How to pass the Salesforce B2C Solution Architect certification exam
In December 2020, Salesforce released an exciting new credential, B2C Solution Architect. This is the first multi-cloud certification on the platform and there is no doubt in my mind that it’s the hardest exam to pass.
I know a thing or two about Salesforce exams so I do not say that lightly. I have 24 certifications and have failed 5 exams. Luckily, I passed B2C Solution Architect on my first attempt, and I want to share my thoughts with you in the hope that you too will sit for this exam and pass it.
This exam will test you on what I like to call the Solution Architect leadership trifecta:
- Business Leadership – Can you lead companies on a multi-cloud solution emphasizing differentiating customer experiences?
- Delivery Leadership – Can you advocate for multi-cloud implementation best practices to drive successful projects?
- Technical Leadership – Can you select the proper multi-cloud products and features that best align with the company’s vision and business goals?
Why is this exam important to your career as a Salesforce professional?
The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation and is making the Salesforce B2C Solution Architect a very valuable role.
Customers expectations for a personalized and seamless digital experience have never been higher than they are today. Companies seeking to create a single source of truth (SSOT) need a clear understanding of where their customer engagement data systems of record (SOR) reside within the enterprise. High-value customer experiences require timely and consistent access to engagement data.
To support these experiences, companies need to leverage this data from their systems of record via federation. Implementing a data federation approach requires that companies:
- Inventory the systems within their enterprise that capture customer engagement data.
- Identify which of these systems should be treated as systems of record.
Companies need a qualified B2C Solution Architect to guide them through this digital transformation. That’s where you as an independent consultant or a Partner come into the picture.
The Exam
It’s probably clear by now this exam tests a fully integrated implementation of Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Commerce Cloud in different configurations. For example: how do inventory management considerations differ from online only to brick and mortar supported by an online store?
Here’s what the solution looks like:
If you’re concerned that you’ve never implemented a solution like this before, don’t worry, not many people have. I haven’t either and was able to pass this exam through hard work. Now I have the confidence and expertise to lead this implementation and build a solution that will perform at scale – and the client would never know they were my first enterprise B2C solution project!
Prerequisites
There are three official prerequisite certifications for this exam but in my opinion they are not the right ones. My strongest feelings are about Email Specialist.
I recognized 6 months before I sat for B2C that I would need to dive much deeper into Marketing Cloud, and decided to pursue Marketing Cloud Consultant. This proved to be the correct approach.
Marketing Cloud is a beast of a platform with many ancillary products that appear in this exam. You not only need to know what these products do and how to configure them, you also need to understand how Marketing Cloud itself integrates with Salesforce, Commerce Cloud, and back office systems. You need to understand best practices to avoid duplicate subscriber records, and how to sync data from MC back to Salesforce. This is information you will not get from Email Specialist.
A week before I wrote the exam I took to Twitter to discuss what I thought the exam would look like. I had no replies, although a CTA reached out to me to tell me I was on the right path. Looking back on this thread, I am quite pleased to see how well prepared I was for this exam.
At a minimum, in addition to the official prerequisites, I would recommend you also hold Service Cloud Consultant and Marketing Cloud Administrator certifications. I would strongly suggest you pursue Marketing Cloud Consultant. B2c Commerce Developer or Architect will be helpful but in my experience were not necessary. If you follow my tips below you should be able to pass without them.
Study Tips
| Exam Guide | Study Trail | Certification Trail | Pass |
| B2C Solution Architect | Study for the B2C Solution Architect Certification Trail | B2C Solution Architect Certification Trailmix | 63% |
If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! Here are the goods. I’ve gone back over my post-exam brain dump to organize it for this article.
This exam requires very broad knowledge of many products and features. Here is what you need to know:
CRM (Sales/Service/Experience), B2C Commerce Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Marketing Cloud Connect, Customer 360, Salesforce Connect, Salesforce to Salesforce, Platform Shield Encryption, Classic Encryption, Marketing Cloud Encryption, Digital Engagement, Heroku, Heroku Connect, B2C Commerce to Service Cloud Connector, Order Management, Tableau, Einstein, Lightning Scheduler, Distributed Marketing, Salesforce Identity, Salesforce CDP, Large Data Volumes.
The questions you face will be riddled with red herring products so do not skip this step! Make sure you know the product names, understand their capabilities, and recognize when it’s appropriate to use one over the other vs. a custom solution.
More official prep material can be found in the Partner Learning Camp B2C Solution Architect Courses. This link is open to the public, not just to partners. I honestly felt this entire course was was more of a sales pitch than a technical resource and at times felt very monotonous and repetitive. I have been told it has been revamped last month. Check it out but your mileage may vary.
Next, you need to understand differing strategies and their tradeoffs, and you are likely to face questions asking about the following:
LINK accelerators, headless commerce, Subscriber key migration, single vs multi org strategy, single vs multi Marketing Cloud instance, single vs multiple B2c realms, tradeoffs between using a Salesforce product (Ie Order Management, C360 etc) vs building a custom solution, Salesforce integration strategies and APIs, Marketing Cloud APIs, Journeys, preventing duplicates and knowing when to deal up or embrace duplicate data, implementation order, consent management, identifying risks for different implementation strategies, customer identity across products, headless storefront vs traditional approach, tokenization, Open Commerce API, CI/CD strategies for all of CRM and B2C Commerce and Marketing Cloud, product catalogues, LDV from wearable IoT device, data migration, B2C SFRA, Inventory management strategies for both online and physical locations, social customer service, transactional emails, coupons.
Systems of Record and Single Source of Truth are of course very important concepts. What is SOR for Transactions? (Commerce Cloud). For journey data? (Marketing Cloud). Service Engagement? (Service Cloud). For Authentication Data? (Experience Cloud)
As you go through the trailmixes above, make sure you look for every one of these Products and Concepts. If you have any doubt, dive keep into the Salesforce documentation for answers.
And finally, there are a few more resources I highly recommend utilizing.
The Commerce Cloud documentation was a very helpful resource to fill in some of the blanks I had with B2C Commerce. If you follow my approach and focus on CRM and Marketing experience at the expense of Commerce, this will be a helpful resource to add some important detail.
This Miro Board put together by Mark Cane is a more technical depiction of the architecture diagram showed above and gives helpful details on the integration scenarios you will be tested on.
Solution Kits for Retail and B2C. This is by far the single most important resource for preparing for this exam. Make sure you can draw every one of these Solution Workflows in your sleep. Be sure to know every step, every consideration, and alternate solutions, if any. If you do this and nothing else, you will get 40% on the exam. That means you only need to make up 23% elsewhere to get a passing score!
My last advice is to note that this exam is very tight on time. Be sure to manage your time wisely, otherwise you will be very rushed. If English is not your mother-tongue, open a case with Trailhead to request extra time.
It’s fair to say that seeing the word PASS in Kryterion was one of my proudest moments in my 11-year Salesforce career. This exam is intense, but its not impossible, and passing is was very satisfying.
If you’re preparing for this exam, please let me know, and be sure to tag on Twitter or on LinkedIn when you post your results – I want to cheer on your success!
