We have the privilege of speaking to people from across the Salesforce ecosystem, which means our articles are often shaped by what professionals are seeing on the ground. From admins and architects to developers, business leaders, and hiring managers, these conversations give us a view of the Salesforce world from almost every angle.
And from the interviews we’ve conducted so far in 2026, one theme keeps resurfacing whenever the conversation turns to career progression, employability, and the skills professionals should be developing next – soft skills.
For a long time, soft skills have been treated as something you either have or you don’t. They might show up in the ability to make small talk with colleagues, keep people engaged during a long meeting, ask the right question at the right moment, or explain something highly technical in a way that makes sense to a non-technical individual. Most of us probably know people who seem to do this naturally, and others for whom it feels far less instinctive.
But in today’s Salesforce job market, the people who stand out are likely going to be the ones who can communicate the clearest, challenge things thoughtfully, defend their decisions, build trust with stakeholders, and translate Salesforce knowledge into business value. In other words, soft skills are no longer a nice-to-have, but a real differentiator – in some cases, non-negotiable.
Tech Skills Build the Solutions, Soft Skills Make Them Land
For the majority of Salesforce pros, technical ability is, of course, the foundation of all roles. You need to understand the platform, know how to build effectively, and have enough product knowledge to really succeed in the Salesforce space. Certs and hands-on experience still matter, but technical skills alone may not be enough to make someone stand out anymore.
As the Salesforce ecosystem matures (at its current rapid rate), professionals are expected to do more than build solutions – with more weight on being able to communicate clearly, understand business priorities, and explain why a particular solution matters in the first place.
Keith Sadler, VP of Salesforce Platform at Morgan & Morgan, told SF Ben that while technical skills remain essential, the ability to communicate and articulate what you’ve built is “just as important, if not more important” than the build itself.
This becomes especially important when working with stakeholders and end users. A Salesforce Admin, for example, may create this really elegant screen flow, but if they cannot clearly show the value of that solution or explain how it solves an actual pain point, adopting it immediately becomes more difficult.
As Keith explained: “Just because you created the most elegant flow… if you can’t demonstrate that back to the end users for pain points that you’re trying to solve, it’s going to be an uphill battle.”
This is something we’re now potentially seeing impact Salesforce careers, with more businesses looking for professionals who can connect the dots between tech jargon and business outcomes, rather than simply completing technical tasks in isolation.
Salesforce Trainer and Delivery Lead David Massey touched on this earlier this year when discussing how he views the admin role today. He told SF Ben that the role has never simply been about creating fields, building flows, or configuring objects. Instead, it is about understanding a business well enough to identify opportunities for improvement and introduce meaningful value.
“To me, it’s always been about delivering value,” David explained. “It’s not necessarily been about completing tickets.”
Attributing to David’s point, Keith also explained that Morgan & Morgan’s hiring process includes not only a technical exercise, but a presentation element in which candidates explain their solutions to technical leads and hiring managers.
Interestingly, he noted that candidates who articulate their reasoning clearly, respond well to feedback, and troubleshoot calmly are often more successful than candidates who are purely technically strong.
Frank Mamone, who reached the Salesforce Certified Technical Architect (CTA) review board, told SF Ben that communication and presentation ability are critical differentiators for senior pros.
“The soft skills make you stand out,” Frank explained. “The ability to present… communicate properly… defend… pivot if you have to.”
Clearly, technical skills may get you in the food, but it might be soft skills that determine who progresses furthest.
Soft Skills Aren’t Learned on Trailhead
Another interesting theme that surfaced repeatedly throughout these conversations was how difficult skills actually are to teach compared to other areas of knowledge. There are plenty of resources to get up to scratch with Salesforce, but skills like communication, stakeholder management, presentation ability, and professional judgment are often developed much more gradually through real-world experience.
David told SF Ben that many of the professionals he has seen succeed most in the ecosystem were not necessarily the most technical people in the room.
“The ones who’ve really succeeded… it hasn’t been because they’ve got a degree or computer science experience,” He explained. “It’s because they’ve done loads of different roles and they’ve developed all those soft skills.”
For David, skills such as asking the right questions, listening properly, managing conversations, and understanding what stakeholders are not saying are becoming increasingly valuable within Salesforce careers.
“Being able to ask a question then shut up and wait until you hear an answer… they’re the skills that come over time.”
