Technical Sales
Comments
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pinkydapimp
Member Posts: 732 ■■■■■□□□□□
Interesting thread.
What would someone looking to break into the pre/post sales roles resume look like?
I have sales experience, but only ~5 years total and most of it was B2B or Customer facing selling various technical products. (Non-IT)
I mean, thats really all you need. Mostly its the technical skills and soft skills. Plenty jobs out there for CISSPs with sales experience -
NightShade03
Member Posts: 1,383 ■■■■■■■□□□
Interesting thread.
What would someone looking to break into the pre/post sales roles resume look like?
I have sales experience, but only ~5 years total and most of it was B2B or Customer facing selling various technical products. (Non-IT)
The most critical skill set in my opinion is soft skills. It's REALLY hard to teach these to people. You have good sales experience, and if you have good time management / soft skills you'll be golden. The technical stuff you can teach to (almost) anyone. Even as a pure sales rep you can read off of data sheets. Technical sales you should be able to get up to speed more quickly, but the rest will come with experience
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UnixGuy
Mod Posts: 4,570 Mod
Interesting thread.
What would someone looking to break into the pre/post sales roles resume look like?
I have sales experience, but only ~5 years total and most of it was B2B or Customer facing selling various technical products. (Non-IT)
Just an update to the CV and good interview skills; that's all I'd do.. -
--chris--
Member Posts: 1,518 ■■■■■□□□□□
scaredoftests wrote: »My husband is a Sales Engineer, he kills it, but sometimes those commission checks he has to fight for (bug HR/boss for them). Unexusable. Those guys work their hearts out..
Common thread...? We were informed in January that performance bonuses and sales commissions were starting, retroactively. 5 months went by, then I got one after asking for it and that was it. I guess I have to keep asking them... -
--chris--
Member Posts: 1,518 ■■■■■□□□□□
I know you have been looking at options for awhile...is this it?and I just applied to two Pre-sales/sales positions
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UnixGuy
Mod Posts: 4,570 Mod
I know you have been looking at options for awhile...is this it?
I don't wanna hijack the thread, but that's one of it. I'm doing something else part time professionally though that's not IT related
maybe I should write a thread about it later -
Cyberscum
Member Posts: 795 ■■■■■□□□□□
NightShade03 wrote: »The most critical skill set in my opinion is soft skills. It's REALLY hard to teach these to people. You have good sales experience, and if you have good time management / soft skills you'll be golden. The technical stuff you can teach to (almost) anyone. Even as a pure sales rep you can read off of data sheets. Technical sales you should be able to get up to speed more quickly, but the rest will come with experiencepinkydapimp wrote: »I mean, thats really all you need. Mostly its the technical skills and soft skills. Plenty jobs out there for CISSPs with sales experience
Well I guess I will update the resume and give it a shot. I have worked with a lot of presales guys for various projects and they seem to really enjoy what they do.
How is the stress level from 1-10?
Also, what is the average day like? Anything you dislike about the job? -
NightShade03
Member Posts: 1,383 ■■■■■■■□□□
Stress level really depends on the time of year. Q1 - 5, Q2 - 6, Q3 - 3, Q4 - 10 (once you hit thanksgiving though everything slows down).
Days are usually never the same which is what I always love about the job. A typical week might involve the following though:
Several clients calls (phone, webex, in person)
Follow Up emails for any meeting you had
Researching and building solutions for clients (this could be a combination of products and/or services)
Setup and configuration of a demo (either in a lab environment or via SaaS) for client meetings
Performing the demo
Product / Technical Training
Dealing with internal politics
Telling the sales rep to look at my calendar instead of asking me when I'm free (repeat daily)
Reviewing the sales pipeline and understand where to focus my efforts for the week
These are just some tasks/examples and everyone's milage will vary depending on your org and role. -
pinkydapimp
Member Posts: 732 ■■■■■□□□□□
NightShade03 wrote: »Stress level really depends on the time of year. Q1 - 5, Q2 - 6, Q3 - 3, Q4 - 10 (once you hit thanksgiving though everything slows down).
Days are usually never the same which is what I always love about the job. A typical week might involve the following though:
Several clients calls (phone, webex, in person)
Follow Up emails for any meeting you had
Researching and building solutions for clients (this could be a combination of products and/or services)
Setup and configuration of a demo (either in a lab environment or via SaaS) for client meetings
Performing the demo
Product / Technical Training
Dealing with internal politics
Telling the sales rep to look at my calendar instead of asking me when I'm free (repeat daily)
Reviewing the sales pipeline and understand where to focus my efforts for the week
These are just some tasks/examples and everyone's milage will vary depending on your org and role.
That is a solid summary of what a typical week looks like. Hows Q4 treating everyone btw?
