What's It Like For a Developer To Go Into Sales? 85
An anonymous reader asks: "I've worked for a single, very large technology company since graduating from college in '89. My degree is in Computer Science, and I've written everything from embedded machine code for big iron to applications with Smalltalk. I'm still in development, but since '99 my programming tasks have been replaced by project management, some customer-facing work (technical-ish presentations, demonstrations, training, and the like), helping our marketing people position my team's work, and other things that programmers generally don't like to do. Are you a former developer who went into sales? If so, what were your experiences like from a professional and personal perspective? What advice would you give to a developer considering a new career in sales?"
I find that I enjoy the broad, technical perspective that comes from working in the field, and I'm thinking about moving out of development and into technical sales. Moreover, I've interviewed several techies in my company who are now in sales and all tell them they love it. Several have reported that a techie can make more money in sales. However, I do have several reservations: I am an introvert and a full day of face-time can really sap my energy, many sales people I've worked with are 'sharks' (which I simply cannot be), and I don't like the idea of putting part of my salary at-risk.
I'm in Sales (Score:2, Insightful)
There is constant pressure, no matter how hard you're working, to do more, make more calls, etc. If you can live with this, then you might actually enjoy sales.
But I should warn you, the sales managers that I have worked for have been some of the most evil scum I've ever met. They encourage using every tactic to con people into buying the crap we're selling, regardless of whether it is needed or not. Salespeople (including myself) are the most useless people in our economy. We can't get by without doctors, teachers, engineers, construction folks, etc, but if all the (outbound calling) salespeople in the world suddenly disappeared, the world would be a whole lot better off. No pressure calls (just to touch base, yeah right) would mean people would only buy what they needed, not what they were talked into buying.
Shakespeare was close. He should have said: "First thing we do, lets kill all the salespeople."
Dare say no (Score:3, Insightful)
If you dare to tell a customer "No" some execs might flinch, but in the long run you tend to get a reputation as a person who's honest and actually delivers.
Therefore, unless you can be confident you really can tell the customer what you won't do, don't become a salesman.
Sales vs. Techy (Score:4, Insightful)
My conclusion was that Sales can be fun, but ... well a salesman is fundamentally different in outlook to a techy - you're probably used to being well aware of what's wrong with a product, workarounds, hacks, and things that just plain suck
As sales, you _need_ to be focussing on what's great, why it's fantastic, and why this is exactly the thing they need in their business, beyond anything else.
My problem was/is that that's a bit too much like lying. You're telling your customer that yours is absolutely the best for them, and unless you're in a small subset of occurances, this is not the case.
Often, if it's obviously a 'bad idea' you won't get the sale, however you need to be deciding whether you can keep a straight face when you wholeheartedly recommend the product that gives you commission, over the one over there, that you use at home because it is actually better.
Some can, some can't.
Just remember, sales is far nearer to prostitution than to engineering. As a techy, you're looking for the best and most cost effective solution to their problem, out of a portfolio of options. As a salesperson you're aiming to look good, seduce your customers, and screw them for money.
One word - boring! (Score:4, Insightful)
The first problem was that the product I was selling, disk arrays, was so simple at the sales level that I was bored silly. You can only go over the feed and speeds on a disk array so many time before going completely batty. Second, I had no respect from the development team back at headquarters. When I installed the first unit off the assembly line at a customer and ran some benchmarks against it that came back really bad the response from HQ was "you don't know how to run benchmarks." I'd spent the previous 8 years as a supercomputer kernel developer. I knew a couple of things about benchmarking and also about what kind of performance customers were expecting and I turned out to be correct in everything (the company wound up withdrawing the product and upgrading all of the customers who had bought it to a more expensive, truly high performance system). It was very difficult to be put into a role where you can see problems and no one will listen to you or respect your knowledge. Third, salespeople are *BORING*. All they want to talk about around the office is money, leads and occasionally sports. No politics, no technology, no books, no movies, no Monty Python.
I look back on those six months as being very valuable as I learned a lot about sales from a worldclass sales team and I learned a lot about salespeople. But six months was really my limit (afterwards I returned to OS development for a few years). If you want to do it for the money and you think deals and money are exciting you'll enjoy it. Otherwise you'll be bored stiff.
Didn't work for me (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I'm in Sales (Score:1, Insightful)
Good salesmanship doesn't require any level of deception. In fact it is anathema to being a good salesperson, as your reputation will suffer unless you are one hell of a liar, and likely somebody else in your department/division/etc who is not dishonest would contradict you anyway, causing your reputation to suffer.
I've done sales work as a developer and while it's not the most pleasant experience all the time, it's certainly not dishonest work, and you can convert plenty of sales without resorting to deceptive tactics. If this is an institutional thing (you are encouraged to lie to customers by your bosses), and you are in any line of work other than "car salesman", you should leave immediately.
You answered your own question. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Sales vs. Techy (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously.
The best sales reps I've worked with were all completely honest, and the best sales coaches[1] seems to all recommend being completely honest.
