Most businesses start by keeping up with their contacts in an Excel spreadsheet or a Google sheet. Eventually this list becomes very long and difficult to manage, so they buy a tool that helps them email those people more efficiently.

Then they buy another tool to host their website, and a third tool to process payments.

By the time they have a full company running, there are probably 10 to 15 different tools or platforms that may not work with each other, and all with different log–in credentials. 

It may take up to 40 hours a week just to get the system to work together.

What Salesforce does is it brings all of that together into one platform, so that a company’s employees can log into Salesforce and see everything about their customers in one place, in a fraction of the time.

With Salesforce, a company’s team can look at all the information they have collected, and make informed decisions about what they can do next to serve customers better and grow their business.

Salesforce presents important information about customer behavior and preferences in a modern, intuitive user interface that makes it easy for any employee in sales, marketing, customer support, logistics and product development to get more done in less time.

Plus, Salesforce is not just an app, it is an entire platform. 

There are thousands of third parties developing apps on the Salesforce platform, each built to bring amazing functionality to meet the needs of companies using Salesforce in hundreds of different industries and parts of the world. 

These third–party developers are constantly creating cutting–edge technologies to meet the needs of a company, which makes the Salesforce platform infinitely innovative. 

Entry-level Salesforce professionals can expect to make between $55,000 to $70,000 a year, even if they have never heard of Salesforce prior to getting certified.

If they have a sales background, or maybe they have worked in a marketing department or have some other kind of relevant skill, they may earn around $65,000 to $80,000.

College has some bearing to getting a job as a Salesforce professional, but it is a secondary or even tertiary consideration.

More important to recruiters than a college degree are the Salesforce certifications that you have earned, as well as any previous Salesforce experience you may have, such as volunteering with a non-profit.

At that point, it is Salesforce expertise that is more interesting to a company, and how a candidate can use that expertise to increase the revenue for the business.

A Salesforce career is one that is fast-moving because there isn’t enough Salesforce talent to meet the needs of an ever-growing demand. 

A junior person within the ranks of Salesforce professionals is usually someone who has less than 3 years of experience.

From year 3 and on, a Salesforce professional becomes an intermediate or even expert–level resource, and once they get past year 5, it’s as good as getting tenure.

So, a new person can expect around $55,000 – $70,000 a year, even without technical expertise or a college degree.

Then, in the second year, that amount goes up to between $80,000 to $90,000, and in the third year, it will likely be at least $100,000 a year.

Around year 5, you’ll probably tap out at about $130,000 to $150,000 as a full-time individual. 

But if this person leaves the company and joins a Salesforce consulting firm, they can push the income up to the $150,000 to $180,000 range. 

And if they go into business for themselves and do freelance Salesforce consulting, that amount can go up to $200,000 to $300,000.

The first thing to consider is whether this is even something you want to be doing, something that you would even mildly enjoy.

Does the idea of thinking about the way a business works appeal to you?

How a business targets new leads, and how it nurtures that relationship whenever a form is filled, a call is made, an email is sent? How a business figures out if the lead is a good fit for its product or service? How that product or service is sold, and how support is provided after the sale?

If you think getting a better understanding or getting involved in that process could be even slightly fun or interesting, then you are great fit for a Salesforce career.

The other thing is, you need to make sure you understand the career path, and that you want to be involved in the tech space in general.

Then, join the free 5-Day Salesforce Challenge, where you’re going to get walked through exactly how to get set up on the free Trailhead training site by Salesforce, and how to dip your toes in and figure out your first steps.

And by the time you get to Day 5 of the Challenge, you will have a really good idea if you have a future in Salesforce.