About Alex

The short version

I'm Alex Gutjahr. I'm a software engineer based in Berlin. I've spent most of my career building products — web applications, APIs, infrastructure, the usual. At some point I realized that being good at building things and being good at getting paid for building things were two completely different skills. So I learned the second one. This course is what I wish I'd had when I started.

The longer version

For years, I did what most engineers do: I relied on my employer for income. I was good at my job, got raises, changed companies when I wanted a bump. The usual trajectory. But somewhere along the way, I started freelancing on the side — picking up small projects, doing consulting work, helping startups with technical decisions.

The work itself was easy. Finding it was not.

I'd refresh job boards, wait for referrals, occasionally get lucky with an inbound message on LinkedIn. But I had no system. No pipeline. No idea how to consistently find clients who needed what I could build. I was good at the work and terrible at getting the work.

So I did what engineers do: I studied the problem. I read sales books — most were written for people selling insurance or enterprise software to Fortune 500 companies. I took courses — most assumed I wanted to become a full-time salesperson. I watched YouTube videos — most were either too basic ("just be confident!") or too sleazy ("use this NLP trick to close anyone").

None of it was built for someone like me. An engineer. Someone who solves problems systematically, communicates precisely, and would rather debug a race condition than make small talk at a networking event.

So I built my own system. I tested cold email templates. I developed a discovery call framework that felt like a technical conversation, not a sales pitch. I figured out how to price my work based on value, not hours. I learned when to say no — and how to say it without burning a bridge.

It took time. I made mistakes. Some emails were terrible. Some calls were painful. But the system got better, and the results compounded. Eventually, I had a repeatable process for finding and closing consulting work — one that felt honest, systematic, and natural for someone with an engineering mindset.

Why this course exists

Every engineering community I'm part of — Slack groups, Discord servers, Reddit threads, conference hallways — has the same conversation on repeat:

"How do I find clients?"
"How do I price my work?"
"How do I stop trading time for money?"

The answers aren't secret. But they're scattered across sales books written for people who sell copiers, buried in podcasts aimed at SaaS founders, and mixed in with advice that assumes you have a sales team and a marketing budget.

I wanted to put everything in one place. In language that makes sense to engineers. With examples drawn from technical services. With templates you can actually use. With frameworks that respect how engineers think.

That's selling.engineering.

What I'm not

I'm not a sales guru. I don't have a private jet or a mansion I rented for a thumbnail. I haven't built a "7-figure agency." I'm an engineer who learned to sell — and I'm still learning. Sales is a practice, not a destination. This course will keep evolving as I test new approaches and find new tools.

If you want to talk, ask a question, or just say hi: alex@selling.engineering. I reply to everything.