I don’t write much about work
Because I like my job, and the people I work with.
Time changes everything, of course, but the fact is, not all change is good, and not all bad change can be recovered from. I have seen some changes to the industry in the last several years that, frankly, do not bode well for anyone.
The Japanese have fallen prey to their own hubris, at least all but a few companies. The Italians and germans have always been their own worst enemies and are using their skills at clusterfuckery to remake the world in their own image. The people here are too nutless to do anything about it.
Haas is doing pretty well, which pleases me. So are the Koreans, they are making some damned fine stuff at some good prices. US mfg being what it is, we are just on the downhill side of the bell curve and will be also rans in ten years. I hope I can ride the business into the ground- but I mostly hope I get to watch the people that did this to us lose their tiny minds as they supervise their own downfall.
16 comments Og | Uncategorized
If you can do, you will rarely teach and will never manage.
We carry the rest. It has always been so and will be so till the end of time.
Those who cant do, teach. Those who cant teach, manage. Those who cant manage, sell.
The paradigm is changing fast. There will be internet sales of big ticket items soon, cutting the parasites out of the equation.
I’d make an exception to the “those who can’t do, teach” concept in cases of, for lack of a better word, apprenticeship. Someone taught me how to do what I do. Someone probably taught you too Og, even if only the person who wrote the manual you used to teach yourself.
My very first Computer Science prof was someone who’d spent a full career at IBM, then went into teaching as a semi-retirement. I learned things in that very first class that I wouldn’t see for another three or four semesters. That was a hard-won A (only three people in the class got them), but it made the next couple classes MUCH easier.
Sure. And there are good retired people teaching or mentoring others as well. But what i said is true in at least 98% of cases. Id wager.
I suspect you’re right about most people whose profession is teaching fall into that category. I also suspect most actual teaching (whether in classroom or not) is done by the 2% you reference.
My wife majored in Special Education, because she wanted to help people. (Actually she wanted to study physical therapy before she found out she’d have to work on cadavers, but I digress). She got her degree and lasted one year before the administrative horseshit got to her. The education system lost a good one there.
Og, I’d be more inclined to invoke the 80/20 rule. Twenty percent of the people produce eighty percent of the work.
Carries over into sales, too. If I hadn’t acquired such a strong record of having actually learned, performed and accomplished in various fields in my 56 years, I’d absolutely suck in the sales job that feeds me.
No, I couldn’t do what you do, not without apprenticing under you for the next decade or so. But, I can understand the equipment, and I can translate what it is that the equipment does, and what your magic means to the function therein, to the customer.
And, I can do it in such a manner that they come to understand and appreciate the value delivered by your services.
So, were I in sales for your company, you and I would have a good partnership. Back when I sold PBX phone equipment, I lived more in the engineering department, than I ever did in the sales offices.
The engineers would tell me what the equipment could really do, and of equal importance, what it couldn’t do. And, they knew the competitor’s gear FAR better than did the regional sales VP.
And no, we really don’t want most customers buying capital equipment on a “click here” basis. Most of ’em aren’t qualified to even know what’s state of the art, what’s proven, and what’s obsolete.
My job is to sell ’em on the overall value of a solution, not just on a price.
A truth in sales… the right engineer can always be the best salesman. Just so long as he has a working portion of the necessary skill-set. I’ve had the pleasure of working with two of the best, and they were the most “self-managing” reps I’d ever hired. The good thing? Only had to show ’em a sales principle or concept once, and they’d roll it around, internalize it, and make it “theirs” so smoothly, that the customer never saw a sales “technique”, but rather, just a smooth flow of relevant information.
The worst? Any recent college graduate, especially those from a marketing major. Spare me, please!
Conversely, it’s the exceptional salesman who lurks back in the tech area, or the shop floor, and learns all he can about the equipment, it’s operating principles and the talents (such as yourself) who make the stuff sing!
When both the techs and the salesman have the requisite talents, both can eat far better together, than by either, alone.
Parasite, my ass.
Respectfully,
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
Jim, youre a salesman the way im the queen of england. You do what you do because of your knowledge, mot despite it. THAT is what im talking about.
My dad was a field engineer for CDC for nigh on 30 years. He said, many times at the dinner table “I spend much of my day disabusing the customers of the lies that Sales told them to get the deals.”
Once had a customer call up and ask how to do something in the software. I told him that it did not exist, but he told me the salesman had said the software could do that. About 3 days later it could. I don’t know if they ever made the sale as not long after that event I was on the street again.
I must have made one of the owners mad when I brought the shortcoming up in one of our weekly meetings.
I can do a lot, I just am not very nice. Or at least that is what people tell me.
Salespeople are ignorant evildoers with the ethics of a slug and should be killed.
I hate selling, despite that it’s my career. I love making. I love the most selling what I make. When I get in THAT groove, I get customers who call me a genius and are willing to spend five figures for my work. The rest of the time, I deal with whiney little bitches who nitpick on price and never seem to get the point on facts and reality. See why I hate my job?
I suspect most in my and Jim’s position would agree.
M
(Sales _managers_ are the worst, of course, combining the evils of salepeople with the evils of managers. They’re like some unholy hybrid of Lucifer and Pee Wee Herman.)
I have known good people who were in sales, but they all came to it from real world jobs, and most of them hated the sales part. These people are vastly different from “run of the mill” commercial/industrial sales. To get a good idea what i mean watch glengarry glenross. This also does not apply to counterpeople or their counterparts.
Was in sales too. Granted it was Navy Recruiting….but…we were given the applicable “tried and true” boilerplates to memorize…and spew as the occasion warranted. What Jim said above, is really the way to go. Internalize “the pitch”, make your own.
I knew my product, and I loved presenting it to anyone who would listen/was interested in it. I had some issues with closing (who out there wants to hear a no, especially after pouring their heart into what they were doing). And I also did not want to (and didn’t) force anyone into joining. I wanted Sailors who, for any number of reasons, wanted to be part of “My Navy”…to have the opportunity to become a Sailor I would welcome into my work center/ship/command.
And yes, Glengarry Glenross really hits it on the head. Our penance for missing our monthly numbers (And despite anything you may have heard to the contrary, we did have quotas/goals assigned every month which had to be met.) was to stay well past 5pm making cold calls. They became easier to make (if somewhat less successful) the more anti-freeze was added to our respective coffee cups.
Sad but true… And no, they won’t care…
I saw what you did there, Tam.