Chris
Engineers can typically simply stay on-par with changing technology and in-effect be moving up market. What is changing fortunes right now is that innovation has stalled in software, and everyone is simultaneously catching up to the early innovators.
Once the market shifts to another platform/technology/methodology, we'll be kicking your ass again... by default. :).
That said, I'd love to have a gutsy sales guy in my corner as a mentor. Drop me a PM.
> !00% Agree.
Disagree 100%. No matter the "pendulum" there are different motivations from sales to marketing to engineering and there is no one answer. Anyone who says "sales is the answer" is either in a very specialized software market or is selling snake oil. Any good sales person knows this. Even average sales people know this. Bad salespeople apparently don't.
http://blogmaverick.com/2008/03/09/my-rules-for-startups/
Edit: I shouldn't have pulled that card. Apologies. I'm not helping matters. There's already way too much vitrol going on in this thread.
But the problem is that "sales as strategy" as posed by the OP is most likely short-sighted due to "sales person motivations" , i.e. sales this quarter that affect my bottom line. These types of sales tend to drive one customer's needs versus the customer base. Not always, but that's where product management and engineering can provide a valuable perspective.
And all of that depends on your targets. If 400K is big money for you, go for it. But 400k is probably only big in the context of one or two people.
The answer I believe is: because this all used to be much harder, and you had to rely on your engineers to pull you through some tough moments. I'm afraid this is becoming less true over time. The pendulum is swinging back from technical implementation, back through design, and the power is returning to sales and marketing, IMO.
HOWEVER, people who can engineer marketing outcomes... those guys will keep the power.
TLDR; Hie thee thither to up-market positions ye men of valor!