Christopher Kalos

Technology, Hobbies, and New Ideas

An avid techie since childhood, I've finally decided that it's time to establish my own presence on the web, as opposed to outsourcing it to a bunch of social network pages.

Here you'll find musings, my professional history, and anything that catches my interest.

As will become obvious as this page grows, I'm an Apple user, through and through:  When I work, I use the best tools for the job.  Sometimes that's Microsoft-based, sometimes it's Apple-based, and often, it's Linux-based.  Once I'm at home, though, I find that comfort, simplicity, and ease of use trump all of the flexibility in the world.   

Cool counts for a lot.  Simplicity counts for a lot more.

 

How To Run A Tabletop Roleplaying Game Like A Sales Engineer: On Authenticity

August 12, 2024  /  Christopher Kalos

If there’s one thing I’ve definitely seen in savvy buyers, it’s that they can sense a bad deal. They’ll know when you’re presenting something that you don’t actually believe in. The tells are complicated, of course, and often subjective, but the I’ve definitely spoken with customers who have been skeptical about either my offerings, or those of my competition. Generally speaking? I prefer to be a straight-shooter about that. If I believe in what I’m offering, if I’m convinced that I can solve your problem with what I’m offering, I can get around those reservations handily.

In short, Objection Handling is easy when you’re not objecting to yourself.

So it goes at the game table, too: I rarely run high-fantasy games, opting for stories more in the space opera/science fiction range. It’s a bit more of a niche, one that often requires a bit more explaining about how the world works. Players are used to fantasy, after all. Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons, they’re not “all the same,” but they tend to operate with a common set of tropes that make it straightforward to figure out who you want to be in the story. People know what to expect, and can pivot quickly within the lanes offered.

But here’s the thing: While I could run a high-fantasy campaign with orcs and elves and magic and “everybody meets in a tavern,” my heart isn’t in it. I prefer to tell stories in an alternate, fantastic future instead of an alternate, fantastic past. I like to explore how science can impact the human condition, how the world would respond and change with the introduction of new ideas, and I can tell those sorts of stories all day.

So, why be someone I’m not? Why be inauthentic, and why sell something that you don’t believe in? It’s a lot of time spent doing something that I wouldn’t enjoy, and trying to convince other people that they should enjoy it as well. Instead, I wear my storytelling allegiances on my sleeve. I bring enthusiasm to the table, excitement, and a tendency to have thought through enough of the world I’m presenting that the enthusiasm is often infectious.

Likewise, when I handle Technical Sales, I’d like to think that I bring that same enthusiasm: I remember which challenges burdened my and my team the most when I worked in Operations. I remember where I wish I had a magic wand to make certain problems go away. So when I’m offering something, when I’m on board to push a solution? It’s because I see a problem, I see how I think it can best be solved, and I’m bringing that story to the customer’s table.

They say to find out what your customer wants, and that’s true. But one shouldn’t forget at the end of the day, you’re your own first customer. If you can’t be authentic to yourself, how can you ever expect your customers to feel like they can trust you?

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