Episodes

  • The Power of Agentforce and Slack for Building Custom AI Agents

    The Power of Agentforce and Slack for Building Custom AI Agents
    Mar 6 2025
    Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Gillian Bruce, Director of Developer Marketing at Slack. Join us as we chat about how to combine Agentforce with Slack and all the cool new things you can do with custom AI agents. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Gillian Bruce. If you can build on Salesforce, you can build on Slack Peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, cookies and milk—some things just go together. That’s why I’ve brought Gillian Bruce back on the pod to talk about her new role as Director of Developer Marketing at Slack. Gillian’s still a Salesforce Admin at heart, and she’s constantly seeing new ways that Slack can help admins with low and no-code solutions. If you can build in Salesforce, you can build in Slack. And with powerful features like Slack Canvas, Slack Lists, and Workflow Builder, you have a ton of flexibility to communicate information effectively and save time for your users. She also has another great combo to add to our list: Agentforce and Slack. How to combine Agentforce with Slack Slack has over 2600 integrations, allowing you to bring in data from Jira, Workday, Salesforce, and more. This lets you build workflows for users and share information with them without needing to set them up on every platform you’re using. But how can you help them interface with all of that data? That’s where Agentforce comes in. With Agent Builder, you can create custom employee-facing AI agents for Slack to cut through the noise. These agents can update information in Salesforce, pull data your users need to know, give them a summary of service interactions with a customer, and it all happens in Slack. Get started with employee-facing AI agent templates If you need some help getting started, we’ve got you covered. Slack has built a plethora of templates for employee-facing AI agents that you can adapt as needed. For example, there’s a product specialist agent that can ingest documentation and answer questions from your users so they don’t have to pull up a bunch of PDFs. If there’s one thing Gillian wants you to know, it’s that every Salesforce Admin should be building in Slack. “It's going to not only set yourself up to be super valuable to your organization in this era of agents,” she says, “but it also is going to open up so much more possibility for you career-wise.” Be sure to listen to the full episode about more cool things you can do with Salesforce and Slack, and why you might see Gillian at your next Dreamin’ event. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more slack.dev Slack Developer Program Workshop: Build an automated workflow Salesforce Admins Podcast Episode: What Can Salesforce Admins Do with Slack Integrations? Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Gillian on LinkedIn Gillian on X Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on X Full show transcript Mike: This week on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we're thrilled to have Gillian Bruce back with us. Gillian, who now leads the Slack ecosystem marketing team and is on a mission to show why every Salesforce admin should be jumping into Slack and using it to not only build custom agents, but also amazing workflows and incredible integrations that Slack can do. Gillian explains why learning and leveraging Slack is simply a must for an admin. I mean, it's so easy to use. I love it. Now, before we jump in, I want to make sure that you're following the Salesforce Admins Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. That way, you can catch every new episode immediately when it comes out on Thursdays. So be sure to hit the follow button on whatever podcast platform you're listening for. So now, let's welcome Gillian back and talk about Slack and Agentforce. So Gillian, welcome back to the podcast. Gillian: Mike, thanks for having me. Mike: I know, you've been over overly communicating with people. Gillian: It's been a while since I've been on the pod with you, it feels like I just rewound the clock quite a while. Mike: I know, in the Wayback Machine. Don't forget, we have the Wayback Machine. I don't have the fancy noisemaker, you just got to put it in your head and envision that. What have you been up to since we've last talked on ye olde podcast? Gillian: Oh, just a few things, you know? A few changes. Mike: Okay. Still all about admins, obviously. Gillian: Admins are always in my heart, and it's actually been quite fun, because about, what, eight months ago at this point, I have transitioned over to Slack to lead up their ecosystem marketing team, which includes developers, community, and partners. And one of the big things I'm focused on is, as I've gotten to know the Slack community over here, is helping all ...
