Trailhead: Master AI & CRM with Free Training Courses

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems once required a lot of human input, with sales teams manually updating interactions and marketing departments analysing large quantities of data to find patterns.

Now, artificial intelligence (AI) can automate everything from data organisation and lead scoring to predictive analytics, helping businesses save time and resources while making more agile decisions. It also frees up your sales and marketing teams to focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences.

What does this mean for you or your business?

Australian businesses need professionals who can combine AI proficiency with a deep understanding of CRM software. With 85 per cent of Australian small and medium businesses (SMBs) now experimenting with AI, those who can properly use this tech to improve the customer experience are in high demand.

Ready to learn these key skills? Trailhead offers free training to help you build in-demand AI and CRM expertise to boost your career or support business development.

Here’s how the platform works and how to get started.

Trailhead is Salesforce’s free online learning platform. It covers a wide variety of topics in the Salesforce ecosystem, from AI and sales strategy to CRM training to computer science and critical thinking. It can help you grow your skills regardless of your budget or current skill level.

We’ve divided Trailhead into the following structures to help you learn and progress.

• Modules are small units that cover a specific topic.
• Projects are hands-on learning experiences that let you apply knowledge in context.
• Trails are guided learning pathways featuring several related modules and projects.
• Trailmixes are custom learning pathways that you design. Share them with your team.
• Superbadges let you take your knowledge and apply it to real-world business problems.

The best part about Trailhead? It’s entirely gamified to make your learning experience more enjoyable. You can earn points and badges every time you complete a task and climb up the Trailblazer rankings to display your progress to the world.

Along the way, you can get involved with the Trailblazer Community to network with like-minded learners who share your skills and interests. This will also give you the chance to get some support from experts in your field.

Now that you understand how Trailhead works, let’s get into some of the course modules you can start today to begin your CRM training.

We’ll start off with the CRM courses (also called modules). This covers all of the information you need to grow familiar with our CRM platform and begin creating enhanced customer experiences that drive sales.

This is the place to start if you’re already using Salesforce and want to learn how to get the most out of the platform. Here are modules that will teach you the foundations of CRM on Salesforce.

• Salesforce CRM - Take the first step toward becoming a CRM professional in this introduction to CRM course. Learn how the Salesforce CRM system works and how to use it to grow your business.
• Salesforce for Small Business - Find out how your small business can benefit from CRM tools.
• Reports & Dashboards for Lightning Experience - Learn how to visualise metrics and track progress through Lightning Experience.
• Data Security - Understand data security and user access to protect your Salesforce instance in this CRM training course.

A robust sales process is integral to the success of your CRM strategy. Here are some training modules you can use to build and refine your sales cycle.

• Sales Process Basics - Learn how to land a sale from beginning to end, including tips on prospecting and closing the deal.
• Sales Pipeline Basics - Discover how to grow and manage a well-optimised, healthy sales pipeline.
• Lead Qualification with Scoring and Grading - Build and optimise a lead qualification model with lead scoring and lead grading.
• Sales Cloud Basics - Find out how you can use Salesforce Sales Cloud to increase your productivity and make smarter business decisions.
• Sales Team Culture - Once you’ve completed this CRM course, you’ll know how to create a productive and motivating sales culture for your business.

Effective CRM depends on quality data. These modules cover all aspects of data, including how to leverage CRM responsibly to improve efficiency and deliver better customer experiences.

• Data Cloud Use Cases - Discover how you can use Data Cloud to unify your business data across every platform.
• Data Cloud-Powered Experiences - Find out how you can create a personalised customer experience using Data Cloud.
• Data Quality - Learn how to assess and improve your data quality in the Salesforce platform.
• Share CRM Data with Your Partners - Get valuable advice on how to share CRM data effectively and safely with partners.

CRM analytics are essential for producing actionable insights you can use to make smarter business decisions. Here are five modules that will set you up for success.

