Does your “techie” know when to talk?

Have you ever had a technical person take over a sales call? Talk at inopportune times? Say the wrong thing? Tell the prospect he didn’t know what he was talking about? Derail a sales call for you? Interrupt the close? If you haven’t you are in a very small minority. The problem does not lie with the technical person it lies with the sales person. After all, the technical person can’t be expected to know how to sell just as you can’t be expected to know all the technical details. Furthermore, they don’t know where you are in the sales process, what the goal of the sales call is, what the prospect needs to hear technically, what they don’t need to hear technically, what outcome you are expecting … unless you tell them! You should tell them all of this before the call and most importantly you need to tell them when to talk and when not to talk. Take control of the sales call and you will never be surprised by the techie or have your sales call derailed by her.