
Ask HN: How technical does a sales rep need to be? - akulbe
I&#x27;m a freelancer doing automation programming. I need to grow my business as I have too many eggs in one basket, so to speak.<p>I know I&#x27;m going to need help to do that.<p>How technical does someone doing sales for me need to be?<p>How do I find someone savvy enough?<p>Thanks.
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davismwfl
They don't have to be technical overall, they need to be domain intelligent
and product/capability informed. Finding the holy grail of sales person that
is solid technically and solid in sales is tough and expensive.

My 2 cents: First, incentivize current clients for referrals. Referrals can be
critical. Second, find someone who can do lead generation for you, and than
parse your week into following up on leads and moving current projects
forward. Once you are too busy to do both, than hire for whichever side you
can find the best suited person. e.g. programmer or lead nurturer. Lead
nurturing usually takes a little time to turn into a paying project depending
on the size, so usually you can find sales (or even interns etc) people that
can fill that role that aren't technical.

I don't think there is one correct way, but there are a number of known and
different patterns that have been used successfully. The key thing is to avoid
the common feast/famine mode and to get a solid and steady project flow. That
only happens when you have leads and time to nurture them to into sales.

