What’s Salesforce anyway?!?!
My first introduction to Salesforce came when I visited the St. Louis Salesforce user group. I was nine months pregnant with our first child and was considering a career switch from property management to technical sales. I loved property management but 24/7/365 on-call and long office hours seemed less appealing as a soon-to-be parent. A move into tech would allow me to work remotely and spend more time with our child. Thus, I wobbled (literally) into the Salesforce user group meeting to get a taste of what this Salesforce world was all about. Needless to say, the Salesforce user group experience can only be compared to walking into a room full of instant friends.
So I took the leap…….
I took the job, and launched into Trailhead, initially just to learn the language of Salesforce. The reading quickly turned into doing which turned into Salesforce Superbadges then finally Salesforce certifications. While I was also learning my new job at CapStorm, I was digging into how to be a Salesforce Administrator and taking on a leadership role for the St Louis Salesforce Admin Group. One of my proudest work moments was the day that I was given Salesforce Admin credentials and told that the move from Classic to Lightning could be my project.
For the next three years, I learned as much about Salesforce as I could, achieving four certifications, completing CapStorm’s move to lightning, serving as the de facto admin, organizing the user group, and somehow squeezing in time to have a second baby.
Fast Forward 5 years later!
Now I support Customer Success at CapStorm, blending a knowledge of tech and Salesforce with a love of helping customers leverage Salesforce data in new ways to grow their businesses. My favorite part of the job is the lightbulb moment that happens any time a person realizes that they can solve a problem or do something new with technology – especially tech that they’ve already invested in to solve a different business problem! My customers are literally saving lives by using technology to get data to the right people at the right times. Do I sound a little passionate? Well, I am! Salesforce and CapStorm complement each other well , one as a place to create and store data, the other as a way to leverage that data in new ways to make an impact, both in the world and on a company’s bottom line.
Wisdom or (mistakes) to Share
I’ve made many mistakes over the years (haven’t we all!), but here are a few of the worst. Only by sharing weaknesses is it possible to grow!
Not Listening – Listening is a superpower, and I’d argue that it’s better than Superman’s ability to fly or Spiderman’s web slinging. There have been times where my listening ears were off, and I missed out on important messages both at work and personally. My goal this year is to listen more, and listen to understand. Especially I want to listen to my customers – to understand the problems that they need to solve in order to best recommend the technology to help. Unless I understand the problem fully, how can I be a part of the solution?
Not Learning – It is so easy to become a teacher and forget to stay a student! In Customer Success, I get to sit on calls and be the technology expert, relating features and functions to each customer’s needs. It is, however, critical to keep learning! This is something that I forgot recently, until I was stumped recently by a simple question. Why? I had not kept up my own learning!
In summary, always listen, always learn, be a friend, and you can grow in the Salesforce world. It’s that easy.
