It is not always the salesman’s responsibility to sell. I think the delivery team is well placed to sell once the contract is signed. I have been working as architect from quite some time, so I think it is better I talk about this as a Architect.
I think an Architect is naturally placed to build a relationship with customer and grow business. He is probably the one individual start working with client early once the deal is signed. He will be working with key technical contacts of the client including CTO, CIO, IT directors etc who make or influence the IT decisions. So, the Architect is key person and instrumental in driving clients to find their best solutions.
It is important that he earns the confidence from the customer to help them ‘better’.
It means, A good dynamic Architect is important for both client and support organizations to grow faster. I personally believe that technology organizations should be always working toward adding value to their clients. It is not by pushing too many things but by identifying right solution building blocks which would help them meeting their business objects. However, the sales man in Architect should be able to drive the discussions to identify new business opportunities which benefit both the client and your organization. I have seen Architects talking about like ‘this is what we agreed, and I will do only this, rest should be done by client or their third party’. Rather, I would try to understand the issues and you do not know whether it would be another business opportunity for you or another team in your company.
We must be ready always to identify new opportunities and take it forward to help each others and maximize the benefits. We should be able to sell our capabilities where ever you find an opportunity. According to me, every resource must have sales man in them to grow. It is not only helping the technology organization to grow but also the individual to move ahead both technically and organizationally. It does not mean that we push everything to customer, we need to have balance in this to ensure that we add value to the customer.
Let’s approach every problem with open mind to find new business opportunities without restricting ourselves to a glass chamber. We need to improve our listening skills to hear the customer and ready to have view from their view points as well.
Everybody sells to grow as a team.
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