Sales

So techies are supposed to be at odds with sales people right?

Wrong. If you think salespeople are worthless, try this experiment for me:

Build your programming “practice” up to 30 people. Be sure you remain the guy at the top, owning the responsibility for pulling together the $200k a month you need for payroll. Your perspective on the value of salespeople & process gets adjusted real quick :)

I am formally trained in the Sandler Sales methodology by a great guy here in Cincinnati, Mike Roth. I built a website for him years ago that remains a component of his site. The pages have been uglied up, though. And that brings me to my main criticism of salespeople:

Salespeople usually struggle to design marketing materials. They tend to want to add too much, and make everything scream with sizzle. They end up turning off prospects; they tried too hard. It’s usually wise to keep them away from the creative design process.