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    36 mins
  • Roadmap to TDX25 for Admins

    Roadmap to TDX25 for Admins
    Feb 27 2025
    Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Jennifer Lee, Kate Lessard, and Brittney Gibson from the Admin Relations team. Join us as we chat about what they're looking forward to at TDX 2025 and the keynotes, sessions, and how to make the most of your time. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Jennifer Lee, Kate Lessard, and Brittney Gibson. Don’t miss Jen and Kate’s sessions at TDX We’re looking forward to seeing you at TDX next week, and we want to extend a personal invitation to friends of the pod to come to our breakout sessions. In Unleash the Power of Modular Flows for Agentforce, Jen will be teaching you how to break down flows into smaller, modular components, so you get the most out of them. She’s also running another session, “Elevate Prompt Template Agent Actions with the Power of Flow,” where she’ll look at how to use flow to enrich your prompt templates with data. Kate will be in Theater 2, presenting Demo to Deployment: Engaging Stakeholders with Agentforce. She’ll go over how to create a demo that shows your stakeholders everything Agentforce can do, enabling you to get better input and transform your organization with AI. Where to learn more about what’s next with Agentforce Kate’s also been working on the demos you’ll see in the keynote. We’ll be looking at how Agentforce has enabled builders with low code, no code, and pro code solutions to create agents and problem-solve for their organizations using AI. You can also stop by the Agentforce Zone, where we’ll have plenty of introductory content to get you started with AI. You can learn about Agent Builder, find out more about Service Agents and Headless Agents, and how to use AI to test what you’ve built. We’ll also cover how you can get data from PDFs with RAG 2.0, and what happens when you combine Agentforce with Data Cloud and screen flows. How to keep up with everything at TDX If you’re not able to attend in person, Brittney’s got your back. You can catch key sessions on Salesforce+ and she’ll cover all the TDX action on our socials. We’re also sharing must-attend sessions and opportunities to get hands-on with Agentforce to help you plan ahead. Listen to the full episode for more on how to get the most out of your time at TDX, and don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Blog: A Salesforce Admin’s Guide to TDX 2025 Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Jen on LinkedIn Jen on X Kate on LinkedIn Kate on X Brittney on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on X Full show transcript Mike: This week on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, well, I hope you took the over on the over-under of number of admin relations team members that can fit on a pod, because I've got the second most or maybe the most, but we're all here to give you a roadmap to get prepared for TDX. I almost said Trailblazer DX, but then it was Trailhead DX. I'm going to go with TDX, that's probably the most current name right now. But we're going to talk about keynotes. We're going to talk about sessions. We're going to talk about stuff to walk around and look at and put your fingers on the keyboards. And then also, everybody's got a phone in their pocket and you've got to be on social. So Brittany's back from 100 years ago when I first had her on the podcast to help you engage in social and share all the fun pictures and stuff. So Kate, Jennifer, Brittany, welcome to the podcast. Kate: Thanks for having me. Brittany: Thank you. Jennifer: Glad to be here. Mike: Let's get started with sessions because I don't know about you, but every time I sign up for a conference, it's like I got to figure out what sessions I'm going to. So Jen, Kate, I know you're both working diligently on some amazing sessions. Jen, you have the most, and that's no surprise. But let's start with you. What are the two breakout sessions you're working on for TDX? Jennifer: Yeah, very excited for this. So my first breakout is called Unleash the Power of Modular Flows for Agentforce. I know that sounds a lot, but it's your admins, you're building out those flows. Now you could maximize those flows by building them modularly, and what I mean is breaking them down into the smallest components. So I will show you how you can go from a big flow down to a small flow and really optimize it for use with your agents. So that's the first one. And then the second one is called Elevate Prompt Template: Agent Actions with the Power of Flow. So there is a theme that you see flow, flownatics, right? I love flow. I love the ability to leverage that flow magic in our prompt templates to really enrich your prompt templates and ground them in data. So I'm going to step through how to do that, how to use that power...
