There’s some fear in the air.
I’m sensing major mixed emotions swirling for many with the announcement of Marketing Cloud Growth Edition and the vision of marketing automation on the Einstein 1 (a.k.a. Salesforce core) platform.
On the one hand — it’s everything we’ve all been asking for. True one platform, no-integration-needed shared infrastructure for marketing to work seamlessly with all customer data.
But there’s a glimmer of doubt with people thinking: “What does this mean for me? Are my skills still relevant? What does this mean for my product, my team, or my consulting business?”
Don’t bet on innovation being slow
There is a very large population of people who benefit from the status quo as it sits today.
Employees benefit from their skills being in demand to drive up compensation.
Consultants benefit from their experience being rare and slow to accumulate to stay relevant.
Product companies have grown to address a specific product gap or market need in today’s toolset.
But if the technology changes, all of that gets disrupted. When I hear people asking about timelines for the expansion of Marketing Cloud Growth Edition, I feel like they’re actually hoping that the pace of innovation on this will be slow. When I tell them I don’t think that’s going to be the case, that statement is met with uneasiness, and it’s clear that‘s not what they were hoping to hear.
Big change takes time, for sure. But I really wouldn’t bet on this freight train moving slowly. This has been a long time coming, and there’s momentum behind this new product that is incredibly exciting.
Remember that the technology is only one piece of the puzzle
I think that the fear of change here is somewhat misplaced.
Yes, there is a lot of power in the technical knowledge of any platform — Marketing Cloud Engagement, Account Engagement (Pardot), Salesforce, and any number of new tools.
But even harder to come by are the soft and business skills that make you successful with those platforms. Things like:
- Understanding business process
- Mapping out data relationships
- Wrangling colleagues from across sales, marketing, customer service, and product to get agreement on content
- Training and driving the adoption of a new tool or process
- Defining project plans and dependencies with the work of other teams
- The logistics that go into the execution of any complex campaign
- Spotting a gap or a need, and the extreme ownership you bring to “I’m going to figure out how to solve it”
- Spreading best practices & defining standard processes
- Breaking complex terminology into terms anyone on your team can understand
Just think about your job today: How much of it is actually hands-on configuration in a tech platform, and how much of it is “tech-adjacent” planning, organizing, collaborating, and communicating?
I bet it’s a blend of both, and as you move up the ladder in your career the “tech adjacent” becomes more critical.
Time to go back to school
So, if we could flip a switch and change all customers to the new platform overnight — the skills and experience we’ve all gained from many years on Pardot and Marketing Cloud are still super useful, even if we’re logging in at a different URL.
We’re not being sent back to the starting line. But we do probably have some relearning to do to keep our edge and stay relevant. But I choose to view that as exciting and not daunting. (Well maybe a little daunting. But I’m going to crack open a Red Bull and push through.)
The way I think of it is this: Someone has to emerge as leaders, thinkers, and builders on any new platform. Who better than you and I? Let’s leverage the hard-won experience in this ecosystem as a springboard in this next chapter.
Let’s lean into the next-gen set of tools that are going to bring marketing strategies to life on the Salesforce platform, and let’s go build some cool stuff.
Some quick shameless plugs
I can’t resist sharing two more things on this topic…
#1: Check out our Salesforce Flow for Marketers course
Flow is a big piece of how Marketing Cloud Growth Edition users can automate customer journeys. Need to brush up on your skills? Sercante has a Salesforce Flow Basics for Marketers Workshop that will kickstart your learning.
#2 Come join a team of growth-minded learners
When change is in the air, it’s a great time to be among like-minded learners. If this article resonated with you, I would invite you to come check out roles on the Sercante team. We’re committed to always learning, always chasing that edge, and we are eagerly seizing opportunities to get our team’s hands on the “next gen” ASAP. It’s a great spot to try on new skills and figure out the role you want to play in the next chapter of your career. Drop us a note at [email protected] if you’d like to chat!
