Ok I need to vent about this for a second. Agentforce has basically taken over every conversation I have at work now and I'm kind of exhausted by it.

Like I'll be in a meeting about something completely unrelated and someone will just go "wait can this be an agent" and I have to stop and actually think about whether that's a smart question or if we're all just saying the trendy word because it's everywhere right now.

And then there's the client side. Some of them heard "Agentforce" somewhere, probably a linkedin post or a keynote clip, and now show up already asking for it before we've even explained what it does. So the first chunk of the call becomes me walking them back from the hype version to what it actually is.

Not saying the tech isn't useful, I'm just tired of the word doing more work than the actual thing half the time.
Anyone else feel like the vocabulary moved faster than the actual understanding?

The wonderful ThankGod Okoro asked me to speak at the Lagos User Group event this Friday.

It is at 1PM EST and open to all globally, not just their user group.

I will be doing an early version of my Dreamforce presentation!

Registration can be done here: https://trailblazercommunitygroups.com/events/details/salesforce-salesforce-user-group-lagos-nigeria-presents-build-a-salesforce-career-you-love-10-years-of-lessons/

Reading Salesforce posts on LinkedIn makes me feel like this: https://tenor.com/en-GB/view/upset-mad-breaking-down-crazy-pills-will-ferrel-gif-17380987

The latest nonsense is (quote) "We took an implementation plan, configured Data 360 and Marketing Cloud Next, and brought three complex use cases to life—all in under two hours." (end quote).

Original post here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/?highlightedUpdateUrn=urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7485440420580257793&highlightedUpdateType=REACTED_TO_YOUR_COMMENT&origin=INAPP&showCommentBox=true

Here's my list of problems:

• The message is 'look how easy it is to set up' which in my opinion is seriously misleading because it's built on Data360 which is not a platform that you should haphazardly set up. Any mistakes in configuration can lead to excessive credit consumption and subsequently, higher costs.
• An 'implementation' isn't just turning things on and pressing buttons - the implementation plan is a lot of work. It's translating business processes / requirements, managing credits / costs, aligning setup with current automation / processes, training + enablement, compliance + GDPR, aligning with the website by updating forms/consent/legal copy, integrating with 3rd party systems, building reusable on-brand templates/assets, migrating data with consent, setting up long-term reports showing KPI's... There's a lot that goes into it.
• I've sat with customers who have said out loud that they will not allow any marketer to implement any Flow without the SF Admin permission. Which slows down that 2 hour timeline because all MCN automation is built on Flow (including the opt-in process).
• The oversimplification that the platform can be stood up with 3 "complex" use cases is misleading. The post omits that the person who ran this demo is an extremely experienced and competent Salesforce professional - he's architect-level-brilliant. Implying a layperson can do it in 2 hours with a 'turnkey' setup is wild.
  • My issue with the use of the word "complex" in the post is this:
    • I will give them use case 1 - that's fair and a nice example. Although extremely unlikely a customer in the real world will get that live within 2 hours after implementing the platform. No chance.
    • Use case 2: A customer support survey is not complex.
    • Use case 3: A website opt-in is not complex (or at least, it shouldn't be?)
• I will happily stand corrected if it is actually good, but the suggestion that AI can implement the platform in the future is worrying to me. I speak with clients who do not understand their setup because a previous colleague set it up and left - the future is going to be people who do not understand the setup and are still working there, because they outsourced it to AI and hoped for the best. The reality of this will be far different from the theory (in my opinion).

What I think would be better to promote MCN as a platform:

• MCN is incredibly powerful because of Data360 and all of your data being unified in one place which makes connecting the dots far easier and personalising communications.
• Look at these use cases - because we connected our ERP system with Data360, we can trigger notifications when stock is back in so customers can purchase as soon as it is available.
• Look at how we can delight customers by triggering CSAT's as soon as the time is right - and we can foresee, ahead of time, based on data when a customer might be unhappy etc.

Long story short, fast and easy implementation is NOT the angle here because it's simply not true. I feel like Salesforce live inside an echo chamber and don't actually see what happens in real life.

Vent over.

I'm a Salesforce developer with 8 years of experience, primarily in Service Cloud.

Over the past few months, I've been narrowing my niche instead of trying to be "another Salesforce developer." My focus is helping companies implement SLA automation, service operations, and workflows for MSPs and service organizations. It's something I've built and deployed successfully in production.

Now I'm trying to land my first premium consulting client.

