Last Updated on September 1, 2021 by Rakesh Gupta
Findings from the latest Mason Frank Salary Survey help inform how to maximize your earning potential as a Salesforce professional, and what the future holds for the technology in an ever-changing digital landscape.
It’s never been a better time to be a Salesforce professional. With businesses around the globe slowly but surely moving towards a cloud-based infrastructure, and Salesforce regularly releasing new products and updates, there’s a great demand for skilled Salesforce resource that can help with both implementation and business-as-usual tasks.
But how do you keep track of your actual value as a professional within the community? How do you decide whether to double down on Salesforce technology across all your business functions, or go with a popular competitor product? How do you decide when it’s time to change jobs?
These are all questions that are answered in Mason Frank’s new independent Salesforce market report. Now in its sixth edition, there’s no better way to benchmark salaries, products, and culture than to analyze self-reported data and sentiments from those who make up the ecosystem. Here are some of the key findings.
Nearly half of all respondents got a pay rise after certification
Salesforce is pretty consistent in its educational materials, in that Trailhead training modules are created with a view to the Trailblazer eventually getting certified. This is a route that Salesforce encourages to ensure all skills and credentials are standardized, and while independent training and credentials do exist, the consensus is that Salesforce certs are a good measure of a professional’s knowledge.
In fact, 91% of respondents to Mason Frank’s survey considered them to be a factor that positively impacts earning potential, with 62% considering it an important factor. While this is a mere sentiment, the data supports the idea. Of all certified respondents, 44% experienced a pay rise after achieving their first credential—the average salary increase was around 24%.
Experience using Salesforce is considered more valuable than anything
While getting certified can clearly help increase your earnings, the perception is that actual real-world Salesforce experience is the most valuable thing you can possess. Just 3% of respondents didn’t consider this important (and they’re completely wrong), while 86% considered it the most important factor impacting earning potential.
Similarly, exposure to large products was also considered a factor that impacts earnings, with 97% of respondents holding that view and 76% considering it important. While these are people’s opinions rather than cold, hard facts, a significant proportion of respondents to the survey are team leaders or even hiring managers, so it’s interesting to see which traits these people consider valuable.
Some certifications are valuable due to the depth of knowledge required, while some are valuable due to product demand
The survey asked which certifications people considered most likely to impact earning potential, and half of all respondents agreed that the Technical Architect credential was the most valuable in this regard. Certified System Architect came in second at 42%, while 31% considered Application Architect likely to increase your worth. As you would expect, this tends to mirror which certifications are considered the most challenging or require the most experience with Salesforce technology.
Nearly nine out of ten certified Salesforce professionals (88%) hold the first Admin certification, 46% are Platform App Builder-certified, and 36% hold the Platform Developer I credential. Only 8% of certified respondents held the Application Architect credential, while even fewer were certified Technical Architects or System Architects.
One credential that often flies under the radar is the Service Cloud Consultant certification. While 64% of respondents reported using Service Cloud, only 25% of certified respondents were certified as a consultant in the technology. While not considered one of the certs most likely to increase earning potential, demand for these professionals would suggest otherwise.
Which products are the most used?
Speaking of in-demand tech, Sales Cloud maintains its position as the most-popular standalone Salesforce product, with 83% of respondents indicating they’re a user. In addition to Service Cloud, Community Cloud also proved to be a popular product, with 48% of respondents reporting proficiency.
Marketing Cloud is a product that’s consistently predicted to be in high demand over the coming years, but still, only 33% of respondents actually use it. It’ll be interesting to see how this figure changes in the future, particularly with Salesforce’s acquisition of MuleSoft making it easier than ever to pull customer data from multiple touchpoints and disparate systems for the purposes of personalized marketing. It could be that 2020 is the year that sees a surge in demand for Marketing Cloud experts!
Want to learn more about the future of Salesforce technology, and to benchmark your salary against the industry average for your location, job role and experience level? Download the Mason Frank Salary Survey in full from their website.
