Questions Salesforce Consultant Hiring Manager

• 21 Questions with a Salesforce Consultant Hiring Manager

Good morning, Salesforce Nerd! A recent lunch turned into a compelling Salesforce discussion around a Salesforce hiring manager’s perspective.

Not only were there some golden nuggets dropped for Salesforce professional candidates, but they paid for lunch too .

Here are 21 questions the hiring manager graciously answered

BACKGROUND

Hiring managers of Salesforce come in all shapes and sizes. Here is a profile of the executive who answered our 21 questions-

20 years work experience, including 11 years in enterprise tech, 6 of which are in Salesforce delivery.

Responsible for $8-10MM in services ARR.

Has worked in consulting orgs ranging from 35-employee boutique agency to 3300-employee international services firm.

Responsible for 20+ Salesforce professionals, from business analysts to architects, local and offshore. Responsible for hiring, retention and exiting of US resources.

There are many hiring managers with more experience and many with less. Here is this hiring manager’s perspective

WHAT NEXT?

Are those job postings online real?

Ha! For companies I’ve worked at- mostly yes, a little no. There’s 3 dirty little secrets about consulting-

The churn rate for consultants is high.

Prospects can become clients overnight, and you’ll need to staff a $1MM project for a client who wants to kickoff yesterday….

Wise hiring managers always have a pipeline of quality candidates that they can tap into.
And it’s when, not if, they tap it.

What makes a resume pop? What sends a resume straight to the trash can?

I like one-page resumes. I’ve hired people with two-pagers.

I like when people include work history that may seem irrelevant, like waiter/waitress, but, in that example, understand the value of being customer-facing.

I like clarity. I understand it’s a challenge to distill years of work experience into 3 sentences that need to influence a decision-maker/hiring manager.

In regards to straight to trash - ”Sales Force” will get you there .

How important is my Linked In profile?

I used to think not  it was a deal breaker (to not have one) for a former-CEO I worked with. I’ve been swayed to his perspective that in a digital world, having a profile on the professional platform is important. Treat it like an online resume, your brand, your digital professional profile…

How important are Salesforce certifications?

Very important! Accredited implementation partners are rated, in part, by how many, and which, certs their company has.
If you have no Mulesoft-certified resources, Salesforce is not going to bring you any Mulesoft deals .

Presuming the follow up question of recommended certs, I like to see consultant certifications - Sales and Service. I like that these put a focus on empathizing with stakeholders and users.

Besides Salesforce, which other certifications move the needle?

Hmmm I’m personally not a cert-enthusiast, but if you’re going to spend the time and money, get ones that are universally recognized and respected , like the PMP , or on other enterprise tech platforms like AWS , Microsoft Azure , and maybe even Google .

What are you looking for in line-items on a resume?

I like the Google XYZ framework. Be prepared to explain any line-items in an interview!

How do you differentiate between 50 applications with the same experience?

Great question. 3 things I look for to cut through the vanilla are-

Industry exposure - Legacy (like manufacturing) or new (like tech) and which verticals.

Company size - have they worked with hundreds of users? Thousands?

Enterprise experience - exposure to business complexity

What can an admin with no consulting experience do to look attractive to a consulting firm?

Having business analyst skills is the secret weapon. You can work in industry or consulting if you have the ability to breakdown business process into pieces and segments.

The ability to develop strong relationships is also a skill that will always be in style.

What is one thing most 0-1 year experience Salesforce professionals do not understand about the consulting…