Someone on LinkedIn asked me, via a mutual acquaintance: “Looking for an affordable Salesforce teacher to expand my skills in. Salescloud, communities and Formstack. Any tips?”

A simple, reasonable, question. But did you know that LinkedIn has a character limit for replies? I didn’t! Therefore I’m writing my reply here…

My usual approach for these things is to go for the public-shared training route; there’s always plenty of people learning at one time and it’s fun at the same time. There’s a number of excellent resources and I particularly recommend Amsterdam Salesforce Saturday as a group learning experience. Salesforce Saturdays tend to be quite good for this sort of thing as they are more regular than a typical Community Group meeting, and more hands-on.

That said, I’ve also flagged your post on a small Dutch group that I’m part of so people may reach out to you.

When in-person activities resume, this becomes a lot easier, obviously.

Four additional thoughts:

1, You’re unlikely to find a dedicated trainer (they’re few and far between in these parts). It’s more likely to be a consultant who can show you how these things work and the considerations you are going to need. It’s also more likely to be a better match, as most training is bespoke unless you want to cover the entire range of a specific subject like ADM201 (where there’s many excellent training courses available).

2, My favourite question is “Why“. If you’re working on your own Salesforce and want to upskill so you can support it more in-house, my recommended technique for that would be to get a consultant in, but ask them to screenshare with you and ask them to tell you what to do, and why you’re being told to do it in that way. That way you get the work done, and learn simultaneously. I think my private clients enjoy me doing that 😀

3, Training: It’s partly about memory. If you need to do something done weekly, then write some brief notes and once you’ve done it once or twice you’ll remember how to do it. If you need to do something once a month, then write down really good notes that you can follow and then you should be fine following those. If it’s just once a year, it’s usually quicker and easier to get someone else to do it for you.

4, If you still want to go down the trainer route, work out your learning style and make sure you align with your teacher. For most people this is easy, but some of us are kinesthetic learners and learn by doing, rather than just reading notes. It took me many years to discover this, and now I’m a happier and more successful person!

BONUS: Mentoring has also been suggested as a very valid option (thanks Connie!).

Plus some standard disclaimers about, that if it is a really complex job, it may not be suitable for your personal skillset regardless.