In this interview, we talk to John, author of the book Mastering Technical Sales: The Sales Engineer’s Handbook, Fourth Edition. We discuss the motivation behind writing the book, the target audience, the most useful aspects of the book, the challenges of writing the book, and advice for other engineers who are considering writing a book.
John Care is managing director at Mastering Technical Sales LLC. He holds a B.Sc. with honors in chemical engineering from Imperial College, London and is a contributing member of the M.B.A. Advisory Council for the Fox Business School of Temple University, Philadelphia.
1. What was your main motivation behind writing your book?
There were two motivators at play for me. The first was frustration. As the leader of a large technical sales organization, I couldn’t find any resources to train my people and teach them the day-to-day aspects of being a Sales Engineer. So, I decided to write a book about that. The secondary motivator was giving something back to the profession and helping others.
2. Who is the main target audience for your book and what will they appreciate the most about the book?
The target audience is a group of people collectively called sales engineers. They live within high-tech organizations and assist the salespeople in explaining, demonstrating, and selling hardware, software, and services to their clients. I’m often told that my book is the best-kept secret in the industry and that “I wish I’d read this earlier in my career.”
3. What do you see your book being most useful for?
The book is intended as both a reference guide for the profession and a textbook. It’s a collection of tactics, techniques, and industry best practices designed to save time, effort, and money for the audience.
4. How did you find the writing of the book? Do you have a specific process or are you quite methodical in your writing approach?
I love writing, so I really enjoyed the original learning process for creating the First Edition over twenty years ago through all the new technology behind the most recent Fourth Edition. My process is to outline the chapters and create a flow and a framework for the manuscript. After that, it’s a simple flow of words from the brain to the keyboard. I tend to write and get everything into a document and then go back and perform basic edits, grammar checks, etc.
5. What challenges did you face when writing the book and how did you overcome them?
Writing books about technology means you have a constant challenge of incorporating technology into how that technology is sold to the end-user. So that means a lot of research, conversations and interviews with others in the industry. My customers are a wonderful source of information for that. On the process side, I need at least 3-4 hours of peace and quiet to have a productive session. That means shutting myself off from the world and turning off all the electronics.
6. What advice would you give to other engineers who are considering writing a book?
I firmly believe that everyone has a book in them. Two basic traits of the engineer are that we love to fix things and we love to please people. If you allow those loves (plus whatever else lights you up) to flow into your words, it will come through in the final manuscript. I’d encourage everyone to sketch out an outline and then just get the words onto paper. Once you have the written words in front of you, it is much easier to motivate yourself and get input from others. Be brave!
7. What are you working on next?
There are two projects.
I’m about 35,000 words into writing a murder mystery novel. It’s been rattling around in my brain for years, so I decided to take my own advice and get things onto paper. I’m hoping that will be completed in early 2025.
The other project is AI-enabling the material in the books. We’re creating an electronic persona who can coach Sales Engineers so they can practice the techniques we outline in the book and our workshops.
Learn more about the book on our websites
ARTECH HOUSE USA : Mastering Technical Sales: The Sales Engineer’s Handbook, Fourth Edition
ARTECH HOUSE U.K.: Mastering Technical Sales: The Sales Engineer’s Handbook, Fourth Edition
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