Welcome back to another edition of T-SQL Tuesday! For edition #196, this month’s host James Serra asked that we participants, write about a career risk that we’ve taken.
I went into Sales.
Sales? Eww, No Way…
When I was a little child, apparently I had said that I wanted to be a salesman when I grew up. This is most likely because my father ran a small b2b business and was essentially a salesman. But then as I got older, I became a hardcore techie nerd and my career took me to the realm of SQL Server as a database developer and DBA. And I loved it… but, things did stagnate for me.
Then, about 9 years ago, things took an interesting twist for me. I got a Twitter DM out of the blue, from my friend Scott Fallen, asking if I was interested in joining his team at SentryOne as a sales engineer. And I’ll be honest – I had ZERO IDEA what a sales engineer was. I never knew that such a role or career path existed!
Sales is Scummy… or Is It?
I’ll be brutally honest. For most of my career, I thought very poorly of sales. I was biased because I had too many negative experiences with sales who were simply chasing profit… aka the shady used car salesperson persona. But I gave SentryOne a shot because I knew their company culture well – one of building partnerships and supporting the SQL Server community. And I’m glad I did, because the SentryOne culture absolutely was embraced by their sales org.
It was this different sales culture that changed my perspective on Sales as a whole. I learned how sales can be a jointly beneficial engagement. Yes, on the seller side, I am motivated to sell product or services to make money. BUT I am also there to HELP YOU… help you overcome a challenge or obstacle. Of course the nuance here is that I am not giving away free consulting, but rather showing you how your challenges can be solved with the product or services that my company is selling.
The other important key is the relationship. Orgs with a positive sales culture believe in building long term partnerships and relationships. The proverbial scummy used car salesman is motivated by transactions – they just want to sell as many used cars as they can. But an org with a positive sales, wants to build and foster relationships for the long haul.
Sales Engineering is a Legitimate Career Path
In the past 9 years since, I’ve come to love Sales Engineers, aka “SE.” Titles often involve variations of Sales Engineer, Solutions Engineer, and Solutions Architect, but they all fundamentally involve the same thing… becoming a trusted technical advisor, to advise customers on how to solve challenges, using products and services that your company happens to sell.
And I’ve come to learn that those of us with prior technical career experience, can do really well in this career path pivot, because we bring our “in the trenches” experience to the table, to help relate with customer challenges and offer practical solutions to their headaches.
I’ll say that when I first started as an SE at SentryOne, my first few months, I thought I made the biggest mistake of my life. But then one day, it sort of clicked, and I haven’t looked back since. It was a big risk for me… stepping out of my comfort zone of being a technical data professional in the trenches. But looking back now… the skills I’ve learned… the perspective I now have… have helped me grow exponentially in ways I never could have imagined 10 years ago.
And if you ever want to learn more about being an SE, feel free to reach out. I am an active mentor and love helping people decide if this career path is right for them and how they can continue to grow in it and learn the lessons that I’ve learned.
Thanks for reading!
Every Byte Counts 