What Engineers Can Learn From Sales
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Communication Skills
The article 'What engineers can learn from sales' discusses the benefits of engineers learning from sales techniques, with the HN community showing mild interest but limited discussion.
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Oct 18, 2025 at 11:07 AM EDT
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1. When a teacher (no doubt others as well) says "It doesn't work," that means "It doesn't work the way I want it to." and that's perfectly valid. People have a job to do, and twisting the job to fit the software's allowances, doesn't always work, though countless people changed their workflow to meet whatever "Office" allowed, in particular using a spreadsheet as a database.
2. There is a huge difference between efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency, for the sake of this argument, is getting things done right and on time, but your work may not fly (been there, done that) so effectiveness is coming up with something and being able to "sell" it, usually internally.
I recommend learning "sales 101" in terms of the basic psychology of selling and understanding needs and addressing them (even when you have to decode an unclear needs statement). I learned a lot transitioning from engineer to "sales engineer", and read a lot, so I can't recommend a short list right now.
Basics.
A. Go to where your customer is.
B. It's "Yes, AND", not "Yes, BUT"