A London based Salesforce MVP & Managing Director of EMPAUA, UK.

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Sales Cloud Certification Guide & Tips

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After a long hiatus from taking any Salesforce Certifications I had a burst of energy to go and grab the rest on the list! First up I thought I should conquer the Sales Cloud Certification, for a lot of people this is a natural step after completing their Administrator and Developer exams. Reason being? The Sales Cloud Exam goes into quite a bit of depth around features and functionality of the Sales Cloud, and as a prerequisite it is essential to know about Salesforce.com basics, the security model and also how to implement custom functionality. The Sales Cloud covers such areas as, Forecasting, Security, Quotes, Opportunities and Products.

In this post I will go into depth around the material I used to revise, techniques, resources available on the internet and also question format tips.

Material

As you can see from the picture below there is a fair bit of material to cover for the Exam, and this was just the material I printed off! As always the Salesforce Study guide is the best place to start, it gives a great overview of videos to watch (if you’re lucky enough to have premier support) and the correct documentation to download and read. If you don’t have premier support, I would recommend using youtube or google to find relevant documentation/videos to make sure you cover all the topics suggested.

To make sure I covered everything that was needed, I printed off the study guide and ticked off each part of documentation that I had revised and written notes on until everything was completed.  If you have covered everything listed, understand it and feel confident you could implement it in a Dev org (If not, give it a go), then you should feel very confident going into the Exam!

To make life a bit easier for everyone I’m going to compile all of the resources I used on Sales Cloud Exam Resources.

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Question Format

As with all Salesforce Exams, they will really try and slip you up to make sure you really know your stuff. I learned this lesson in my Administrator exam and it is something I will never forget! The Sales Cloud is no exception and the cliche of “read each question carefully” could not be more relevant here.  Certified on Demands post covered it pretty well but I will give my take on the answer format as well.

Usually you will have two answers you can rule out pretty quickly, it will either be a made up feature, a feature that will not solve the problem, or something overly complicated (e.g. An APEX trigger for something a workflow can solve). These two answers left over could both be plausible but you really have to think about which one will solve the problem the best. There is one question that I remember from the exam and it really stuck out to me, reason being I actually changed my answer the second time going through the questions.

Users of Salesforce use various email clients on their computers and smartphones. They are complaining that important emails are being forgotten about in other users personal inboxes. What would you suggest to help this situation?

a. Ask users to carefully copy and paste important emails into the Salesforce related record.
b.  Download Outlook to Salesforce so emails can be synced with Salesforce.
c. Give users access to other users personal inboxes.
d. Ask users to use the Emails to Salesforce Feature

My initial answer to the above was b, my logic was that it was the best and most complete solution. I ruled Copy and pasting out obviously, giving access to others personal inboxes was a no no and Email to Salesforce is a bit clunky, Outlook to Salesforce is more complete. After rereading this the second time around I noticed two glaring errors with my answer. Outlook to Salesforce cannot be used on mobile devices and it also says that users are using various email clients. From that I can safely say the correct answer was Email to Salesforce feature.

Final thoughts

I was unsure after 4 weeks revision if  I had built up enough knowledge to pass the exam, there would always be a question or two that I just could not answer in mock exams. One thing I was sure of, I knew my facts inside out. I think if you can safely say you have covered all of the topics listed in my Sales Cloud Resources guide as well as had some practical application of these features, you will be able to pass the exam. Even if you do not know the exact answer to a question, you should be able to work it out through logic, process of elimination and your general knowledge of Salesforce. Along side my ADM 201 and DEV 401 Quizzes in my “Certification Centre“, I will have a Sales Cloud Quiz coming along very shortly, please subscribe on the right hand side if you want to be alerted of this. Good luck and let me know if you have any thoughts or questions!

 

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57 thoughts on “Sales Cloud Certification Guide & Tips”

  2. Geetanjali Rawat

    Reply

    This is what I was looking for….Some tips for my salescloud cert which is real soon! 🙂 Thanks!

    Hope you manage to post the quiz soon. Eagerly waiting!

        2. Harsh Raghuvanshi

          Reply

          Hi Ben,
          You article is very helpful for Certification point of view,it provides a great help to prepare.

          Can u please post some more Quiz ?

    1. ben@ben-mccarthy.com

      Reply

      Hi Reda,

      Thanks! I’m afraid I’ve had to take it down for some maintenance. It should be up in a couple of weeks though.

      Ben

  5. Mayank Srivastava

    Reply

    Hey Ben,
    I will be going through the material on your site for the next 2 weeks and then attempting the exam. Any chance that you will have the quiz up and running before January 17th?

