Field note / 001 Sales craft · 5 min

The salesperson doesn’t need to be the engineer. But curiosity is non-negotiable.

Technical depth isn’t about having every answer. It’s about understanding enough to ask the question that changes the conversation.

In technology sales, there is a tempting shortcut: leave the technical questions to the technical people. It sounds efficient. It is also how discovery calls become product tours and useful detail gets lost between teams.

Depth creates better questions

You don’t need to design the network. But you should understand the architecture well enough to know where complexity, risk, and opportunity tend to live. That knowledge changes the questions you ask. It helps you hear what a customer means, not just what they say.

Curiosity is the bridge between “I sell this” and “I understand why this matters.”

The goal is translation, not performance

Customers rarely need a salesperson to prove they can recite a data sheet. They need someone who can connect technical choices with commercial consequences: time, risk, cost, flexibility, and the ability to move later.

The strongest sales conversations I know move comfortably between two levels. Zoom in far enough to respect the technical reality. Zoom out far enough to keep the business outcome in view.

A useful standard

Can you explain the trade-off without hiding behind an acronym? Can you bring the right specialist into the room before the customer has to ask? Can you admit what you don’t know, then return with a precise answer?

That is enough. Not engineer cosplay. Not surface-level charm. Serious curiosity, used in service of a clearer decision.