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Almost 2 years ago, I made the decision to transition out of education and into presales. It's been a difficult journey filled with tons of failure, learnings, and moments of growth - but there’s so much about the transition that went well due to my experience teaching high school band. I’m proud to have accepted a promotion and qualified for Presidents Club during my first year. In no way do I think I have it figured out, and I’m still learning and growing. Here are some of the key areas from teaching that helped me succeed in my first year.
Sales
High school extracurriculars are as crowded a space as it gets. As a high school band director, I was competing against every sports team, club, and even the choice to go home and play video games after school. Top that off with band not being the stereotypical cool thing to do in high school - it was tough.
I had to learn how to value sell to both incoming 8th graders and also my current students whom I needed to sign back up for the next year. I had to learn what mattered to my students, what goals they had, and how the benefits of being in a band would be critical to achieving those goals. On average 6% of my students would go on to study at a conservatory and play professionally. The other 94% had a slew of motivations for staying in band that I had to uncover. College admissions value participation in fine arts. Band offers chances for leadership. We traveled to Europe every 3 years - join the band and you get to go! Need financial ROI? Whether students majored in music or not, my students accepted millions in scholarships every year to continue playing in college. And you can't forget those students who just loved getting to make music on a daily basis with their friends.
As a solutions consultant, I’m always trying to learn more about my customers' businesses, processes, and goals. This helps me tailor what and how I demo our product in a way that hopefully presents clear value to their highest executive priorities.
Product Demos
As a teacher, I gave six 50-minute demos back to back, five days a week. Music can get complex. I had to learn how to break complex concepts down into easy-to-understand language. I also had to keep my students' attention. It was a constant battle to be engaging, use analogies, ask questions, and sell students on why what I was teaching mattered. Why would it make them more successful? How would it help them achieve their goals? As a solutions consultant, I try to be an engaging speaker, use analogies and stories, and connect whatever I’m saying to the customers' executive goals as much as possible.
High school students are often unpredictable, and B2B buying teams can sometimes be the same. Rare was the day that my lesson went according to plan, so I learned how to pivot on the fly. I learned how to keep the core objectives for the lesson in mind but change the talk track based on what the students were doing. As an SC, I always ask my AE what needs to happen on this call to progress stage or for the call to be a success. I make the best plan I can - but ultimately I try to focus on that overarching goal and allow the plan to be flexible depending on the customer’s needs.
Trials and POCs
If you’ve ever learned an instrument, or maybe have a child doing so, you know it's a slow, painful process. Trials and POCs were tough during band recruitment. Sometimes it helped to let students hold or play the instruments before signing up. Sometimes this process was more damaging than helpful. If I let a student immediately try to play an oboe, you can be sure they aren't signing up. Rather, I’d see how much I could validate with potential students before letting them try an instrument. I’d offer recordings of professionals, success stories of other students, and common characteristics of students who do well on oboe. After doing so, sometimes students wouldn't even need to try the instrument - they just trusted it was going to go well.
As a solutions consultant, I pay attention to how to position trials, pilots, and data tests to ensure they are centered around realistic expectations, are tied to executive priorities, and appropriately validate the solution. I also do my best to validate as much as possible before entering into the more exhaustive validation options. Trials, pilots, and data tests take a lot of resources for all parties involved and can have negative impacts if not executed with care.
As a band director, I had to develop a relationship where students felt comfortable to take the leap of faith to sign up. They had to trust me that they would be successful and sound good within a few years. That all still applies to a solutions consultant. I have to develop trust with all customers. I have to appropriately scope a deal, learn about their business, and present as many data points and customer stories as possible so that they feel confident about our product. While teaching, I also needed to set expectations for success. I told every student the quick wins they could expect, but I was also realistic that they wouldn’t sound like a professional for years. The same goes for any product - there will always be implementation timelines, faster upfront value, and then certain ROI that won’t be experienced for months to years.
On the flip side, there were absolutely some students who weren't a good fit for band. After learning enough about them - the other activities they are part of, what their goals were - I would recommend that they didn’t sign up. The same is true in my current role. I feel a responsibility to tell prospects when our solution is not the best fit. It’s in everybody's best interest to validate the solution: the customer needs to see success post-signature, and the customer success team shouldn’t be bogged down trying to put out fires.
Relationships
As a teacher, I had to develop a relationship of trust and respect not just with students, but with their parents, other teachers, coaches, and administration. As a solutions consultant, it’s not just the customers and prospects I need to build relationships with, but also my fellow solutions consultants, Account Executives, Customer Success, Product, and Engineering. I don’t have a single success of my own as an SC. I get to lean heavily on so many wonderful and talented colleagues.
I learned as a teacher that trust and respect come from authenticity and vulnerability. When I first started teaching, I remember putting on the persona of a much older teacher despite being 21 years old. The students saw right through it. Once I started being my goofy self and showing vulnerability, things quickly changed for the better.
Developing a relationship of respect means being and demonstrating that you are a Subject Matter Expert. I often performed for my students or demonstrated certain techniques. It was always a reminder that they were learning from somebody who could practice what they preach.
As a solutions consultant, I am learning the same lessons. I can’t pretend to be a solutions consultant who’s been doing this for a decade, or been a marketing or sales leader, or has years of experience as a software engineer. Rather, I embrace my history as a teacher with prospects and account executives. I show my personality through jokes and analogies. However, I earn trust and respect by showcasing expertise in our product, sharing best practices from other customers, being candid and transparent at all times, and being laser-focused on their goals and executive priorities.
Lessons from a Successful Career Transition to Solutions Consulting
For Hiring Managers
I hope my career transition inspires you to give more consideration to hiring somebody from a non-traditional background. Career changers tend to be self-starters and ambitious. Career changers have many of the “unteachables” that are hard to find in a traditional candidate. We often come with a unique perspective that can have a very positive effect on your business, which usually comes with a huge sense of gratitude and awareness of how privileged we are to work in tech. There seems to be no shortage of stories of first-time solutions consultants doing an outstanding job in their first role.
For Career Changers
I hope my career transition provides confidence that you are absolutely capable of making the transition into a solutions consultant. From my many conversations with job seekers, I am well aware of how tough it is to find a role right now. Even in a stronger job market, it’s tough for a career changer to find the right company, role, and hiring manager. While there is much out of your control, focus on the things that are in your control. Find a way to tell your story. How do the experiences from your prior career instill confidence in a hiring manager that you will be a successful solutions consultant? Prove to them that you won't fail. If you can sell yourself to a hiring manager, you should do just fine selling software.
For Current Solutions Consultants
Was this at least interesting?! Ha!
My hope is maybe you gleaned a new perspective, gained an appreciation for career changers, or took a moment to reflect on your approach to your current role.
I am extremely proud of the work I did as a high school band teacher. Without the experience gained during those seven years, I would not be the solutions consultant I am today. I know it is a privilege to work in technology and appreciate my unique viewpoint that landed me here.
Ultimately, when I think about teaching a lesson to children versus giving a product demo to an executive team, there is not much difference. Child or CEO, we are all humans trying to do our best, grow, achieve our goals, and find happiness. Child or CEO, I have found that people respond well to others who are genuine, kind, and working hard to do their best.
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