[erlang-questions] Ways to get started

[Garrett Smith]

On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 7:05 AM, Avinash Dhumane <avinash@REDACTED> wrote:
>
> How would a Sales person get himself started? No, I am not a programmer. But, I
> am tasked to sell an abstract form that embodies Erlang/OTP as its DNA. And, my
> prospects are the CXOs in the enterprise application software space. Please bear
> with me a little bit so that I can articulate my difficulties.

I've sold software and developer services and I'm also a programmer.
IMO selling packaged software is a completely different ball of wax
from services. I'm not sure what an "abstract form" is.

If what you have is a product, I think leading with the underlying
language is a mistake. Surely there's some business value to focus on.
Regarding Erlang/OTP you might just keep it high level: "You guys
heard of five nines? How about nine nines!" and reference the host of
Erlang success stories. That's a truth stretching exercise that people
on this list will wince at, but since you're the "sales guy" you get a
bit of a pass.

If you get drilled on the details, as Joe mentioned, punt over to your
sales support engineer. If she can't be there in person, have her on
speaker phone.

If you're selling services, I think you're in difficult waters. Unless
you have a deep track record in some vertical or some leveragable
asset, pitching an architecture, at least in my experience, will be
all up hill. If you have that track record or asset, lead with its
customer  value. The technical underpinnings are generally slated for
side discussions.

Best of luck -- I'd love to see Erlang make better in roads in the CXO circles!

Garrett