Technical sales

gkhizer

Hey guys,

I'm new this website but I have following the threads for a long time. I just had a questions in regards to technical sales and was wondering if someone can assist me.

I have a degree in IT from Toronto and a CCNA. I have two years of systems admin experience. I want to leave the technical side of IT and pursue a career in technical sales as it relates better to my personality. Not the mention how little jobs there are and even if you get them the pay is dirt. My question is that I wanted to know if there is anyone who made this shift in their careers. If so can you guide me as to what steps I should take to pursue a career in sales.

As you may or may not know, tech companies like SAP or IBM pay a lot to their salespeople. I have applied to a few sales academies for tech companies around the world, which is a 6 month training program organized by the company. If selected you work as a sales engineer for the respective company. If anyone has bin to these academies can you guide me as to how I should apply for them.

Thank you in advance

Russell77

I was in technical sales for a number of years and the best advice I can give is to start selling something. With your current educational and work back ground you will probably be technical enough that you can learn the product line. The harder question to answer is can you sell? Are you aggressive? How do you handle rejection? Can you form relationships? Are you high energy. These skills come natural to some people or they can be developed. At the end of the day you have to be able to close deals. I worked for one of the best salesmen in our industry. He was not the smartest guy in the room but he had a magnetic personality and was totally fearless when walking into a room of people who were way smarter than he was and start pitching. Never gave a second thought to picking up the phone and calling someone to see what are chances were of getting an order. Over the years he formed deep relationships and that paid off as he became the first guy they would call when they needed something.

So get a part time job on the floor of the electronics store an stat pitching. These skills come over time. Read books on salesman ship, they will help great deal.

pinkydapimp

I have never been to one of those academies. However, i have worked as a sales engineer for over 10 years. Best career move i have ever made. You will still need to build up your technical chops. So dont slack on certs. If you want to be a sales engineer for networking hardware/software then keep building on your certs and knowledge. Then hopefully in your program or first role you can build on your sales skills. Good luck!

dontstop

Russell77 wrote: »

So get a part time job on the floor of the electronics store an stat pitching.

Pretty much this.

I dabbled with the idea of a sales role and found that my personality wasn't a match at all. Most of the guys are genuine sales guys and the customers they interface with have no interest in the product itself but more about the partnership/relationship think the "wine & dine" experience. I sat next to the sales guy in my old Job for a few months and most of the conversations were very light on technical details more on managing the customer relations (how's the family/let's go for a round of Golf this weekend/did you get the bottle of wine I sent) but then very quickly moving to aggressive (How many orders will you be taking this quarter/I can do a 5% discount on this).

My advice would also mirror Russells you need to move into any role that will require you to hussle big time. Work as a commission salesman at a local store, work behind a bar. Get used to being face to face with your customer and pushing them for the upsell. Your wage will literally be based on how well you can do this.

pinkydapimp

dontstop wrote: »

Pretty much this.

I dabbled with the idea of a sales role and found that my personality wasn't a match at all. Most of the guys are genuine sales guys and the customers they interface with have no interest in the product itself but more about the partnership/relationship think the "wine & dine" experience. I sat next to the sales guy in my old Job for a few months and most of the conversations were very light on technical details more on managing the customer relations (how's the family/let's go for a round of Golf this weekend/did you get the bottle of wine I sent) but then very quickly moving to aggressive (How many orders will you be taking this quarter/I can do a 5% discount on this).

My advice would also mirror Russells you need to move into any role that will require you to hussle big time. Work as a commission salesman at a local store, work behind a bar. Get used to being face to face with your customer and pushing them for the upsell. Your wage will literally be based on how well you can do this.

My experience has been quite different. Sales engineering roles can range from very technical to not very technical. Typically, they lean very technical especially in the Networking and security space. Alot of the real salesy stuff is handled by the sales rep. We typically arent getting into pricing and negotiating. Our job is to get the technical win, demo the product, be the SME at the meeting and build relationships. Often we are essentially consultants but of course our job is to solve problems using the software/hardware we are selling so you will need to learn how to influence and sell when interfacing with people. But your not going to be cold calling and doing things like that and it is nothing like being on a sales floor somewhere IMO. But i guess that experience cant hurt. Though i would suggest joining your local toastmasters and practice public speaking there.

Additionally, pay in my experience is quite different than a pure sales role. You usually get a very strong base and then Commission(which might be anywhere from 10-50% of your base. So your not typically as hurt by not getting a sale as your sales rep would be as they typically are mostly commission based. However, you always want that commission.

There are entry level sales engineering roles. I would try to start there. Additionally, post sales engineering, which is more delivering services(i.e. installing software/hardware) is also a nice in as it leans more technical but you still get to be customer facing. So if you think you will like this route, i would go this direction.


If you have any questions let me know. I have been doing this a while.

Good luck whichever direction you choose.

UnixGuy

@pinky:

How about traveling? I find sales/presales having to travel a lot and that can have an impact on lifestyle.

What's been your experience like?

pinkydapimp

UnixGuy wrote: »

@pinky:

How about traveling? I find sales/presales having to travel a lot and that can have an impact on lifestyle.

What's been your experience like?

Depends on the job. i did a high travel role for 8 years. I was single with no kids back then so i enjoyed it. But now that im married it wouldnt work. But back then, i loved it and got to travel the world for free and rack up outragous flyer miles and points. Its not that bad if you have a good travel policy. I was lucky. I could block off a day for travel so i would only fly during the day. So many times i would fly monday, work tues-thurs, then fly out on Friday. But YMMV. Im heard of others where it can get crazy. I never had to stay away for more than a week at a time.

Many roles require travel but alot of companies try to keep travel limited to driving distance to save money. But yea this will depend on the role and company.

dontstop

I want to leave the technical side of IT and pursue a career in technical sales as it relates better to my personality.

Sorry I'll prefix my comment with these were "Sales" guys. They dealt with technical products but it didn't mean they were Pre-sales Engineers or SE's. My impression from OPs post was that he wanted to an in depth technical role to something a little more "soft". So my post was aimed more at the zero-technical all sales roles.