35% of Uber’s Salesforce team was promoted into their current role.

The median tenure of their team is ~3 years.

And this leads to an incredible valuable build up of "Soft IP".

Soft IP is the intangible knowledge that builds up over time as a result of hanging on to your best people.

• Familiarity with the business, processes, and customers
• Strong relationships with stakeholders throughout the business
• Irreplaceable knowledge of the current technology infrastructure
  ‍

No amount of hiring can replace this Soft IP, even if you are bringing in the best people in the world.

The main point here may sound obvious: Train and promote your people!

But there's a reason why so many companies fail to deliver - they don't know what they will need in the future and it prevents them from being able to start preparing the team for it today. This is what separates the best companies in the world from the average performers.

This is why studying teams that are 10x bigger than you is immensely valuable - it provides a roadmap of where you need to go.

Select Salesforce Team Promotions at Uber

1. Global Program Manager >> Head of Sales Systems Delivery
2. Program Lead >> Manager, Global Sales Systems
3. Technical Program Manager >> Manager, Salesforce Engineering
4. Manager, Sales Tools >> Head of Sales Applications
5. Sr. Salesforce Engineer >> Salesforce Engineering Manager
6. Salesforce Engineer >> Salesforce Technical Manager
7. CX Engineering Lead >> Head of CX Applications
   +20 Other Promotions
   ‍

Some promotion tracks are easier than others.

Your Salesforce Engineering team is growing and you need someone to take on a people management role within the group - a straightforward career track is promoting a current Engineer with the soft skills needed to be a successful Engineering Manager.

But other team building opportunities are hiding in plain sight if you know how to look at the org structure correctly.

Program Lead >> Manager, Global Sales Systems

Scott Ginsberg has been at Uber for 5.5 years, serving in 4 different roles in that time. He started as a front-line Team Lead focused on Customer Onboarding before moving into a Program Manager over that workstream.

• An individual that was previously embedded within an Operations team
• He brings intimate knowledge of the business processes and customer needs
• He has existing relationships with key stakeholders in the group
• And the Technology team absorbs all of that value with a promotion into the Sales Systems team
  ‍

Technical Program Manager >> Manager, Salesforce Engineering

• A Program Manager that drove coordination across a subset of Field Service projects
• Shifted into a Program Manager role with a broader focus across Collaboration Applications
• He has already built up soft IP as a key liaison serving various stakeholders & Engineering teams
• Uber identifies he possesses the ability to serve in a more strategic role
• Promoted into driving strategy for initiatives he was already coordinating and managing as a Program Manager
  ‍

The challenge is that there's no one-size-fits-all promotion track within Salesforce or anything else.

It requires not only understanding the current / future needs of the business but mapping those to the capabilities and potential of your current team. Any good People Manager should be able to account for the latter by simply understanding the skills that exst in their team.

Successfully mapping current capabilities to future needs is the main piece in the equation - and that all comes down to understanding the long-term needs of your Salesforce org, so you can cultivate talent within the team from the moment they join.