Abraham French

Sales people are terrified of an Engineer telling a Client that “we cannot do that”. The Sales person is working to understand the problem space of the Client and see how our company’s products or services can help solve the customers’ issues. Having an Engineer bring up technical limitations or give “top of mind” answers that limit the options to only what has been built, places the Sales person in the position of having to do “clean up” of conversations.

Software Engineers are irritated by unreasonable or over promised projects that did not take their expertise into consideration. A lack of understanding the Client’s problem space and the time and collaboration to find a solution causes stress. Relying on Sales people to fully describe the Clients needs is not sufficient for a proper solution.

Thus, both sides are often pitted against each other. Yet, if we consider time and ownership as factors, then a different process can arise.

First, the larger and more complex the project the longer it will take to start. Presenting the problems to the Engineers weeks before they start working on the tasks allows for the subconscious, or the slower (more powerful) thinking, to consider new options and solutions. Having questioning sessions with the Engineers and Clients, where they are only asking questions and not proposing answers, allows for a fuller picture of the Client’s problem space and for the Engineers to not flippantly give quick proposals.

Secondly, ownership matters. Having both the Sales person and the Engineer be co-owners of the company causes them to take a step back from their roles and think about the business as a whole. The Sales person is looking not just for sales commission, but also the surplus/profit of the company this year and next. The Engineer will also take seriously that the deal with the Client needs to be signed. The Engineer will be able to see that her role in the company is not just coming up with solutions, but helping in the whole process.