My current strategy is:

• Posting consistently on LinkedIn.
• Reaching out to decision-makers through LinkedIn.
• If they're not active there, sending personalized cold emails.

For those of you who've built a Salesforce consulting business:

• How did you land your first premium client?
• How long did it take before you signed your first deal?
• Did you have a niche from day one, or did it evolve over time?
• Do you think specialized Service Cloud consulting is still a strong market, or has AI changed how clients buy Salesforce expertise?

I'm asking because LinkedIn is full of AI content right now, and sometimes it feels like every conversation leads back to AI.

My experience is different. I solve operational problems with Salesforce, backed by real production implementations, not demos or side projects.

I'd appreciate hearing what actually worked for you.

I come from a business/management background and have about 5 years of experience working on Salesforce projects, currently as a Senior Business Analyst.
I hold the Salesforce Admin certification, OmniStudio Consultant (although I haven’t used it in years), Agentforce, Data Cloud, and a few Associate certifications.
I’m at a point where I’m wondering what the best long-term career path is within the Salesforce ecosystem.
AI is also changing the industry quite fast, so I’m trying to understand which skills and roles will remain the most valuable over the next 10 years ; and where I need to upskill in priority

Right now, I mainly see four possible paths for me:
Solution Architect
Functional Lead
Product Owner
Delivery Lead

But I’m unsure which one to follow

Any that actually gave you insightful takeaways?

Our reps told us Salesforce MCP access is going to be metered following dreamforce. Agent force was a complete flop and they're renting you back your own data to make money off "agentic". Clowns.

My boss told me to "look into" slacks ai integration for salesforce based on what our AE told him. Does anyone have any good resources for a know-nothing like me to start at to eductae myself?

Hey everyone,

I have an upcoming interview loop for a Senior Salesforce Developer role, and one of the rounds on my schedule is listed as a 60-minute "System Design" interview.

To be completely honest, I'm a bit unsure what to expect for this specific round in a Salesforce context.

Any recent experiences, tips, or recommended prep resources would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

literally can't take it anymore with these reps.

got a frantic slack message this morning that a massive campaign send failed and our org limits are screaming. turns out one of our "top performing" AEs found a spreadsheet of leads from some trade show back in 2021, imported them all, and immediately blasted them

I exported the mess they made and ran a sample through mail tester just to get hard proof before my meeting with the VP. Shocker: over 60% of the list is hard bouncing. Domains that don't even exist anymore, people who left jobs years ago

Now I get to spend my friday writing an apex batch to clean up this garbage and explain to leadership why our email reputation just took a massive hit. Why is basic CRM hygiene so hard for people to grasp?? tbh thinking of just making everyone pass a literal quiz before they get data loader access again.

I've inherited a few orgs where there's one custom object that nobody can really explain. Nobody remembers why it was created. Nobody knows what would break if it disappeared. The people who built it left years ago. Everyone is just afraid to touch it.

What's that object in your org?

So my team and I identified that during recent months we had a a big gap between GA4 sessions and SFMC clicks. We then noticed this has been going on for a while, probably for the last 2 years. The thing is we are unable to identify an answer to this gap.

Most of the time we have noticed a huge volume of clicks with a gap over 50% to sessions. Any ideas or similar experiences?

Recently i’ve been trying to integrate salesforce with apollo.io. However, whenever I try to integrate and press sync, I get the error as seen above. For context, we use a salesforce plan that we were grandfathered into a contract of $16 a month. After speaking to a salesforce representative I’m fine and able to pay the $150 a month for the new enterprise package, which should include “integration“. However, I’d like to make sure that this integration will fix this error and definitively fix my problem and allow these two softwares to integrate. Does anybody have any solutions?

Edit: I’m on the Legacy Group Edition

I am very curious how admins who are less technical are using Claude on the day to day! People are doing such interesting stuff these days.

I need to be able to use either the Verification Code from keeper or a Temporary Verification Code from the user profile in order to login to a non-admin account. Both paths work in a prod box that I'm working in but in the sandbox org I am unable to use either option. anyone run into this and if so how did you fix/get around it?

edit: just realized it is a partial sandbox - wondering if that's the issue?

Hi everyone,

I'm a Salesforce Application Architect and Senior Developer with 16+ years of experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Over the past few months I've been studying Agentforce, Prompt Builder, Data Cloud, and the overall AI architecture, but I haven't had the opportunity to work on an actual Agentforce implementation yet.

It feels like many job postings are already asking for Agentforce experience, but it's difficult to gain that experience if your current project isn't using it.

