I’ve recently started a new journey and wanted to blog about it here quick.

DISCLAIMER: I am new to biz dev, this isn’t a guide, more of a journal entry for me to look back on (or 😂 at).

Then & now

Then - Over the past couple of years I’ve been an engineer in consulting and also within organizations. Engineering is fast paced, exciting, and typically never dull. Cool projects came and went faster than I would’ve expected and after a few years I had a decent list of professional certs earned (kind of like obtaining badges as a boy scout).

If you know me, you know I’ve made a few pivots in my career (if you’re eyerolling at that last statement, I wouldn’t blame you 😉).

Recently, I’ve started a cyber security firm called Breach Factor. From an engineering/sales engineering perspective I knew I was ready. I had worked in presales and have delivered numerous projects across different industries.

Now - What’s been new and challenging has been outbound sales & business development.

What’s different?

Instant gratification

As an engineer (delivery or presales), you are brought to the client as the “expert” on a platter. Whether you are on a presales call that sales has brought you into or you are already delivering a signed SoW. You are scratching that technical itch and solving some sort of engineering problem instantly.

This is something I’ve taken forgranted in my career, mostly because it’s all that I knew. Not that I didn’t respect or appreciate my sales colleagues, but I never really understood the amount of effort (and time) it takes to build trust with a client and identify a need.

Sales is a long game. Not every organization needs you or needs you NOW. Configuring a switch port to get a device on the network is fast and sales cycles can be slow.

Eating what you kill

This plays off the previous point of instant gratification. As engineers we are served the work (we get to eat our meal, already cooked). In sales it needs to be found (prospected) and cooked/prepared (sales process) in order to be eaten.

For a very long time I thought that “engineering is more important than sales” and from an engineer’s perspective that can make sense. If you’ve ever seen the work of a subpar engineering team, you know the negative impact that has to a business. I’m lucky to have worked with some of the best engineers out there!

However, does a business really exist without sales? Would you rather have a group of engineers on the bench or be booked out with many signed deals? I’ll let you decide that one.

CRMs & “touches”

If you’ve been an engineer in consulting you’ve likely used a CRM as apart of your workflow.

Sales brings in deal, deal is signed, and the project might be tracked in the same CRM. We keep an eye on the details (SoW items/tasks, deadlines, etc.), but probably not much else.

In sales the CRM is your world. So are “touches”. I wonder what came first, “touches” or “facebook pokes”? Probably doesn’t matter - but seriously…

How do you keep track of the tens of people you reach out to daily? Through the CRM. Did they actually open the email or was it Microsoft safelink doing its thing? I guess we will never know!

What if the roles were reversed?

As Josh Braun (sales leader & trainer) says - it’s important to speak your client’s “LINGO”.

One advantage of going into sales with a background of the field that you are selling is that you’ve been in your client’s shoes (and can speak their lingo). For me, a disadvantage is that I’m an engineer who overthinks and overengineers the meaning of things (for better or mostly worse)…

So, I wonder what it would be like to start fresh in a technical sales role without a tech background? Is it harder or maybe easier because you might be more trainable and less focused on the deep technical details?

Closing thoughts

Going from engineering to doing some outbound sales has been an incredibly eye opening process. If anyone in a sales role who has supported my engineering efforts in the past is reading this - YOU ROCK.