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    26 mins
  • Unlocking More Value in Salesforce With Foundations for Sales and Service

    Unlocking More Value in Salesforce With Foundations for Sales and Service
    Feb 20 2025
    Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Eddie Cliff, VP of Product Management at Salesforce. Join us as we chat about Salesforce Foundations and why it’s the key to unlocking the power of Agentforce. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Eddie Cliff. Introducing Salesforce Foundations Everyone’s excited about Agentforce and everything you can do when you combine Salesforce with AI. But what about smaller orgs? How will EE or UE orgs be able to keep up without access to all of the bells and whistles? That’s exactly what Eddie and his team have been working on with Salesforce Foundations. It’s a free way to add the basic capabilities of Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud, and Agentforce to your org. How Salesforce Foundations supports AI and Agentforce Salesforce Foundations eliminates the need for 3rd-party solutions to do that one little thing, like creating a payment link, or triggering a marketing campaign based on Commerce data. You can get all this cool cross-cloud functionality without having to upgrade your org, allowing you to start building that full Customer 360 in Data Cloud. And this is crucial because Salesforce Foundations also gives you access to a freemium version of Agentforce. “What’s really cool,” he says, “is that as you do more and you use more of these cross-cloud capabilities, your data in Data Cloud gets richer and more powerful and so does Agentforce.” And did I mention it’s free for Sales or Service EE and UE users? How to activate Salesforce Foundations Getting started is as easy as going into Setup and clicking on the Salesforce Foundations node. You’ll go through a checklist of everything you need to get going. From there, you’re in for a whole new world of segmentation, personalization, and automation. Listen to the full episode for more from Eddie on Salesforce Foundations and what’s coming next, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode of the Salesforce Admins Podcast. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Trailhead: Salesforce Foundations: Quick Look Help docs: Considerations for Salesforce Foundations Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Eddie on X Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on Tiktok Mike on X Love our podcasts? Subscribe today or review us on iTunes! Full show transcript Mike Gerholdt: This week on the Salesforce Admins podcast, we're talking with Eddie Cliff, VP of Product Management at Salesforce, about some exciting developments in Salesforce Foundations. It was the subline to Agentforce that you heard at Dreamforce this year. Eddie has been at Salesforce for nearly 14 years, transitioning from roles in go-to-market and solution engineering to now product management. And in this episode, Eddie shares insights into the evolution of Salesforce products like Starter, Pro Suite, and we learn about Salesforce Foundations. Now, before we get started, I just want to make sure that you're subscribed to the Salesforce Admins podcast on whatever platform you get your Salesforce podcast on. Go ahead and click that subscribe, or sometimes it's a follow button. And that way, when new episodes come in every Thursday morning, they will be downloaded to your phone. So with that, let's jump into our conversation with Eddie where he explains how Salesforce Foundations is designed to give customers access to even more capabilities within sales, service and beyond, including all of their existing Salesforce implementations at no cost. So Eddie, welcome back to the podcast. Eddie Cliff: Hey, thanks for having me again. Good to be here. Mike Gerholdt: Yeah, absolutely. Well, product managers that work on good features that admins love, we love to have on the podcast. So if people aren't avid listeners, let's refresh their memory. Tell me what exactly you do at Salesforce and how you came to be? Eddie Cliff: Yeah, definitely. So my name is Eddie Cliff, VP of Product Management, leading product for our Starter, Pro and now Foundation Suite, which I'm really excited to talk about today. I've been at Salesforce for almost 14 years now, and I've done a variety of roles, from go-to-market and sales and solution engineering and customer success prior to moving into product management about eight years ago now. Mike Gerholdt: Wow, I didn't know you were an SC. I don't think you said that in the last podcast. That's awesome. Eddie Cliff: Yeah, SCs are amazing in what they can bring from their technical understanding and how Salesforce works, but also working with our customers to understand their requirements and needs, and ultimately designing the solutions that they can present back to the customer to hopefully prove out the value of Salesforce as they look to ...
