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From: edhall@randvax.UUCP (Ed Hall)
Newsgroups: net.singles,net.social
Subject: Re: Salemanship
Message-ID: <2565@randvax.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 23-Jun-85 14:16:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: randvax.2565
Posted: Sun Jun 23 14:16:58 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 27-Jun-85 07:48:44 EDT
References: <968@peora.UUCP> <1424@mtx5b.UUCP>  <344@unc.UUCP>  <396@unc.UUCP>  <442@unc.UUCP>
Reply-To: edhall@rand-unix.UUCP (Ed Hall)
Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica
Lines: 41
Xref: watmath net.singles:7534 net.social:745
Summary: 

> It doesn't matter how good your ideas are if nobody will listen or accept them.
> It takes salesmanship to convince others to accept your ideas.
> This ability can make the difference between outstanding career success
> versus rotting in a dead-end position.
>
> I have seen too many top notch techies who couldn't sell themselves,
> who were thus not only unappreciated and underpaid by their managers,
> but under-utilized by their companies.
>
>         Frank Silbermann

I disagree.  I want technical people who are competent and who are
reasonably articulate, but if they need to ``sell themselves'' in order
to be appreciated and utilized, I'm failing in my job as a manager.  And
if they have a salesman-like mentality, I'll likely not hire them no
matter how technically competent they are.

Many times I've seen people work hard to sell an idea, but ignore the
ideas of the rest of the team--and thus create a tremendous problem by
this ``salesmanship''.  I want to discuss possibilities and choose based
on facts, not on the size of the ego of whoever has the idea.  An idea
should succeed or fail on its merits; although I'm certain that good
ideas are often passed over because they aren't well-presented, this is
a failure in trying to *express* them, not *sell* them.

Perhaps what you've noticed, Frank, is the inability of some ``techies''
to communicate what they are thinking in a reasonable and articulate
way.  Or it is a failure of managment to deal with its people in a
way that allows them best to express their ideas--I've certainly seen
this happen a lot as well.  But I wouldn't call these things a lack of
the employee's ``salemanship''.

To tie this in with net.singles: there is a big difference between
liking yourself and expressing your thoughts well (something other
people generally find attractive), and having ``salesmanship''.  The
latter has its place--I don't intend to demean sales people--but it has
no place in relationships, and although superficially attractive, it
wears out pretty fast.

		-Ed Hall
		decvax!randvax!edhall