What Is a Salesforce Developer?
A Salesforce developer is a professional with strong knowledge and technical skills relevant to its products and services. They work with Salesforce technology and build solutions for businesses like yours using both code and no-code functionalities.
They handle and work on the overall technology stack of Salesforce, including the front-end and back-end of development. Listening to your unique business requirements, they develop Salesforce applications and solutions that solve your business challenges.
Not only customize the platform but also work with related Salesforce products, such as its versatile cloud offerings, Lightning App Builder, Heroku, and more.
These developers not only perform coding but also become your Salesforce consultants when it comes to seeking a piece of technical advice.
If you’re looking to hire Salesforce developer, understanding their essential skills and expertise can help you find the right professionals for your needs.
Salesforce Developer Skills And Expertise
Not just relevant to coding, but these developers possess an extensive range of knowledge, including technical and soft skills. Let’s explore:
Salesforce Developer Technical Skills
As discussed, SFDC developers are familiar with various developer tools, languages, and platforms. Let’s discuss them:
- Force.com
Now popularly known as the Salesforce platform, it is a cloud-based platform for developing and deploying Salesforce applications and websites. Developers use it to build applications without managing the server infrastructure. They get both code-extensive and low-code capabilities for a faster and more streamlined development process. Also, they get pre-built applications, which can be leveraged and can be deployed in no time. - Lightning App Builder
It is a drag-and-drop interface tool in Salesforce for creating custom pages and applications using no-code or low-code capabilities. It leverages Lightning components for quick and accelerated development.
Using this, developers can customize the whole application layout, single or multiple pages of mobile or web applications, which results in a user-friendly interface. They can modify components, allowing tailored development. - Apex
Apex is an object-oriented language developed by Salesforce to allow developers to code over the Salesforce platform. They learn it and write code to develop flows and transaction control statements, such as what function a specific button click performs. The flow of that particular action and more. It is a key skill that a Salesforce developer must know. - Heroku
Developed by Salesforce, Heroku is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that enables developers to create, run, and deploy applications in the cloud. It is a more code-intensive platform and supports multiple programming languages, including Node.js, Java, Python, and more. This platform integrates with Salesforce CRM to offer enhanced capabilities.
But why do developers need Heroku when they have Force.com?
Heroku offers a more flexible approach towards application development as the servers can be scaled up or down as per your development requirements. - Salesforce Object Search Language (SOSL)
SOSL is a type of language that allows you to enable text-based searches and extract relevant text across multiple Salesforce objects. This is ideal for finding records where keywords or phrases appear in specific fields. Hence, this makes data search easy and efficient, allowing quick retrieval. - Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL)
A query language similar to SQL that is designed to retrieve data from Salesforce objects. SOQL enables users to pull specific data from a single Salesforce object or related objects when they know which data is to be retrieved. Also, it allows you to sort the data as per the filter and count the number of records. - Visualforce
It is a framework that Salesforce experts utilize to build custom user interfaces that support dynamic content. It allows developers to create pages using a tag-based markup language that is similar to HTML and is particularly useful for customizing the UI beyond the standard Salesforce options. It can extend to the capabilities of Salesforce, allowing the creation of navigation bars, multistep processes, and more. - Aura and Lightning Components
These are components in the Salesforce Lightning framework that provide reusable, self-contained units that can be used to build dynamic web applications.
Aura is the older framework that requires extensive understanding, while the Lightning component is the newer, more optimized version for modern development needs. - Salesforce Products
Salesforce offers a suite of products for customer relationship management (CRM), including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, and more, addressing different business needs. Therefore Salesforce Developer Skills are essential for customizing these product offerings according to your business requirements
Salesforce Developer Soft Skills
Along with technical skills, possess soft skills that are required to deal with and communicate with businesses and their teams to establish trust and long-term relationships.
- Communication
Salesforce developers should possess strong communication skills to share ideas with clients, team members, and other stakeholders. It is required as developers have to explain the technical concepts to the nontechnical business teams. - Problem-Solving
It is a key skill that the developers must have. Its ability to solve business problems and any issues that arise between teams to achieve results that benefit the company. - Continuous Learning
They must be keen to keep up with new trends and technologies. They must be up for learning new languages and experimenting with new advancements that Salesforce rolls out. - Adaptability
It is the ability to change approach and adapt to changing situations. Salesforce developers have to work on multiple projects that require them to shift their expertise relevant to the project needs. - Understanding Business Requirements
These developers can analyze and understand business needs, challenges, and objectives. They communicate clearly with the client and understand their concerns. - Selecting Technologies
They stay updated with what’s new and upcoming in the Salesforce ecosystem. They possess the ability to choose among the best and trendiest technologies to solve a business problem. - Innovation
A key skill that SFDC developers excel at is innovating. It is the ability to learn and innovate quickly to keep up with the pace of new Salesforce features.
The Value of Skilled Salesforce Developers
Salesforce developers help businesses get the most out of their CRM by customizing the platform, integrating different Salesforce products, and improving workflows. Their skills make processes more efficient and ensure the system works smoothly.
Along with their technical expertise, they bring problem-solving abilities, adaptability, and innovation. This helps businesses tackle challenges, stay competitive, and grow.
