It entrepreneurship 10-how difficult it is to train employees to change from technology to sales

Recently, with the boss of a company to communicate with the company's team has several technical backbone, he has trained more than 1 years of technical backbone, but currently their company is very short of sales staff, especially experienced sales staff. and the technical backbone of these 2 people are also thinking from the technology to the sales staff transformation. At the same time, the boss also strongly support their own technical staff to change. Although the transition from technical staff to sales, at present in his circle, he saw the probability of success is very low, a few years down he only saw only one person transformation success, and this person is able to succeed because he is very clever, also very diligent, but this is only a case, do not need to be representative. The transition is risky, but he feels that the risk has to be tried.
The boss believes that the current software industry sales, is not the original with the sales staff "eloquent" on it, the need for sales staff with certain technical skills, such sales success rate will be greater. And now the customers are also smart, looking at the sales staff will only be fooled, and will not do practical things, the customer's heart there is no bottom. At the same time for the personal development of employees, the transformation of sales success, it will have a better income in the space, and if the company can cultivate such sales technology double repair talent, you can consider the company after the establishment of a branch also has a comprehensive talent. Based on the above considerations, the boss will transfer the two technicians to the sales position, let them start running sales.
But after 3 months of doing sales for the two-bit backbone, said the sale of this thing they can not do, and asked to return to technical posts, and this time the boss has spent a lot of business opportunities for these two to go with, but also wasted some opportunities, if so returned, some heart unwilling. What's the problem with both of them in the process of selling? Put more eyes on the further, if the transition from technology to sales will encounter what problems.
1, technology to sell the mentality of the problem: there is no starting from zero mentality, that the technology has been very cattle, sales is a glib life, there is no technical content. At first there was no good mentality.
2, technical personnel communication problem: technical staff and customer communication method is not mastered, in the implementation phase you are a teacher, you have a certain degree of trust, the trust is the front of the sales staff do a good job of the foundation. And when you're a salesman, you're now going to suggest a customer's trust in you from the level of the customer's skepticism about your expertise, and it's hard if you don't have good communication skills.
3, the technical staff of the passive and sales staff of the initiative: technical personnel is passive, there are problems to solve problems, there are a lot of time and customers to soak together. But sales people are often to actively introduce your products, services and characteristics, but also good at a short period of time to understand the customer background, needs, competitors, key people and other information, its background is completely different.
4, the Sales Process Control capacity and project propulsion capacity: Sales process is a project to promote the process, because the technical personnel lack of awareness of project promotion, or prior to the implementation process to advance, is relatively solidified, and the sales process may be jumping, which is a different point.
5, innovative thinking ability: Sales are required to innovate, you are the recruitment of the customer is attractive, whether for your opponents did not think of. But the technology is orderly, pay attention to one is one, Ishi, this is completely different.
6, on-site adaptability: technical personnel because in the scene of the play is often no sales staff to the good, if coupled with the lack of training in this area, it is easy to be customer led the nose to go, the result in the customer that can only be a failure to end.
7, say again that technical personnel transformation needs the potential: technical transformation is also the need for potential, not everyone is suitable for sales, this is the boss needs to investigate.

So, after three months of trying, the boss realized that in China, most technical salespeople do not have a good technical background this is the reality. It is also true that many technology sales are more like salespeople than professional technical solution providers. It is normal that most of the company's salespeople are unable to meet their technical sales targets. Training technicians into technical sales is harder than heaven, and began to deny the idea.

However, by studying the success of large multinational companies, we will find that many successful technology sales were once excellent technicians. The question is how to make the transition from a technician to a sales process smooth and painless. In the transaction between enterprises, the biggest dissatisfaction of enterprise customers is "you do not understand our business." "Therefore, the first thing to succeed in transforming technicians into technology sales is not to adapt them to sales, but to let them understand their customers ' business." Happily, many technicians are very much in recognition of the concept of "understanding the customer business." Many technicians are promoted to management positions by participating in training or participating in business meetings and participating in related business. The technicians who know the business best are the number of it programmers. In the past, technicians were indulging in a cool software program, a database, or a problem solving for a customer, without having to understand the customer's business. Later, technicians were pushed to the forefront of the business. They are not hiding behind the desk to do the service on it, but also need to see customers, understand their needs and then provide customers with some help to improve the efficiency of the guidance. The transition from a pure technician to an "ERP consultant" is a slow, tortuous and painful process. However, many IT professionals now understand both the business needs of their customers and the ability to deliver innovative technology solutions. Since many programmers can understand the customer business well, other industry technicians can do the same. The question is how to do it.

If you really want to transform today's technicians into tomorrow's excellent technology sales, the following guidelines are recommended:

1. In your technician team, know who prefers to deal with people, the most important thing is to help others solve problems.

2. Tell them that you will be entrusted with the task of providing better solutions to the problems that customers encounter.

3. Talk to the selected technicians about their ongoing projects, ask them what business challenges they are trying to solve for their customers, and whether they have come up with some better solutions.

4. At this stage, the technical staff have not changed the scope of the original project work, but let them know that if they have the opportunity to communicate with customers, they will provide better solutions.

5. Next, let the technician and sales to play sales phone, but not to do sales, but technical support for the status of customers to provide advice. It's a good idea to train your technician on some simple questioning skills and let the technician know something about the customer before you make a phone sale.

6. Let the technician work with the sales to complete this project.

7. Observe the performance of the technician throughout and provide positive feedback.

Through above, you can solve two problems:

1. After a period of training, some technicians soon turned into solution sales.

2. You will also continue to help the existing sales force, from single sales to professional solution sales. The successful transformation of technical personnel into technology sales is by no means just the seven steps above, and this guiding suggestion is just a guide. Multiple ways to Sell

In China, many technical sales are achieved by inviting customers to eat, which is what many technicians do not like, and the sales position has a very bad reputation.

However, as competition intensifies and pressure from all sides, many companies want to be able to provide customers with effective solutions through technical products and services, rather than the way they treat, eat, and give gifts in the past. This change is not easy and will be difficult, but it is a step that we must take in the face of growing demand from our clients.