If you're an engineer, a scientist, or other technical creator. STOP thinking your job does not involve sales. It does. You aren't exempt just because you know a lot of math.
If you've built something you must sell it. Your solution might be superior to every alternative, but if you can't communicate how or why that is, then it's usually as good as worthless. If you're not communicating directly to a customer, then you're communicating your solution's value to your own manager or colleagues; it's still a matter of selling.
Back when I was an engineering intern, a fellow intern built the most intense excel spreadsheet I'd ever seen. This one document saved our company at LEAST $25,000/year and made our work drastically safer and less labor-intensive. The caveat to such a spreadsheet was that it required at least an hour of training, and several practice attempts before its value could be unlocked by other engineers. Convincing busy engineers to take the time to train with something an intern created required SELLING the solution, not just doing the analysis and solving the problem.
Funny enough, this intern was NOT an experienced nor effective salesperson, nor did she care if her tool was widely used. After the summer, the internship was set to end and it would've made no difference to the intern how valuable her work ended up being.
It was a manager that needed this tool the most who took on the evangelization efforts. That manager was the tool's biggest fan and understood the tool's true value.
If you are having trouble spreading your solution far and wide, look for the person who has the greatest A.) need for your solution, and B.) ability to vociferously spread the word.
If you are good at analysis and problem solving, start getting good at selling your solutions.
Comments