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> Do sales people have something important other than their interpersonal skills? Consider the difference between my dad telling a joke at dinner and a standup
by visakanv 10y ago
> Do sales people have something important other than their interpersonal skills?
Consider the difference between my dad telling a joke at dinner and a standup comedian doing a 2 hour set to a sold out arena. They both technically are "just telling jokes", but there's a lot more that goes into the latter – pacing, rhythm, crowd control dynamics, an extensive repertoire, so on and so forth.
Similarly, great salespeople have 'advanced interpersonal skills'. They have a great understanding of human motivations, how people think about how to make decisions, and they're great at systematically breaking through worries and concerns and so on. They also typically have great networks and relationships with others, which can be very useful.
But yeah, I wouldn't hire a sales person until much later either.
- danvasquez29 10y agoit's not just the skills, but the dedicated time. Cultivating leads and developing marketing plans takes time that you as a tech lead shouldn't have and skills that you probably don't either. It's a full time job to do well, and your technical people's time is too valuable to have them half-assing it.
- user5994461 10y agoand we should add that the technical people have probably under average interpersonal skills so it's really a bad use of their time to put them to sales. An average sales guy would do better.
- quirkot 10y agoA big part of the value a successful salesperson brings to the table isn't "I can talk well," but being adept at A) determining who is valuable to talk with B) finding out how to speak to them C) in the language they use to make decisions
- falloutx 10y ago> great salespeople have 'advanced interpersonal skills'. but what about an average sales person. He might just have 'normal interpersonal skills', by 'sales pro', I meant an average sales person though. For average salesperson, their difference from normal developer's interpersonal skills might not be that much.
- bootload 10y ago"Similarly, great salespeople have 'advanced interpersonal skills'. They have a great understanding of human motivations, how people think about how to make decisions, and they're great at systematically breaking through worries and concerns and so on." Good points. I always think to myself, "what product are you selling and to whom?" In the case of startups selling technical users, are advanced interpersonal skills required where a demonstration trumps talk. Can the most verbal hacker do the sales ... or are we talking post VC or startup at the 20-30 ppl scale?