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    27 mins
  • Boost Your AI Strategy with Salesforce Labs AI Library

    Boost Your AI Strategy with Salesforce Labs AI Library
    Feb 13 2025
    Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Marianna Torres, Associate Salesforce Labs Evangelist at Salesforce. Join us as we chat about the Salesforce Labs AI Library and how it can get you started with implementing AI agents in your org. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Marianna Torres. What is Salesforce Labs? Growing up, Marianna was always interested in more creative pursuits and had never considered a career in tech. That all changed during the COVID-19 lockdown when she enrolled in a workforce development program called Year Up United and landed an internship with Salesforce. Today, Marianna works on the Salesforce Labs team, curating the Salesforce employee-built apps, components, and flows that are available for free on AppExchange. Now with the release of Agentforce, the team has put together the Salesforce Labs AI Library as a resource to help you get started with AI. How the Salesforce Labs AI Library helps you get started with Agentforce If you’ve been keeping up with the pod, you know that prompt engineering can be tricky business. But what if you could copy all the best, most useful prompts from Salesforce product experts? That’s what the Salesforce Labs AI Library is all about. It gives you everything you need to get AI agents up and running. When she’s going through submissions, Marianna asks three simple questions: Will this help the customer? Does this simplify something that historically takes a lot of time? Is it easy to use? If the answer is yes, it gets included in the library, ready to help you implement Agentforce AI in your org. More resources for Salesforce Labs If you don’t know where to start, Marianna recommends going through the Salesforce Labs Basics on Trailhead. You can also listen to the full episode, where she walks Josh through the process of looking something up in the Salesforce Labs AI Library. That’s it for this episode, so be sure to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast and we’ll catch you next week. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more The Salesforce Labs AI Library Trailhead: Salesforce Labs Basics AppExchange: Salesforce Labs Year Up United Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Marianna on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on X Full show transcript Josh Birk: Hey, gang, Josh Birk, your guest host here for today. Today we're going to talk to Marianna Torres about a project that I am very, very excited about. It's live now, it's called the Salesforce Labs AI Library. I'm really not sure if I'm getting that name right, but I will ask Mariana here in a second. All right. Today on the show, we welcome Marianna Torres to talk about the Salesforce AI Labs library. Do I have that title right or is there are more official one? Marianna Torres: The Salesforce Labs AI Library is the official title. But yeah, you did a good job. Yeah. Josh Birk: Okay. Welcome to the show. First, I want to talk a little bit about your early years. Was computers and software engineering, software in general something you always wanted to get into? Marianna Torres: Honestly, no. I'm actually surprised about how I ended up here at Salesforce. But yeah, so growing up and stuff, I was always more of a creative person, so I was drawing, singing, doing all that. Basically anything that's creative, I was doing. So as I got older, it kind of got to the point where it's like you kind of realize that, okay, it's like I can go to school, I could pursue this, I could potentially do something. But at the same time, I had graduated and it was shortly before COVID. Josh Birk: Oh. Marianna Torres: Yeah, so instead of going the traditional route, I had just joined a workforce development program. The program was called Year Up. Yeah, so through that I did the six-month corporate training. They had transitioned it to virtual and everything. So yeah, I actually started my internship here at Salesforce in 2020, so peak COVID. And from there one thing led to another, I was a contractor for a couple years, and then I got full time. Josh Birk: Nice, nice. What was the connection to get into the AI labs job itself? Other than the fact that we get paid a nickel every time we say the word AI. Marianna Torres: Yeah. So yeah, the team that I'm with now, it's the exact same team that I had joined five years ago as an intern, and that is the Salesforce Labs team. So primarily, our job is to provide our customers with some free employee-built apps, components, and flows on AppExchange. Then this past whole year, AI became huge, and then we had to pivot and we're like, "Okay, the customers want AI, what can we give them?" Seeing as how AI wasn't packageable yet, so- Josh Birk: Right. Marianna Torres: Yeah, we actually just launched Actions, I believe. So Agent Actions are now...
