Trailblazer.me – A Gateway to the Salesforce World
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Customer Relationship Management systems or CRMs have come a long way since their beginnings in the 1980s. There are 75 CRM software companies currently and Salesforce is without doubt one of the top players out there. Why? Because of a very distinct feature of the company: their approach to the community. What’s more, they are avid supporters of knowledge sharing and encouraging each member to fulfil their potential.
Over the years, they have developed many sites related to their platform. The platform enables the users to gain new Salesforce knowledge, network, shape Salesforce products, and improve the performance of their favorite CRM application. To name the most important ones, they created Trailhead, Trailblazer Community, AppExchange, and IdeaExchange. Recently, the single gateway to all Salesforce-related sites – Trailblazer.me.
Trailblazer.me account
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Salesforce decided to optimize the access to all Salesforce member touchpoints by creating a single Trailblazer.me account.
In this way, all the innovators, leaders, people who are building a better world, or Trailblazers as Salesforce calls their members, get a single profile for interaction with all Salesforce sites. In other words, things became even more efficient with a single easy-to-access location. Neat!
Now let’s take a look at the most popular Salesforce platforms you can access through Trailblazer.me.
Trailhead
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Trailhead’s design makes the learning of Salesforce skills fun and engaging. Each member has a dashboard where they can monitor their progress. Also, they earn badges and other types of recognition of their skill acquisition.
Additionally, the online learning platform encourages a learning and knowledge sharing environment among all the people within an organization. Furthermore, managers can also see who the top talents are, adding additional benefits to anyone actively using Trailhead.
Apart from acquiring in-demand tech, business, or soft skills, people receive widely recognized credentials. This can be a great asset, especially for a resume. Once you successfully complete a course, you get an official Salesforce certification as a confirmation of your new abilities.
Trailblazer Community
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The Trailblazer Community is the virtual destination where members can network and find answers to their questions. Furthermore, members share their expertise, tips and tricks and in that way become top contributors at the Answers Leaderboard.
New users can find all the assistance they need in Collaboration Groups, while admins can further polish their skills. Most importantly, members get to connect online, through local community groups, and other networking events. People can find various groups according to their interests like mentorship programs, marketing, development, nonprofit, higher ed, and many more.
People who join the Trailblazer Community for mentorship can also help others find jobs. Just one more reason to become a Trailblazer!
IdeaExchange
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IdeaExchange is a place where the Trailblazer Community members can post their ideas about Salesforce product features. In other words, if a Trailblazer has an idea about how a certain Salesforce product can be improved, they post their suggestion on the IdeaExchange where other members upvote the idea.
Salesforce designed IdeaExchange to encourage members of their community to have an impact on a certain product’s growth map. IdeaExchange enables product managers to keep an eye on the ideas that get a lot of the community’s attention and prioritize them according to the upvotes.
Trailblazers take part in something called Prioritization three times a year. Before planning a product release, Salesforce product managers review and collect the top ideas from the IdeaExchange so that the product development team can start working on them. Each Prioritization cycle lasts for 14 days and within that time frame, members can see a curated list of ideas and give their votes. Members have 100 coins they can allocate to one or more ideas and once they spend all of their coins, they can submit their choices. This can all be done via mobile as well.
When the 14-day Prioritization cycle is over, members can see the final list which is used in Salesforce release planning. The product management teams then evaluate how these ideas can be turned into action and after around three months, winner ideas are selected and their development starts.
This is a great example of giving the community an actionable voice and encouraging community engagement.
AppExchange
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AppExchange is a platform where Salesforce customers can find ready-to-install solutions for Salesforce. These solutions help businesses and each of the business departments with their performance and easily extend their functionalities.
Apps are added to the store daily and each account gets personalized recommendations. Salesforce users can also discover apps by going through curated app pages and collections or using the intelligent search The whole platform is designed and optimized for discoverability.
Moreover, all the apps are reviewed by other users so anyone in two minds about a certain product can definitely rely on the reviews. Once a user finds an app they need, they can easily integrate it into Salesforce. The great thing about AppExchange is that you can also access it through a mobile device.
Brand and community reinforcement
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Collectively, all these platforms reinforce the Salesforce company and its brand identity. In addition to providing an unparalleled CRM for managing relationships and interactions with prospects and customers, they pay special attention to the relationships that they create with the users of their solution.
They listen to what they have to say and they act on it through IdeaExchange, they encourage learning and networking through Trailhead and Trailblazer Community, and promote Salesforce-related solutions designed to help Salesforce users through AppExchange. Trailblaze provides top-quality content and knowledge base across all the platforms encouraging their users to trust their solutions even more.
The more they give to the community, the more the community gives back by sharing their ideas on how Salesforce can be improved for instance. The positive experience with Salesforce and the results business and individuals achieve by using their solution reinforces the Salesforces brand. More importantly, earning people’s trust is not an easy feat but once you succeed in achieving that and continue nurturing the relationship, a brand can only expect positive results.
Lastly, by choosing the .ME premium domain name, they send a message that each and every Trailblazer is an important part of their community. It’s personalized and invites YOU, the Trailblazer, to start blazing trails together with other inspired and motivated individuals.
Final thoughts
Salesforce is definitely one of the world-leading brands, and not just in the group of CRM software companies. They are always focused on optimizing the Salesforce experience and creating a single Trailblazer.me login point is just a tiny bit that confirms this. Through their example, companies can see how much the community is important for the company and brand growth because breaking new grounds happens more efficiently when people work together.