    Thanks!
    Mayank

  6. Nick Johnson

    Reply

    Hi Ben,

    Thanks so much for putting this together. After passing Admin and Dev on the first try within a quick two-week succession, I signed up for Sales Cloud with high confidence. Unfortunately, I did not pass. Now I’m back for round 2, and thankfully I have found this, which helps. I have a few general questions if you could help out:

    – How to you recommend doing some exercises on territory management? I read through the territory mgmt. guides, but as the test was scenario based, I want to actually use it. Unfortunately, you must contact SFDC to enable, so I’m unsure how I could do this?

    – I was stumped on questions regarding the Partner Portal. Through my studies, I was under the impression the Partner Portal was replaced by Communities. So that’s what I studied and did exercises on. Where did I go wrong?

    – Any idea where to find a practice exam similar in format to the actual exam until yours comes back up? I think I may have studied that exact Quizlet, or a similar one, but it would be nice to have something that mimics testing environment.

    Thanks for the help!

    Nick

    1. ben@ben-mccarthy.com

      Reply

      Hi Nick!

      No problem and thanks for reading. I was in a similar situation to you, I passed ADM and DEV thinking they were pretty easy and went into Sales Cloud with limited revision and failed. The second time I did it properly and confidently and passed! I’m sure you will do it the second time. With territory management I didn’t actually test any features myself, I learned the core components e.g. prerequisites (Sandbox and Customizable reports, Accounts can be in multiple territories etc…and I was ok with that. I do like to test out some features though so I would advise contacting Salesforce under support which is usually how I get extra features activated. I’m not sure if you can get a sandbox with a Dev environment though? That’s a bit strange that questions on the Partner Portal came up? I too thought it had all been replaced by Communities. What questions came up? I’m afraid not. I did have one on this site as you’ve probably seen but I’ve had to remove it, the Quizlet one is pretty good though.

      Thanks!

      Ben

    2. Mayank Srivastava

      Reply

      Hey Nick/Ben,
      A few of my friends who recently appeared for the exam encountered similar issues with the Partner Portal related questions. Even I thought that I shouldn’t be focusing on Portals anymore since it’s being phased out by Communities, but with all these post exam reviews from people, i feel it would be wise to go prepared with the Portal related content.
      Same thing with salesforce to salesforce related topic. It’s not even in the study guide and my friends told me to be well prepared with it.

      1. Nick Johnson

        Reply

        Thanks Ben and Mayank for the responses. From my experience of having taken the exam, the study guide does not cover all topics on the exam. Additionally, I think it is very important to keep in mind to pick the best answer. Having worked as a SFDC consultant, I can recall projects where how we solved a particular business case might not be the “SFDC way”. I recall one question that asked how would x most likely be set up in a y industry. From experience, the y industry sets up x in a multitude of ways, but after thinking over the question, I think I know what the answer should be.

        1. Mayank Srivastava

          Reply

          Hey Ben,
          Can the Apex data loader be used to export field history data? Also, can it be used to export configuration data?

    3. O

      Reply

      Hi,

      Hi Ben,

      Thanks for the information and guidance!

      I just came back from taking the Sales Cloud and unfortunately failed. I got stumped with the same questions about Partner Portals, I remember the questions being about permissions, list views and related lists. A bit disappointed since according to the documentation you can’t enable a Partner Portal anymore, you’d have to use Communities. I was more prepared to answer more questions about Communities and Sites, but did not see a single one, Yikes!

      I did find an old copy, 2008, Partner Portal Implementation on Scribd. I’m back to the drawing board, 🙁

      Best,

      O

      1. Ben McCarthy

        Reply

        Hi O,

        No problem and unlucky this time around. It’s partly luck of the draw. The question about Partner Portals could if possibly be talking about existing implementations? As I’m guessing if you have a partner portal and don’t want to upgrade then its fine to have this.

        Good luck the next time around!

        Ben

  7. Nick Johnson

    Reply

    Wanted to report back that I passed Sales Cloud today! Second time around was much easier, was very confident as I pressed submit. Now I’m off to the cocktail bar to celebrate! Thanks again Ben for helping with the resources you posted.

    – Nick

  9. Harsh Raghuvanshi

    Reply

    Hi Ben,

    This is the superb article to get certified in sales cloud certification.

    But can u please post some more quiz to get some more confidence before attending the exam.?

    1. ben@ben-mccarthy.com

      Reply

      Thanks Harsh! I’m afraid thats something I’ve had to put on hold for the time being, but will try my best to get something up soon and notify all of my subscribers!

