I have met many different positions, but IT-Evangelicals are probably one of the most unusual names in my practice, and I have been taking this position with great pleasure for the past few years. Almost always to the question “Who do you work with? / What are you doing?” I think for a few seconds and my answers vary from “Marketer” to “I share the truth about life with others”. These facts, as well as the long-time desire to publish something useful on the GT, helped write this little story that anyone might find useful. I hope that IT companies will be able to see (or learn) the benefits of such specialists, and we, emotional employees, will be able to realize ourselves in this area.

The history of evangelists in information technology, according to Wikipedia, began almost 30 years ago, but since then I have met only a few of my colleagues. What do they (we) do? They are all united by their emotional attachment to the technologies with which they work, along with work experience and the ability to infect others with the same passion. The first evangelist is Guy Kawasaki , who promoted one of the first Macintoshes to Apple. Later, Steve himself was recognized as an evangelist, and they also began to appear in large companies - IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and even the Master Card. Pebble watches were a great success, thanks in large part to the love and faith in the product, Forbes often refers to this term, and LinkedIn gives detailed statistics on my colleagues.

Who we are and how we work

For the past 15 years, I have been working in the field of consulting on systems that automate the process of financial planning, budgeting, reporting, and, in part, business analysis. I started from the position in the technical support group and during this time I was both an expert, and a project manager and a head of the direction. During this time, I was fortunate enough to work with all the major market leaders (Oracle Hyperion, IBM TM1, SAP, Adaptive Planning, Board, etc.), but I received real pleasure from work from just one product (the name does not matter for this article, also one of the leaders of the Gartner squares). This solution allowed me to go beyond the standard settings without having to write code, without any extra clicks, and really help clients with their tasks. That is how I began to describe this decision within the company, as a result of which we began to offer this solution more often in the framework of tenders. Sellers noticed that my colleagues trusted me, and began to invite me to meetings with clients to demonstrate the solution. And customers, in addition to the technical characteristics, really liked the fact that I sincerely believed in what I showed them. Therefore, on condition that we could agree on other conditions (rates, terms, limits, etc.), the clients chose us more often and I had another interesting project. As a result, a mutually beneficial history began, which eventually led me to the very vendor-manufacturer of the system and the offer to work as an evangelist.
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What did I manage to realize during this time?

This is an individual need.

Not everyone wants to be evangelicals.

• Some employees want to solve technical problems and they like the process of product introduction / development. They do not want to spend time communicating with customers, promotion and emotions, they are interested in technology and development in this area.
• others go entirely into business and they lose touch with technical solutions. Such specialists usually go to customers, move to sales or take managerial positions.
• and someone likes the selling process itself, but they don’t want to be sellers. In this case, they go to presale where you need knowledge of the product capabilities and have some experience in implementation.
• Obviously, there are still many other types that depend on the industry and direction, but the idea is the same - they want to develop in a different direction.

Balance load

If the company has decided that they need an evangelist, do not choke with his work. Most consulting companies are built on the principles of resource utilization, and therefore it is vital to take evangelists out of this process. The last 2-3 years I have participated in many projects, but only twice the client paid for it. In all other projects I was an invited expert, raising faith in the product and project, and at the same time absolutely free for the client. Naturally, my free help cannot be long, but it is enough to improve the quality of the project and communications, as well as build more long-term relationships with the client.

Evangelists, like everyone else, must develop

Such employees must remain professionals - let them learn new products, promote ideas, organize meetings to share experiences, and share with them the results of other projects. They are motivated by the success of projects, they sincerely want to improve the product and therefore they are usually very loyal - do not be afraid to introduce them to competitive products - this is unlikely to increase the risk of losing such specialists, but it will definitely bring new ideas.

Use them inside the company

Remember that their passion is contagious. Give them a word at internal meetings, organize seminars where they will talk about their experiences and products, send them newbies! People will be more loyal to your product / service, as well as to the company. Solid pluses!

So why is this all for me?

Summing up what you can get:

• We help develop business. Adding an evangelist to a sales team, especially strategic ones, increases the chances of successfully completing a sale. The last big deal in which I participated brought the company more than $ 5 million. This does not replace the role of presale and the seller, but perfectly complements when a more detailed work is needed by a potential client.
• We do product advertising. I built from scratch an online community with more than 1500 participants in total. This raises the status of the product, its recognition in the market, and also plays a large role in the same sales. The perfect combination is the interaction with the marketing team, which will help you create the right text or ask you to report a big event within the company.
• We solve problems. I often check out / meet / talk up with projects where there are problems. Since evangelicals do not have to sell their services, they are more open in problems and can find solutions not only on the client side, but also on their own side. Perhaps the service was provided poorly or the program really has a flaw that needs to be addressed.
• And yes, we are developing a product. Evangelicals have more existing clients than any other role. They constantly receive feedback and suggestions for improving the service / product. Therefore, it is vital to give them the opportunity to make these proposals for discussion with the development team or as part of discussions of current processes in the company. Obviously, not all offers will be implemented, but many will improve the quality of services / product provided.
• And we increase motivation. Our passion for the product always causes some mockery, but it also helps to rally the team. Real stories about successful projects help others to work more productively so that there will be even more such stories.

I hope this story will help other companies improve their business thanks to my emotional colleagues, and employees who understand that they want something more than just technical work will find themselves in this publication. I would be happy to give you more details and answer questions about my current job or just about working in global vendors (or about working in Australia).