Takeaway: Start somewhere and keep an eye on the future.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while.
The name of my blog might be a clue – I like to think things through. In the various personality- strengths- or profile-tests I’ve done over the years, I invariably show up as strongly analytical, requiring time to think. And it’s not an unusual trait for those of us in Presales. We like to understand the detail, get our facts straight and take time to prepare.
There are a few reasons why I’ve started this blog. The main one is that in the future, I’d like to be a consultant / facilitator / trainer / coach, working with Presales and Sales people. I have a lot of experience in this space, with many years as a Presales consultant, managing Presales teams, and working with Sales and Presales professionals to sell enterprise software. I’ve also had great times planning and delivering workshops, conferences and training and think it is something I am good at. While I currently have a secure role with a good company, things can change quickly in our business. I’m also getting to a stage of life where the idea of semi-retiring and working for myself is quite an attractive idea.
In thinking about a possible future career as a freelancer, I realised that producing content is a good way to build credibility. Experts I have engaged to run training for my teams have done research, written books or created videos. They have something tangible to point to that reflects their experience, thinking and knowledge. So, I’ve decided to create this blog and set a goal for 2021: post 25 articles in one year. Basically 1 every 2 weeks. As goals go, it’s Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound (those good old SMART goals) and it also ticks my box of setting only a few goals or KPIs.
I’m not going to set any up-front constraints on topics, style, length (or even quality). I’ll see how things develop and hopefully refine my voice and style over the year. Broadly, the things I plan to blog about will be about or related to the life and role of a Enteprise Software Presales professional, also known as a Sales Engineer (SE), Technical Sales, Technical Consultant, Solution Consultant, Solution Architect, Value Consultant, etc.
The purpose of doing this as a public blog is to encourage me to keep at it, to have a clear audience in mind, and to provide a tangible set of deliverables at the end. Maybe in the future I can turn these into a book, training materials, or use as the basis of a podcast. Who knows? I’ve decided to do it anonymously for now, partly because I have a day job, partly because it’s about the content, not me, and partly because it makes me feel more confident.
To finish up, let me briefly introduce myself. These days, I usually describe my role as a Business Consultant or Value Consultant (or Business Value Consultant) as I focus more on value, strategy and cross-portfolio solutions. I started my presales career in 2004 as a solution consultant, specialising in a single product (I still get called on periodically to demo it). Then I moved into Presales Management and have also worked in regional APJ (Asia Pacific Japan) sales organisation roles including Strategy and Sales Excellence. Prior to joining a software vendor, I worked for a major consulting firm for 11 years, where I learnt a lot about software development, testing, project management, application support and team management.
If you’ve read this far, thank you. I hope my journey and experience sharing can help you in your own Presales role and career. While I’m posting my blogs anonymously as “Thoughtful Presales”, I’m not completely hiding my identity. My name is Matthew Bertram, based in Melbourne, Australia. I’d love to get a connection and hello via Linked In.
Maybe you are thinking about your own career path. With an eye on my future, I’m setting a goal of content creation as an action I can take. Whether it helps me with my next career step or not, I’m excited to have a goal and a project to work on.
I’ve been thinking about writing this blog for about 2 months now. Time to get started.
What career goals are you thinking about and what action can you take right now?
Thoughtful Presales 