Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM and marketing automation tool. It’s one of the most popular customer relationship management (CRM) systems globally, used by more than 180,000 customers, including Coca-Cola, American Express, and Southwest Airlines. 

In 2021, Salesforce will be celebrating its 20th anniversary. 

To commemorate this event, we want to look ahead at what Salesforce will offer over the next few years so you can get ahead of your competition with new skills that will be needed for success in this industry. 

Digitization has brought us all to a position where almost every business process can be automated. Over time, the need for automation has only increased. 

As customer demands keep getting more specific and businesses keep diversifying, it is practically impossible for an organization to provide personalized services without using a CRM platform.

This is what has turned Salesforce into a field of study. After the disappointing 2020, organizations are looking forward to getting back on track by making the most of CRM platforms like Salesforce. 

As the founder of a company that offers a Salesforce training program, I’ve seen firsthand how young IT aspirants and experienced professionals are flocking toward online and offline training resources for getting trained in Salesforce.

Here are some of the major reasons why it is important to learn Salesforce in 2021:

1. It is the Need of the Hour

Let us start by addressing the most obvious factor. Distinct customer preferences and the need for real-time communication make it almost impossible for businesses to continue with the traditional means of handling their customer database.

Learning Salesforce opens up the door to seamless automation and advanced CRM functionalities that allow you to store every detail about every customer and use the same to provide personalized services to them. 

Using CRM platforms like Salesforce is a great way to get an edge over your competitors when catering to your customers in the best way possible.

2. High Return on Investment

Owing to the widespread application and relevance of Salesforce, you can rest assured that you will get high returns on the amount you spent on getting trained in Salesforce. 

Suppose you are a young graduate who has just entered the world of business automation. In that case, good Salesforce training will solidify your position as a Salesforce professional in some of the best companies in the world.

On the other hand, if you are already a working IT professional, getting trained in Salesforce can help to increase your value as an employee, which would reflect in your remuneration.

3. Increased Customer Satisfaction

The entire platform of Salesforce is built with the motive of helping organizations take better care of their customers. 

After learning Salesforce, you will understand the specific likes, dislikes, needs, and preferences of your customers before reaching out to them.

Also, an automated lead management system allows you to stay with your prospects until they are converted into loyal customers. 

4. Endless Scope with Salesforce Certifications

Salesforce certification is an official stamp of approval validating your skills as a Salesforce professional. Once you pass the certification examination and get Salesforce-certified, there is hardly any job that you cannot secure according to your expertise.

However, it is important to note that the certification examinations are fairly tricky and contain many practical challenges to be solved. Good training in Salesforce should help you pass any Salesforce certification examination.

If you are willing to pursue certification according to your expertise, here are the six types of Salesforce certifications you can choose from:

• Administrator certification (Administrator, Advanced Administrator)
• Developer certification (Platform Developer I, Platform Developer II, Commerce Cloud)
• Architect certification (Application, Solution, Technical)
• Consultant certification (Sales Cloud, Service Cloud)
• Marketing certification (Marketing Cloud, Pardot)
• Designer certification (UX Designer)

5. Better Job Prospects and Salaries

It is basic economics that higher demand equates to higher prices. As mentioned earlier, Salesforce is the need of the hour. Several organizations, irrespective of their scale of operation and the industry they belong to, need competent Salesforce professionals to help them handle their customer database.

However, the number of people willing to land a Salesforce job is increasing with time. Therefore, the only way of securing a suitable job in Salesforce is to learn Salesforce and stand out. Once you become proficient in your areas of expertise in Salesforce, you are certain to have numerous job opportunities at your disposal.

Owing to the high demand for skilled Salesforce professionals, getting trained in Salesforce will offer you fairly high-paying jobs. Today, a Salesforce technical architect in the U.S. can earn up to $150,000 per year. The more trained you are, the higher you are paid – it is that simple!

6. Getting Future-Proof

Looking at the rate at which Salesforce adoption is going up and the platform is gaining prominence, it is safe to say that Salesforce is here to stay. 

Gone are the days when business automation and CRM were new trends in the market. Everyone is switching from traditional techniques, and if you haven’t, it is high time you do so, too!

Learning Salesforce will help you garner skills that will keep bearing fruits for you in the years to come. In addition, it will help you stay on the same page as your peers and be in sync with the technological advancements being made in the field before it is too late.

Will Salesforce be Worth More Than Microsoft by 2030?

When Satya Nadella became Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) third CEO seven years ago, the tech giant was worth $300 billion. Today, it’s worth over $2 trillion. Microsoft will likely keep growing over the next decade, but it could struggle to repeat its near-sevenfold growth since 2014.

So investors should consider some smaller tech companies that have a shot at replicating Microsoft’s massive gains. One potential candidate is salesforce.com, a cloud enterprise software company worth about $230 billion. Let’s examine Salesforce’s growth rates and see if it could join the trillion-dollar club and either match or even surpass Microsoft by 2030.

The past ten years

Between fiscal 2011 and 2021, which ended this January, Salesforce’s annual revenue rose from $1.66 billion to $21.25 billion, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.1%.

Salesforce’s sales skyrocketed as more companies adopted its cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) services. It leveraged that strength to launch additional cloud-based tools for sales, marketing, and analytics — and gobbled up smaller companies to expand that ecosystem continuously.

Between fiscal 2010 and 2020, which ended last June, Microsoft’s annual revenue rose from $62.48 billion to $143.02 billion, which equals a much lower CAGR of 8.6%.

