一提起需求最大的技术能力，多数人首先想到的是网络安全、手机应用开发和数据科学专业知识等，当然这些都是“热门”技能。但不论一款产品多么优秀，有一种老生常谈的说法依旧是有道理的：没有销售，一切都是空。销售支持软件开发商ToutApp的创始人兼CEO、绰号T.K.的陶黑德?卡德尔表示：“销售人员与技术人员，对于IT公司的成功同等重要。只不过，很少有人谈起销售人员的重要性。”

目前，科技公司之间正在悄然展开一场激烈的销售人才争夺战。有事实为证：对员工人数超过200人的300家科技公司的高管进行的最新调查发现，销售岗的招聘难度仅次于工程师岗位。约70%的受访者表示，招聘有经验的销售人才的“难度非常大”，有80%的公司正在通过高薪吸引更多销售人才。

卡德尔表示：“随着科技公司规模的日益扩大，其可能获得无限的服务器和存储能力，但能够通过培训从事销售工作的人才数量依旧有限。”InsideSales.com的一项单独研究发现，今年软件公司预计将保持45%的增长速度，因此，科技公司对于销售人才的需求只会继续增长，尤其是在硅谷。自去年以来，西海岸的销售岗职位空缺增加了16%，美国其他地区增加了11%。

为了找到更多销售人才，IT公司纷纷开始尝试新的方法。方法之一是广撒网，扩大地域范围。由于加州和纽约的销售人才竞争最为激烈，因此，卡德尔表示，许多公司开始将目光投向较小的城市——尤其是奥斯丁、凤凰城、丹佛和盐湖城等，希望从这些地区寻找理想的销售人才。在InsideSales.com的报告中，超过三分之一（42%）的销售经理表示，他们正计划招聘更多女性。

2016年的毕业生们注意了：科技公司正在加大对千禧一代和新毕业生的招聘力度，并提供了一种新的在职培训。卡德尔表示，有经验的IT销售人员可以马上开始与客户打交道，而新人则需要接受分两步走的培训计划。这种培训将销售岗位分成了两部分。他解释说：“首先，新人只负责寻找潜在客户，包括无约电话推销和寻找新的线索。大约六个月之后，你将成功‘毕业’，可以开始负责客户咨询和完成小规模交易。”

此外，来自其他领域的销售人员，日益受到科技公司的欢迎。卡德尔说道：“当然，你确实需要增加技术知识。但销售技能本身是可以转移的，因为不论在哪个行业，对成功销售员的主要要求依旧是高情商。”这是很明显的。在InsideSales.com的研究中，销售经理在招聘销售人才时，提到最多的两种品质分别是韧性和同理心。（365娱乐场）

译者：刘进龙/汪皓

When you think about the tech skills that are most in demand, what most likely comes to mind are things like cybersecurity, mobile app development, and data science expertise — all “hot” skills, for sure. But, no matter how terrific a product is, the old saw is still true: Nothing happens until somebody sells something. “Salespeople are just as crucial to IT companies’ success as techies are,” says Tawheed “T.K.” Kader, founder and CEO of sales-support software maker ToutApp. “It just doesn’t get talked about.”

However quietly, tech companies are engaged in a fierce fight for sales talent. Consider: Second only to engineers, sales roles are the toughest to fill, according to a new survey of executives at 300 tech companies with 200 employees or more. About 70% say finding experienced sales talent is “very competitive,” and 80% are paying top dollar to attract more of it.

“As tech companies scale, servers and storage capacity may be infinite, but there’s still a limited number of humans they can hire and train to sell,” Kader observes. With software companies projecting 45% growth this year, according to a separate study by InsideSales.com, demand for people who can sell what tech companies create is only going to grow, especially in Silicon Valley. Job openings for salespeople on the West Coast have risen 16% since last year, the study says, versus 11% in the rest of the country.

To get more sales talent, IT employers are trying out a couple of new approaches. For one thing, they’re casting a wider geographic net. Since the competition is stiffest in California and New York, Kader says companies are starting to look at smaller cities — especially Austin, Phoenix, Denver, and Salt Lake City — to tap the talent pools there. And more than one in three (42%) sales managers in the InsideSales.com report said they’re also focused on recruiting more women.

Note to the Class of 2016: Tech companies are stepping up their hiring of Millennials and new grads, and providing a new kind of on-the-job training. While an experienced IT salesperson would probably start dealing with customers right away, newbies now go through a two-part program that segments the sales role into two parts, Kader says. “First, you do pure prospecting, including cold calling and developing new leads,” he explains. “Then, after six months or so, you ‘graduate’ into consulting with customers and closing small deals.”

Salespeople from fields other than tech are increasingly welcome, too. “You’d obviously need to add the technical knowledge,” Kader says, “but sales skills themselves are highly transferable, since the main requirement for successful salespeople in any industry is a high EQ.” Evidently. The most-mentioned two qualities sales managers look for in sales job candidates, says the InsideSales.com study, are resilience and empathy.