Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast We The Sales Engineers: A Resource for Sales Engineers, by Sales Engineers

I'm always asked, "What does a great SE look like?" The problem is there isn't one way to SE. Great SEs look like. The role is complex, and people do it differently. 

So, let's delve into the role's complexity and break it down through an evaluation form I created. I cover various aspects such as working with account managers, discovery, demos, proof of value, and technical know-how. I also emphasize the importance of customer relations and leadership skills.

Finally, I have some news…

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show324

Join us as we welcome Harman Bamra, who shares his unique journey from studying literature and international affairs to becoming a Solution Engineer (SE). Harman discusses his initial plans of becoming a diplomat, his background in literature, and how his passion for tech led him to digitize his family pharmacy business. Learn about his overlapping interests in tech and literature, the challenges he faced, and the strategies he used to transition into the corporate world of sales engineering. Harman also highlights the importance of understanding the 'why' behind customer needs and how his martial arts training influences his professional approach. Don't miss this insightful episode packed with practical advice for anyone looking to pursue a career in Solution Engineering

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show323

I have my own opinions of what sales engineers should do, and how they should be involved in the sales process. My opinion is that they should be involved, early and often.

But I sell in the enterprise market, with a small number of customers. My SE is tied only to me, and the main decision-makers are the users who use the product. So it would make sense that my SE is heavily involved, follows up post-demo, and maintains relationships. 

But when your product is being sold to other Salespeople, and the goal is to show them how easy it is to use, and the SE that supports your opportunities supports the opportunities of a few other salespeople, then the process and expectations are different. Adam Weekes is an AE Leader within Big Tin Can. He drops by the show to explain his views.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show314

Kris comes back to dig into more details about what he means by serving the process, not the salesperson.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show223

Kris Meulemans the Global Head of Customer Operations in Materialize. He is a Presales Leader with years of experience in multiple industries. He also shared tips and tricks on how to gain the trust of the customers to tell their pain points.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show222

Mastering Technical Sales is THE Book that every sales engineer should read. The 3rd edition, and the one that I've read, came out 8 years ago. But things have changed significantly over the last 8 years. They changed enough to warrant a 4th edition of that book which includes many updates.

John Care, the author of the book, comes by the show to discuss what those changes are. John has been on the show a couple of other times, so check out those episodes as well when you're done.

Full Show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show221

Is it easier to have only one product to sell? What happens when the company grows, either organically or through acquisition? Does it get harder or easier? Is it any different? These are all questions that I tackle with my guest David Ledger.

David Ledger is a Regional VP of Sales Engineering and a Sales Enablement provider. He is a strong proponent of learning and improving. As the organization grows, the portfolio grows with it and so should the Sales Engineer's skills. 

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show220

Andy Paul is an author, a podcaster, a speaker, and a consultant. He is ranked #8 on LinkedIn's list of Top 50 Global Sales Experts. He is the owner and the host of the podcast "Sales Enablement with Andy Paul," the show already has over a thousand episodes and continues to inspire thousands of sales professionals every week. Andy has also written two award-winning sales books, "Zero-Time Selling" and "Amp Up Your Sales". He recently published the book "Sell Without Selling Out." Discover why Andy decided to remain in sales and what motivates him.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show219

How would you react if someone who pursued Computer Science, worked for NASA, and hated it? How about when a sales engineer who has worked in a known and successful company would resign and work in a startup instead? In this episode, find out why Desanka Aleksov grew to love developing again and came back not just as a computer engineer or a salesperson alone, but as a sales engineer.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show218

When looking to hire a sales engineer, experienced or rookie, there are certain criteria that leaders look for. In this episode, I discuss that with Jimmy Barens, Head of Solution Engineering at Yext.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show217

Are you still doubting what to pursue between post-sales and pre-sales? Do you want to know the difference between the two? In this episode, you'll get to know a former technical expert who shifted to sales engineering and became a vice president even after having an unsatisfied buyer and making a mistake worth $30,000 in his early years in the field. Come and join the rollercoaster journey of Paul Vidal towards his current position!

Paul Vidal is the Vice President of Customer Success at Reprise. He has more than 15 years of experience in data management, technical, and sales. He is a Technical Expert and has two master's degrees in Computer Science. He started in post-sales but changed to presales after he realize he loves to design solutions.  He also considers sales engineering as one of the best professions because it combines puzzle-solving and people skills.

My guest this week is Woody Evans, a Presales Leader with lots of experience. He runs a Discovery University at his current job with the intention of extracting what value means to customers, then making sure he provides that value.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show215

Are you new to sales engineering? If you are maybe just a few years into the role and you're wondering how you can become an all-star, then this episode is for you. My guest Ganesh of AVEVA answers questions about the type of people he hires and sees potential for sales engineering growth. He also talks about the most essential quality you need to have as a sales engineer.

