Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

In working with technology companies, I often hear “But, Mary, it’s a technical sale.” The CEO MUST HAVE “technical salespeople”…which means they hire engineers, with great technical resumes, to sell to other engineers.

Two problems with that:

1. Often the engineer’s peer at a potential customer company is – at best – an influencer, not the person who signs the check.

2. The technical skills often far outweigh the people skills. How many engineers (or research scientists or software developers) do you know who are also killer salespeople?

I’ll wait. Think of the list. (Crickets chirp…) Sure, there are some, but they’re few and far between.

Certainly for some industries and products, the sales team needs some deep domain and product knowledge. But that doesn’t mean they have to be super techie to grok the product or how to sell it. (Give me a patent and an hour, let me ask about four questions of the inventor…and I can tell you if it would translate into a product…or not. No lab time or PhD required.)

Regardless of what you’re pitching (a potential investment, a bio-tech product, software, a car…), the person receiving the pitch is thinking things like:

1. Will I look stupid if I sign up for this new, untested thing?
2. I’m really hungry, when is this guy going to quit yammering so I can go to lunch? (You know those salespeople that never take a breath? Never read cues? Don’t be one of ‘em. If someone is watching the clock more than you – or fidgeting in their chair, you need to act accordingly. Ask for questions. Suggest a break. Suggest going to lunch.)
3. I don’t have a clue what those terms mean, but I’ll look stupid if I ask. (And, if they’re not asking, they won’t buy.)
4. How will this make my job easier?
5. How will this stop people complaining to me that X doesn’t work? Note they’re not thinking “I’ve got a problem with X.” They’ve got a problem with the results of the problems with X.
6. Will this make me look good with the boss?
7. Will this make me look good with the other investors?
8. Will this save my job?
9. Will changing to this complicate my already complicated life?
10. Could I lose money with this? Yes, people like to make money. But, psychologically, people are far more afraid of losing what they already have than they are hyped about making more, if there’s any risk involved in making that more. (Change is always a risk.) A relic of our old foraging for berries and chasing mammoths days.

Related Posts:
“I Just Can’t Close A Deal. I Don’t Know How To Sell.”
Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Tags: selling, marketing troubleshooting, entrepreneur sanity check