• CRM Analytics Basics - Find out how to use business data to power CRM analytics and gain insights.
• CRM Analytics Dashboard Navigation - Learn to navigate your CRM dashboard to find the insights you need.
• CRM Analytics for Loyalty Management - Discover how to establish CRM analytics and management systems to keep track of your loyalty program’s success.
• CRM Analytics for Slack: Quick Look - Learn how to integrate CRM analytics data into your Slack conversations

Our marketing modules can help you understand your audience and create targeted campaigns that resonate, creating personalised interactions that lead to stronger client relationships.

• Explore Marketing Strategies that Engage Customers - Learn all of the best practices for lead generation and lead nurturing.
• Marketing Content Creation - Find out how to create successful content using the Salesforce platform.
• Marketing Cloud Engagement Basics - See how Salesforce’s suite of marketing products can help you optimise every aspect of your digital marketing strategy.
• Data Cloud-Driven Interactions in Marketing Cloud Engagement - Find out how you can leverage data to provide superior customer engagement.
• Distributed Marketing Features - Learn how to personalise customer interactions through Distributed Marketing.

Lastly, here are some CRM modules to help you optimise and improve the customer experience.

• Customer Journey Basics - Link your data analytics with your channels to deliver personalised customer experiences.
• Communication Skills for Customer Service Agents - Discover different communication tactics to engage with customers.
• Loyalty Programs and Loyalty Management - Learn everything about loyalty programs, including how to create them and how to use them to improve customer retention.
• Advanced Customer Journeys - Learn to construct advanced engaging journeys for customers at every stage of the lifecycle.

Our artificial intelligence (AI) online course material can help with everything from scaling your business to growing your career. Let’s start by looking at modules that cover the fundamentals.

Here are five modules that can help you learn the basics of AI, whether you’re trying to spearhead automation for your organisation or gain skills for a new role.

• Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals - This module covers all the basics of AI, including how it works and how to use it responsibly.
• Large language models - Figure out how large language models (LLMs) work and how Salesforce uses them to deliver a better experience.
• Generative AI basics - See what generative AI can do and understand the technology behind it.
• Generative AI for Organisations - Find out how generative AI can improve your business’s productivity.
• Prompt Fundamentals - Bring the best out of generative AI with this module about writing effective prompts.

AI is powerful, but with this power comes responsibility. We need to be careful how we use it. These modules will show the different ways you can use AI responsibly while mitigating potential bias.

• Responsible Creation of Artificial Intelligence - Learn how to remove bias from your algorithms to create ethical AI systems.
• Trusted Agentic AI - See how Agentforce uses responsible AI principles and safeguards to build ethical AI solutions.
• Ethical Model Development with Einstein Discovery: Quick Look - Learn how to create ethical AI models.

AI is built on quality customer data. These modules explore how data and AI intertwine and how you can use data responsibly to maximise your own AI models.

• Data Fundamentals for AI - Discover the basics of combining data and AI to produce better business outcomes.
• Critical Thinking and Decision-Making with Data and AI - Find out how you can maximise your AI and decision-making capabilities through data.
• Data Bias Recognition and Prevention in AI - Learn how to prevent bias when working with AI technologies.

Here are some modules you can take to support business growth and drive business success with artificial intelligence.

• Generative AI for Organisations - Learn how you can implement AI into your organisation to boost productivity.
• AI + Data: Project Planning - Find out how to create a strategy to get your data ready for AI.
• AI Strategy - Work out how your organisation will utilise AI and create a roadmap for implementation.
• Change Management for AI Implementation - This module covers how to manage organisational change when introducing AI.
• Slack AI - Discover how to integrate generative AI and agents with Slack.

CRM integrated with AI can dramatically improve your efficiency and productivity by automating tedious tasks and analytics processes that often weigh down a CRM professional's workload.

Ready to learn more about how these two technologies work together? The best place to start is with our Data + AI + CRM course for an overview. Alternatively, browse the training courses below to find your perfect learning experience.

AI agents within Salesforce can perform autonomous tasks and handle various aspects of business activity, including customer service and business analysis. Here are some modules to get you started.