For those of you who are already working with Agentforce:

• How did you get your first Agentforce project?
• Are consulting companies already assigning developers without prior Agentforce experience?
• Would you recommend building personal projects or demos to stand out?
• Are there specific companies or partners that are adopting Agentforce faster than others?

I'd appreciate any advice on how to bridge the gap between studying the technology and getting real project experience.

Thanks!

Hi everyone, just got selected with a company for the role of Salesforce Innovator . I am fairly new to this crm world I just did some admin and apex for the starter what should I expect for this role and any tips regarding the same will be helpful .

I'm a senior dev and I currently have a job but looking around for new opportunities. Is it just me or is the job market pretty bad? Not sure if there is a difference between dev and admin but I'm not seeing a whole lot currently. if I lost my job today I feel like I would have to take my third pay cut in a row in order to get another. Looks like less jobs and lower salaries right now.

SF sent an email today:
"Recommended IP Address Allowlisting: MCE customers will be required to use IP allowlisting in enforcement (blocking) mode to further protect against unauthorized access. For organizations that do not currently use IP allowlisting, and where the suggested range size is under 100, Salesforce will generate an IP allowlist recommendation consisting of standard /24 (256-sized) IP ranges, starting July 30, 2026. Review, validation, and acceptance of these recommendations is required to maintain a secure and efficient network environment. This control will be enforced in a phase-wise manner over the coming months, and affected customers will receive communications prior to their specific enforcement dates. Further details are available in Mandatory IP Allowlisting in Marketing Cloud Engagement."

First they said recommended then it turns to required 🤔.

I don't understand how this can possibly work if a client doesn't use a VPN and also travels. I've never dealt with this type of setting though.

Anyone have experience with this? Clients travel a lot and I don't want to spend my life adding IP addresses.

Thank you!

Hi, I work at a tech nonprofit that uses Salesforce for fundraising and also for earned revenue (product sales). We live in Slack, and just connected Salesforce and Slack via this method: https://slack.com/help/articles/30754346665747-Connect-Salesforce-and-Slack

Our team is really excited about it, and the next question was about how to create new records in Slack. I know there's been a lot of different Slack-Salesforce integration options and that there are more technical ways to do this, but we're a very lean shop and don't have the capacity to set up and maintain something too complex.

We'd like to set up a way for Salesforce users to create new records within Slack. Ideally we'd be able to create Leads, Contacts, Accounts or Opportunities. Does anyone have any recommendations for the most straightforward way to do this? Thanks in advance for any help!

I work in marketing operations. That is my skillset. The entirety of what I have done prior to this job in Salesforce on an admin level is adding fields and picklist values. THAT IS IT.

I started this new job in March and they immediately stuck me with all this Salesforce admin work of which I have no training for, no cert for nor am being paid for. I also don’t want this to be my job.

I am constantly being bombarded about what is wrong with Salesforce and what should be fixed and building custom reports and flows and on and on. I am literally using Claude to teach me admin work. I have been in tears over Salesforce multiple times.

I guess I’m just posting to rant and to see if anyone else is in this position and how they handled it. I told them a week an a half ago I am stepping away from admin work and they need to hire someone but they keep at it.

The latest is that duplicates have been created on the same date by the same user so I asked that user what was going on if it was an automation or something else and I was told by my boss not to include that user. Like what?! Then how am I supposed to solve this?! Osmosis?!

I swear if the job market wasn’t trash I’d quit.

A recurring pattern across CRM discussions is that many teams treat their CRM as the source of truth—but not always the source of trust.

Teams say the CRM is their "source of truth," but when it's time for a board meeting, forecast review, or quarterly planning, someone exports the data into a spreadsheet and rebuilds the numbers manually.

What's interesting is that the issue rarely seems to be the reporting tool itself.

It usually comes down to one (or more) of these:

• Opportunities stuck in outdated stages.
• Missing or inconsistent ownership.
• Duplicate or conflicting records.
• Data that's technically complete but no longer trusted.

The spreadsheet becomes less of a reporting tool and more of a validation tool.

That raises an interesting question:

At what point does a CRM stop being a "source of truth" and become a "source of trust"?

In many of these discussions, the issue doesn't seem to be reporting—it comes down to governance, ownership, and the quality of the underlying data. By the time someone is validating numbers in Excel, the trust issue already exists.

Has your team managed to get rid of the "shadow spreadsheet," or is it still part of your reporting process? If you did solve it, what made the biggest difference?