  10. Prajakta Rane

    Reply

    Hi Ben,

    Thats a very nice and informative article. To give my background, I have around 8 years of experience in web application development and looking for startup roles in Salesforce. Can you guide me how to find right roles or hiring agencies? Also, many people told me that its good to have SAles CLoud Certification. I dont have experience in Sales or Service Cloud. What is your personal experience?
    Thanks Ben

    1. Ben McCarthy

      Reply

      Hi Prajakta,

      You’ve chosen a good road to go down! There are a lot of hiring agencies around, all you have to do is type in your city and “salesforce recruitment” into google and I’m sure you will find loads. In terms of Certifications it is always best to start with your Administrator exam (You cannot take sales cloud without it). I have an introduction to certifications here you may find useful – http://www.salesforceben.com/introduction-salesforce-certifications/

      Good luck!

  11. Anush

    Reply

    Hi Ben,

    Thanks for sharing useful resources! It will be really helpful if you can share quiz/mock exam.

    Thanks again

  12. Yana

    Reply

    Hi Ben,
    Congratulations for the great website, for your linkedin posts. I am a great fan of yours!

    I am preparing for the Sales Cloud Exam. Unfortunately I failed it once 2 weeks ago 🙁 I hope I`ll get it this time.
    Can you please have a look at the question below. I had it in the exam and now I see it is posted as a sample question in some of the resources I use, but the answers are very contradicting

    UC has configured salesforce to store all individual consumer contact under a single account called “Consumer”. The consumer business has grown to more then 500,000 Contacts .Mass update are no longer completed within the defined maintenance timeframe and an increased number of errors are being reported. What should consultant recommend to improve system performance 2ANS
    A. Ensure that no single account has more than 10000 contacts
    B. Enable person account and migrate the data
    C. Add an index to the account field on the contact object
    D. removes the account assignment for all objects

    For me the answers are A and B.

    Please share your expertise 🙂

    1. Ben McCarthy

      Reply

      Hi Yana,

      Thank you for your kind words!

      I too would say A and B. The reason being is that using an Account called Consumer is very bad practise and Person accounts should be used. I’m not too sure about A but I think that it is definitely not C or D. I’m not even too sure what “Add an index” means! Also Account assignment rules are used for territories which do not really apply here. Which other answers do you get from resources?

      1. Yana

        Reply

        Hi Ben,

        One of the sets of flashcards I use says the correct answers are A and C.
        I cannot really understand what does this INDEX mean.
        But there are some indexed fields which improve performance.

          1. UST

            If 2 answers must be chosen, I think the answer is A and C. If you choose A and B, then B does not apply when A is implemented as contact objects does not make sense when Person Account is used. Therefore logically A will go with C, as both limiting 10000 records as well as using index will improve query performance drastically. If the question would have been a set of radio buttons, then I would definitely go with B as the single best answer.

          2. Cody

            Based on that article, A and C somewhat contradict as an index is most efficient when the count is greater than 10k. I’m going with B & C

          3. Cody

            Disregard my previous comment… Looking at this again, it says add index to ‘Account’ field on the ‘Contact’ object… you would want to add the index on the Account object for the Contacts, as the Contacts only have one Account. Enable person accounts to move them all (can get rid of Consumer account) then make sure no other accounts have more than 10k contacts on them so they are optimized. A & B

      3. Rick Upton

        Reply

        Regarding “D. removes the account assignment for all objects” I think “objects” is supposed to be “contacts”. When you go to the Contact tab in Salesforce and click New, you’ll see the following message at the top of the page: “Contacts not associated with accounts are private and cannot be viewed by other users or included in reports.” I think option D is talking about the possibility of removing the account associated with each of the 500,000 contacts. The problem with this is that doing so could break a lot of functionality.

      4. Rick Upton

        Reply

        Regarding “C. Add an index to the account field on the contact object” check out https://help.salesforce.com/apex/HTViewSolution?id=000006007&language=en_US which says the following:

        The following fields are indexed by default:

        Primary keys (Id, Name and Owner fields).
        Foreign keys (lookup or master-detail relationship fields).

        Given the above, there should already be an index set up by default for the account field on the contact object.

        I think A and B are the correct answers.

  13. Mike Fuchs

    Reply

    Just passed the Sales Cloud Exam this morning…my 4th Salesforce Certification in the last 5 weeks! Next up to round them out in Service Cloud!

  14. Andy

    Reply

    Hi Ben,

    Congratulations on all your certs and for putting together this wonderful blog/website. I am preparing for the Sales Cloud Cert and is planning to take it the next couple of weeks. Do you still have the link to the Quiz? If you could please share that with me, I will be grateful. Have a good one, mate!

  16. Kshitij Shah

    Reply

    Hi Ben,
    Thanks for sharing these useful tips and information.
    Hopefully, this helps me in the preparation and I get certified next week.
    If possible could you please share the link of the quiz,that will be really grateful.
    Thanks.