Most of that growth occurred after Nadella took the helm and aggressively expanded Microsoft’s “commercial cloud” business, including Office 365 (now Microsoft 365), Dynamics CRM, and Azure. As a result, between fiscal 2014 and 2020, the segment’s revenue jumped from $2.8 billion to $51.7 billion.

How the next decade might go

Last December, Salesforce estimated it could more than double its annual revenue to $50 billion by fiscal 2026. That would represent a CAGR of 18.7% between 2021 and 2026.

Salesforce expects the total addressable market for its entire portfolio of services (sales, service, marketing and commerce, platform, and analytics and integration) to grow at a CAGR of 11% between fiscal 2021 and 2025.

 It expects its growth to outpace the broader market.

Salesforce didn’t provide forecasts beyond 2026, but it would only need to generate a CAGR of 14.9% for the following five years to hit $100 billion in annual revenue by fiscal 2031.

Microsoft hasn’t offered any comparable long-term forecasts, but analysts expect its revenue to rise 16% this year and 12% next year. If Microsoft subsequently grows its revenue at an average rate of 10% per year, or a CAGR of 10.8%, it could generate $400 billion in revenue by fiscal 2030.

Assuming that Salesforce and Microsoft’s price-to-sales ratios remain roughly the same as today, Salesforce could be worth about $1 trillion by the end of 2030, while Microsoft’s market cap could climb over $5 trillion.

But market caps don’t matter all that much

So Salesforce could join the trillion-dollar club by 2030, but it probably won’t be worth more than Microsoft.

However, Salesforce will likely grow faster than Microsoft during the 2020s. Companies will increasingly rely on its services to reduce their dependence on human employees, automate their operations, and crunch data to make business decisions. It will continue to gobble up smaller companies — like MuleSoft, Tableau, and Slack — to expand its ecosystem beyond its market-leading CRM platform.

Meanwhile, Microsoft will keep growing as Azure expands its reach in the cloud infrastructure market; Windows continues its evolution into service and launches new hardware and gaming devices.

It’s impossible to tell which stock will perform better over the next decade, and it’s naive to assume both companies will generate unfettered growth free from competition, disruption, or macroeconomic shocks. However, these tech titans should continue to expand — so it doesn’t matter which one ends up with the bigger market cap by 2030.

Are Salesforce Certifications Worth It?

Be it any technology; people always give priority to a certified professional over a non-certified one. It makes it quite clear that to maintain a successful career in the domain of your interest, you need to be legitimately certified. 

Talking specifically about the Salesforce ecosystem, the importance of certifications also exists here. It is much more than we could think. 

Salesforce talent is usually in high demand. But what makes you an excellent candidate for the job along with your work portfolio is the certification you have achieved that speaks your credibility in its way.

Salesforce certification is an amazing way to prove your skills and knowledge about the hottest CRM platform today.

Why Should You Pursue Salesforce Certification?

As a successful cloud-based ecosystem, organizations are getting on board with Salesforce to establish their business and run it smoothly. The increasing use of Salesforce has led to the demand for Salesforce professionals. This demand has increased by 129% in the past five years. This is why professionals are pursuing Salesforce Certification courses to upskill themselves.

With Salesforce revolutionizing different industries, organizations want certified professionals to manage their CRM and process their data right. As a result, Salesforce certification has become a standard for selecting the right people to handle the Salesforce platform. 

Not only this but being a certified Salesforce professional also adds to the salary. We can say that a Salesforce certification can open doors to better opportunities for professionals. 

Benefits of Salesforce Certification

Being a Salesforce certified professional brings in a lot of perks. Here we have listed some of the most prominent benefits a professional can leverage by acquiring Salesforce certifications. 

Obtain a dynamically updated, current knowledge base

With Salesforce updating with each release, the professionals need to stay aware of it and walk parallel with the latest features. Getting a certification to your credit will help you get in touch with everything that matters in the Salesforce ecosystem, giving you the most intimate understanding of the platform.   

Certification communicates your expertise

Salesforce certification helps you prove to your employers and customers that you have the skills and capability needed for a Salesforce project. 

To get a Salesforce certification, you need to have the competencies that help you to qualify. 

Thus, being a certified Salesforce professional communicates your knowledge and competencies, proving you to be highly suitable for a job. 

Become a star performer

Many companies lack a solid plan for optimizing their Salesforce, missing out on a large chunk of Salesforce functionalities. 

But if you are a certified Salesforce professional, you’ll be in a great position to help your team customize and optimize the Salesforce org. 

You’ll know how to configure the Salesforce platform, helping the team to get answers to any strategic questions they have about Salesforce. 

Career growth

Most Salesforce-related job descriptions state the importance of having a Salesforce certification that can speak for your capabilities. 

Not having the relevant Salesforce certification in your field can be one of the reasons you are not getting a call back for an interview from your dream company. 

Qualifying for a Salesforce certification can be a nice feather to your hat that adds to your work portfolio and experience. 

Grab Better Opportunities with Salesforce Certifications

Sure, you may have been working on Salesforce for a long time, and you might even know the ins and outs of the platform. 

But your word might be enough for any employer or customer with whom you wish to work. 

If you are working without a Salesforce certification, you are hurting your chances and keeping yourself from many better opportunities.

A certification will be the mark of your knowledge, expertise, and hands-on experience. All these returns make this an investment that is worth it. 

Martin Gessner

Martin Gessner is the Founder of Focus on Force.

He has spent over 10 years working in various Salesforce roles including business analyst, project manager, consultant and solutions architect. Along the way he has earned twelve certifications, published "The Salesforce Career Playbook", and helps Salesforce professionals learn more about Salesforce, develop their career and prepare for certifications.