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The Sales Operations Manager Certificate with Salesforce

The Reynolds and Reynolds Sales Leadership Institute at Texas A&M University has partnered with Pathstream to deliver this online program – The Sales Operations Manager Certificate with Salesforce is a flexible program that can be completed in 6 months. You’ll emerge prepared for roles in sales management and will gain hands-on experience in customer relationship management software. You will also be prepared to take the Salesforce Administrator credential exam. Additionally, you’ll walk away with practical skills in Agile project management to effectively manage sales operations processes. This certificate is a Career Launch program, designed for employees with no prior experience. Expect to spend 10-15 hours a week, with individualized support along the way. Career Launch certificates provide in-demand skills AND result in college credits that can count towards a degree.

Why Sales Operations?

Businesses of all sizes need clear processes and tools for tracking their sales

Salesforce is the leading Customer Relationship Management platform used by thousands of companies to track interactions with customers, streamline processes, monitor sales and generate important business reports

Understanding how to use Salesforce to generate business insights can help you improve operations and drive sales

4 Courses | Hands-On Learning and Career Exploration

Course 1:

Customer Relationship Management for Business

Course 2:

Introduction to Salesforce Administration

Course 3:

Advanced Topics in Salesforce Administration

Course 4:

Agile Project Management

Course 1: Customer Relationship Management for Business

In this course, you’ll learn how to use Salesforce’s Sales Cloud Lightning tool and how it can be best used to facilitate the sales process. You’ll also generate reports and dashboards in the context of customer relationship management (CRM).

 

Learning Outcomes:

  • Import data into Salesforce and manage contacts and qualification of leads.
  • Use Salesforce Sales Cloud Lightning to manage accounts, opportunities, products, quotes and contracts.
  • Use the Salesforce Case Management and Knowledge features to perform services and support agent processes.
  • Build reports, charts and dashboards to communicate relevant information about the sales process and sales performance to stakeholders and executives.

Course 2: Introduction to Salesforce Administration

This course is designed to give you the skills of a starting Salesforce Administrator. You’ll explore Salesforce user management, platform customization, user interface configuration and more. You’ll even create a custom app to meet specific business use cases and generate reports to address specific requests.

 

Learning Outcomes:

  • Extend Sales Cloud features to support company and product-specific data and customize sales and support processes.
  • Design and build custom Salesforce apps that support business requirements.
  • Configure custom reporting tools, permissions, and security features.

Course 3: Advanced Topics in Salesforce Administration

In this course, you’ll learn how to take on increasingly complex functions as a CRM system administrator and learn how to best address business needs using the Sales Cloud and Service Cloud tools.

 

Learning Outcomes:

  • Extend Sales/Service Cloud with advanced features.
  • Control access to Salesforce records/data and design a permissions and sharing model to enforce business-specific security requirements.
  • Standardize custom business processes and perform automated actions.
  • Configure advanced reporting and analytical tools to explore sales performance and address business questions.

Course 4: Agile Project Management

In this course you will learn the fundamentals of Agile project management methodologies. The learning experience is highly interactive and hands-on, providing you with the opportunity to learn by doing. You will begin by exploring the fundamentals of Agile, including frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, and XP. You will then learn about Scrum in detail, covering key concepts, such as sprints, adaptive planning and estimation. You will also learn how to conduct daily scrums, retrospectives and other key meetings to successfully plan and manage a project. While learning these concepts and frameworks, you will practice key project management related soft skills, such as how to plan for unexpected challenges and proactively manage issues that arise on a team.

 

Learning Outcomes:

  • Manage a technical project from start to finish using key Agile methodologies, concepts, tools and frameworks.
  • Create and monitor a Kanban board to organize sprints and share information with the project team throughout the lifecycle of an Agile project.
  • Initiate a Scrum project by decomposing a release plan into user stories and analyzing project risks.
  • Plan a kickoff sprint in Asana by grooming a backlog, establishing a point structure, and committing to the sprint.
  • Support a hypothetical Scrum team through executing a sprint by creating and analyzing a burndown chart.
  • Continuously improve Scrum team efficiency throughout sprint cycles by analyzing and resolving velocity issues.
  • Conduct a sprint review in Asana, and close a project by facilitating a retrospective.

4 Courses | Hands-On Learning and Career Exploration

Course 1:

Customer Relationship Management for Business

In this course, you’ll learn how to use Salesforce’s Sales Cloud Lightning tool and how it can be best used to facilitate the sales process. You’ll also generate reports and dashboards in the context of customer relationship management (CRM).

Learning Outcomes:

  • Import data into Salesforce and manage contacts and qualification of leads.
  • Use Salesforce Sales Cloud Lightning to manage accounts, opportunities, products, quotes and contracts.
  • Use the Salesforce Case Management and Knowledge features to perform services and support agent processes.
  • Build reports, charts and dashboards to communicate relevant information about the sales process and sales performance to stakeholders and executives.

