What can Direct Sales teach Software Developers?

I recently bumped into someone who did 'direct sales'. Direct sales has acquired a bad reputation because of all the cold-calling and advertisements on tele-shopping networks. There is a sense of annoyance when someone knocks on our door or is standing outside the train station, trying to sell us something.

But the fact remains: people are buying and someone has to sell to them.

Technology is a means not an end and this means has to be sold. People were happy and successful and making billions of dollars before software technology came along. So there is a strong personal interest of technologists in selling technology to people. They aren't all making a line outside our shops.

I picked up some interesting things from his sales pitch, I thought I would share.

Information
I read somewhere that the difference between Software Architecture and Enterprise Architecture is: Business. One thing that annoys developers is wasting time on unnecessary information. "Tell me how your business works and I'll turn that into software", they ask. Meetings are a pain and they prefer direct, to the point requirements, not aimless ramblings around problems in business that don't appear to have direct technology implications.

It requires a certain amount of patience and genuine desire to understand the customer, to listen. That is hard to find but a direct salesman will show you that understanding. You don't need to get involved in their domestic problems but there is certain usefulness to understanding the customer's language, their history and future aspirations. If technologists can't put their case in customer's language, it doesn't seem fair to expect otherwise.

Demonstration
Software demos are cursed to begin with. If I say that, "I gave a demo or I saw someone give a demo and the application threw an error or some unseen force was placing hurdles in the way", everyone would nod their head. I mean Everyone. A demo is the classic translation of the phrase, "Show, don't Tell." How many software demos have you found engaging?

Everyone is not Steve Jobs but they can copy him and if you look around, they are copying him. Demos require practice. Demos require putting on a show. Demos require telling a story. Demos require that you understand the audience and even tweak your presentation from their feedback. Developers need to master this art.

Metaphors
Every language has its metaphors. How many applications have you used that are full of drop-down menus? I would say a lot. I am quite comfortable with them because I understand this user-interface metaphor. It can be described in three words: functional, functional and functional. As developers we think in functions. We list them down and we can arrange them in our head in the appropriate order for use in software.

Since the mobile revolution, there has been a resurgence of interest in better user-interface design. How to make it more intuitive? That is the key question now. The direct salesman in the picture above, will put the story of the Vacuum Cleaner in end-user's metaphors, show them how it relates to their life and how intuitive everyone would find its use.

Follow-up
Its hard enough to listen in the first place, follow-up is the least interesting thing for people in technology. Once we have heard the problem, the desire and logically useful thing to do is to put the rest of our time in transforming it into technology. I haven't seen many developers sending an email to the customer saying, "This is my understanding of everything we discussed". Its not common because there is an assumption that we have "understood" what the customer means. Never trust this assumption.

Software is present everywhere in every industry. As Software Developers, we need to learn from everyone and really have a inter-disciplinary view of things. We should never miss an opportunity to learn from others.