An Introduction
Thanks for visiting TechSalesCraft and being interested in what we’re doing. Let me shed some light on that for you.
First, a little background. I’ve been in the Internet-spawned tech industry for over 30 years, and I’ve been extremely fortunate along the way. I was bit by the networking bug in the late 1980’s (yep, a graybeard), gained years of experience as an Internet plumber, and expanded into Optical networking, Mobility (4G/5G/IoT), Security, Cloud technologies, and DevOps models and philosophy. I’ve had the opportunity to work for some great companies and work with many wonderful customers and colleagues. It has been 90%+ fun and quite educational.
I’ve decided to take this next big step and form TechSalesCraft LLC. It’s an opportunity to leverage what I know and continue to learn: engage in a wide variety of technologies, work on interesting projects, and connect with even more interesting customers, colleagues, and community members.
WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU? AND WHAT IS TECHSALESCRAFT?
OK, those are entirely reasonable questions. And they’re inherently related.
My goal through TechSalesCraft is to help YOU via three main lanes of engagement:
- First, by providing Fractional Go-To-Market (GTM) services to bring technologies and services to revenue quickly: I can act as a fractional (a fancier version of “part time”) as an SE, Architect, field CTO, Business Development leader, Sales leader, Marketer, Product manager, and more
- Second, serving as an SME on project-based technology engagements: I can provide expertise in areas where I have background, and I can engage others as needed, and help with architecture review and development, high-level design, competitive analysis, market assessment, and many other activities
- Third, offering Advising, Coaching, and Mentoring service: I’ve seen quite a few interesting situations over time and can coach and mentor individual contributors and organizational leaders and help tech teams adopt a customer-centric view
We also provide Specialty Services for other technology areas and creative ideas you have. If you have something in mind that isn’t directly covered here, tell me. I like solving problems and I work with a network of other people who also like to solve problems. I’m interested in any ideas you have. Send your questions via TechSalesCraft.com/contact.
MY PERSPECTIVE
Go with what you know. Play to your strengths. I’m a network engineer turned SE and SE leader, so I’ll be speaking from that basis. However, I don’t view SE/SA/Architect roles in a silo. My experiences and roles give me a broad perspective on other org functions and how to work as a team: Sales (typically the home of Sales Engineering, but not always), Product Management, R&D/Engineering, Marketing, Strategy, Customer Success, and more. This all gives me a wide view of Customers as well.
There may be times when TechSalesCraft looks like a (Tech) Sales forum, other times when it looks like a Leadership forum, other times when it looks like a Tech forum, and perhaps others where it may go in an entirely different direction. There will be opportunities to cover all those bases. And things will certainly shift over time.
One other point: I view being a practitioner as important (past experience and current/future work) and a critical input into leadership and advising/coaching functions. Learning by doing – and leading by doing – has been a great mode of development for me personally.
BUILDING COMMUNITY
No one person can accomplish all I laid out above alone – it takes many partners of all kinds. There are formal partners I’m working with and pursuing, plus a rapidly-growing community of other consultants and clients. I like to think of this as the “Heist Model”: we have a job to do, so let’s assemble the team, get the job done, and move on to the next project. Pick your favorite Oceans 11 film (original or remake and/or sequels); I promise to not rob any banks or casinos.
I have a perspective, but I’m only one voice. I don’t know it all – not even close. So, I’ll also be engaging a wide variety of people from my career and the industries we work in, interviewing them to get their perspective and wisdom. Those interviews will end up as content here on TechSalesCraft as more blog posts, curated content, and a podcast where you can hear interaction with my personal influencers in their own words. I’m hoping you can connect with these folks as well, benefitting from their views directly.
Last, but in no way least, you’re part of the TechSalesCraft community as well. I’m always interested in feedback and interesting ideas and topics via TechSalesCraft.com/contact.
WHAT’S NEXT?
I can’t wait to turn up the volume here on TechSalesCraft. There is SO much to talk about. Thanks for starting the journey with us – I hope you stick around and get some real benefit from what we do here.