The Evolving Sales Engineer

Edward Levine

• Publisher: Edward S Levine
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780578930145
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Riunioni e presentazioni
• Index: Business

Traditionally, Sales and Systems Engineers (SEs) have been expected to simply provide technical information related to the sales efforts of their account managers. Now, SEs are expected to be technical experts plus: be perceived as consultative contributors to the sales process, connect technical features to business drivers and pain points, succeed with managers and executives, earn "a place at the table" where strategic conversations occur, tailor presentations based on attendees' titles, personality traits and anticipated concerns, handle the most common and challenging objections, identify and satisfy business and personal needs plus uncover cross-sell and account expansion opportunities. "The Evolving Sales Engineer" was written to provide SEs with provenbehaviors, techniques, skills and mindsets that will enable them to excel given these emerging expectations. Numerous success stories and examples are included to reinforce chapter highlights. Also included is a special section on SE management. Written to managers, it provides guidance on how to select, build and develop high performance SE teams. By reading this section, SEs will also benefit by gaining an understanding of how to align their performances with evolving managerial goals and expectations.

SECTION I

MANAGING THE EVOLVING SALES ENGINEER

Managing the Evolving Sales Engineer

INTRODUCTION

This section is for managers, directors and executives interested in improving the consultative skills of their SE teams. Many of the ideas and techniques are the same as those used by my company, Technically Speaking, when consulting with SE organizations.

After careful consideration I have decided to include this section for all to see, even though it mainly focuses on management activities. Some of it may surprise your SEs, raising important questions and encouraging constructive discussion. Should your SEs read this section? Yes and here’s why:

Managers of top performing SE organizations encourage and model

an open, consistent flow of accurate information.

People want information, and lots of it, even if the information is not what they want to hear. A classic example of this occurs at airports daily.¹

Imagine that you are waiting to board your flight when the gate agent makes this announcement:

“Ladies and gentlemen, we’re sorry to inform you that our flight has been delayed. We’re not sure what’s going on yet. The plane is here, but the mechanics are telling us that it should be about 10 minutes before we can board. Thank you for your patience.”

Okay, no panic. 10 minutes is no big deal and everyone gets back on their cell phones. Let’s continue our story…

After 10 minutes there is no announcement.

After 15 minutes there is no announcement.

After 20 minutes there is no announcement.

How is everyone feeling now? People are probably getting irritated, many are approaching the gate agent to see what’s going on and the mood is turning increasingly tense.

What if instead, after 10 minutes the gate agent made this announcement:

“Ladies and gentlemen, I just wanted to let you know that we have not been given any new information. We will give you updates every 10 minutes to let you know what, if anything, we’ve been told. Again, we’re very sorry for this inconvenience and your next update will be at 12:15, based on the clock behind me.”

What happens now? People get on their phones, get something to eat, read the newspaper or just relax. They’re not happy about the delay but by simply having the gate agent commit to an open, consistent flow of accurate information, anger and tension are diffused.

I once asked a gate agent (after waiting 20 minutes for an announcement) why she didn’t keep us posted every few minutes? Her reply was, “I have nothing new to tell you so why bother?”

The point of this story is that people want to be kept informed, regardless of the relative desirability of the information—SEs included. I understand that from a management level, not everything is appropriate for public consumption or scrutiny. However, even negative or disconcerting information (assuming it will not derail corporate initiatives) needs to be shared to maintain a trustful and healthy environment.

This section may contain just such information. SEs who read this may be surprised or even disagree with some of the ideas. However, if you are an SE, I would encourage you to objectively assess this section and understand that management is embracing and applying these strategies today.

THE ROLE OF THE SE MANAGER

The role of the SE manager is long overdue for evolution. Most SE managers today were previously SEs. That means that they probably entered the ranks as an SE at least 3-5 years ago. That was during a time when expectations for SEs were very different and more strictly defined. 90+% of your value rested with your technical expertise. If you could succeed with non-technical audiences or higher levels, that was great, but certainly not expected or required. The interview process that SEs went through focused almost entirely on technical know-how. Does this sound like your experience?

Coming from the SE ranks certainly has significant advantages when it comes to technical expertise and empathy. However, SE managers from purely technical backgrounds must now drive the changes required by the evolving SE. In many cases an SE’s evolution and ultimate success is almost entirely dependent on his or her manager’s coaching and development expertise.

The tricky part is that this is only possible when the SE managers are themselves proficient at the skills that they must model, coach to and reinforce. These are skills that they may have intuitiv...