So what exactly is a “Trusted Advisor” Sales Engineer? The
position is one of those “I know it when
I see it” type things. Anyone – sales or presales – who sells to at least a
strategic/enterprise customer (with any hope of getting some repeat business) should
aspire to become this. Yet the fact is – YOU cannot call yourself a T/A. YOUR
COMPANY cannot call you a T/A. It’s YOUR CUSTOMER who has to see you as THEIR
T/A in order for the label to work.
It is not that easy. There are so many things that get in
the way, mainly the culture of the quarterly or monthly revenue pressure. Quota
hangs over the head of a presales engineer, or at least over the head of the
salespeople that you work with. Every presales engineer has probably heard the
words “you have to build a relationship
with your customer and become their trusted advisor”. No-one ever explains
how to do that!
So – for the first time ever – there is now a workshop
directed towards presales engineers that explains both the behaviors and the practical
applications they need to demonstrate so that their customers will trust them.
When an SE is trusted, then they can give advice that will be listened to. That
usually results in higher revenue, larger deals, less competition, and better
customer satisfaction.
Today I am announcing the availability of a new Mastering
Technical Sales workshop – “The Trusted Sales Engineer”. The workshop will be
delivered to a few early customers in October and will be generally available –
in a 1 and 2-day format - in November.
Contact me for more information and an outline syllabus.
Hello there! I'll be looking forward to be visiting your site again and for your other posts as well. Keep it up! Thank you so much for sharing some of your ideas about this particular issue. It is so fulfilling to have an additional knowledge about social media careers from you. You have such an interesting and very informative page.
ReplyDeleteSales engineers also collaborate with the design, production, engineering, or R&D departments of their companies to determine how products and services could be made or modified to suit customers' needs. This aspect of sales engineering is important, because it is what allows the sales engineer to feel that they can maintain their personal integrity (ethically speaking) in the face of the inherent COI of the job (explained earlier). The sales engineer does not have to lie (ignore or negatively misrepresent the competitor's products or services) if they can reasonably tell the customer that their employer can tailor its solutions to the customer's particular requirements. Doing that may not be easy or cheap, which means that there is always a line to be walked to avoid overpromising-and/or-underdelivering.
A qualified sales recruiter can help candidates and clients (hiring employers) navigate this changing landscape by identifying the various stages of a candidate's growth and interests, and match them to an employer's strategy for sales execution. A Sales recruiter may often make suggestions to help employer widen or alter their criteria to find the largest and most qualified pool of talent – depending on their targeted geographies, price point, or technology maturity. Candidates can also benefit from increased exposure to roles that satisfy their unique preference, an example is a need to sell twenty $50k deals over the phone versus two $1m deals over 30 face-to-face visits.
software sales engineer MA