What is Salesforce Trailhead?

‘Salesforce Trailhead – the fun way to learn’ is the tagline for Salesforce’s online learning platform. There’s no risk of the CRM software provider being sued under the Trades Description Act for this claim. It does exactly what it says on the tin – teaches tech skills, business skills and soft skills in a different and enjoyable way.

What is it?

Put simply, Trailhead is a series of online tutorials that teach professionals how to use every aspect of the Salesforce product suite. These tutorials earn the user globally recognised certifications proving their knowledge and understanding of particular elements of the Salesforce software. These include: Lightning Experience; Leadership; Google; Artificial Intelligence; App Building; Equality; Apple; Management; Reports and Dashboards; Amazon; Presenting; Application Lifecycle Management; Gift Hub and many more.

Game on

To make the tutorials fun, and therefore more appealing and inductive to learning, Trailhead uses a gamification process which harnesses our natural desire to explore and play. Users access a library of courses on every subject related to Salesforce. These courses are part of series called Trails. They can be completed in a prepared, curated package or can be done individually, either in a custom-made trail, or one course at a time. There are also instructor-led classes and workshops available through Trailhead Academy.

Trailhead’s courses engage employees by combining industry concepts with amusing and creative subject matter. For example, in Build a Battle Station, users create a code-free project management app to build a galactic battle station in space. Another project asks Trailblazers to create an automated communication system in Salesforce Chatter and Process Builder, so they can communicate with rovers on Mars.

Trailhead’s gamified points system incentivises you to complete more courses. Levels, also called Trailblazer Ranks, are ranks you can achieve within that system. The higher the rank you reach, the greater your level of experience in the Trailblazer community, which adds credibility to your achievements.

You rise through the ranks by completing courses and challenges. Completing a challenge typically earns 500 points, and quizzes earn 100. There are seven ranks in total, with the highest requiring 50,000 points to unlock.

Take the credit

When courses are completed, users receive Superbadges and certificates in either customer-facing or the software development side of the Salesforce suite. Most certifications require multiple Superbadges to complete, as well as a final exam. These are recognisable accreditations and successes can be posted on LinkedIn and used to further careers.

Community project

When you sign up, you automatically become a member of the Trailblazer community. Trailblazers are fellow Trailhead users from around the world who host meet ups, networking events and forums discussing all things Salesforce. As well as building your network, you can ask questions, share experiences and discuss issues without worrying that the other person is going to glaze over, as your friends and family might do.

Salesforce Trailhead: Something for everyone

Trailhead is beneficial to all the departments within a company that use Salesforce. Trails have a variety of levels, so users can start at the level of expertise that’s relevant for their role.

  • Customer Service:  Quick Look Trail is designed for entry-level customer service staff. Members of the management team can take the more advanced path of Service Cloud Trails, which leads to the Service Cloud Specialist Superbadge. This involves evaluating staff performance through reporting and analytics.
  • Sales and Marketing: Trailhead is a great tool for training new sales staff in how to use Sales Cloud. The Basics Trail and Discover Sales Cloud Trail are an ideal introduction to the software. More advanced staff can improve their behavioural and software training skills with the Sales Manager certification. Courses available include best practices for prospecting new leads, and importing and exporting data in Salesforce.  Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud enables users to create fully automated marketing campaigns and landing pages. Trailhead’s tutorials can be used to train in-house Marketing Cloud developers.  For staff who don’t need this level of developer training, trails including Get to know Marketing Cloud and Use Marketing Cloud Connect to integrate with Salesforce CRM are hugely helpful in teaching staff how to integrate data from Sales and Service Cloud into marketing campaigns.
  • HR: While there isn’t a product solely aimed at HR professionals, Trailhead provides courses on how to select the right people for an effective sales team, and maintaining employee engagement and retention. The Improve Data Quality for a Recruiting App Trail teaches HR staff how to maintain data quality in an employee database.
  • IT: Having in-house Salesforce Developers may well be more economical than hiring external consultants whenever a problem arises. It also means that issues can be dealt with immediately, ensuring your business runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Developers can use Trailhead to learn how to support Salesforce Applications in-house, as well as develop and expand on them.

The price is right

Trailhead is free to use and is accessible to all. However, if you want to publish content, participate in the gamified point system and earn certificates, you’ll need to subscribe to MyTrailhead for $25 a month per user.

With MyTrailhead, you also get additional access for employees, and you can customise your branding. This enables you to develop your own courses or training environments for their employees. An additional $2 per login or $5 per member allows users to enable MyTrailhead or customers and partners, so their clients and industry partners can access Trailhead’s content as well.

How Cognition24 can help

These are just some of the benefits you’ll gain as a Salesforce user when using Trailhead.  If you want to learn more about Salesforce, reach out to the experts at Cognition24 for help.  Whether you’re just getting started with your org, or adding new functionality and need a helping hand, our experts can point you in the right direction.  

Get started with Trailhead here.

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