I've come across some fairly effective sales people that didn't care, that would cut a corner to get a sale, that didn't care if what they sold were possible or not. But the best have all been doing "I want the customer to have this product because this product is great! I think this product will be the right one for this customer!", and dropped at least half their sales because they found that the product wasn't right for that customer. And - if the product they were selling wasn't the best for many customers, they switched to a different company (or a different product).
I've worked a bit as a sales rep. The primary danger I see with being a techie and going into sales - or at least what was the primary danger for me - was that I felt that I had to know everything about the product, to be able to answer any question, before I could sell it, and I too easily worked the logical side of the customer instead of the emotional. I went back to pure tech work because the place I worked with sales turned out to suck (deliver lousy value to the customers.)
Eivind.
[1] Check out Brian Tracy for technical stuff and Zig Ziglar for pure motivation.
Re:Here's a good one (Score:3, Insightful)
Sales honesty and integrity is easy. That is of course assuming you have a corporate culture to back it up. The problem is, sales people are treated like restaurant waiters. Here's a place to work, now go hustle for tips. Oh btw you get to essentially work for free for that privilege. Shit jobs motivated me to graduate college, so I do owe them a bit of gratitude.
If people want honest sales they have to make it where the time to do the groundwork isn't spent stressing over commissions. My company gives bonuses for sales but they don't work like commissions. They are spread company wide, so everyone is a part.
Re:An introvert should NOT go into sales. (Score:3, Insightful)
Sales isn't a single task, and it can be handled with a variety of styles. Cold calling, glad-handing, and schmoozing are all extremely tiring and stressful for introverts. And you hardly need any of it. I think introversion is a special case of a person's overall tendency to focus narrowly and intensely. Floodlight people have broad interests and as such do well with broad interactions with lots of people. Laser people -- which developers tend to be -- have narrower interests and prefer narrower interactions with fewer people.
I believe that most introverts can do quite well in sales by spending more time with fewer costomers, getting to know them and their needs well. Extroverts do better with the shotgun approach, replacing depth with volume. It's kind of like the Laffer curve, where success can be achieved at two price points.
One of the best things about the small-base approach is that it rewards depth of understanding and the quiet, introverted research this entails. Learn as much as you can about your products, their strengths and weakensses. Then learn as much as you can about your customers and their business needs. Match the business need with the best product and present your case to your customer. That's sales, in a style that involves planning, diligence and honesty, and very little bullshit.
I worked with another sales rep, a very floodlight sort of guy. He was very experienced, and naturally pulled in higher figures than I in the first year. In the second year I pulled a bit closer to him and he told me that it was for two reasons: First, I was simply getting better at dealing with people. Second, and more importantly, the prospects I paid close attention to in the first year remembered me, and when they were ready to buy, they knew I was someone they could rely on to set them up right. He was a very good saleman, who met and talked with many more people than I, and made our employer a ton of money. He was making sales, but he told me that what I was making customers, which in the long run are actually more valuable.
A final advantage of moving from development to sales is that you have the technical savvy to communicate with the customers' technical people, because you speak their language. You can answer their questions, can face their hard challenges with hard facts, and best of all you can understand the questions behind their questions.
At any rate, the Asker says he's already gained some experience in management, which is significantly more people-oriented than development, and has spent time in customer-facing roles, which is not only people-oriented, but oriented towards people's satisfaction. It sounds like the Asker is not a hard-core, head-down introvert at all. Sales would not a dramatic transition.
"Salesmen are baaaad," say the sheeple. (Score:2, Insightful)
My friend, don't listen to any of these guys. They obviously have an axe to grind. There are many types of "salesmen", and many types of products to sell. You wont be an SUV salesmen trying to push ripoff extended warranties, or some pimply faced chump selling cellphones from a booth in the mall.
It sounds like the products you'll be selling aren't commodities, but rather high value "business solutions" (or something) that require a lot of interaction with your customers.
You've worked for this firm for almost 20 years, and you're intimately acquainted with your products, indeed it appears you've been involved in every step of product development. What better person to help broker these deals, than you?
And why would you have to lie or "sell your soul"? As a techie you'll be leveling with your customers and helping them figure out how to interface with your product. Potential stumbling block? Be honest and tell them, then figure out a workaround together. No way to make it work and it's a deal breaker? Then "have a nice day and thank you for your time".
There is such a thing as karma. Take the high road, and it will pay you back in time. The mark of an amature is feeling you have to lie, cheat and steal to get ahead. That's the creed of jealous losers everywhere.
In my business (insurance) they say you should either add value to the transaction, or get out of the way. The poor or unethical salesman only removes value: they lie about product shortcomings, they don't listen to their customer's needs, they sell them the wrong thing, etc. But a person with your background has a lot of value to add for all parties involved.
Finally, this sounds like a tremendous opportunity for professional growth. Some sales skills are just the thing to really boost your career, and potentially push you in new directions. C'mon guys, whatever happened to expanding your comfort zones?
Nobody gets anywhere without eventually learning how to sell.