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    19 mins
  • Spring '25 Salesforce Features: AI, Flows, and User Management Updates

    Spring '25 Salesforce Features: AI, Flows, and User Management Updates
    Feb 6 2025
    Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Jennifer Lee, Lead Admin Evangelist at Salesforce and the host of How I Solved It and Automate This! Join us as we chat about everything coming with the Spring ‘25 release and what’s new for Agentforce and AI on Salesforce. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Jennifer Lee. Jen’s highlights from the Spring ‘25 release Every year, Jen’s release readiness blog post is our most popular piece of content. So I thought I’d bring her on the pod to talk about Spring ‘25 so we can hear it straight from the source. She shares [number] areas where there will be big changes: 1. Agentforce for all with Salesforce Foundations With Spring ‘25, more orgs than ever before will get access to Agentforce for free with Salesforce Foundations. This is a game changer for smaller orgs and solo admins, allowing you to use AI to harness the power of the Sales, Service, and Marketing Clouds to transform your business. One thing Jen wants to highlight is the ability to add agent quick actions right on a record page. Prompting is an art, but sometimes your users just need the AI to do the thing. Now you can give them a magic button to give the agent the correct prompt. If you have Einstein Bots, you can easily convert them into templates for agents to save some steps getting started with Agentforce. 2. Einstein AI for flows For the flownatics out there, there are a ton of new ways that AI enhancements in Spring ‘25 can help you build flows. You can describe what you want a formula or flow to do, and Einstein will build it for you. While you’ll need to go in and iron out the details, it can get you 80% of the way there. No more googling to look up how to write a specific formula. If you’re like most admins, your Salesforce org is probably full of flows that you didn’t build yourself. With Spring ‘25, you’ll be able to get Einstein to summarize what they do, which makes documentation and debugging much easier. 3. User management made easy Meanwhile, there are several user management changes coming in Spring ‘25 aimed at minimizing clicks and making permissions easier to manage. The group summary page lets you view all the sharing rules and list views in one place, so it’s much simpler to figure out why someone can see something but someone else can’t. 4. Better screen flows in Spring ‘25 Action buttons let you automatically trigger a flow when your user clicks a button, but what if you could pull up the output without any other user interaction? That’s where screen flows come in. For example, when your user selects a contact you can automatically pull up the associated cases or opportunities. How to get ready for a Salesforce release Jen’s advice for going through release notes is to start with your org. What features do you rely on? Search through the release notes for those things, specifically, and make sure you know what’s new and what’s changing. Two things that will affect every org are security updates and release updates. These security and performance enhancements will improve your org across the board, so be sure you know when they’ll be enforced and how to test them. Remember, a sandbox org is your best friend. There’s a lot more great stuff from Jen to get ready for Spring ‘25, so be sure to listen to the full episode. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Blog: Jen’s Top Spring ’25 Release Features | Be Release Ready Salesforce Admins Podcast Episode: How Can Small Teams Benefit from Salesforce Foundations and Generative AI? Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Jen on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on X Full show transcript Mike: This week on the Salesforce Admin's podcast, we're thrilled to welcome back Jennifer Lee to talk about the Spring '25 release and all of its exciting features. Now, as you know, Jennifer is lead admin evangelist here on the admin relations team at Salesforce and host of the How I Solved It and Automate This video series on YouTube. She's also known for this blog post, which comes out with every release. I know you find it incredibly helpful. I do. Now, before we jump into the conversation with Jennifer, I want to make sure that you are following the Salesforce Admin's podcast on your favorite platform so that you never miss an episode, which could include really cool features like this one. So with that, let's get Jennifer on the podcast. So Jen, welcome back to the podcast. Jennifer Lee: Thanks for having me, Mike. Glad to be back. Mike: Well, it's almost spring. It doesn't feel like it where we're at- Jennifer Lee: No. Mike: ... but isn't that how it always is with all of our releases? ...
