Sales Presentation Tips for SEs

Tips for Sales Presentations include organizing a common theme and storytelling...For example, if you are selling software, and you compete against the same competitors day in and day out...Please dont tell me that you are using only the standard corporate ppt deck... Prosepcts HATE feeling like they are the 87th person this week that you have presented the same deck to... So, it is time to mix it up,  how about personalizing the deck, apply a common them across their 4 Key Business Requirements or pains that they are trying to solve.
They will appreciate the effort that you put into it, and the effort to understand and solve their pains.

Simplify your powerpoint deck, sales presentations are either to dry because they are the same old thing, or they are way too long...Simplify the messaging, use concise visuals for your target audience, and practice your delivery and your conversion ratio will go up.   Great good images from a variety of sources, such as istockphoto.com, dearmstime.com, shutterstock.com, imageafter.com to name a few... Also, a great book that describes creating more effective sales presentations is Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds. Good luck!

Mastering Technical Sales - Sales Engineer Guidebook

Learning about Mastering Technical Sales? If yes, then this book is a must read!!! Mastering Technical Sales by John Care and Aron Bohlig covers the full spectrum of what Sales Engineers need to know in order to be successful in their technical deals. It starts by covering fundamental concepts around:

-Qualifying Leads
-Determining Go/No Go strategies for RFPs
-Needs Analysis Tactics
-Delivering the Perfect Pitch
-How to Avoid 'Dash to Demo'
-Remote Demonstration Tips
-Objection Handling
-Branding
-Channel Selling with Partners
-Hiring SE Talent
-Time Management & Metrics

This book is a must-have in any Sales Engineer or SE Managers collection!!!

The Evolving Sales Engineer - Sales Engineer Manager Book

For Sales Engineer Managers, who are looking to expand their knowledge on new techniques and tactics to bring their Sales Engineers to the next level, then I would suggest the following book, The Evolving Sales Engineer. Key Concepts include:

-How to pick talented SEs
-Coaching Tactics
-Managing Office Politics between Account Managers/SEs

The author Edward Levine has a great grasp of the challenging world of Sales Engineering.
I would suggest this book to both SE Managers and SEs alike
Good reading!!!

Sales Engineering Selling Books

Often most Sales Engineers do a great job learning their product/solution, and can articulate the importance of a feature from a benefit perspective, and most attempt to lay down some competitive traps...But why is it that some SEs are not looking to work on improving their raw sales skillsets. For instance, Sales Engineers need to know multiple techniques to handle functionality objections in a non-defensive manner... Remember, the word sales comes before engineering in Sales Engineer :)

So for those of you looking to sharpen your sales skills, I would like to recommend a good read, SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham offers techniques to probe by asking additional questions around the situation, problems, implications and needs. It is a great reference book for any newer SE or a seasoned veteran SE...Enjoy

Book Review for Sales Engineers

A great book for Sales Engineers who are demo'ing software solutions is Demonstrating to Win! by Robert Riefstafl

This book will allow any SE to quickly learn differentiating skills to perform a winning demonstration. It highlights the pre-work required prior to the actual demonstration, namely what the book refers to as The Discovery Process... It also discusses 'bridging' a prospect requirements to your software solution, team demonstrating, engaging your prospect, and demo crimes that should be avoided.

Give the book a read and let me know what think!!!