IT Sales

Prospects are bright in the field of IT sales. New technological developments have led to changes in the market and the demand is high for IT salespeople who are able to keep their product knowledge up to date in a rapidly evolving market.

The types of IT sales roles that employers are now trying to fill fall into two categories. On the hardware side, hot areas are server and storage devices to support cloud-based solutions and telecommunications.

On the software side, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and web-related software solutions are showing strong demand.

While IT salespeople should have IT knowledge, the requirement is more focused on product knowledge, rather than technical knowledge. Good salespeople should also be confident, aggressive and presentable, and used to a consultative selling approach.

The IT sales cycle is comparatively long when compared with other industries, as it can take quite a long time for corporate accounts to make purchasing decisions - sometimes as long as a year. Patience, therefore, is an indispensable quality that every IT salesperson should possess.

Howard Chan, director – sales and marketing, Michael Page
As told to Chiu Po-sze