Help me get a IT sales job

March 2, 2011 7:06 AM

Help me get a IT sales system engineer position.

I have an interview coming up for a position as a IT sales system engineer. I'd be:

- Architecting new IT solutions
- Systems would include backup, storage, virtualization and MS systems.
- Assisting sales staff with understanding solutions and building sales proposals
- interface with manufactures
- demo products
- implement solutions

My previous experience is in IT operations management, mostly client/field operations. I've not worked in a sales environment however this fits with my future career goals. Because I was in management it's been some time (~5 years) since I was hands-on technical.

To prepare I've been researching and learning as much about the technologies and manufactures this particular company seems to center around.

What can I do to help my chances? I'm particularly thinking it would be helpful to understand the sales process more, pre and post. Anyone got any tips? What makes people successful in these types of roles? How can I make that comes through in my interview?

posted by patrad to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Your job will be translating nerd into english, and making sure the salesgoons only promise things your company can actually deliver. The key to success will be the ability to communicate complicated technical concepts with clarity and brevity, using buzzwords only judiciously. Do that, and you've nailed the interview.

Also, don't call them salesgoons until after you're hired.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:11 AM on March 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

The best sales engineers I've worked with (as a customer) have great depth and breadth of skills so that they could handle all sorts of questions. They may not know the answer but they had the research skills, the connections and the ability to follow up to find me an answer. They also not only understood the product features but how people typically used them and what problems they were trying to solve.

The worst sales engineers that I worked with were too narrowly focused. The appeared to be as dumb as a box of rocks as soon as you made one step outside their purview. You can't know everything but you should at least be familiar with areas where your product/technology integrates and hook me up.

Lastly, you need to be a great communicator because it is your job to make the technology that is being sold easy to understand and have its benefits touted. You need to be able to listen to a different customer problem every day, understand their pain points and then propose (and probably show) how your product makes their lives better. And not only makes their lives better but is worth the cost of acquiring and supporting your product.
posted by mmascolino at 7:30 AM on March 2, 2011

I am a career IT / tech sales guy that has been trying (unsuccessfully) to get into a more sales engineering orientated role. From my experience, every company is going to be more concerned with your tech skills than your sales skills. There seems to be an assumption in the tech world that it is easier to teach a nerd sales skills than it is to teach a sales guy tech skills.

First and foremost show that you understand the tech, and that you can converse with non-techies without losing them.

Oh, and Slap*Happy, we prefer the term sales weasel. ;)
posted by COD at 7:40 AM on March 2, 2011

Longer Term:

Work on your communications skills: see if you can get some public speaking experience (toastmasters, local nerd meetup, etc). Being able to present well is really important.

Also, see if you can get some time doing some technical writing- I've found that when I contribute to the proposal, it's more likely to win.


Shorter Term:

Work the linked in thing, try to track down contacts in common- folks you can namecheck during the interview so they know you have some credibility is huge.
posted by jenkinsEar at 7:55 AM on March 2, 2011

There seems to be an assumption in the tech world that it is easier to teach a nerd sales skills than it is to teach a sales guy tech skills.

That would be because it is. Sales is a soft skill; if you have the personality for it, you're halfway there. If a "nerd" has the sales mentality, then he can be a salesman. Developing legitimately useful technical skills is a more time- and effort-intensive process.

What can I do to help my chances? I'm particularly thinking it would be helpful to understand the sales process more, pre and post. Anyone got any tips? What makes people successful in these types of roles? How can I make that comes through in my interview?

Make sure you're familiar with things like requirement and risk analysis. One of your key tasks in this role would be preventing the salespeople from overpromising (short time frames, low budgets, too much scope creep). If you can get your hands on the PMBOK Guide, you might find it useful.
posted by sonic meat machine at 10:22 AM on March 2, 2011

Response by poster: That's interesting because most people I talk to the industry have told me: it's easy to teach tech skills, but you can't teach personality.

Requirement, risk analysis, TCO, ROI and PM skills are what I DO have going for me as my last roles were in operations. So good to hear that.

Thanks everyone, good advice!
posted by patrad at 1:56 PM on March 2, 2011