Your Excel Brain Already Knows Salesforce: A RIA's Translation Guide
If you're a Registered Investment Advisor who lives in Excel, I have good news: you already know 80% of Salesforce. You just don't know that you know it yet.
I've spent the last 3 years helping RIAs move from "Excel chaos" to organized CRMs, and the biggest barrier isn't technical—it's translation. Once advisors realize that Salesforce is essentially Excel with superpowers (and without the crashes when row 65,536 gets moody), everything clicks.
The Rosetta Stone for Excel Users
Let's translate what you already know:
Your Excel Workbook = A Salesforce App
That massive "ClientTracking_v47_FINAL_FINAL_actually_final.xlsx" file with 15 sheets? That's essentially what Salesforce calls an app, just more stable and less likely to corrupt when Karen from compliance opens it.
Your Sheets = Objects
You know that "Clients" sheet where each row is a different client? In Salesforce, that's called an Object. Your "Accounts" sheet? Another Object. That "Meetings" tracker? Yep, Object.
Your Rows = Records
Row 234 with Bob and Sally Johnson's information? That's a Record in Salesforce. Same exact concept, just without the risk of accidentally sorting one column and destroying all your relationships.
Your Columns = Fields
Column B where you track AUM? That's a Field. Column C with phone numbers? Field. That custom column where you track whether they prefer phone or email for quarterly reviews? Custom Field.
Your VLOOKUP Formulas = Relationships
Remember spending three hours troubleshooting nested VLOOKUPs to connect client data to account data to meeting history? Salesforce calls these Relationships - think of them as built-in, never-break VLOOKUPs or (for you Power Query users) automatic joins that actually work. They don't break when someone inserts a column.
