So You Really Want To Be A Pre-Sales Manager?

Based on the great feedback about last month's pre-sales career article - The Super Senior SE, I decided to continue the theme for November. This month's lead article is some advice to pre-sales engineers who want to go into management, and how they can prepare themselves for the job. It's way more than training - it's about attitude, willingness to learn, and a willingness to give up a little of the things (like technical ability) that got you to where you are right now. It's written from my perspective as a former VP of Pre-sales so enjoy the read.

The November Mastering Technical Sales newletter will be out on Tuesday Nov 2nd - Election Day here in the US. Most of the content is already up on the site.

In particular I updated my Recommended Reading List for the Sales Engineer.

Power Point Presenter Mode

Every time I give a workshop or a seminar at least half the class is unaware of "Presenter Mode" in PowerPoint. It is a handy-dandy way of getting the inside track on a presentation while the audience just sees your slides. It enables you (see picture) to see:

1- Your Notes
2 - Zoom the size of your notes
4 - The next 4-6 slides in your presentation
5 - The current time, and how long you have been presenting
6 - (of course) a variable window showing the actual slide your audience is seeing.
7 - back/forward and pen options.

How do you do this? Well - it only works when you have an external monitor or projector hooked up to your laptop. Plug in the 2nd monitor and extend your desktop (it is one of the "Graphics Properties") . Then in PowerPoint under the Slide Show tab you select the options as shown below. Press F5 for slide show and ...

MAGIC!

The Super Senior Principal Distinguished Architect Sales Engineer

How do you become the creme de la creme, the top 5%, one of those SE's that everyone in the company (and the industry) looks up to, admires and respects. This months Talking Point details a conversation I had with an ambitious up-and-coming SE who wanted to know the answer. So from my viewpoint as a former VP of Pre-sales, I told him what I would do and what I would look for.

The executive summary is to be active instead of passive, network ferociously, volunteer for stuff and close big deals. Oh - and find yourself a mentor or two. It is more than just being a very very good SE and executing on the core skills, it becomes more about what you give back to the rest of the SE community and the company. Enjoy the read.

Practice.

"If you don't practice - someone else will!"

"You always perform at the level you practice"

 I just finished watching a remote (webcast) demo of a "revolutionary new software product" that will "change the way companies do business". Maybe it will - but it felt like it was the very first time the SE had ever seen the product. Nothing worked as it was supposed to and the demo gave a very poor first impression. What happened? The SE made a "minor upgrade" to the software a few days ago, checked a couple of basic functions - and never practiced his demo script.

This is elementary SE 101 best practices - so why am I blogging about it? BECAUSE IT IS NOT UNCOMMON. Are we getting lazy? Are we getting crunched for time? What possible excuse can there be for not practicing? I have to add that the salesperson ad-libbed his introduction and forgot to cover one of their key business issues.

Practice. That's why there are so many quotes about it!

Let Go Of Perfection

Last week I was helping a friend prepare a speech he was going to be making at a school board meeting. A little different from a classic sales call - but he wanted to persuade the board to make a particular decision.

He had a great speech outlined with a terrific structure. It was clear, concise and persuasive. But he wasn't happy. Why? Because he was wedded to perfection. I told him to let go, which may seem like strange advice - but here is my reasoning...

When I put together a new presentation, I work hard to come up with the exact words and phrases to get my points across. And so I get stuck to these specific words. If I don't use those exact words it feels like a failure. Yet during the presentation, it's far better  not to worry about finding the perfect words and instead  be natural and focus on your audience. As long as you have rehearsed , you'll be able to communicate your points clearly even if you don't use the "perfect" words. Because the audience never knew what your perfect words were anyway.

How Do I Get Promoted?

The September newsletter generated a lot of feedback, especially the Ask John section about "How Do I Get Promoted (at a small company)?"

It's made me realize that I should spend some time for the remainder of the year looking at career development as it relates to the role of the Sales Engineer.

The lead article in September was The Post Sales Puzzle, which examines just why Pre-Sales gets dragged into Post-Sales activity. The soft skills piece looks at Handout Happiness, a much neglected tool of the SE.

So outside of the standard HR definitions, what really makes the difference between a staff, senior and principal Sales Engineer ?

Five Pieces of Bad Power Point Advice

Courtesy of Jon Thomas

1.That font is too big.

2.I realize this graph is confusing. How about we make it so small and have it appear and disappear so quickly that the audience only gets a glimpse of it.

3.I know the presentation looks better with images and less text, but I need my bullet points to remember what I’m talking about.

4.Don’t worry about the number of slides. If I can’t get to them all, I’ll just skip the last few.

5.Make sure my logo, website, and phone number is on every slide.