> I'm shit at it, but the mantra I tell to myself is: "remember when you were a kid? These are other kids that play with the same toys as you. Just talk about the toys and how to make toys more fun. Same enthusiasm!".

The problem is: this kind of "nerd talk" that you are enthused about often comes across as awkward in particular to business-minded people.

In other words: I can perfectly understand why many developers have bad experiences with talking to people: too different interests and thus quite a lot of bad experiences in the past.

But big expensive machines and software sales usually involves a lot of customer research and pre sales intelligence and rocking your sweet lone self (allowing you might be able to fake the roles and personalities necessary to mimic a remote team) to a enterprise closing meeting, isn't going forwards. Possibly you could look for interim executives from among the growing pool of experienced management exiled by industry ageism. But this(and my other suggestions) do require a broader professional ability. Enterprise software sales seems to have suffered something akin to job title inflation in IBs and start ups. And I can buy a lot of enterprise software directly online even in single digit seats. If you can do any of what I just pondered, almost certainly you're better off using your energies to hone your customer product fit, Steve Blank style or any which way.

The only thing I'll differentiate in my thinking from the OP advice is consider thoughtfully how well you are served by diarizing your development process and how much more can come from thinking in reverse from the customer perspective.