BIO

Iancho has been in the software industry for 20 years and considers himself to be an IT professional with business affinity, or the other way around. He has gone through many operational roles – software engineer, business analyst, software architect, project and program manager, CTO, Business-IT Consultant. For more than 15 years he has also been dealing with sales, marketing and key account management. His current interests are focused on how innovation can be effectively managed and applied in big organizations and on the enterprise application of Blockchain, IoT, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data technologies.

In his VP role at Musala Soft Iancho covers both business and operational responsibilities. He leads the Business Development team that drives sales and new clients acquisition. He is also responsible for assuring the business and operational success of the company’s strategic clients. This includes personally managing the Projects & Service delivery for some of the company’s key clients like Deutsche Telekom, Commerzbank, Telenor, T-Systems, Bulgarian Ministry of Interior – by leading development, QA, BA and PM teams and with hands-on process engagement. Iancho is also responsible for the company’s growth in the area of innovation and emerging technologies.
– – – –
Iancho enjoys sharing knowledge and experience – and his talks are focused at the intersection of technology, business, management, innovation and IT expert’s life and career. Conferences where he has spoken recently include ConFoo (Montreal), EclipseCon Europe (Ludwigsburg), Innotech Summit (Stockholm), Smart Home Day (Darmstadt), Wearables Barcamp (Darmstadt), ISTA Con (Sofia), DEB.BG All-in-one (Sofia), SIBMI (Berlin), Balkan BA Conference (Sofia), Hack Conf (Sofia), Muffin Conference (Sofia, Skopje), Meet the Masters (Skopje).

Talk

Sales Skills for QA Experts

Sales skills – can they be useful to QA experts? Iancho believes they can be not just useful but actually quite important for achieving the professional and personal goals of every IT professional. Think about the broader context of selling – like convincing, negotiating and more. Here are just a few scenarios where they can greatly increase your chances for success:

*** You have an idea for a change in your project – for example you believe you need to introduce automated testing, a new tool, or a significant change in the process. And as all these cost – you need to convince and “sell” your idea to your colleagues responsible for budget related decisions.
*** You are applying for a position in a new company or for a new role in your current company. Again, you need to effectively “sell” your expertise, experience and time.
*** You plan to join a start-up as a co-founder or to build your own company. It’s more than clear that for your long-term success a key factor will be the company’s ability to sell well.
*** You plan to advance your career in areas like Project Management and Account Management. To be successful in any of these you will definitely need to be able to “sell” well.

Join this session and you’ll hear Iancho’s point of view about selling in a broader context – and why sales skills matter for QA experts. Iancho will talk about some of the main sales approaches and principles that he uses and that have proven successful. He’ll map all of these to two real life scenarios from the QA expert’s life – and will show you how they can be applied by sharing real-life examples and first-hand experience.