This post covers how I studied for the Sales Cloud Consultant beta exam and the resources I used to become a certified Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant on August 23, 2019.
What is a beta exam, you ask? The Sales Cloud Consultant exam has been around for a while.
Occasionally, Salesforce will offer certifications in a “beta” version of the exam. These are free exams, but you have to qualify to take them. Salesforce uses the data and comments gathered from the beta version of an exam to make sure the certifications they publish are fair and reliable. You get twice the number of questions and twice the amount of time to complete the exam. Then you receive the results a couple of months later. So, there is no instant gratification like a normal certification exam.
From the exam guide…
“The Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant program is designed for consultants who have experience implementing Salesforce Sales Cloud solutions in a customer-facing role. The audience has proven experience with the administration and configuration of a Salesforce application, as demonstrated through successful completion of the Salesforce Administrator exam. The Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant is able to successfully design and implement maintainable and scalable Sales Cloud solutions that meet customer business requirements and contribute to long-term customer success.”
Here’s examples of concepts you should know to pass the exam:
- Structured skill set for the consulting practice
- Experience with the full project lifecycle of Sales Cloud implementations
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
- Deep knowledge of the Salesforce product lines
- Solid understanding of Internet technologies and cloud computing
- Solid understanding of data management and database concepts
- Familiarity with software development lifecycle
- Ability to:
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Design and implement successful solutions
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Anticipate and mitigate risk
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Meet and manage customer expectations
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Increase customer confidence
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Consistently deliver effective business solutions
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Manage solution delivery and any issues that arise
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Build solutions that are scalable and maintainable
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Set up change management practices to ensure long-term solution success
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Troubleshoot and resolve issues
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Prioritize and escalate customer issues
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Important information about the exam:
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60 multiple-choice/multiple-select questions and 5 non-scored questions
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Time allotted to complete the exam: 105 minutes
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Passing score: 61%
- Registration fee: $200 with a retake fee of $100, plus applicable taxes per local law.
1. Review the Concepts in the Sales Cloud Consultant Exam Guide & Group Objectives by Their Weightings
Here is the exam outline:
In reviewing the exam outline with the category weightings, anticipate approximately these many questions per exam category:
In doing the math, your best bet is to focus your studies on the ones with the highest weighings and know those topics well: sales cloud solution design, implementation strategies, account and contact management and opportunity management. It is ok for you to get a couple wrong on the lower weighed topics and still pass the exam – ~37 questions correct.
2. Perform a Self Assessment on the Objectives and ID Areas Needing Knowledge Improvement
I reviewed the exam outline and determined how comfortable I was in each bullet point. I was about 80% comfortable with the sales cloud solution design topic. For example, I knew I needed to boost my knowledge on forecasting, territory management and order management in that category. Identify your strengths and just refresh your memory on those topics. Identify areas you are weak on or have no experience and ramp up your knowledge on that. Additional areas of focus since I lacked working experience is integration and data management, multi-currency and campaign management and third party sale productivity tools.
3. Increase Your Knowledge. Hit the Trails, Play in Your Dev Org and Get “Focused.”
Look through the Trailhead Trailmix “Prepare for Your Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant Credential.” Take the modules as new or even as a refresher or read the content links in the trailmix.
For $19, I recommend the Focus on Force Sales Cloud Study Guide. FoF does a great job with focusing on the key concepts that are important to know for the exam explained in a simple to understand way. Love the visuals with the screenshots and diagrams to drive the concepts home. It also includes links to Salesforce documentation for more information.
For another $19 and money I feel is well spent, purchase the Sales Cloud Practice Exams. These mock exams put me into the exam taking mindset, thinking about the various use cases and choosing the best answer. There are over 250 practice questions and 3 full mock exams with 60 questions each, just like the actual exam. There is a detailed explanation with screenshots and reference links for each question. I would take these exams or the 10 topic ones to see how I’m doing progress wise on each topic. I recommend investing in the paid exam resources (you are paying the company to keep the material updated and present accurate information) rather than rely on quizlets people put together, which may or may not be correct. If you then base your studying off of potential wrong answers, that can throw you to a loop.
Nothing is better than actual work experience. However, if you do not have that, I recommend playing around with the concepts in a developer sandbox, where you can, and know the options on the setup screens. You should know the Classic and Lightning Experience implementations when answering the questions.
Resources:
If you need instructor led training, you can take this class: Certification Prep for Sales Cloud Consultant Instructor-Led Course (CRT251)
Lastly, as you work through the concepts, Google is your friend. Use it.
4. Bottom Line, Here’s What You Need to Know…
- Account and Opportunity teams and their impact on roles, visibility, access and reporting
- Opportunity management, including forecasting, assets, price books and product lines and multi-currency and advanced currency management on opportunities
- Quotes
- Order management
- Lead management
- Implementation considerations when designing a sales process, including when to use different process automation tools
- Use cases for Sales Cloud Einstein
- Know when to go to custom or third party development
- Use cases and design considerations for a mobile app
- Capabilities and use cases for enterprise territory management
- Lead management, conversion and automation tools
- Campaign management
- Explain how ownership of account and contact records impact access to other related sales data such as opportunities, activities, etc.
- Use cases and implications of person accounts
- Email and sales productivity tools
- Uses for Chatter in the sales process
- Sales reports and dashboards, including managing access
- Use cases and considerations for integrations, data migration and large data and transaction volumes
5. Game Time!
Read the questions CAREFULLY. I cannot stress that enough, so I am going to repeat it. Read the questions CAREFULLY. Do not jump to conclusions. If you miss a keyword, you can end up answering the questions incorrectly. Sometimes, it helps to read the question a second time.
For questions I found that I had no idea or may be stuck on the multi-select answers questions, I will set those to “Mark for Review” to come back to it later. Try and rule out answers that are clearly incorrect. Don’t spend too much time on any given question. You can always come back to it. You have 60 questions to answer.
After you’ve gone through the exam questions the first time, go back to the ones “Mark for Review.” Go with your gut when answering questions. Try not to start second guessing yourself. You may be changing correct answers to incorrect ones.
Best of luck to you and let me know how you do!
