There’s something that has really gnawed at me for a while. Call it guilt. I’m a geek, a techie who has been dealing with technology since I was 11 years old. I’m 46 years old today and making a good living at it as an IT guy and programmer on the side. I don’t know how many times I’ve been approached by sales people and how often I’ve been irritated and hung up on them when they contacted me –“Bloody sales people” to stay politely. However a few years ago, I was thrust into a position where I had to start doing sales to help my team. Boy is life different when you have to sit in the other guys (or gals seat).
Contrary to us Techies, where our goals are often the next project, the next ticket or the next problem we need to fix. Usually there’s a beginning and end, and the satisfaction of a job well done that comes with it. Sales people don’t have it easy. They always have quotas they need to reach, a dollar objective that dangles over their head like a sword of Damocles. I don’t know how they live with the pressure. Doing mind-numbing call after call trying to reach a client who isn’t calling back, sending emails, trying to get any traction with someone. It’s such a hard task, I now understand and really sympathize with these guys.
Having sat in that chair for short span of time, I didn’t want to sit in that seat anymore. I prefer dealing with machines, fixing them, getting them to work and talk to one another, to me, that’s satisfying. Making work-around for problems that are hard to solve, or just getting things humming like Scotty in Star Trek (watching his engine room hum). To me, that’s the best feeling.
But hats off to sales people. I don’t know how they do it and I feel a lot of admiration for their persistence in the face of rejection. They certainly deserve the money they make when they are successful.
Respect.
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