It’s been another exciting year in the Salesforce ecosystem. We’ve seen expanded strategic partnerships, brand new products, and revolutionary integrations made possible by Salesforce’s savvy acquisitions in recent years (MuleSoft and Tableau, to name just a couple).
Salesforce is one of the fastest-moving tech ecosystems on the planet. That’s why it’s so important to stay on top of what’s happening in the world of a once humble CRM technology that’s now growing into the most-dominant business software across all markets and industries. We helped create a monster!
Released annually, the Mason Frank Salary Survey is the largest independent study of the Salesforce community. It’s an invaluable resource for Salesforce professionals, partners, and customers looking to gather insights into the working culture of the technology ecosystem, and to benchmark salaries, benefits and market trends.
With thousands of Salesforce professionals and employers surveyed, we can use Mason Frank’s research on product trends and job market depth to steer growth in businesses using Salesforce technology. For candidates, learning which skill sets, technologies, and certifications maximise earning potential is extremely useful.
You can, of course, download the report in full for free on their website, but here are my highlights from the 2019/20 survey report, along with findings that may be of particular interest to Italian members of the Ohana.
What is the top Salesforce product in 2020?
It’s unsurprising to see Sales Cloud maintain its position as the top Salesforce product in 2020, given that the technology is ultimately sales-focused, as well as the market dominance of Sales Cloud in the CRM world.
Service Cloud has risen to the third most-used Salesforce product over the last months, and this is unsurprising given the recent developments in the technology.
Just recently at Dreamforce, it was announced that Service Cloud would now benefit from integration with Amazon Connect, empowering contact centre agents with access to customer information across multiple disparate systems. Service Cloud Voice will also perform real-time sentiment analysis to gauge common customer problems and position relevant solutions to reduce average case handling time. It’s a great time to be a service cloud user!
Which Salesforce certifications maximise earning potential?
IT research firm IDC recently predicted that the demand for Salesforce technology would create 4.4 million new jobs by 2025. This is fantastic news for Salesforce professionals, who are already in high demand, but which certifications will open up the most opportunities and earning potential?
Of all respondents to Mason Frank’s survey, 71% were Salesforce-certified, with the Admin certification being the most popular cert (88% of certified talent held the Salesforce Certified Administrator credential). Of those who weren’t certified, 72% said they were working towards this certification.
Salesforce Developer was recently named in the world’s top 10 jobs, and we can see from the report that only 36% of certified talent hold the Platform Developer I certification; only 10% had achieved Platform Developer II. Given the current and anticipated skills gap, balanced against the low percentage of Salesforce-certified Developers, there’s clearly opportunity for those looking to move into this role.
Certification in any form is likely to open earning potential. The survey found that 44% of certified talent experienced a salary increase after certification, with an average pay rise of 24%. What’s more, two-thirds of these certified professionals indicated their employer paid for their cert exam, so risk/reward is firmly in the favour of ambitious professionals.
What other factors impact earning potential?
While certifications can count for quite a lot, they aren’t everything. By far the largest factor impacting earning potential is experience, with 86% of survey respondents considering this to be significant, compared to just 62% who felt the same about Salesforce certifications. Similarly, 76% also considered exposure to large products to be an important factor.
Only 31% of respondents thought a university degree was an essential factor in earning potential, and 30% considered it not important at all. This question was extended to whether they thought a degree was important when working generally with Salesforce, and 63% indicated they didn’t consider it important. Given the culture of the ‘accidental admin’, these feelings support the idea that Salesforce is an accessible technology even to those without a technical or academic background.
An Italian working in Salesforce
Members of the Milano and Cagliari Salesforce Developer Groups will share the sentiment that it can be difficult to find accurate local market data on Salesforce, but fortunately Mason Frank drills down salaries across all major European countries.
We can see that the average salary across core Salesforce roles (Admin/Dev/Functional & Technical Consultant) in Italy tends to start at around €20,000. Junior Admins can earn up to €26,000, while Junior Consultants and Developers can command salaries between €30,000 and €35,000.
Moving into senior roles, Admins tend to max out at around €32,000, which is where most make the jump into a specialist role. Senior Developers, Functional and Technical Consultants earn between €40,000 and €50,000.
Salesforce continues to enhance functionality of Marketing Cloud, primarily through integrations, making this skillset very in demand. It’s worth noting that even Junior Marketing Cloud Consultants and Specialists can start at €30,000 and earn up to €48,000 when they accrue enough experience. Looking for a specialist area? This could be it.
I hope this exploration of Mason Frank’s findings has been helpful—you should definitely be using this type of market intelligence to set you apart from your peers, so use it when finding your next job, employee, or Salesforce solution to fully benefit from the report.
Looking for more insights? Download the Mason Frank Salary Survey 19/20 in full for unique sentiments on technologies, salaries, and culture in the Salesforce ecosystem.
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