What does it even mean to be "technical" as a seller
"We just don't think you're technical enough"
Earlier in my career, I heard a criticism as a seller that always irked me:
"Chris, we don't think you're technical enough."
There is a divide in the tech ecosystem. Borderline elitism, it seems.
Some sellers are technical, and some are not.
It almost seems the person who asks it uses your answer as a proxy for your intelligence, which can irk smart people who have only sold on the app layer like Workday or ServiceNow (and thus, not super technical products) the wrong way:
Paul Graham quotes this in one of his essays, saying that it's a status symbol to want to say you are working on something "intellectually complex" rather than something that isn't.
I saw this a ton in consulting - there was a sort of elitism in wanting to get into strategy consulting over, let's say, project management or implementation work. It stemmed down to the drive to solve what is perceived to be harder, unwieldy intellectual challenges.
I had dinner last week in NYC with ~20 founding/early GTM hires at some of the coolest AI startups out there, and this question was brought up:
"What even makes a rep technical?"
Some answers that were given:
Deep intellectual curiosity - they eagerly explore technical documentation and develop a fundamental understanding of their product's work, not just its surface features
Advanced problem-solving abilities - they can translate complex technical requirements into solutions, moving beyond simple "off-the-shelf" sales to help customers architect custom implementations
Comfort with ambiguity - they excel at guiding developers through open-ended solutions rather than just selling predetermined, packaged software with fixed functionality
Technical communication fluency - despite lacking a computer science background, they've learned to speak the language of developers effectively and can confidently address the common technical questions within their domain
Some initial signs that someone is technical:
Have you sold to engineering before?
What is your background? Were you a CS major or previously a developer?
Have you tried to build someone on your own? (build your website/Webflow, build an AI app using Claude's API, etc.)
Can you speak about technical topics (What's an API?) in layperson's terms?
IMO, this is worth learning.
The best GTM folks I've seen look to join companies that sell technical products/to developers. Why is this?
It's usually stickier - once you sell into an org, they don't rip and replace your product like a chat app, and it's easier to upsell
bottoms-up GTM motion, and less sales-y sale - you get a ton of inbound of people already knowing/using your product, and you can come in as a consultant earlier
Smarter folks in the GTM org because they are naturally more intellectually curious, and it’s inspiring to work around smart people
Cons to selling to technical buyers
Steeper learning curve - most salespeople don't have a CS background/prior developers
Devs hate salespeople, so it can be frustrating at times to sell to them (but if you have a killer product, this solves all)
Also, if you show you aren’t technical, they’ll write you off
One final point - learning to be more technical removes a huge detractor to getting other roles.
No sales leader who sells an app says, "Ah, they're not the right fit; they haven't sold on the app layer before." But almost every sales leader who sells infra qualifies a candidate in/out on whether they've sold a technical product to a technical person before.
Immediate things you can do to show you're technical if you are facing this uphill battle:
Scrimba's AI Eng classes - cool way to start playing with the Anthropic/OpenAI APIs to make your own generative AI apps
CS50x - Harvard’s free coding class with an engaging professor
Interesting Reddit article on the different ways to learn to code
Read blogs like technically (an awesome blog to learn common technical topics)
Learning the skill of being technical is one that will pay off down the road for any GTM professional.