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    26 mins
  • How Erick Mahle is Using AI to Transform Mortgage Lending

    How Erick Mahle is Using AI to Transform Mortgage Lending
    Jan 30 2025
    Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Erick Mahle, VP of Revenue Operations & Digital Transformation at Lendz Financial. Join us as we chat about how he’s using AI to drive digital transformation and how he started FlowFest, the largest global Salesforce flow competition. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Erick Mahle. Solving business problems with Salesforce Erick was always interested in technology as a kid, helping his dad build computers. However, he originally started his career in marketing. Everything changed when his manager asked him to take over Salesforce for his organization and he saw what he could do with declarative solutions. “I thought it was the grownup version of Legos,” he says. In his role at Lendz Financial, he’s combining those problem-solving skills with the power of AI to spearhead digital transformation. The mortgage lending industry is full of complicated business processes that need to be checked and re-checked, so it’s the perfect place to put new AI capabilities to the test. How AI can streamline mortgage lending If you’ve ever bought a house, you’ll know that getting a mortgage is incredibly complex. With so many steps and regulatory requirements, Erick and his team are using AI to streamline these business processes and limit costly errors. They call it Project Lexi. Obviously, with mortgages involved, they’re not ready to turn everything over to AI just yet. However, they’ve already found several wins by eliminating handoffs with automation and training the AI to flag potential problems. For Erick, the key to any successful digital transformation initiative is to focus on the humans you’re supposed to be helping. FlowFest, the largest global Salesforce flow competition Erick also runs FlowFest, a competition where Flownatics can strut their stuff. It started with the idea that although Trailhead is great at teaching you how to build things, a big part of your job as a Salesforce Admin is to fix broken flows. Contests are put through several rounds of debug challenges, culminating in a livestreamed event where the finalists race to be the first to find a working solution for the final flow. It’s basically an esport, complete with live commentary and dramatic photo finishes. They just did their first in-person FlowFest at Mile High Dreamin’, and it may be coming soon to an event near you. Erick had a lot more to share about how he’s thinking about AI and some of his favorite FlowFest stories, so be sure to listen to the full episode. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Video: FlowFest V6 Mile High Dreamin’ on YouTube Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Erick on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on X Full Transcript Josh Birk: Hello, admins, your guest host Josh Birk here. Today, we welcome Erick Mahle to talk a little bit about AI, digital transformation, and a lot about one of his projects, FlowFest, and how people can learn Flow in a really fun and interactive way. So, without any further ado, let's go welcome Erick. All right. Today on the show, we welcome Erick Mahle to talk about, of course, probably a little bit of AI since that's what we have to do these days and Mile High Dreamin' and FlowFast. Erick, welcome to the show. Erick Mahle: Well, thanks for having me, Josh. Josh Birk: So, let's start with your early years. Did you always want to get into software? Erick Mahle: No, I had no idea I was going to get into software. Although, when I was a very young kid, my father used to build computers and I know I used to do a little bit of the same as well like getting all the video cards, the motherboards, getting all the components, joining them together. But that wasn't something that stuck with me throughout all these years. So, I went to school for marketing, but somehow ended up as the accidental admin and here we are 15 years later. Josh Birk: Got it. Well, that kind of segues to the next question. How did you first get introduced to Salesforce? Erick Mahle: Well, since accidental admin is the default answer for most folks... Josh Birk: Right. Erick Mahle: I will basically say, I joined a company as a marketing analyst. It was a small company. And like most small companies, you get to wear many hats and they basically said, "Hey, we have Salesforce, why don't you manage Salesforce?" And really had a great experience there. We had brought in my boss at that time who was a Silicon Valley-type global sales director, and he really challenged me a lot. He used to say, "Hey, at SuccessFactor, Salesforce used to do this, or at Zuora, Salesforce used to do that. And really, challenged me to kind of reverse engineer Salesforce and I found a lot of joy in that....
