chosen as a Salesforce MVP, and in 2020 he was inducted into the Salesforce MVP Hall of Fame. Sharif is a regular speaker at Salesforce conferences and has obtained more than 10 Salesforce certifications. He is the founder and CEO of Agile Cloud Consulting and continues to be an active Salesforce community contributor

Timothy Royer is the VP of Delivery at Agile Cloud Consulting and a Salesforce Certified Application Architect. Timothy began his Salesforce career in 2012 as an accidental administrator and has since participated in a number of implementations in a variety of roles. Timothy has experience as a Salesforce customer, a Salesforce partner, and as a member of the Salesforce.org professional services team.