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How does one without sales experience break into tech sales (b2b)?

by joonix 14y ago

rdl 14y ago
I'd probably start as a sales engineer or maybe as a consultant. Sales Engineers range from almost "a developer who also talks to customers to get requirements and feedback" to "a submarine salesperson" (i.e. the Palantir Forward Deployed Engineer). If you want to learn sales, obviously pick one where you're in contact with existing salespeople and ideally where you get paid a % of sales on top of salary. Having a strong technical background does help in selling some b2b products, especially developer products. (or really, "having strong domain knowledge does help in selling a domain-specific b2b product", i.e. being an MD selling medical IT)
carterschonwald 14y ago
Talk with people. It's really just that simple! I'm stumbling into picking up b2b skills myself. That said, I'm lucky that I have a super technical biz where I'd only allow core engineers to be running the b2b sales convo with customers.
- nanijoe 14y ago
  As if b2b Customer actually involve Engineers in the decision making process
  - carterschonwald 14y ago
    Most businesses you are correct. My customers are not most businesses and never will be! :-) Having customers you're excited to help succeed can not be underestimated as a valuable motivator. Most businesses aren't interesting to me, so I'm incredibly lucky that I'm in a space with really cool businesses. :-)
- carterschonwald 14y ago
  I should also clarify that I mean that for what I'm doing at wellposed, the individuals representing wellposed in a sales conversation essentially need to be the core engineers at wellposed.
amy_seqmedia 14y ago
It's all about who you know. Go to parties and meetups all of the time, then go to work where all the other talented people work. Rinse & repeat for best results.
jusben1369 14y ago
Assuming you're a developer......Pick a Y Combinator company that has gotten to the point where they are hiring sales people (ie probably 18 months + old) PG has a mantra that you should hire engineers/developers to do a lot (all?) tasks - non engineering ones. I think you'll therefore find companies with a pre-disposed culture to hiring developers into sales roles. If you do this try and ensure that your boss or at least whomever runs sales overall does have a strong selling background. Like any discipline you'll want a great mentor - especially at your first gig. The recommendation to start as an SE is also a great idea.
philfreo 14y ago
Come join Elastic (https://elasticsales.com/ https://elasticsales.com/) and we'll teach you.

How does one without sales experience break into tech sales (b2b)?

by joonix 14y ago

How does one without sales experience break into tech sales (b2b)?

rdl 14y ago

I'd probably start as a sales engineer or maybe as a consultant. Sales Engineers range from almost "a developer who also talks to customers to get requirements and feedback" to "a submarine salesperson" (i.e. the Palantir Forward Deployed Engineer). If you want to learn sales, obviously pick one where you're in contact with existing salespeople and ideally where you get paid a % of sales on top of salary. Having a strong technical background does help in selling some b2b products, especially developer products. (or really, "having strong domain knowledge does help in selling a domain-specific b2b product", i.e. being an MD selling medical IT)

carterschonwald 14y ago

Talk with people. It's really just that simple! I'm stumbling into picking up b2b skills myself. That said, I'm lucky that I have a super technical biz where I'd only allow core engineers to be running the b2b sales convo with customers.

nanijoe 14y ago
As if b2b Customer actually involve Engineers in the decision making process
- carterschonwald 14y ago
  Most businesses you are correct. My customers are not most businesses and never will be! :-) Having customers you're excited to help succeed can not be underestimated as a valuable motivator. Most businesses aren't interesting to me, so I'm incredibly lucky that I'm in a space with really cool businesses. :-)
carterschonwald 14y ago
I should also clarify that I mean that for what I'm doing at wellposed, the individuals representing wellposed in a sales conversation essentially need to be the core engineers at wellposed.

amy_seqmedia 14y ago

It's all about who you know. Go to parties and meetups all of the time, then go to work where all the other talented people work. Rinse & repeat for best results.

jusben1369 14y ago

Assuming you're a developer......Pick a Y Combinator company that has gotten to the point where they are hiring sales people (ie probably 18 months + old) PG has a mantra that you should hire engineers/developers to do a lot (all?) tasks - non engineering ones. I think you'll therefore find companies with a pre-disposed culture to hiring developers into sales roles. If you do this try and ensure that your boss or at least whomever runs sales overall does have a strong selling background. Like any discipline you'll want a great mentor - especially at your first gig. The recommendation to start as an SE is also a great idea.

philfreo 14y ago

Come join Elastic (https://elasticsales.com/ https://elasticsales.com/) and we'll teach you.