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@ddingus Thanks! These are all great. I am definitely interested in sales more than pre-sales. I want to qualify leads and work smart instead of building proof

@ddingus Thanks! These are all great. I am definitely interested in sales more than pre-sales. I want to qualify leads and work smart instead of building proof-of-concepts for badly qualified leads. The question is how do I get started in this. Do you have any suggestions for how to find VARs?

ddingus 11y ago
What tools do you use, or have familiarity with, or are interested in? Follow those back to the vendors, and then from the vendor, find out who is in their channel sales organization. Have lunch with the regional managers and basically pitch them on what you want to do. They will either see potential or not, and if they do, they will have some of their partners in mind and hook you up for a follow on discussion. That dialog will tell you a lot. You can also go to the VAR directly. Many enterprise B2B software houses have a direct sales force for larger accounts and a channel sales force for smaller accounts. (vars) For a given kind of enterprise software, there are also services typically associated with them. You can do sales on both, or one or the other. Services through their organization are targeted toward the larger or major accounts. VAR organizations are more oriented on smaller or growth type accounts. What you need is a keen interest in the software or service, ideally some experience using it, relevant industry experience, or willingness to do all of the above. The more you lack, the less you will get to start, but you can also get in and learn a lot too. I got my start in CAD. I love mechanical CAD, am really good at it, have a lot of direct, applied industry experience, and enjoy the sales process immensely. I do not do it full time at the moment, contracting instead, but that's also due to a career shift into management that I'm doing personally. That was a fairly easy path. Perhaps you've got some similar experiences to leverage. You may have to either: 1. Take a modest sales position to get some experience. That might mean inside sales, cold calling, etc... Those are considered foundation type things and they demonstrate your character as a hunter, farmer, etc... 2. Do some pre-sales to participate in deals and work your way up to sales. 3. Take much higher risk, like commission only sales, where their investment is low, and you can make it instead.

ddingus 11y ago

What tools do you use, or have familiarity with, or are interested in? Follow those back to the vendors, and then from the vendor, find out who is in their channel sales organization. Have lunch with the regional managers and basically pitch them on what you want to do. They will either see potential or not, and if they do, they will have some of their partners in mind and hook you up for a follow on discussion. That dialog will tell you a lot. You can also go to the VAR directly. Many enterprise B2B software houses have a direct sales force for larger accounts and a channel sales force for smaller accounts. (vars) For a given kind of enterprise software, there are also services typically associated with them. You can do sales on both, or one or the other. Services through their organization are targeted toward the larger or major accounts. VAR organizations are more oriented on smaller or growth type accounts. What you need is a keen interest in the software or service, ideally some experience using it, relevant industry experience, or willingness to do all of the above. The more you lack, the less you will get to start, but you can also get in and learn a lot too. I got my start in CAD. I love mechanical CAD, am really good at it, have a lot of direct, applied industry experience, and enjoy the sales process immensely. I do not do it full time at the moment, contracting instead, but that's also due to a career shift into management that I'm doing personally. That was a fairly easy path. Perhaps you've got some similar experiences to leverage. You may have to either: 1. Take a modest sales position to get some experience. That might mean inside sales, cold calling, etc... Those are considered foundation type things and they demonstrate your character as a hunter, farmer, etc... 2. Do some pre-sales to participate in deals and work your way up to sales. 3. Take much higher risk, like commission only sales, where their investment is low, and you can make it instead.