  17. Zakaria ELMALKI

    Reply

    Hello,
    Thank you for your help Ben, can you please tell me if there is a timeline for the Sales Cloud quiz?
    Thabk you in advance.
    Regards,

  20. Hybin

    Reply

    Great work Ben with all the info.I am planning to do my sales cloud in the next 2 weeks.I see this post is an old one any new tips and suggestions.I do have premier support and I am gonna start with preparing from the study guide

    1. Ben McCarthy

      Reply

      Hi Hybin, as far as I am aware, the Sales cloud exam hasn’t been changed too much since I wrote this. You should be absolutely fine revising with the premier support plus some of your own revision and testing in a dev org. good luck!

      1. Mokrane

        Reply

        Hi Ben

        thanks a lot for this amazing blog

        i’am trying to prepare for the sales cloud exam but i’ve some trouble to find valuable docs about topics like Implementation Strategies, Industry Knowledge or Integration and Data Management

        could you please give some guidance please ? i have no acces to premier support, sadely !
        Thanks

  21. Mark Smith

    Reply

    Hi Ben.

    I recently passed Admin and I think seems to be a natural progression as some topics already overlap.
    I have access to Premier Support and wanted to know which of the courses I should be looking at?

    Regards
    Mark

  22. Bhanu Kohli

    Reply

    Hi Ben,
    Firstly, thanks for this amazing post!
    I am about to appear for the Sales Cloud Consultant Exam tomorrow but I have doubts for the following 4 QUESTIONS. Request you to help me know the correct answers.

    Q1 UC is implementing Salesforce and plans to migrate several marketing campaigns from a legacy system. Which approach would a consultant recommend to ensure that the campaign and campaign member data is accurately maintained?
    A. Create external ID fields for campaigns, leads, and contacts.
    B. Create external ID fields for campaigns, campaign members, and accounts
    C. Create external ID fields for campaigns, accounts, and contacts.
    D. Create external ID fields for campaigns, leads, and accounts.
    The Answer suggested is C but I Think it’s D. Please confirm.

    Q2 Which of the following steps accurately describe the process map in sales and marketing organizations?
    A. Lead generation, lead qualification, revenue management (forecasting)
    B. Lead generation, revenue management (forecasting), lead qualification
    C. Lead generation, lead qualification, opportunity conversion
    D. Lead generation and qualification, opportunity conversion, revenue management (forecasting)
    The Answer suggested is A but I think the Answer is C. Please confirm.

    Q3 For optimal usability and adoption, a solution must do what. (4 opt)
    A. Provide value so users perceive it as a valuable spending of their time.
    B. Be easy to use so users can easily enter data and find information.
    C. Have trusted data.
    D. Be inexpensive so users don’t worry about the bottom line when using the application.
    E. Provide both online help and hard copy reference materials to assist users at all times.
    F. Be easy to change through a change management process in place.
    The Answer suggested is ABCF. I think it should be ABCE. Please confirm.

    Q4 The marketing Manager at UC wants to leverage the power of sales cloud to support the sales following requirement:
    – monitor website traffic
    – Email 1200 leads per day
    – capture customer satisfaction survey result on a web form
    – Understand (report) the case of marketing exercise vs sales activity. What should a consultant recommend to meet this requirement?
    A. Use community campaign, web-to-lead, opportunity and report and dashboard
    B. Use AppExchange marketing app, campaign, web-to-lead, opportunity and report
    C. Use mass email, campaign, campaign influence, web-to-lead, opportunity and report
    D. use site.com campaign web-to lead opportunity, report, and dashboard
    The Answer suggested as B. I just can ‘t figure out this one. I believe one can’t mass email 1200 leads through Salesforce directly so maybe we need an APP for this. Please suggest.

    Regards,
    Bhanu

    1. Allison McBrayer

      Reply

      Hi Bhanu,

      I have some thoughts about a few of your questions.
      Q2 – I think this is a generic sales & marketing and not specifically Salesforce mapping.
      Q3 – is strictly for usability and adoption by the end user. The Solution being able to easily change has no impact on the end user.
      Q4 – The question is not so much about what Salesforce can do but as a consultant what should you recommend to the client. For this reason, I think the AppExchange is the best option.

      This is my interpretation of the questions. I would be interested in your thoughts.

      Allison

  23. Ranvijay Kumar

    Reply

    Cleared the exam today, the email question mentioned in the post was there 🙂 and I think I marked it B because I could not decide, and did not recall the correct answer. There were quite a few questions like this where it was not easy to eliminate the wrong answers.
    Although I had revised all the topics I was still not feeling very confident unlike the dev and admin exams, may be because the exam is mostly scenario based.

    1. Mokrane

      Reply

      Hi Ranvijay Kumar

      i’am trying to prepare for the sales cloud exam but i’ve some trouble to find valuable docs about topics like Implementation Strategies or Industry Knowledge.

      How did you manage to prépare your self ?

      Thanks

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