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Salesforce · Consulting 101

Foundations for Beginners: Full Curriculum

Eight modules, built for someone with no workforce experience yet, or no exposure to any of this. The kind of person who is comfortable with technology and wants to be useful inside a consulting firm. Plain language throughout, and every term gets defined the first time it shows up.

What's inside

  1. What a CRM Actually Is
  2. Meet Salesforce: a Platform, Not Just an App
  3. How a Consulting Firm Makes Money on Salesforce
  4. Who's Who on a Salesforce Project
  5. Objects, Records, Fields: the Language of the Org
  6. A Project from Kickoff to Go-Live
  7. How You Add Value in Week One
  8. Your First 90 Days: a Learning Plan
Module 01
Orientation

What a CRM Actually Is

Start here even if you have never heard the term. A CRM (customer relationship management system) is the shared, organized memory a business keeps about the people and companies it sells to and serves. Before software, that memory lived in someone's head, a spreadsheet, and a drawer of business cards. This module explains the problem a CRM solves, so the rest of the course has somewhere to stand.

By the end you can
  • Explain, to a friend with no tech background, what a CRM is for
  • Name three problems a business has before it has a CRM
  • Say why a company will pay tens of thousands of dollars for one

[Placeholder copy, to be written: Walk through a small business that outgrows its spreadsheet: leads get dropped, two reps call the same customer, nobody knows what was promised. Show how a single shared record fixes each. Keep it concrete and story-led; no acronyms beyond CRM.]

Estimated time: 15 min · No prerequisites

Module 02
Orientation

Meet Salesforce: a Platform, Not Just an App

People say "Salesforce" to mean one screen a salesperson logs into. It is much larger than that. Salesforce is a platform, a foundation that companies build many different tools on top of. Get that distinction and most of what a consultant does all day starts to make sense.

By the end you can
  • Tell the difference between "an app" and "a platform" in plain terms
  • Recognize that two Salesforce orgs at two companies can look completely different
  • Explain why that flexibility is exactly why consulting firms exist

[Placeholder copy, to be written: Use the analogy of a kitchen the company is given empty, versus a meal handed over ready. Introduce the word "org" gently (one company's Salesforce). Avoid clouds, editions, and licensing here; that comes later.]

Estimated time: 15 min · Prerequisite: Module 01

Module 03
The business

How a Consulting Firm Makes Money on Salesforce

You joined a consulting firm, not Salesforce the vendor. The two make money in different ways, and understanding the difference tells you what your job really is. A consulting firm is hired to make a company's Salesforce do what that company needs: set it up, fix it, extend it, and teach people to use it.

By the end you can
  • Explain what a client is actually buying when they hire the firm
  • Define "engagement," "scope," and "billable" without hand-waving
  • Connect your own hours to something the client pays for

[Placeholder copy, to be written: Describe a simple engagement from the firm's side: a client asks for help, the firm scopes the work, agrees a price, does it, hands it over. Define billable vs. non-billable kindly. This is also where firm-specific values and voice should land.]

Estimated time: 20 min · Prerequisite: Module 02

Module 04
The people

Who's Who on a Salesforce Project

A project is a small team of specialists. Knowing who does what, and who to ask which kind of question, makes you useful far faster than knowing any single tool. This module is a roster, not a technical lesson.

By the end you can
  • Name the core roles: admin, consultant, architect, developer, business analyst, project manager
  • Match a typical question to the right person to ask
  • See where a beginner fits and how those roles grow into each other

[Placeholder copy, to be written: One short paragraph per role: what they own, what a day looks like, and the one-line "ask them when…" rule. End with an honest note on where a brand-new hire plugs in and which role they might grow toward.]

Estimated time: 20 min · Prerequisite: Module 03

Module 05
The vocabulary

Objects, Records, Fields: the Language of the Org

Roughly ten words let you follow almost any project conversation. This module teaches them in the order they make sense, using a single running example so nothing is abstract. Learn these and your first meeting stops being a wall of unfamiliar terms.

By the end you can
  • Define object, record, and field, and explain how they nest
  • Recognize the everyday objects: Account, Contact, Lead, Opportunity, Case
  • Read a simple screen and say what you're looking at

[Placeholder copy, to be written: Use a spreadsheet as the bridge: a tab is an object, a row is a record, a column is a field. Then show the same idea inside Salesforce with one screenshot-style walkthrough. Introduce only the five everyday objects; save the rest.]

Estimated time: 25 min · Prerequisite: Module 02

Module 06
The work

A Project from Kickoff to Go-Live

Every engagement moves through the same broad stages. See the whole arc once, and when you get dropped into the middle of a live one, you'll know where you are and what comes next. No deep methodology here, just the shape of it.

By the end you can
  • List the stages: discovery, design, build, test, train, go-live, support
  • Say in one sentence what happens in each
  • Spot which stage a project is in from how people are talking

[Placeholder copy, to be written: Follow one fictional client straight through the stages. Keep each stage to a short paragraph with a "what you'd see / hear" cue. Name go-live and UAT (user acceptance testing) plainly. This frames Module 07.]

Estimated time: 25 min · Prerequisite: Module 04

Module 07
Your value

How You Add Value in Week One

You do not need to know the platform to be worth having on the team right away. A careful beginner can own real work from day one, and senior people are happy to hand it off. This is the most practical module in the course.

By the end you can
  • Name five things a beginner can do well on a live project this week
  • Take meeting notes that the team actually reuses
  • Run a basic test and write up what you found clearly

[Placeholder copy, to be written: Cover note-taking, testing against a script, documentation, chasing follow-ups, and organizing the shared space. For each, show a quick "good vs. weak" example. Tone: encouraging, specific, anti-impostor-syndrome.]

Estimated time: 25 min · Prerequisite: Module 06

Module 08
Your path

Your First 90 Days: a Learning Plan

A concrete ramp so you are never wondering what to learn next. What to study, in what order, which free resources to use, the first certification worth aiming at, and how to shadow senior people without getting in the way.

By the end you can
  • Follow a week-by-week plan for your first three months
  • Find and start the free official learning path
  • Name the first certification to target and roughly how to prepare

[Placeholder copy, to be written: Lay out a 30/60/90 plan. Point to Trailhead (Salesforce's free training) and the Salesforce Certified Administrator as the first cert goal. Add a short "how to shadow well" checklist. Close with where to go after this course.]

Estimated time: 20 min · Prerequisite: all prior modules