I'm not bad at sales — I'm bad at sleazy sales

OMG, did a sales person lie to you? Shocking... tell me more.

I kid. Sort of. For years I thought I was terrible at sales. Even after sustaining a business by selling my own services, I still called myself a poor salesperson. Eventually I realized: I’m not bad at sales, I’m bad at sleazy sales. I’d limited my view of “salesperson” to the worst of them. Which is an unfortunate percentage. I am good at ethical sales, because I actually care about delivering value.

The last couple years I’ve been on the client side of the table, watching how consultants choose to work with me. Soon I’ll share some tips on spotting con-artist software consultants—even if you don’t speak the jargon. These consultancies who are more skilled at flattering the C-level than any of the technical skills they claim to have, a scourge on my profession.

The flip side of that—if you're the type of client who likes a consultant whose raison d’être is to give you mental happy endings... you're not going to like me. I'm not a yes-woman. I may not praise a software design you propose. I have flat out refused to work with clients who don’t defer to me on how solutions should be architected (data model and system design within the chosen stack and budget, not on the business requirements).

There’s no point working with me if you're not interested in my solutioning, that’s the highest value skill I offer. People happy to implement your crappy design are a dime a dozen, hire one of them — their salesperson is probably already in your Messaging... or emails... calling you from a call center... all of these things simultaneously.

Anyway, late night rant.