Sales Engineer Job Description

A typical Sales Engineer job description would include common attributes such as solution crafter, problem solver, thinks outside-of-the-box, with the ability to demo and position value statements, objective handle effectively, and uniquely elevate his/her solution over their competitions

So, you probably agree that an SE job description typically sounds the same regardless of which company, so how do you differentiate the good SEs???  Well, I look for a few things, and for me it comes down to passion and competitiveness.  You find out very quickly if a Sales Engineer has passion based on how much research they have done on your company, the marketplace you serve, your competitors, and your solution offering.  If candidate can not invest in themselves by properly prepping when they are selling their value based on a posting for a job description, then they sure wont do it if they come on board, and a candidate needs to always prep up a couple of questions about the role.  Next is competitiveness, if they ok with losing, they are probably not the right fit for your team.  I drill into a candidates experience working competitive deals.  Usually, great SEs love talking about their competitive victories, war stories, battling in the trenches....So as a hiring manager, really invest time in seeing how well your SEs candidate relate their passion and competitiveness to your SE job description.

SEs and References

Many Sales Engineers believe references are the responsibility of the sales rep, so having a variety of reference stories is considering overkill by many sales engineers... I disagree, it is extremely important to be able to tell a RELEVANT reference story to your prospect.

You should have your success stories segmented by: 1) Industry/Vertical 2) Functionality/Scope 3) Company Size 4) Geographic Location and 5) Competitive Wins. I have seen savvy prospect in the prospect specifically ask for a reference during a demo, it was something to the effect of "Who else is using your software in our industry segment, will an employee count equal to or larger than use within 100 miles of our headquarters?" And of course, the questions was directed to the Sales Engineer...Ugh!...What a great way to kill a good demo, ah yes, and turn on the music as the Sales Engineer begins to dance to the Reference Dance Shuffle. Spend a few minutes, learning your competitive wins/success stories and you will see your conversion ratios increase!!!!

Handling Traps for Sales Engineers

So, you like to plant competitive sales traps against your competition, sure...most good Sales Engineers do! