Sales for Engineers

I used to think sales was just for people in suits trying to trick you into buying things you don't need. Then I became a real estate agent and realized that sales is actually about empathy.

Engineers often fall into the trap of thinking the product should sell itself. "If the code is good enough, they will come." Spoiler: they won't.

Solving, Not Selling

The best sales process feels like debugging. You're trying to find the root cause of a user's pain and offer a patch. If your product fixes their bug, the sale happens naturally.

The Engineer's Advantage

We are trained to understand systems and logic. Use that.

• Understand the problem: Don't pitch features. Ask questions until you understand the bottleneck.
• Propose a solution: Show how your tool fits into their stack.
• Handle edge cases: Objections are just edge cases in the user's decision logic. Handle them gracefully.

You don't need to be loud to sell. You just need to be helpful.