Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

I frequently hear this from technology companies when they’re looking to hire engineers as salespeople or marketers. Well, sure, one needs to understand the fundamentals, but many of the products (sorry, guys) really aren’t that complicated when you look at them in terms of feature/function/customer benefit. And, of course, if you’re talking to a techie at the customer’s company, you should always have your own super-techie ready to talk to them in their own bits and bytes, feeds and speeds, rotations and gyrations.

But - and this is a BIG BUT - chances are good that the techie at the customer company isn’t the decision maker. He or she is much more likely far down the food chain, doing implementation. They may not even know the real decision maker (or check signer) by sight. So, your engineer salesperson is feeling good about bonding with their fellow geek - while your competitor’s “non-techie” CEO is golfing with the customer’s CEO; deal done between the 9th and 10th hole.

And that’s not the only spanner in the works with this “technical sale.” The customer’s techie may well be a gatekeeper/influencer/recommender and that’s where your geek bonding is crucial. BUT, the customers’ techie probably isn’t going to be very good at explaining your benefits to the bean counters and check signers. Don’t get me wrong - I love engineers and have worked with a lot of them. But most will admit that “selling” and “marketing” ain’t their thing. They break out in a cold sweat at the idea of having to make a non-technical presentation or marketing pitch.

Okay, so enough blathering about “techies.” This also applies to other types of sales. Your initial contact may not be the ultimate decision maker. If you’re writing a proposal or pitch for - say - a financial manager, keep in mind they may well have to turn around and sell you to their boss, who isn’t a finance person. Different messages, different hot buttons. So, be prepared and give your initial point of contact/influence the necessary support so selling you up the food chain is a no-brainer for them. (Do I really need to say you should start as far up the food chain as possible from the very beginning? Particularly if you’re trying to make a big and/or complex sale.)

Tags: business development, marketing, marketing troubleshooting