Posted inBehind Solutions Consulting
From Demos to Coach: Navigating the Leap from Solution Consultant to Manager
For most of my career, I had no ambition to become a manager. I genuinely enjoyed being a Solutions Consultant, working directly with customers and getting the immediate feedback that comes from solving real problems, running demos and shaping technical sales cycles. But after the better part of two decades in technical pre-sales and solutions engineering, the learning curve started to flatten. It felt a bit like playing a computer game you still love, but one where you have explored most of the map and new challenges increasingly look familiar. Moving into management changed that. It felt less like leaving Solutions Consulting behind and more like unlocking the next level of the same game. In this article, I share what I learned moving from individual contributor to Manager and Senior Manager, including coaching instead of fixing, developing people, working across Sales and Product, using metrics well, and building teams that can succeed without depending on you for every answer.
