Techie Turned Sales Leader: 10 Lessons From A Career Change

By Luca Jacobellis, President, Cal Net Technology Group

Because most IT services leaders grow out of technical roles, sales management is typically foreign territory. What’s the secret to the tech-to-sales management transition?

If you spend time in the managed services community for very long, one of the commonly repeated conversations surrounds sales management and leadership. Part of the reason for this seems to revolve around the fact that many MSPs are run by people whose background is more technical than sales. It is just not their area of strength. Like any other complex equation, being able to keep it simple and make a plan will help in the quest for success.

My background is one that began in the technical world, with positions in user support, systems administration, and technical service leadership. Then one day the decision was made that I should be the sales leader. Below are some of the lessons I had to learn the hard way.