Remember, products are developed FIRST then marketed and ultimately sold to a customer. Without products their can be no sales, this isn't a chicken-egg conundrum, one always comes before the other.Actually, products are DEVELOPED to fulfill a DEMAND from the marketplace. The demand is known, of course, because salespeople and marketing people are out talking to prospects and uncovering the need, or the pain, or the gain, that could be satisfied by a product.
So, yes, one does come before the other. Without sales and business development, you wouldn't know what the hell to develop.
No offense but if asked I could easily perform the duties of salesman.
Why don't you do it? I'll bet I've outearned you in every year of your working life.
If it's so friggin' easy, why are you leaving money on the table by sitting in a cubicle? Come on out and wine and dine and enjoy the "easy" life of a salesman.
With these remarks, not only do you show ignorance, but laziness as well.
Techies make lousy salesmen; they know the product, but most of them don't want to be bothered with the refusals, the turndowns, the negativity, the need to explain why so many developers put out buggy code for sale.
Oh, and you've got to know a bit about cost of money and ROI today to close deals, and most techies don't know how much change they've got in their pocket.
You're funny.
I need you; you act like you don't need me.
Put an ad in the paper and see how many people buy your software.
I've been thinking about a sales job for a while now since our sales people can't seem to close the deal.
In general I agree that most techies do not have the people skills necessary to interact with customers. As for laziness I generally work 12-14 hour days and work weekends, as do most of my co-techies.
In our company's case we are innovators creating software that did not exist before that fills a large gap in the industry. Everyone in my department understands the business domain as well as the technology, so we are somewhat unique in our abilities.
It's been my experience that sales people rarely collect requirements that are worth the paper they are written on. Generally speaking the most useful customer interactions are with other techies that are trying to solve the problem. Most sales folks bypass techies and go straight to the check writer only to learn later the techies killed the deal because it didn't match their requirements.
Don't confuse intelligence with the ability to make money, not everyone is motivated solely by money. Some of the most intelligent people who ever lived ended up without a cent to their name. Conversely some of the biggest morons of our day make huge sums of money, Actors and Sports Stars.