CREDIBLE TECHNICAL SALES TRAINING COURSES ARE RARE

When I began my journey of sales management in the high tech sector, there were no technical sales training courses, by my definition of what technical sales training courses should be.  There were lots of commercially available sales training courses that technical companies bought, but they all had one thing in common: They were all generic from a sector perspective.  I didn’t know of any that could really be defined as “technical sales training courses.”  The same sales training course taught to a computer company was the same course taught to a lumber company.

My journey led me to the CAD industry first, followed by my submergence into the world of CAE.  In a few short years, CAE became Design Automation, an industry on the upper end of technology and complexity.  From my view, at that time, there were still no technical sales training courses being offered to the high tech companies of my industry.

Because it was and still is so badly needed, I developed a strong desire to develop one of the best technical sales training courses anyone could hope for, and I decided to also write a book that would be a complete anatomy of the technical sale.  Closing the Whales is primarily devoted to the large technical sales campaigns, and it is truly an anatomy of the technology sale.

The starting point.  Credible technical sales training courses should start with the changing paradigm of technical products as far as market window and profitability are concerned.  The big change over the last several decades is the investment and return on investment paradigm shift.  For example, in the 60s and 70s, technical companies spent significant investment and time in the development phase of introducing a technical product, but the time in the market was a longer window.  Return on investment could be expected over an extended period of time.  All that changed.  In the 80s and 90s and certainly now, the product development phase is urgent, and the market window is brief; consequently, getting to the market in time became the battle cry of every sales force selling to technology companies.  Technical sales training courses must begin with that concept.  But you would be right if you said that that concept has been out there for over twenty years.  “What else”, you ask, “is unique to technical sales training courses, if they are to be worth the time and money?”

What is unique in selling technology is that the buying decisions must be one hundred percent right, because functionality and performance are such critical issues.  Since the decisions are so important, incredible detail must be examined.  The information exchanges and comparisons between vendors and buyers are much more than the information exchanges in the non-technical world.  Testing, too, is critical to the decision-making process.  The events of a high technology sale process are at least double and maybe triple that of non-technology sales.  Technical sales training courses must prepare sales forces for that environment.  Closing the Whales, does exactly that.

Another vitally important difference in technology selling is that applications engineers support salespeople.  And the management of the application engineers is equally as important as managing the sales force.  Technical sales training courses should address this subject.

 

Learn how to get the most from technical sales training courses. Get your copy of Closing the Whales today!