David Massey, Salesforce Trainer and Delivery Lead
Keith offered up a similar perspective when discussing communication and presentation skills. Despite now leading large Salesforce teams, he explained that public speaking and presenting did not come naturally early in his career.
Instead, he improved gradually through repetition – starting with virtual end-user training sessions before eventually becoming more comfortable presenting in person. According to Keith, practice and presentation remain some of the most effective ways to improve communication skills.
He said: “The key was focusing on the content I knew and was passionate about.”
SF Ben Technical Content Writer Tim Combridge also reflected on how mentorship played a major role in developing his own professional judgment throughout his career.
Beyond technical coaching, he recalled learning habits and ways of thinking that ultimately improved how he approached Salesforce work more broadly.
One particularly influential lesson came during his time as a Presales Solution Engineer, where a mentor advised him against “solutioning” too early during client conversations.
While Tim was eager to jump into solving problems immediately, he learned that spending more time gathering information often led to better long-term outcomes.
“I didn’t realize it because I was excited,” Tim explained, “but it would take up significant amounts of time that could’ve been spent gathering information.”
That ability to slow down, listen carefully, and fully understand a problem before jumping to a solution is another soft skill many experienced professionals believe is becoming increasingly valuable.
And unlike technical certifications, these are often skills built through repetition, mentorship, difficult conversations, and time spent working closely with both users and stakeholders.
AI Is Accelerating the Consequences of Poor Judgment
While it would have been nice to pivot away from any conversations around AI, another reason soft skills are becoming more valuable is that modern AI tools are dramatically lowering the barrier to building and deploying technology.
Over recent months, AI-assisted development and “vibe coding” platforms have made it possible for professionals with little engineering experience to create apps or automate workflows faster than ever. But recent events have also highlighted the risks that appear when technical acceleration outpaces proper oversight.
Reports from Axios and WIRED revealed that hundreds of thousands of publicly accessible assets built using AI-assisted development platforms have been identified online, with thousands exposing sensitive corporate data. Many of the apps had simply been deployed publicly without proper visibility settings, authentication, or ownership controls in place.
This is a lesson that feels very relevant to the Salesforce ecosystem as AI becomes more deeply embedded into every corner of the platform. Building things becomes easier and faster, but understanding and explaining the long-term implications of these builds is becoming more important than ever.
Salesforce MVP Paul Battisson touched on this when discussing AI-assisted development, explaining that while AI can help professionals accelerate delivery, there is still a major difference between generating something and truly understanding it.
As Paul said bluntly: “If you don’t understand what you’ve written, then you can’t support it.”
David also echoed this by arguing that while AI may assist with building solutions, it cannot replace the ability to ask the right questions or fully understand the business context.
“You’re never going to go into a group of stakeholders, turn your laptop round, and say ‘there’s ChatGPT – it’s got some questions to ask you.’”
I guess, as a caveat, AI might be shifting where professionals provide the most value. Those tech skills still matter, but now more focus may be on the ability to apply judgment, communicate clearly, and ensure technology is being implemented responsibly.
Final Thoughts
In all honesty, this is quite a difficult topic to articulate in an article. It’s not as simple as changing your personality overnight, suddenly becoming more charismatic, or instantly turning into the most confident person in the room. Soft skills are deeply human, and for many people, they do not come naturally all the time.
I know this personally. Some days I feel more confident, articulate, and able to explain things clearly. Other days, I struggle more socially or find communication harder. This is normal. Everyone has off days, and I do not think that should be held against anyone.
But there is also a hard reality professionals have to face – not just in the Salesforce ecosystem, but across the wider job market. Roles are becoming more competitive, expectations are increasing, and whenever I speak to people about career progression, soft skills almost always come up as one of the biggest differentiators.
One good piece of practical advice I want to end on is the importance of practice. Keith emphasized this strongly when discussing communication and presentation skills.
“Practice, practice, practice,” Keith explained. “If you know that you’re going to present, whether it’s a demo or some technology that you’ve put together or presenting on release notes, it is critical that you actually practice.
“Do dry runs. Practice by yourself, speak out loud, even record yourself and listen back. Having a script you can follow helps stop you from getting stuck or repeating yourself.”
As AI continues to accelerate technical work, the skills becoming harder to replace are often the most human ones – communication, empathy, confidence, judgment, and the ability to connect with others.
In many ways, that is refreshing. But it is also another thing Salesforce professionals now have to think about in an already demanding and fast-moving industry.