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    35 mins
  • 5 Steps for Admins to Get Agentforce Ready

    5 Steps for Admins to Get Agentforce Ready
    Jan 23 2025
    Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Dorian Earl, Salesforce Admin and Founder of Development Consulting Partners, LLC. Join us as we chat about the 5 steps you can take to prepare for Agentforce and AI. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Dorian Earl. Preparing for big changes with AI Dorian started his career as a medical and dental equipment sales rep. He had over 100,000 products and 300 clients to keep track of, and he was looking for something to replace his paper notebooks. That’s when he came across a new CRM platform called Salesforce and a new career in tech. Today, Dorian runs a consulting firm that helps organizations leverage their tech stack to improve their business processes. The changes that are possible with AI are just as big as switching from paper planners to a CRM, so I wanted to sit down with him to find out how Salesforce Admins can get ready for Agentforce. 1. Awareness Dorian is seeing a lot of enthusiasm and curiosity from his clients about AI, but most organizations are unsure about how best to use it. He compares it to when search engines were first coming out. The idea of being able to search the entire internet with a query was so groundbreaking that it took time for people to understand the business implications, even at Google. 2. Preparedness Since the possibilities of AI applications are so broad, the best thing we can do is to get any data that an AI agent might need into Salesforce. That can be anything from your operating hours to your company values to your brand voice. Essentially, the same sorts of things you’d go over with a new hire. That way you don’t have to start at square one every time you want to build a new agent. 3. Quick wins and usage AI implementation starts with finding quick wins for your organization. Dorian’s found the summarize record action to be particularly useful for just about everyone who works with customers. He also recommends taking advantage of AI’s ability to do quick reporting for users without the admin needing to get involved. 4. Internal process improvement The biggest changes AI will bring are to internal business processes. Essentially, this comes down to saving clicks and smoothing out workflows. Dorian brings up the example of processing a return. An agent can take care of all the little steps, like creating a case, logging information, and authorizing a refund, instead of that being a multi-person business process. 5. External tasks outsourced to AI The final thing to look at is whether or not any external-facing tasks can be outsourced to AI. Something like prospect nurturing can be handled by an agent that summarizes a record, drafts an email based on that summary and your business information, and then sends it. And then a second agent can schedule a phone call with an actual sales rep for anyone who replies. Obviously, you want to be fairly confident in the agent you’ve built before you put it directly in touch with customers. But that’s why you need to get started now. For Dorian, Salesforce Admins are uniquely positioned to transform their businesses with new AI solutions. There’s more great stuff from my conversation with Dorian, so be sure to listen to the full episode. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so you stay up to date. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Salesforce Admins Podcast Episode: Keeping Processes Fresh in Salesforce with Dorian Earl Trailhead: Einstein Work Summaries for Service Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Dorian on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on X Full show transcript Mike Gerholdt: This week on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, I'm thrilled to welcome back Dorian Earl, founder and CEO of a thriving consultancy that has over 450 clients and just a massive wealth of Salesforce experience and knowledge. Dorian has been the Salesforce ecosystem for nearly two decades. He started as a sales rep who needed a better way to track his deals and opportunities and really turn that into a career empowering companies to embrace better CRMs and smarter systems. Now in today's episode, we dive into Dorian's five steps to prepare for Agentforce and AI. Now, from understanding the buzz around AI to implementing quick wins and long-term strategies, Dorian shares invaluable insights to help you, the Salesforce admin, and/or organizations you work for stay ahead of the curve this year in 2025. Now, of course, before we jump in, I want to make sure that you're following or subscribed to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so that you never miss a great episode like this. New episodes drop every Thursday morning. That way you've got them, boom, right on your phone before you head off for your dog walk or your commute to work. So with that...
