Working With Sales

I have been taking a break from my typical Technical Architect design-related duties the past couple of weeks and have been working with the sales team on a deal for a large media company. It has been interesting to see the sales guys in action since I usually don't get involved in a project until after the sale has been completed.

The sales/consulting dichotomy is particularly interesting. The sales guys deal with much higher-level requirements than we do in consulting. As a result, the solutions that sales pitches often differ significantly from the solutions that consulting actually implements. I think it would be an interesting experiment to have some of our sales engineers actually work on an implementation that they have sold. In addition to providing a feedback loop to the sales process, such an experience would have the added benefit of lending our sales engineers additional legitimacy. Statements such as, "I just implemented Feature X at Company Y last month and here's how we did it" have incredible power with customers.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to wear a different hat for a couple of weeks and it looks like we are going to get the order!