The June Mastering Technical Sales Newsletter will be published on June 8th. This month's lead article is "How Many Sales Engineers Does It Take To Sell A Solution?" Part I. In this first part I look at the typical history of a vendor (software/hardware/services) as it grows from a start-up in a multi-channel, multi-solution company. It's a "How Did We Get To This Point?" lesson.
The July conclusion will examine the potential solutions to reducing the size and complexity of both the sales and pre-sales organization.
The personal skills article this month is about "Pricing and the Sales Engineer". Although SE's shouldn't talk very much about pricing (if at all), there is plenty they should understand.
John,
ReplyDeleteAre you interested in Certification of Sales/Pre-Sales Engineers? If so send me an email.
Jack
jack@saleseng.org
www.saleseng.org
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ReplyDeleteJohn
ReplyDeleteI disagree with your position on SE's and that they shouldn't discuss price. An SE should be completly versed in pricing. They should have a symbiotic relationship with the sales rep and know what he or she would do. The first word in Sales Engineer is Sales, and the SE should be able to close deals just as well as the sales rep. Why would you not want to have any and all opportunity to close business?
Jeff
tonkabayjeffa@gmail.com
Jeff - thanks for the posting. Based upon my email, public opinion is about 90/10 in favor of SE's staying away from pricing. My general philosophy about this is that there are so many other value add activities that an SE can be doing around the "Sales" portion of their title, that speaking about pricing is not a high priority. So while a senior SE should understand the pricing model, and certainly all the configuration options - the actual dollars/euros/pounds discussion should be left to the account manager.
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