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Today, we’re answering the big question: which is more important, sales or engineering?
Now, before we get started, we want to clarify that both sales and engineering are super important. You really shouldn’t have one without the other. Our goal is to figure out where your energy and money should be invested in those two topics.
Multitasking is looked at as a skill that will allow you to accomplish more. When it comes to MSPs, it’s not smart to multitask. You must have a main focus, and you shouldn’t prioritize everything. So, we’re here to help you decide what your main focus should be.
Let’s say you only have money for one new position—either a salesperson or an engineer. What do you think will benefit your team the most? We think it’s a new salesperson. Now, engineers, don’t get upset. Let us explain! You can be the greatest engineer in the world and bring a ton of different skills to the table. If you don’t have any clients to work with, then those skills won’t matter. You must sell your services in order to actually have anyone to work with.
Ultimately, if you don’t sell yourself, no one will know about you. If an organization is not growing, it’s dying. And, in order to grow, you must sell.
Let’s take a lawn mowing business for example. If you are looking to mow lawns, you have to tell your neighbors about what you’re offering. You could be really great at mowing lawns, but without telling anyone, you won’t make any money. If you become even better at mowing and upgrade your lawnmower but don’t sell your services, you would still be in the same place as before: not making money. When you sell your services to your neighbors, then your upgraded mower and enhanced skills will finally be able to pay off. But, it took selling to get you there.
The real superstar in an IT organization is the engineer who can sell. This is the person who understands all the technical work and can talk to clients to figure out what they need. With this type of person at your disposal, your MSP will be unstoppable.
There tends to be a bit of friction between the operation and sales team, but what you have to understand is that you can’t have a successful company without both of these groups. Even though you have to focus on the sales team, the technical team needs to be the ones helping the sales team know what to sell. When you think about it, the sales team is selling the engineers’ skills. If your engineers and sales team work together, you will experience success. Engineers, be friends with the sales team! If you can sell your services to the sales team, then they can sell what you do best to clients. It’s a win, win.
If you take away anything from this blog, let it be this: you must align your sales and engineering team to have the best results. The sales team sells the MSP, and the engineers make it profitable.
You have to work on your business and how things are working together so you know what to sell. Then your sales team can identify appropriate opportunities. Don’t just be more efficient at delivering; be better at selling and everything will resolve itself.