Thrown into the fire.

I didn’t find Salesforce—it found me. Fresh out of college with no job, no plan, and staying in my fiancés parents’ basement, I finally landed a role as a Sales Analyst at a magnet wire manufacturer. On day one, they told me, We use Salesforce. You’ll have to figure it out. No admin. No training. Just me and 200 users. So, I got to work.

I talked to reps, took notes, and started fixing what I could. A month in, salespeople were calling just to say thank you—I’d made their lives easier. That was it—I was hooked. I dove into Apex, Visualforce, automation, everything. I picked up three certs in two weeks.

That led me to an RV manufacturer, where I was launching Communities, Marketing Cloud, and analytics within months. Then leadership hit me with something new—We just bought Field Service Lightning and IoT Cloud. You’re running them. No one in the world had implemented either product before. No docs, no roadmap. So, I built the playbook myself. I created the Salesforce Field Service Trailblazer group, got tight with Salesforce PMs, and deployed FSL across three service centers. Salesforce sent their team just to see it live. That led to Dreamforce, speaking at the FSL keynote, and ultimately, a job offer from Salesforce.

Seven years and thirteen certifications later, I’m the top-performing SE in the company—no one has closed more ACV with a 45+% win rate. But most of all, I believe in this platform. Salesforce changed my life, and I’ve dedicated my career to showing others how it can change theirs. I’ve studied every competitor, every product, every so-called “alternative,” and I can tell you without hesitation—this is the best platform on the market.

Give me a chance, and I’ll prove it to you.

Johnny Kirkwood