Course 2:

Introduction to Salesforce Administration

This course is designed to give you the skills of a starting Salesforce Administrator. You’ll explore Salesforce user management, platform customization, user interface configuration and more. You’ll even create a custom app to meet specific business use cases and generate reports to address specific requests.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Extend Sales Cloud features to support company and product-specific data and customize sales and support processes.
  • Design and build custom Salesforce apps that support business requirements.
  • Configure custom reporting tools, permissions, and security features.

Course 3:

Advanced Topics in Salesforce Administration

In this course, you’ll learn how to take on increasingly complex functions as a CRM system administrator and learn how to best address business needs using the Sales Cloud and Service Cloud tools.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Extend Sales/Service Cloud with advanced features.
  • Control access to Salesforce records/data and design a permissions and sharing model to enforce business-specific security requirements.
  • Standardize custom business processes and perform automated actions.
  • Configure advanced reporting and analytical tools to explore sales performance and address business questions.

Course 4:

Agile Project Management

In this course you will learn the fundamentals of Agile project management methodologies. The learning experience is highly interactive and hands-on, providing you with the opportunity to learn by doing. You will begin by exploring the fundamentals of Agile, including frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, and XP. You will then learn about Scrum in detail, covering key concepts, such as sprints, adaptive planning and estimation. You will also learn how to conduct daily scrums, retrospectives and other key meetings to successfully plan and manage a project. While learning these concepts and frameworks, you will practice key project management related soft skills, such as how to plan for unexpected challenges and proactively manage issues that arise on a team.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Manage a technical project from start to finish using key Agile methodologies, concepts, tools and frameworks.
  • Create and monitor a Kanban board to organize sprints and share information with the project team throughout the lifecycle of an Agile project.
  • Initiate a Scrum project by decomposing a release plan into user stories and analyzing project risks.
  • Plan a kickoff sprint in Asana by grooming a backlog, establishing a point structure, and committing to the sprint.
  • Support a hypothetical Scrum team through executing a sprint by creating and analyzing a burndown chart.
  • Continuously improve Scrum team efficiency throughout sprint cycles by analyzing and resolving velocity issues.
  • Conduct a sprint review in Asana, and close a project by facilitating a retrospective.

What You’ll Learn:

After completing this program, you’ll be ready to:

  • Gain hands-on experience in customer relationship management (CRM) software
  • Guild reports and dashboards for forecasting sales
  • Configure and customize a Salesforce instance to meet specifications for a sales team
  • Apply Agile project management tools and techniques to successfully manage a technical project from start to finish

 

Learning Experience

  • No required times to log in. Complete lessons at times during the week that work for you. Keep up with deadlines to stay on track and complete in 6 months.
  • Complete real business projects in an online platform and get individualized support and feedback from instructors.
  • Practice using Salesforce software directly in the learning platform. No separate downloads.
  • Explore the real work that sales operations managers do on the job and apply those skills to your own career.
  • Access individualized career coaching to help you get promoted and advance professionally.

FAQs

What is the schedule?

There are four courses which will be open for 5 weeks each with a 1-week grading period after each. You should expect to spend 10 hours per week getting through the coursework. Courses will open and close on a specific start and end date, after which you’ll no longer be able to access the course or submit projects for grading. The program is flexibly-paced, meaning you can move as quickly or slowly as you’d like through each course, as long as you complete all sections and projects during the 5-week course period. We provide a suggested course schedule to help pace yourself through each course. Students who follow this schedule are more likely to earn the certificate and get more out of the course by spreading out their workload, and our instructors often provide weekly nudges to keep you on track. As long as you submit all projects by the course end date, you can progress through the course at whatever pace works best for you! For example, you might do all your work over the weekend or space it out throughout the week. We’ve found that students who follow our suggested course schedule are much more likely to earn the certificate.

Can I work full-time while enrolled in this program?

​Yes, the entire course experience is online and can be completed on your own schedule as long as you work towards the deadlines set in each course. There are no set times or classes when you need to log in. Our courses are designed for working professionals, students, and parents!

What prerequisites do I need?

Students must have a high school degree prior to take this program. There are no other prerequisites – our courses are designed to help those with little or no experience get started in the field of CRM. Many experienced CRM professionals also take this certificate to refine their digital skills, but no prior experience is required or expected.

What is Pathstream?

Pathstream is a provider of digital skills training based in Silicon Valley. We partner with leading tech companies and universities like the Reynolds and Reynolds Sales Leadership Institute at Texas A&M University to develop programs that prepare people for in-demand jobs.