Because your question involves a question that I don't want to answer the most, and it is also the most annoying question for most friends in the machinery industry, that is, comparing technicians with sales.
Therefore, the following problems are bound to be disrespect for the sales industry. I only tell the truth, not against anyone. If a friend who is engaged in sales looks dissatisfied, it will be considered as a calculation.
But what I'm going to say next is the current situation, the real situation.
The following answer, I declare my background first. I am currently the project manager of a top 500 foreign company, responsible for the design team and project. My customers are all over Asia and Europe, and my suppliers include state-owned enterprises, private enterprises, foreign capital, foreign capital and other types. The following are all within my daily contact range.
Answer your question first:
1. has always been from technology to sales, never heard of sales to technology. Design, like all other technical work, needs a lot of accumulation, continuous learning and application. If it is interrupted, give up completely. Unless you can change your file, you won't have a chance to go back.
2. Does sales require professional ability? I believe every salesman will confidently say: yes. But I also shamelessly reprimanded all the salespeople: 99% of you don't know shit. Being a technician, especially a developer, often graduates with a bachelor's degree or even a master's degree, because without these qualifications, many things can't be done at all. Even with this degree, many so-called high flyers have to go down to the front line to rebuild. What about sales? You can be a cat or a dog, as long as you have a sharp mouth and you have enough black gold. At present, as far as all the salespeople I have contacted are concerned, they may be well educated, but they basically know nothing about technology. Discussing the project with them is like casting pearls before swine.
3. Doing technology requires academic background, but the higher the education, the better. In my team, the doctors with the highest education are just helping others. This example is not typical, but I just want to explain one problem. When you have a certain background, practical experience is dominant. In other words, you can't design by yourself, at best, it's just an armchair strategist.
4. Many things are modularized, which leads to some designers who don't understand the intention of some local characteristics themselves, only know that they were left by predecessors and just do it. This is not bad. It's normal. No matter what kind of design mode, the current popular trend is modular design, which is of great help to design, production, maintenance and upgrade. This point cannot be understood in a few words here. I hope the landlord can read some books on design system to understand it. As for sales, they know nothing about technology. Do they need to know? I continued to shake my head.
Obviously, you don't have any design experience. In the impression of most people, designers are those who stay in the office all day staring blankly at the computer and throw out some drawings. Actually, you are completely wrong. An engineering designer must be a successful businessman first. Any product must make money. If a designer doesn't even know the cost of his own design, how can the company make money? How do you think the data in the sales hands came from? Did you calculate the sales by yourself? I haven't seen any sales that can calculate my own cost in these years. I doubt whether such sales were born here. I'll tell you the first thing my designer did when he received the project: make a project plan and calculate the project investment and financial expectations, including cash flow, NPV, IRR and EBIT. If you don't know what these mean, please make up your financial knowledge first. These are all things that we mechanical engineers need to master, but how many salespeople know about cash flow, including the rate of return?
6. Your dream is almost impossible to realize. As we all know, the unemployment rate of graduate students is higher than that of undergraduates. If you are not afraid, then I have nothing to say. At least I want to rely on technology to transfer to a high-level commercial platform. Don't say that it is impossible at home and abroad. For example, as far as I know, at present, there is only one CEO of all the top 500 companies that produce their own products, and that is the CEO of Linde forklift. But he is the technical director of BMW. When competing for the CEO of BMW, he was very promising, but the board of directors refused to let him be elected because of his technical background. He left BMW in a rage. Maybe you will ask, why did the board of directors make such a decision? Because not only China people, but also foreigners think that technicians are too rigid. Most CEOs of other well-known companies come from finance or sales.
What I want to say now is, please face up to the present situation and come out of your own ideal.
This is an unfair society. As a technician, you should be familiar with almost all basic subjects. In the company, from research and development, to production, to logistics, to quality control, to customer service, developers and designers have to understand almost everything, especially the technology itself, which is almost bottomless and not enough for a lifetime; To do sales, you only need one mouth, and a "not too lewd" heart is enough.
Our company has two sales directors in Asia-Pacific region.
One of them has worked for decades, and his performance is average every year, and his subordinates complain, because he always educates his subordinates: tell customers that we are a world-class company with first-class products and high quality products, so the price is high, but once and for all, it will never be bad. You can use our products with confidence.
The other one has been working for less than ten years, and gets a red envelope every year. His subordinate Lian Xiao can't laugh, because he taught his subordinates: We should tell our customers that we are a world-class company with first-class products and high quality, so the price is high, which means high kickbacks and a lot of black money. Our products will never treat you badly.
I have an old friend who has been selling all his life. He once summed up a sentence: When you find that you are more familiar with the way to the hotel than the way home, you are a qualified salesman.
Every time I have a meeting, I will point at the salespeople and scold them: Don't you spend 10 minutes studying what you sell every day?
As the landlord said above, maybe some sales will respond to customers' needs and the design will be changed accordingly. Please remember that these designs are definitely not made by sales, but are brought back to the company by sales, and then transferred to customers by the development department after the designs are made. Every time the salesman does this, he follows the development department like a turtle grandson, begging grandpa to tell grandma everywhere, and you only see their outside side.
I'm tired of talking so much. If you want to do sales, I have no objection. Because no matter how much we technicians hate the ignorance and imbecility of sales, sales is still the highest-paid profession at present. For you, you just need to choose whether to be ideal or realistic.
I can clearly tell you my choice: if I don't sit in this position today, I will do sales immediately without hesitation.
Because no matter how many people are scolded, as long as the income is high enough, life is a bottomless pit, and face can't be eaten.
I have replied to so many friends, but I have never praised the machinery industry.
Finally, think again, I am still working overtime in the middle of the night, just for a project; And our salespeople, who earn more than me, are now singing and dancing with customers in nightclubs.
Here's another sentence for you. Today, I joked with my subordinates in the office: cherish life and stay away from machinery!
If you want to transform, do it now, or do it honestly, and then maybe there will be more in-depth exchanges next time. Because the topic of machinery industry itself is very profound.
As for this article, just look at me and complain, because this is the pain in the hearts of all our technicians and the sorrow of the technology industry.