• Autonomous agents - Read about AI agents and the transformative power they offer businesses.
• Agentforce: Quick Look - See how Agentforce, the agentic layer of Salesforce, can make your business more efficient.
• Agents and Agentforce Basics - Discover how to set up AI agents to automate tasks and gather insights within Salesforce CRM.
• Connect Data Cloud to Agentforce and Prompt Builder - Link Data Cloud to Agentforce and Prompt Builder to create more powerful automations.

AI has the power to automate much of the busywork that makes customer relationship management challenging. These modules will show you what’s possible within Salesforce.

• Drive Productivity with Salesforce AI - Become proficient with Salesforce AI and start using it to enhance efficiency.
• Marketing Automation Strategies - Learn how to scale your marketing efforts through data and automation.
• Generative AI for Salesforce Contracts - Make your contract process more efficient using generative AI.
• Workflow Automation for Service: Quick Look - Discover how you can use Salesforce AI to improve your customer service strategy.
• Einstein Content Selection Solutions - See how you can solve common content challenges using AI within Salesforce.

Implementing AI and CRM together is the ticket to creating more efficient services that deliver better outcomes for your customers. Here are four modules that will teach you how to optimise the customer experience.

• Personalisation in Account-Based Marketing - Discover how AI can elevate your account-based marketing.
• Artificial Intelligence for Customer Service - See how artificial intelligence can revolutionise customer service.
• Einstein Bots Basics - Find out how you can make customer service smarter with chatbots, enhancing customer satisfaction.
• Sales AI: Quick Look - Find out how generative AI and Salesforce are transforming sales for businesses.

Ready to find your perfect learning pathway?

You can get started with Trailhead by accessing the Trailhead homepage or by downloading our mobile app, Trailhead GO. From there, create a free Trailblazer account to get underway.

Once you’ve accessed the platform, Trailhead will provide you with personalised trail recommendations you can use to learn important skills.

Alternatively, if you’d like to find a specific learning path, click the Learn dropdown and select whether you’d like to study a module, trail, or project, or create a trailmix. You can then use the search bar or filter based on your goals, industry, or the skills you’d like to learn.

You’ll find all of the badges and stamps you’ve achieved in your Profile. You can also add any certification course badges you’ve earned while learning with Trailhead. Don’t forget to fill out contact details if you’d like potential employers to find you in the Trailblazer Career Marketplace.

You can reach out to other current students via the Community tab. Ask and answer questions, join groups, discover trending topics, or read the blog to find out what’s new.

Want to know more? Try our Guide to Trailhead to learn how to use and navigate the platform.

Here are six additional tips to make the most of your learning experience on Trailhead.

• Leverage filters - Use our filters to find specific pathways that fit your needs. As well as searching based on your current skill level and goal, you can even filter by your role or industry to discover courses that are the best fit for your career or business.
• Test out trails - Trailhead trails are learning pathways that incorporate several modules and projects to guide you through a topic. They’re one of the best ways to benefit from structured learning and get hands-on experience to practice new skills.
• Set learning goals - Decide what you want to achieve on Trailhead before you get underway. With hundreds of hours of course content, there are endless possibilities. Take the time to learn what’s available and build a plan to help you achieve your goals.
• Apply your skills - Modules are a great way to build your understanding of a topic. However, to get the most out of your Trailhead experience, apply everything you learn. Our Superbadges let you put your knowledge to use within real-world business problems.
• Create a Trailmix - Trailmixes are an exciting way to design your own learning pathway. You can add custom modules and projects to build a specific trail that fits the criteria you’re looking for. This is especially useful to create custom pathways for your team.
• Collaborate - The Trailblazer community features thousands of like-minded learners from dozens of countries across the world. Get involved to meet expert CRM administrators and grow your network.

Whether you’re new to the concepts of AI and CRM or are looking to gain advanced expertise to scale your brand, Trailhead’s interactive learning will help you level up in the age of AI.

We’ve barely scratched the surface in this guide. If there’s a CRM or AI skill you’d like to learn, you’ll find what you’re looking for on Trailhead. Get started today to find your next learning experience.