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    39 mins
  • Agentforce's Best Friend: Clean, Reliable Data

    Agentforce's Best Friend: Clean, Reliable Data
    Jan 16 2025
    Agentforce's Best Friend: Clean, Reliable Data Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Lizz Hellinga, a Consultant and Salesforce MVP. Join us as we chat about why clean data is essential for leveraging generative AI and how you can get your organization moving. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Lizz Hellinga. Generative AI thrives on clean data Lizz has a clear message: clean data isn’t optional anymore. She stresses, “If your data isn’t ready for generative AI, your business isn’t ready.” As organizations eagerly adopt generative AI tools, Lizz cautions that the insights and outputs from AI are only as reliable as the data feeding into it. Simply put, poor-quality data undermines the potential of these powerful tools. What constitutes “bad data”? Bad data comes in many forms, and Lizz highlights the usual suspects: Duplicates Inaccuracies Incomplete records Outdated information Hoarded data The concept of hoarded data stands out as particularly problematic. Many organizations have accumulated large amounts of data they no longer use but are reluctant to delete. According to Lizz, the solution starts with collaborating with stakeholders to establish a robust data governance policy that defines data quality standards and retention policies. Reporting, she adds, can be a powerful tool to illustrate the value of clean data and spotlight areas of improvement. Steps to prepare data for AI Lizz has four steps you can take to start your journey toward clean data: Document your processes: Map out key workflows to find the key points where data enters the system. How can you make it easier to get high-quality data at these moments? Engage your stakeholders: Explain why clean data is vital for AI initiatives. Use examples to illustrate how high-quality data enables AI to deliver actionable insights that can make their work easier and more efficient. Prioritize key areas: Focus on cleaning data critical to processes where AI will have the most impact, such as sales or customer engagement. Start with essential objects and gradually expand to other areas. Leverage your tools: Use reports, dashboards, and tools like Salesforce’s “Clean Your Room! Dashboard” to gamify data-cleaning efforts. Friendly competitions can motivate teams to tackle bad data without feeling overwhelmed. Proactive data management strategies Preventing bad data is just as important as cleaning up existing records. Lizz suggests: Using paths and dynamic forms to streamline data entry. Highlighting key fields on page layouts to emphasize their importance. Integrating email tools like Einstein Activity Capture to ensure accurate, up-to-date information. Customizing user interfaces to make data entry intuitive and error-free. Why data quality matters Clean data isn’t just about fixing reports; it’s about future-proofing your business. “Data is an asset,” Lizz explains. For organizations looking to adopt AI, ensuring that data is accurate, current, and relevant is a crucial first step. Without it, even the most advanced AI tools won’t deliver meaningful results. Get started today Lizz advises admins to start small but think strategically. Build baseline reports to identify problem areas, engage stakeholders to define what good data looks like, and focus on key processes that need improvement. With these steps, you’ll not only prepare your organization for AI but also elevate your role as a Salesforce Admin by demonstrating leadership in data governance. We get into a lot of specifics with Lizz on the podcast, so be sure to take a listen to learn more. And make sure to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so you never miss an episode. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Resources Podcast: Sarah Flamion on Generative AI McKinsey Article: The data dividend: Fueling generative AI Clean Your Room! Dashboard Social Lizz on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on X Full show transcript Mike: This week on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we are talking with Lizz Hellinga about why clean data is so important for AI. Lizz is a consultant and Salesforce MVP, and before you think, “I can skip this,” it’s probably going to be boring. Let me tell you, this is a fun conversation because you’re going to learn about different types of bad data. One of them is super fun to understand. Also, Lizz shares with us a lot of tips and tools for cleaning up your bad data, and also making things a little bit more easy for your users, so I really enjoy this conversation. But before we get in the episode, can you just be sure that you’re following the Salesforce Admins Podcast on iTunes or just wherever you get your podcast. That way, you get a new episode every Thursday right on your phone. So with that, let’s get to the ...
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    29 mins