any good ideas on how to get into technical sales from a tech / analyst position

N2IT

Just curious if anyone had any creative ideas on how to make this transition? Or even a sales support role.

paul78

If such a role currently exist within your company, perhaps you can express your interest in helping in the sales process. Maybe start with sales support activities such as providing demos, creating the slides relevant to the technology being sold for the sales team, and answering the RFPs.

chanakyajupudi

I would love to hear the answer to that too !

N2IT

Thanks Paul for the great response.

I am more curious than anything, but the reply you posted makes a lot of sense. I'm interested if someone on this forum holds one of these positions. I am content with my job. However down the road you never know.

I've reviewed RFPs, SOW's, other contract documentation. I actually just shown a demo to an internal group which was a first. Always learning something......

paul78

I've personally never held that position formally but I do perform activities in support of sales. Although, I don't like doing demos so I leave that to the subject matter experts. But I do enjoy participating in sales pitches. A lot of it is about identifying the value that you would bring to a pursuit. If the decision isn't being made by a technical buyer or if technology isn't an influencer then there is less need for a technology angle in the pursuit. If you are working with a sales team that has well-developed sales pursuit plans, then it's a lot easier to figure out where you can add value to close the sale.

Personally - I think that having some level of sales acumen at some level is important in everyone's career development. Whether it's chasing a new prospect or selling an idea to peers and management - it's all about having persuasive influence.