soft skills 1

[rowingengineer]

I need to develop my soft skills and I am wondering what methods people have found to be the best training for such an endeavour.

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field

 

[ctopher]

Lots of lotion...

Chris
SolidWorks 09 SP5.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[ctopher]

What exactly do you mean by 'soft skills' ?

Chris
SolidWorks 09 SP5.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[rowingengineer]

Sorry should have been a bit more specific; By soft skills I mean the non-technical skills for example; sales and marketing. How to develop the ability to sell yourself, your company to the world in a once off chance meeting with a future/current client, and if possible how to create that meeting.

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field

 

[MikeHalloran]

I don't think of Sales as 'soft', as in, in any way analogous to 'not hard'. If you have the opportunity to watch salesmen in action, you will realize that they are _always_ 'on duty', or 'in character', or whatever it takes. They do not utter a syllable without rehearsal and careful planning.

The OTHER way to develop your soft skills is just to BE NICE. I don't mean to minimize the difficulty of doing that, either, but it's much easier if you're also honest.

It's that SINCERITY thing; if you can fake that, the sky's the limit.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[JohnRBaker]

Of course, if you work for the right organization with the right products, you won't ever need to 'fake it', something I've had the honor and privilege of doing in the case of both organizations for which I've worked since graduating from engineering school nearly 40 years ago.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[Ron]

RE...believe in it. As engineers, we are programmed to be clear and concise. If you want to "sell" something, if it already fits into that mold and you believe it, all you'll have to do is talk about it...it will come out naturally. Further, it won't come across as a rehearsed sales pitch as it will be genuine. Your audience will receive it as such.

If you try to promote something you don't believe in, you'll come across as insincere. As Mike noted, if you can fake that, the sky's the limit!

Selling yourself is one of the hardest things an engineer can do. Self promotion is foreign to your stereotypical personality. What I've found easiest to do is simply state facts of your experience...projects, results, etc.

Develop your "other brain"...for us that means learning to do something on the artistic side; photography, music, literature, etc. This will give you some "ice breakers" for conversation....generally when conversation is open and fluid, self promotion is unnecessary.

 

[GregLocock]

I did a couple of courses on presentation skills, they were good. One was mainly on acting, that is, standing straight, shoulders back, not putting your hands in your pockets, look at people not at your shoes (etc). That was fun.

The other was an impromptu speaking course. Basically stand up in front of people you don't know and give a 5 minute talk, with about 10 minutes prep. That was less useful to me, since I typically spend days preparing for a twenty minute presentation.





Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

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[tygerdawg]

Been discussed before, will repeat my little story about giving speeches to new engineering students. I told them they need engineering skills to keep their job on a daily basis. I added they need accounting, public speaking, presentation skills, marketing, diplomacy, and writing communications skills for career growth. They all got depressed at that.

How to get it? Practice.

Take a Dale Carnegie or Toastmasters course. Be a lector at your church. Become active (to the officer level) in a professional society...there's wonderful opportunities for honing leadership skills at very little risk in those places. Volunteer at organizations that have other up-and-coming volunteers so you can get some exposure to other business cultures than engineering. Chase down opportunities within your work that will force you to learn how to build and defend a business case and influence other people's behavior.

And for God's sake have enough common sense and decency to know that salesmanship and influencing skills is not the same as being underhanded, unprofessional, and manipulative. People are generally smart and desire ethics. They can smell a manipulative rat a mile away, but will follow a leader who doesn't violate their sense of morality.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering

http://www.bluetechnik.com

 

[rbulsara]

Look in to Dale Carnegie training courses on related subjects. They are more helpful to some than others. But they are generally well received.



Rafiq Bulsara

http://www.srengineersct.com

 

[rowingengineer]

Thanks for the replies so far!

Everyone is right so far, I can't fake it, I can give a good honest presentation, and I can handle a meeting with new/existing clients. The specific problem I have is the one off chance meetings and general networking. I am told that when I have a client meeting my language is positive and everything happens naturally with positive results for my company. I did some training to get to this point, mostly Toastmasters and role as office bearer in sports clubs.

However when I have a one off chance meeting this doesn’t happen, I can talk about footy, cricket, rowing ect but am unable to get the convo to a where I should be saying “this is what we do……. And we would like to help you on your next project. Would you be interested in …………..’. I don’t seem to have the skills for this part, and I have noticed a lot of company offering training to help with this type of situation, but I am unsure if this is best course or would take a job at the local fruit and veg shop for a few weekends teach me the skills.



An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field

 

[GregLocock]

Wow.

My 'problem' is the opposite - everybody I meet knows what what I get up to.

I think it's called enthusiasm or self-absorption. Depending...




Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[B16A2]

It just takes practice, and honestly some people are better at speaking on the fly than others. You sound like you're nervous. Taking the parttime sales job is a good idea. I've heard of others taking acting classes.

Whatever you do, spend more time talking to people in real life and less on eng-tips to the 15 people who live here.

 

[abusementpark]

Look in to Dale Carnegie training courses on related subjects.

Great idea, but it may not be necessary to jump right into a course. I gained a lot of knowledge from reading Carnegie's book.

 

[ivymike]

I've observed that it's more fruitful to listen to the potential customer describe problems he's having and offer ways that you can help him solve those problems than to try to "sell" your product/service. If you're talking to him about what his company does, see if you can steer the conversation toward the things which really need to be improved in his opinion, and once you understand what the need is offer a solution (if you have one).

 

[tygerdawg]

I've heard it called "the elevator pitch". It's what you say in a chance meeting with a captive audience that lasts 45 seconds. Practice it.

It will usually turn out into just passing a business card and planting the seed for an eventual callback or referral. Make sure your business card clearly indicates what it is that you can do for your potential clients.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering

http://www.bluetechnik.com

 

[KENAT]

tygerdawg beet me to it, you need an 'elevator statement'. My company spent tens of thousands of dollars (an a good few man hours for the all hands presentation) doing a 'branding' exercise that included creating this.

No I can't remember what it is.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[cvg]

join toastmasters

http://www.toastmasters.org/

 

[plasgears]

I had ten years with Toastmasters, and I recommend it even for short termers. These are the guys who come and go for specific brushing up before a presentation task comes up. Long term commitment is better, and it has annual events like humorous speech contest, serious SC, debates, etc. Duties are assigned in rotation like speeches, evaluator, grammarian, and exercises in speaking without preparation. They call it table topics.

The basic course includes:
- the ice breaker, an introductory speech;
- vocal variety;
- using your hands;
- show what you mean, props;
- how to read a speech if necessary;
- eye contact;
- organize your speech;
- how to convince your audience;
- speaking with emotion, etc.

TM is well worth the time and effort. I was instrumental in adding the eulogy project to the advanced course. The advanced course is mostly challenging elective tasks.

 

[JayMaechtlen]

The elevator speech is a great start. I attend a job club regularly, and that's one thing we each practice every session. It gives us a chance to hear different approaches, and to try different approaches.
Your elevator speech shouldn't necessarily be closed at the end. Whatever you say can/should invite further discussion, either there or later.
A very useful approach is to find out about them and their efforts and needs. Then you have a reference point. Maybe you can offer services, or maybe you can offer them a referral or resource to help them. In any case: as you learn about them, you build a stronger relationship for the future.
Regards
Jay

Jay Maechtlen

http://www.laserpubs.com/techcomm