Jerry Gregoire is not your ordinary journalist. Before being "Editor at Large" for CIO Magazine, he was CIO for Dell Computer and Pepsi-Cola. He recently rediscovered a little-known fact:
A person could get shot for saying this, but chief information officer is not the hardest job in information technology. Technology sales is harder.
CIOs get 70 percent of their information about new and quickly evolving technologies directly or indirectly from salespeople, according to a study done for The Wall Street Journal. Scary, but not surprising.
So he decided to know even more about technology salespeople. And he found a book: How to Sell Technology: Technology Sales Is a Premeditated Sport, by Paul DiModica.
He was so thrilled by the book that he decided to meet the author. Here is a little excerpt from this interview.
What are the top mistakes people make when selling technology?
Well, first of all, most of them come to sell instead of listen. They're not prepared, and they tend to shoot from the hip. Second, they don't know what they're selling.
They don't understand their product?
No, it's deeper than that. They don't understand the value of what they're selling and, consequently, can't explain its value. And third, they sell technology instead of a solution.
Please remember that these words come from a salesguy, not from me. I know that many techies have a poor opinion of salespeople, but keep in mind that without them, you will not have a job.
Source: Jerry Gregoire, CIO Magazine, May 1, 2002 Issue
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