I would not want to be in the freelance tech support business

[John Masterson]

...they had nice photos of an employee driving up to the door at 2AM. disabling the alarm system and then loading several boxes into his van...the employee in question was one of their top salesman. 

This alone speaks volumes about the type of sales they encourage, and the type of personality who fits into their sales model.

[datagirl]

Back in the late 1980's - early 1990's I worked at a "computer store."  I was in software training and support.  Many of our top sales guys (and gals) were former car salespersons.  This was back before the average person could afford a home computer, so most of the clients were businesses and a few upper-middle-class types.  The sales folk worked accounts and did rotation on the sales floor out front.  Many were technologically challenged, but boy did they know how to make a sale!  They knew the lingo and key phrases to use, even if they did not really understand all the workings "under the hood."  They got the big bucks, including commissions.  I, on the other hand, had to really *know* how to make the box do what the sales folk told the customer it would do, making only slightly more money than I did teaching math in the public and private sector - and not as good benefits..  Got some war stories, but that's another thread.

The moral of the story is that retail businesses will always reward sales above all else.

-DG

[Richardk]

The moral of the story is that retail businesses will always reward sales above all else.

That's true for nearly all businesses. I recall running corp salesman reports for a place that made boxes. I couldn't believe that some of them were making low 6-figure commissions at a time where that was really good money. And some of them only finished high school but were great at sales.

Here's a war story from a co-worker (techie) that went on sales calls with the sales person, who did the "intro" and then the techie made all the magic happen and answered all the questions. It wasn't long before he found out how much the sales person was making and asked for a cut since the sale wouldn't happen without him. They said no, so he found a better job.

Right or wrong, commissions motivate but at this point I think BB has bigger issues.
 

[The Gorn]

Salesmen should get paid a lot.  The job is psychologically brutal. Prospecting can make you feel like shit. And the action of putting yourself out there can feel totemic of baring everything about yourself that you consider embarrassing or not up to par.

Check this out. I have been reading this book over the holidays in order to diagnose some of my issues with prospecting: The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance.

The authors have determined a taxonomy of 12 separate and deep-seated "mental hangups" that afflict those who must make initial contact with prospects.

The book also has prescriptive therapies to help with or eliminate the problems.

I identified about 5-6 from their set of problems that I definitely have.

From reading this book I am wondering who, exactly, is a "natural" sales person who has none of these reluctance symptoms.

So it's fluffy but it's hard work of a different sort than programming or other IT work.

Here's a war story from a co-worker (techie) that went on sales calls with the sales person, who did the "intro" and then the techie made all the magic happen and answered all the questions. It wasn't long before he found out how much the sales person was making and asked for a cut since the sale wouldn't happen without him. They said no, so he found a better job.

I have a friend who is a sales engineer - exactly the role you're describing - for an IBM business partner. When I lost $30K in the stock market a few years ago, he lost $400K. That gives some relative idea of his assets. He's made a shitload in sales.

[choppedwood]

I think of sales as asking the pretty girl to dance in jr high and getting rejected over and over and over.  Pretty soon it doesn't matter and then it's just a numbers and technique problem assuming, of course, that the product isn't a complete mess.  Most of us, and I'm definitely in this group, don't keep asking long enough to toughen up.