Ganesh Venkataramanan is the Vice President of presales for AVEVA, which is a software company that laid up the global account region within AVEVA property sales. His background is originally in projects and delivery which may be a good starting point for anyone from a technical sales or presales or sales engineering background. Along the way, he decided he enjoyed sales and that's where he thought he could make the greatest impact. Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show214

Over the many years that I've been doing this podcast, we've talked about the skills required, how to manage the team, communication, relationship building. But we've never discussed the SE Big picture, how external factors like the economy can affect the role, and what moves can be made internally to save money. 

So I invited John Simpson on this show to discuss that. John is the former head of Solution Engineering for EMEA at Qualtrics do discuss this in more detail.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show313

So you're a sales engineer—what does that mean? Sales Engineering differs from company to company, industry to industry, and even individual to individual. The great thing about being a sales engineer is that there are so many ways to be one. It's important to understand what makes the organization successful, and what makes the individual happy. My guest this week is Amber L. Fallon. Amber went through a few SE roles before her current positions. Some were great, some she did not enjoy. We discuss why that is, and what folks can do to understand what they want in a Sales Engineering role. Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show213

For anyone who has ever given or received feedback, you've probably noticed how tricky it is to discuss. Either people are too harsh or they're not constructive enough. Or maybe you fall into the trap of being disingenuous and saying something nice in an attempt to make someone feel good without actually saying anything of use. There are ways to overcome these obstacles, though.

In this episode, Kelsey Frost of ClickUp shares how valuable feedback is and how she creates a culture of constantly providing and receiving feedback within her team.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show212

There are always two sides to each story. In our case, it's us, the providers, and the clients. What do our clients really want from us? Why are they acting this certain way? So on and so forth.  Learn how you could get into your customers' minds as Antoine Snow of AvePoint shares his experiences of having been on both the provider and client side!

Antoine Snow is the Manager of Solution Engineering at AvePoint Public Sector. In this episode, Antoine dissects the clients' minds so service providers would know how to go about better with their moves at hand. He also dives deep into the differences between public sectoral projects and enterprises. 

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show211

In this episode, we're joined by Rafael Lluis, the Head of Sales Engineering at Liferay. We'll talk about how he got into the field of sales engineering and what it takes to be successful in his role today.

Rafael started his career in consultancy and then moved on to presales and eventually became a Sales Engineering Manager. Today, in his current role, he manages a diverse team of international SEs and how they collaborate across different countries, cultures, and requirements. We talk about where the presales team spends most and least time and where they should be improving, as well as best practices in planning sessions, demos, and "critique sessions." We also discuss how sales engineers juggle learning with other priorities—and what they're looking for in their ideal hire. Finally, Rafael shares what he sees as the future of presales and the skills that people need to work on to succeed.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show209

I receive emails on a consistent basis from managers asking for tips on tools that are out there for Sales Engineers. In the last couple of years, there has been an emergence of tools.

Chris White and Kerry Sokalski did a lot of research on these vendors and they came to discuss their research.

Check out the full show at: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show208

When an employee joins a new company, they are usually assigned a mentor. This mentor could be the best thing to ever happen to the new employee, however, my experience has not been that positive, at least not with assigned mentors. So in this episode, I will be talking about why Assigned mentors are not the greatest, and what we can do to overcome that.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show207

Anyone who works in sales knows that trust is not easy to come by. It's easier for Sales Engineers than salespeople due to the "Engineer" in the title, but we are still working with people who we may have not met before, asking them to share information that they would not share with anyone else, so it makes sense that they are wary of providing it.

We need to build that trust. And trust is the topic of conversation with Richard Jackson today. Richard is an SE leader based out of Austin, Texas. We will discuss the SE industry there, as well as how we can work to build trust, not only with customers, but with salespeople, product managers, and anyone else we encounter. 

Hard work pays. So does dedication. Who knew? A lot of people did, including Dustin Allen, my guest today.

Dustin was in the military, got out and followed in his family's footsteps, then decided to do something different. He did that something different and posted about it online. Being open to posting online provided visibility for him which is why a vendor servicing Dustin's employer offered him an SE role and his career has taken off. 

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show205

Solution Engineers have a lot on their plate, and I have the pleasure of adding one more thing to that plate...marketing

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show312

Fil Capiral currently works as a Senior Solutions Engineer at Shogun, an e-commerce service provider company, and he shares his experience on focusing on sales engineering, a role he's been doing besides coding, computer science, and consultancy for more than 10 years.

