Can Technicians really Sell?
Can a great technican make a great salesman? There are many philosophies behind putting a technician on the sales floor but of course one needs to be ultra careful of where the new sales peron’s loyalty lies. I for one know that most technical people in the computer field are hard core Apple fanatics. Would they find it easy to push an unknown make of tablet to the unsuspecting customer? Technical people in the printer industry love HP – how do they promote Epson or Lexmark when they may have had poor support through the supplier spares chain?
By Book cover, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71118397
Ambassadors for manufacturers
I used to repair video machines or VCRs. Give me a VHS any day over Betamax. Why? VHS was easy money, Betamax could be tricky as hell to fix although the reproduction of video on the first models (and more recent) were of a far higher standard than that of VHS. (just look at the specs). Usually, or logically speaking, the specification of high end models of any product in any market should be better than the low end or entry level models. In the computer industry often the sales person is a technically minded person – they have to be. But have they actually had the experience to determine what is rubbish and what is not? Most probably – but only through hearsay. What about vehicle manufacturers. A friend of mine only used to advocate manufacturers Nissan and Ford – he was a very good mechanic (working for Nissan) but would have made a bad salesman on the VW floor.
Buying based on Experience
I used to be an avid motorcycle enthusiast in my younger years. My first bike was a Honda 50cc. The engine was more on the workbench than in the bike. Later on I progressed to the XR500R which also gave untold problems, piston hitting the valves just out of warranty (cam chain). I had a Kawasaki 750Z, a twin which never let me down although the regulator did fail. I then owned a Suzuki 550. This was from the Katana range, endless issues . My dad had a Yamaha 500cc twin. Burnt a hole in a piston. Which manufacturer would I go to when I buy another bike? Kawasaki. Yes, I am biased – in every case we were negligent, low maintenance and a stupid buy that left me wheel-less. But I am biased – I’ll buy a Kawasaki although Honda is world renowned for it’s reliability (and special tools required to do a job).
Scott Adams The Dilbert Principle (known as the Peter Principle)
Fixing and Selling
I come from the marine industry. In the marine industry the best sales people are the people that have worked in the field and are technically involved – in some companies the sales people are still active in the repair and service of the same equipment they sell. Did you know that Furuno is world renowned for being extremely reliable. I would not have a problem selling Furuno for that very reason. There was some very dodgy British equipment out there thirty years back – the Japanese always seemed to make things better. Industrial espionage or just knowing that if you buy a Toyota you cannot go wrong. Make no mistake the Chinese are heading that way as well. The South Koreans already lead the field in smartphone technology (ahem!). The Chinese make the best motherboards. Or is it the cheaper, more bang for the buck technology that makes them so popular.
Feel good Experience
No, a technician is going to be biased and the older he becomes the more biased he will also be. I know a Suzuki mechanic that has never ridden any other bike. Not because he cannot but because he doesn’t want to. I bought a 550cc Katana – the reports stated that the engine was bomb proof because of the roller bearings on the crank. A hydraulics specialist whom races karts told me that the biggest load of rubbish on the market was the 550cc Suzuki motor – the roller bearings used to give trouble and were very expensive to replace. Now we are really going nowhere. Suzuki good – Suzuki bad. Decca good – Decca bad. Nissan good – Nissan bad. However, all this information from people that either had a feel-good experience or left with a bitter taste.
Selling and Service - the one compliments the Other
Let’s look at Intel, the mammoth CPU manufacturer. Do they really manufacture their own CPUs? See here:- Intel Fab18 Factory Tour in Kiryat Gat, Israel. Their motherboards are manufactured by Foxconn. Would a sales person have a problem selling Intel CPUs. No. Would a Texas Instruments salesman have a problem selling Intel CPUs? I doubt it although he may have a problem moving their technology. A salesperson in any industry should be there because they have a passion for selling and likewise, hopefully, the technician has a passion for repairing things and making it better. The rewards are different, commission versus satisfaction of completing the repair but both come down to acknowledgement. Go to any retailer or distributor and you’ll quickly find out who the top sales and technical people are. When I had my own business I quickly realised that the money is in selling and repairing. The one complements the other. A business which only relies on sales may run into difficulty if they are not service centric but there are many businesses out there that only do repairs relying on excellent customer support through trust. Many of these repair businesses have grown during the recession while sales has plummeted.
Technical people in Sales
I find it unfortunate that most companies remunerate their sales staff too well compared to the technical staff. Technical work may seem unglamerous, may seem to be an unnecessary overhead if your core business is selling but after all if you are providing a service you had better look after the ‘humble’ technician. A good technician is hard to come by. Good technical staff do their own reading, their own discovering and make their own conclusions. While a good technical person may not make a good sales person they should be used more frequently in an advisory capacity, especially in sales training. I know of two listed companies where the technical staff are kept behind closed doors like dogs in a kennel while the sales people enjoy the fruits of success. This of course does not bode well for staff retention. Of course many technical people prefer to be away from the limelight and don’t mind the sales staff stealing the show. Often there is resentment through. Good companies nurture their technical staff and in most cases there is a strong incentivisation in place to motivate. Profitable companies have a strong bond between the technical and sales divisions.
So should we put the good technical people that want to sell in the sales environment?
Earn more money by messing up
Like the old adage, “he messed up so we made him a manager” there are many pros and cons to this. If the technician wants to become a sales person then it may be a good idea to move him or her into this position. It may not be a good idea to make changes without getting buy in from the technician though. Many technical people do not like the limelight – they do it for self satisfaction and passion derived from childhood. Many technical people are also not financially driven. Companies see this and do not remunerate accordingly – because a person is not money driven doesn’t mean that they should not be earning a good wage. Sadly this happens more often than company management care to admit. My own experience is such that technically minded people shy away from management duties, especially admin work. Technical people are less forgiving when it comes to promoting a shoddy product. Yes, all companies have had a white elephant or two and a product skeleton in the cupboard. Many technical people abhor sales people – they find them lazy and arrogant. Yet, if the company culture is such that it allows for bonding between different divisions (often it doesn’t), the right technical person can adapt to a sales position.
Breaking the Peter Principle
I’ll end off here by mentioning two things I have come across in many industries where technical people have crossed the floor – many were either useless before in a technical capacity or found to be useless at sales, not all though. Secondly and something to always remember – a good technican is hard to come by. By moving him or her into a sales position you will need to replace that person and the cost implication here has to be taken into account. Likewise moving a good technician into a management position can be a very costly thing to do – much to the detriment of many companies out there. Read The Peter Principle, where employees rise to beyond their level of incompetence.