Tech Leader Pro

Tech Leader Pro podcast 2023 week 37, engineers doing sales

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Sometimes software engineers need to do sales, so we might as well get good at it.

Notes:

  • This week an engineering colleague and I found ourselves in an unplanned sales pitch.
  • We scheduled a call to discuss post-production support of our application with one of our customers, and found that the customer in question was not bought into the application at all.
  • Their basic response can be summarized as "why do we need this application anyway?".
  • There were no sales or product guys on the call, so as two senior engineering guys, we launched into an impromptu sales pitch regardless.
  • It reminded me again on the importance of engineers having basic sales skills. Dedicated sales teams are still required, and obviously engineers should not take that on full time, but this example illustrates why we should be happy and capable to this this sometimes.
  • If the engineers working on an application do not understand the problems that they are solving for their customers, then they will struggle to articulate the benefits of the application they are building for them.
  • What I am working on this week:
    • A rich vein of content creation since I am spending less time on X.
    • Blog: "Leaders lose the right to avoid conflict" - https://techleader.pro/a/612-Leaders-lose-the-right-to-avoid-conflict
    • Blog: "Subscriber reply spamming on X is the new SEO" - https://techleader.pro/a/611-Subscriber-reply-spamming-on-X-is-the-new-SEO
    • Media I am enjoying this week:
      • Starfield.
      • Diaspora by Greg Egan.
      • Foundation season 2.

        • Notes and subscription links are here: https://techleader.pro/a/613-Tech-Leader-Pro-podcast-2023-week-37,-engineers-doing-sales

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        Tech Leader ProBy John Collins