Discussion
It would be a sales job, where you would sell software, IT solutions, IT services or Hardware to companies. The focus is on sales, if you a technical IT person with no sales experience or instinct, I would suggest something else. Sales people in IT can earn a lot, but technical knowledge is very much secondary to natural sales skill or instinct. If you don't do to well quickly in sales, you will not be able to hang around too long.
Techies with a sales slant to their role tend to be referred to as pre-sales. Usually accompany a proper greasy salesperson on larger outings to make sure that they don't promise more than is possible. Not really the kind of thing you'd just walk into though, usually recruited by the medium of the "sideways move" in my experience (not in a bad way though).
agent006 said:
Techies with a sales slant to their role tend to be referred to as pre-sales. Usually accompany a proper greasy salesperson on larger outings to make sure that they don't promise more than is possible. Not really the kind of thing you'd just walk into though, usually recruited by the medium of the "sideways move" in my experience (not in a bad way though).
LOL - spot on in my experience
Im in tech sales - 'graduated' into it after many years in ops, support, networks, consultancy etc...
the rewards can be great, but yes you do need to have the right personality for it...most of the junior guys I know started out in "internal sales" - this is basically doing pre-sales on the phone and cold calling...it can be a soul destroying job...if they are any good they graduate into the field after a year or 2. For the tech guys, I get most of my team from similar roles in competitors, customers, or as a last resort someone whos got the tech skills and is customer facing...but has a desire to move into sales.
You wouldnt just walk into a pukka field sales role - most of the time the sucessful guys have many years experience, a network of contacts...and the tech knowledge of the products and industry they work in - its surprisingly difficult to recruit these kind of people. Its not the sort of thing you can really learn/be trained to do in the traditional sense
If youve just graduated, i would try to get a job with a big IT services firm via graduate entry - like Capita, Cap Gemini, EDS, IBM etc ....do 3-5 years in a variety of roles, get lots of training and experience...then decide where to go from there
Hi there - I'm a bona fide software pre-sales consultant (not sure what bogie meant...)
Have a look at this thread from the business forum - I've defined the pre-sales role pretty much in my post.
http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.
Generally speaking IT sales and pre-sales people tend to have some experience under their belts. As mentioned, IT sales is pretty cut-throat, most companies will only let you miss your target once before losing your job on the 2nd bad quarter...
For pre-sales, I had 4 years of technical support (1st line and backline) with a major software company before making the switch. As you deal with IT administrators daily, you need good general IT knowledge and very good knowledge of your sector. I still get frequently caught out!
Have a look at this thread from the business forum - I've defined the pre-sales role pretty much in my post.
http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.
Generally speaking IT sales and pre-sales people tend to have some experience under their belts. As mentioned, IT sales is pretty cut-throat, most companies will only let you miss your target once before losing your job on the 2nd bad quarter...
For pre-sales, I had 4 years of technical support (1st line and backline) with a major software company before making the switch. As you deal with IT administrators daily, you need good general IT knowledge and very good knowledge of your sector. I still get frequently caught out!
A small company I used to work for had this sleazebag trailer-trash of an IT salesguy. Okay, he wasn't that bad, but he operated by his own rules. Came into the office when he wanted, took as long a lunch break as he wanted, forgot about all sense of office protocol and was just a law unto himself. He never offended the people on top though, or rather never pushed them hard enough over the edge.
But boy could the guy sell. Hearing him do his pitches on the phone is like listening to profit-margin poetry. He could get you to buy absolutely anything by sweet talking his way into your head, and landed virtually every potential deal he ever tried. The bosses loved him for the bottom line, made sure the comission package far outweighed his basic, and it was a happy existence.
We hated his guts, but he truly was an incredible salesperson.
But boy could the guy sell. Hearing him do his pitches on the phone is like listening to profit-margin poetry. He could get you to buy absolutely anything by sweet talking his way into your head, and landed virtually every potential deal he ever tried. The bosses loved him for the bottom line, made sure the comission package far outweighed his basic, and it was a happy existence.
We hated his guts, but he truly was an incredible salesperson.
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