In this episode, Fil shares how he was able to identify roadblocks and come up with solutions that differentiated him and allowed him to get a promotion to a management role.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show203

Reading body language is not very easy, but we can control what body language we want to convey to the people, and that is what I discuss with my guest, Mark Bowden.

show notes at https://wethesalesengineers.com/show61

Do you want to be more productive? Have you ever wondered how the most successful people are able to accomplish so much in a day? What's their secret?

In this episode, Chris White is back to chat about all things productivity, goal setting, and habit building. He shares how he gets his tasks done during the day, how he reflects on his goals, and some top tips for being more productive as a sales engineer.

Chris White is an accomplished author, trainer, coach, teacher, and Sales Engineering leader. He penned "The Six Habits of Highly Effective Sales Engineers", an amalgamation of over a decade of experience in the field where Chris is able to articulate the importance of a number of key habits that will lead any SE to success.

Full Show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show202

Are you a sales engineer very early in your career? Do you feel like you lack mentorship in your current company and need to find support and guidance somewhere else? Or perhaps you're in a different role and sales engineering seems to interest you, but you're still not 100% sure if this is for you? Well, I hope this episode helps you because we're talking to a listener of the podcast who has been in the same boat and has finally landed a role in a company she likes.

Christelle Joseph has just moved into a sales engineer role at Snowflake. Christelle and I have worked together through her challenges in her previous role, and through these sessions, we came to the realization that it would be best if she finds a Sales Engineer role elsewhere. We discuss why in this podcast.

Show Notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show201

Welcome, you made it to our 200th episode of We the Sales Engineers Podcast! Whether you've just started tuning in to this podcast or you've been listening since the very beginning, thank you for your support! It has been my privilege and great pleasure to share all the lessons and experiences we've had on the show. With that, here are 20 lessons I've learned from recording 200 episodes and having countless conversations with people inside and outside the sales engineering space! 

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show200

What is one piece of advice you give to new SEs or you've received? I talked to Jeff Margolese, who gives his advice. We discuss what Sales Engineering is to him and how he has decided to run ServiceNow's Sales Engineering department.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show199

As an SE, we get to do the fun stuff. That's according to our guest today, but I would agree with him 100%. Our job is one of the most rewarding jobs out there and yet, there are still many ways where our role could be improved. That's why in today's episode, Justin shares why he loves sales engineering so much and how he helps other SEs to become better as an SE manager. Justin Hammon is the Manager of the Solutions Engineers at CivicPlus, an expert in local government website design, development, content management, and e-government tools and applications that promote community involvement and participation. CivicPlus does software solutions for local government, specifically in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show198

In this episode, learn how Paul went from SE to SE leader to now Director of Solutions Engineering, why he is so passionate about building great presales teams, the important things to remember before going into a discovery call, and the role SEs have to play in the entire sales cycle. Show Notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show197

In this episode, Tim Brömme and Jan-Erik Jank come back to the podcast to have another casual chat around their roles as a sales engineering leader and an individual contributor, what they love about presales, how to coach team members, and what character traits most companies are looking for when hiring sales engineers. Tim Brömme and Jan-Erik Jank are presales professionals and leaders with a passion for technology, people, and leadership. They are also hosts of the Sales Excellence Podcast, a podcast for Software B2B Sales & Presales. In this episode, we chat about how they started podcasting, what they love about it, and what they want to improve upon.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show196

If you're a sales engineering manager, you know that your people are the lifeblood of your company, and you want to help them succeed as much as possible. But how? It's not enough to just give them tools and training. They need support too – someone who can answer questions when they arise or even anticipate what those questions might be before they happen so you can preemptively address them. That's why in this episode, we have Derrek Young with us to talk about how you as an SE manager can provide support for your team members and make sure every one of your SEs has everything they need at their fingertips so that nothing gets in the way of closing deals faster than ever before.

Derrek Young is the Worldwide Director of Sales Engineering at Stack Overflow. In this episode, you will discuss how to get to know your team, the LOLA approach, and most importantly, build a culture of feedback.

Show Notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show195

There are so many different selling techniques. I've personally been trained in Solution Selling and Challenger Selling. Full disclosure, I love Solution Selling, but hate challenger selling. I've also read SPIN Selling and then I noticed that a lot of them are similar, but they are all geared towards salespeople. 

 But Solution Selling was introduced a long time ago. Some say in the 70s, but I don't have a source for that. Since then, solution selling evolved into Value Selling, and now the latest iteration is Insight Selling. 

My guest, Sherri Mazza, is writing a book on. Most books are geared towards Sales, but Sherri is focusing on Solutions Engineers. Will will dig into her history, and present and the book itself. 

