What Am I Doing Here?
13 Mar 2009
Sales Engineers are a hard nut to figure out. If they’re too technical, they usually don’t have the polish they need to speak to prospects in the context of selling. If they’re too polished, they struggle to succeed in organizations that value technical skills. Soft skills are hard to quantify, so they’re hard to screen for, and even harder to cultivate. Probably why most of the really polished SE’s go onto become highly successful sales guys. Commissions are a great way to quantify results.
I had dinner with one of the best SE’s I know last Thursday. He’s a guy that takes no prisoners. His customers love him. In fact, one of his current customers called the president of his company to tell them on no uncertain terms was my friend to be removed from their account.
We were chatting about our jobs, and he said “I don’t use slides.”
“You don’t use slides?!?!”
“Nope, I walk in and ask one question…
What am I doing here?
That gets the prospect talking, and enables me to build a relationship based on my subject matter expertise.”
Brilliant, yet simple.
I think it’s so simple, people don’t trust it as a strategy. Probably because so many SE’s are like the guy I worked with this morning, only comfortable when talking about the bits-and-bytes of the product. And thoroughly out of their league when talking about the customer’s solutions.
And, by the way, if “What am I doing here?” isn’t enough of a conversation starter… followup with “What keeps you up at night?” That’s sure to get any technologist talking.
Mar 13, 2009 @ 13:36:17
Well said. SE’s are a dime-a-dozen. Good SE’s are rarer. Rockstar SE’s with the right blend of business savvy and technical acumen are the guys who can make the difference between just having one-shot customers and having long term customer relationships and onging sales lifecycles.
Welcome to the blogsphere.
Mar 13, 2009 @ 13:42:47
Thanks for the comment. Turns out, replying to comments is way easier on WordPress than TypePad. In fact, on Typepad, it drives me crazy (crazier?).
This is what most companies don’t get. It’s the relationship stupid. If you can be that advisor, you’ll have more successful customers, and therefore more business. But, it requires too much effort in most organizations to make that happen. People don’t buy products, they buy the relationship. Period.
Nice to be here (I think).
Mar 13, 2009 @ 16:15:14
I totally agree, a great SE is like a dog that talks .… very rare! A Rockstar SE is like a dog that talks Norwegian, even rarer
Also, a sales guy can have a bad day and still win the deal, if an SE has a bad 2 minutes it can kill a deal.
Mar 14, 2009 @ 03:18:39
You question is “Not what I’m are doing here?” but rather what, ” should I be doing here?” As the product custodian you should be ensuring that you not trying to put on a horse show with a pony with all due respect to those concerned. Everyone has a part to play but it’s management responsibility to ensure they understand the skills and traits of members of the team. It start with you playing people to their strenghts rather trying to make them what they not. There is a time and place for everything, a time for techie talk and time for selling. Know your audience from the outset and present accordingly. It absloutely amazing what abit of research on your audience can reveal about them. So take a few minutes google them and then speak to them in their own language. It’s what I term a little that goes a long way.
Mar 14, 2009 @ 07:41:16
Zac, I have to disagree. “What should I be doing here” makes it about the SE (about the vendor), “what am I doing here” makes it about the customer/prospect… and that makes all the difference.
Try this, after a competitive POC/sales-cycle, whether we’re the chosen vendor or not, give the decision makers a list of features, and ask them to match which features go with which vendor. I bet they get in wrong at least 30–40% of the time. What does that tell you?