CIO — Ask Jay Gardner to list the top skills he uses in his job as CIO of $1.3 billion BMC Software, and he’ll cite his ability to influence others, to build relationships, to gain consensus and to motivate people. Technical skills are notably absent from his list.
That’s not surprising, considering Gardner spent more than 20 years honing those skills in a variety of sales positions before being named CIO of the software company two years ago. With no technical training or experience, Gardner spent about five minutes feeling nervous about his background before concluding that his sales and marketing skills mattered much more than technical knowledge.
"I already have 400 people in my organization with great technical skills. The day-to-day skills I find critical to being CIO are the things I used to do every day in my sales jobs—building relationships, asking questions, listening, communicating, persuading," says Gardner.
Bill Vass, on the other hand, would go head to head with anyone on technical knowledge. Vice president of IT at Sun Microsystems, Vass is a die-hard techie. But even he believes sales savvy is more important to his job than technical know-how. "I’m a big technologist, and I really do believe I can solve any technical problem. But you have to be able to sell your program. It’s always about people, not technology," says Vass.
For CIOs at IT vendors, salesmanship tends to run in their blood; many have arrived at IT after stints in the sales department. Now more than ever, sales skills are a critical part of the arsenal for other CIOs—indeed the most important part, some argue. In this economic downturn, being able to sell what you are doing for the business to the business just might shield you from extinction. In the absence of persistent advocacy for how IT is helping meet business goals, it is all too easy for senior management to view the department as just another line item needing to get slashed. And who but the CIO will champion IT to the business?
CIOs recognize the importance of sales skills. In our recent "State of the CIO 2003" survey of 539 CIOs (see the April 1 issue at www.cio.com/printlinks), 35 percent ranked "the ability to influence/salesmanship" as the most pivotal skill in the current business environment. Nearly 80 percent said the ability to communicate effectively is the most important sales skill.
If you don’t have a marketing and sales background, you’re probably uncomfortable with the whole sales thing. Vass, for example, bridles at the suggestion that he is a salesperson. "I’ve had people say to me, ’You’re a great salesman.’ It kind of offends me, actually," says Vass. He’s not anxious to be part of any group that includes used-car salesmen.
