The Ultimate Guide to a Career as a Salesforce Project Manager
Salesforce is the world’s no.1 customer relationship management (CRM) platform used by businesses to manage their sales, customer service and marketing activities. The entirely cloud based platform offers a diverse range of careers with competitive salaries and excellent career progression.
A Salesforce Project Manager is one of the key factors for a successful Salesforce implementation. If you are an excellent communicator, organised and have outstanding team building and management skills, a Salesforce Project Manager role may be your perfect match.
With a predicted 9.3 million new Salesforce jobs to be created by 2026, there is no better time to start a career in Salesforce. Join us as we explore what exactly a Salesforce Project Manager is, the typical Salesforce Project Manager salary and how you can make yourself stand out to employers.
What is a Salesforce Project Manager?
The Salesforce Project Manager plays a crucial role in ensuring that Salesforce projects are successfully planned, executed and delivered to meet a business’s specific goals, objectives and requirements. A Salesforce Project Manager is an expert in planning and managing resources to effectively deliver a project to a client. Their priority is to ensure that projects are finished on time, within budget and deliver the desired outcomes for the client.
Salesforce Project Managers drive all the project stages from discovery and requirements gathering, planning, execution, through to reporting. They are also responsible for stakeholder management and support clients throughout the entire project process. The ideal candidate for a Salesforce Project Manager role is passionate about solving complex business problems, always looking for ways to improve project efficiency and has excellent communication and people management skills.
What does a Salesforce Project Manager do?
The role of a Salesforce Project Manager involves overseeing and managing projects related to implementations, customisations and enhancements on the Salesforce platform across a variety of Salesforce ‘clouds’ including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud and Marketing Cloud. Responsibilities range from typical organisational tasks through to work that requires an exceptional level of communication, emotional intelligence, problem-solving ability among many other ‘soft skills.’
Key responsibilities of a Salesforce Project Manager include managing project planning and budgets, communicating with stakeholders to understand their business goals, co-ordinating cross-functional teams, identifying and mitigating project risks, ensuring solutions adhere to best practices and implementing training to ensure end-users know how to effectively use the Salesforce platform.
Why is a Salesforce Project Manager role so interesting?
The Salesforce ecosystem is ever-growing, meaning it offers a number of incredibly diverse and exciting career paths. Although there is a lot of responsibility allocated to a Salesforce Project Manager, it is an incredibly rewarding career choice and no two days are the same. A strong project manager is one of the key factors for a successful Salesforce implementation, no matter the size of the project, and they are widely respected in the field. The demand for Salesforce talent is huge and there has never been a better time to consider a career with the largest CRM platform in the world.
How to land a Salesforce Project Manager role?
Often Salesforce Consultants move into Project Manager positions once they have gained enough experience on the platform to make the transition into a leadership role. Alternatively, it is possible for a project manager from a different industry to become a Salesforce Project Manager with no Salesforce experience providing they carry transferable skills and have some experience configuring either Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud or Services Cloud.
In terms of skills, prospective Salesforce Project Managers need to have a number of key skills including excellent project management skills, communication and people management skills, team building and coaching skills, organisation, prioritisation and task management skills. Taking the Salesforce Administrator and Platform App Builder certifications will also help your CV stand out to employers and enable you to become an entry-level Salesforce Project Manager.
What does progression look like for a Salesforce Project Manager?
Career paths for Salesforce Project Managers often include opportunities for advancement into senior roles. The more familiar the Salesforce talent is with the Salesforce platform, the more ‘hats’ they can wear. With sufficient experience, a Salesforce Project Manager can move into a specialised senior role, taking on larger and more complex projects or managing multiple projects simultaneously. A Senior Salesforce Project Manager may manage projects that have a budget anywhere between £100,000 and £1 million.
Among the most influential factors driving career progression in the Salesforce ecosystem, gaining experience and obtaining Salesforce certifications can enhance career prospects and open doors to more challenging and rewarding roles. Salesforce certifications are a milestone in your career that prove that you know what you are talking about but above all, experience is the most valuable asset you can have as a Salesforce Project Manager. Additionally, staying informed about the latest Salesforce updates and trends is crucial for career development and progression in this field.
Salary expectations for a Salesforce Project Manager?
The average salary for a Salesforce Project Manager in the UK ranges between £50,000 and £90,000 from a junior to senior level. The salary of a Salesforce Project Manager may vary based on factors such as experience of the Salesforce talent, whether they work for a Salesforce customer or partner, Salesforce certifications and credentials and location and the size of the company. The Salesforce Project Manager salary is typically defined in parallel with the size and complexity of the end-to-end projects they oversee on a variety of different Salesforce ‘Clouds’.
