Having worked for a number of different software companies, including starting my own here at OnePager, I've met a lot of people who sell software and professional services.
It's always interested me how some technology companies hire non-technical sales staff, and then backfill the technical role with sales engineers. Having been a sales engineer myself at one point, I certainly get that that skills in sales and skills in technology do not always go hand-in-hand.
Here at Chronicle Graphics, we've had some salespeople who are incredibly technical--people who know the ins and outs of our OnePager Gantt Chart software almost as well as someone in our product or tech support teams. At the same time, we have had salespeople who never even bothered to install our products. They sold on value alone.
We've been fortunate that both types of salespeople have been successful here at Chronicle Graphics, but it does make me wonder if the days of sales teams that aren't technically hands-on are numbered (and by that same token, what happens to sales engineering as a standalone role?). Doesn't it make more sense for companies to seek out tech-savvy sales teams? Are there instances where you don't want a tech-savvy sales team?
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