Salesforce admins, building community, and making the most of events

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We recently sat down with Salesforce MVP Kristi Campbell, senior Salesforce admin at Cirrus Insight. She started out as a support rep and became an accidental admin. Over time, she’s been a consultant, an end customer working with communities and traditional sales, and has also worked for Salesforce partners.

Kristi spoke about the value of community events and how to build community in a way that’s authentic to you. Here are just three of the topics we discussed.

How can admins make the most of events?

Kristi: For me, I think the key is really looking at sessions that relate to what you're currently doing, but also some reach sessions. I've certainly sat in developer sessions where it's mostly over my head, but it's good to know. So that, if I have to communicate with a developer, I can learn those things.

I definitely think there's value in, maybe you don't need a product today, but understanding what options you have. There are multiple vendors that do certain things, so making those connections and getting that familiarity with partners can be really helpful.

And then really just trying to meet new people...

The great thing about Salesforce to me is, even here in Charlotte, we've got a bunch of nonprofit people, we've got consultants, we've got Bank of America. We have huge companies, but also small companies, across all kinds of industries.

We’re all building formulas, right? We're all building flows now and we're using the same tools. So, there's a lot you can learn, even if somebody isn't directly in the same industry as you, which is a great way to just introduce yourself to the person you're sitting next to and see how they fit into the world, whether or not it might actually be what you need right now. I think it's really important to get that exposure to people.

How can admins contribute to the Salesforce community?

Kristi: I think you can give in a way that's authentic to you. I tried to start a blog and I’m ADHD, so getting on some kind of schedule didn't really work. But, I could talk to a chair for half an hour. So, user groups are a great thing for me. I started Salesforce Saturday in Charlotte because, yes, I will go on my weekend and help and meet people. And that’s where I thrive.

That's actually how I ended up founding Southeast Dreamin' in Atlanta. This will be our fifth year with the COVID extension, but our fifth time happening this year. So, we do that in Atlanta, and it's basically a superuser group event...they're all volunteer speakers from the community, and you can meet sponsors and just get out there and talk to people about what you're doing and get ideas for the next thing you might want to do...

I think it's easy to look at experts who've been doing this for over a decade. But I haven't been in Experience Cloud in a while. I haven't used knowledge in a while, and I don't use CPQ. So, nobody's an expert in all of it, and you may have just discovered something that could be helpful. So, you don't have to be up here to make an impact on someone because it's like a funnel. You've got a lot of brand new admins at the top. For them, any incremental piece of knowledge that you can share really might be helpful.

How do you get out of the technical weeds and solve problems for people?

Kristi: I think you have to be intentional about it. I think it can be easy to say, "Oh, this is the way it should work. I've defined this process. This is what you should do."

But Mike Gerholdt coined the term SABWA: Salesforce admin by walking around. And I think that's a very true thing. You meet with people, you see them, and they find all kinds of different ways that are maybe not as efficient, or maybe better, or maybe you just need to account for.

So, I think it's important to look at yourself as a user, and really talk to your users. And honestly, I think to talk to other people out in the world, right? We're not reinventing wheels here. Processes are different, but the gist of these concepts can be more universal. So, I think talking to people outside your company or seeing other people's orgs, can really spark ideas on how to make your users’ lives easier.

Want to hear the rest of the conversation? Check it out here.

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