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show311

Currently, there's the Great Resignation happening. However, it's been difficult retaining good talent for a while. Some individuals move companies in a few months, others in a couple of years. Those who stay with one company for more than 10 years are rare. Is it even a good thing to stay with one company that long?

Damien Hanna, the President of The North American Association for Sales Engineers and an active SE Leader at Citrix comes on the show and we discuss why people move, how organizations and SE leaders can entice people to stay, and having tough career conversations to move up the ranks, or move out of the company.

Sales Engineering is not an easy profession. SEs have to deal with many people, from Sales, management, to customers. It is especially harder when the sales team was recently known as an implementation-only team.

This is where Andre Peixoto finds himself, managing a brand new Sales Engineering team that was, until recently, an implementation team. 

We discuss what are the challenges that Andre and his team have had to overcome, and what he sees as the future of his team as they are growing and shifting into a true Sales Engineering organization.

Full show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show193

Jason Cutter is a Sales Success Architect & Keynote Speaker and Author of the book Selling With Authentic Persuasion. He has spent the past 17 years selling and leading sales teams. He's seen the perennial problems facing salespeople and has helped individuals and teams move past their insecurities and find success in sales. Hopefully, in this episode, he can help you do the same as a sales engineer.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show192

The world is a changing! It's getting harder and harder to meet customers face to face, but easier and easier to touch them indirectly. This week we talk to Patrick Pissang, the author of The Social Sales Engineer. We discuss why he wrote this book, and how Sales Engineers can turn into Social Sales Engineers.

Full podcast at https://wethesalesengineers.com/show191

Sales Engineering is the perfect role for a mother or a father. We get to set our own time, on our own schedule, and be there for our family. We also get to be great at something.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show190

One of the most important and most challenging steps toward completing a POC or proof of concept is getting a technical win. As sales engineers, we're expected to fulfill the customer's requests but at the same time also guide them through the complexities of the buying process. Is there a way to make it easier for you and your customers? Find out as we talk to a lifelong sales engineer as he shares his learnings on how to evaluate sales procedures, increase technical close ratios and reduce the length of sales cycles in this episode of We the Sales Engineers.

What are the three biggest ingredients of a successful SE? Find out on this week's podcast, as we bring on Mike Atkinson of Armis.

Mike is the Principal Solution Architect at Armis, and a cybersecurity leader with broad experience in consulting practice management, presales engineering, project management, security policy, network design, and troubleshooting. He has interviewed over 200 sales engineers over the course of his career and he is also an experienced speaker and co-founder of the Chicago Security Meetup.

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/188-amazing-interview-stories-with-a-principal-sales-engineer

How do you explain what sales engineering is to someone completely new to the organization? Are introverts better than extroverts at becoming sales engineers? Let's find out in today's episode with Amir Ibrahim.

Amin Ibrahim is a PreSales leader with seventeen years of experience in tech and currently helps companies smash sales targets by building strong teams and amazing careers. He is the Senior Director, Value & Solutions at Hootsuite, and is passionate about building, whether it's new teams, roles, sales motions, or ways to use technology. Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show187

I'm joined today by Kyle MacArthur, a Presales Strategist with 16 years of experience consulting with Fortune 500 customers in both the USA and the UK and has worked across industries including Retail, Banking, Insurance, Telecommunications and more

#SalesEngineering is a weird role. We don't go to school or university to learn about it. Most people who do it started their careers doing something else. Today we talk to Andrew who finds SEs in the strangest of places as well. Check out the shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show185

At the ground level, we all put our heads down and work. We demo, discover, and manage support calls. How we do all that is the tactical work. But what about the strategy? How do we move an entire organization from reactive to proactive? How does the organization incentivize people, or in other words, how do they line up their interests with their employee's interests?

These are some topics I discussed with Fadi Bassil, the VP of Support at Incorta. Fadi is a fellow Lebanese, but that's not what's important. What's important is what he has been able to achieve in such a short period since moving to the UK. Taking a step back, humbled himself, so he could move forward to where had a big impact on his organization and his company.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show310

Skills needed for SEs are much different than those in larger organizations, potentially. Also, different products being sold to IT could require different skills. We discuss these topics with our guests.

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show184

Joel Duffield is the Lead Solutions Consultant at Vidyard and has been a listener of We the Sales Engineers podcast since its humble beginnings in 2018. Now he is an SE Lead! We talk about his journey

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show183

Salespeople usually have more visibility in their organizations. When a CEO or CTO wants to give kudos to a Sales team, they usually mention the Salesperson's name, and if they want to be more inclusive, they would say "and team". I have always been curious about this, so we decided to talk to a COO to see what his view is about Sales Engineering Full show:

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show182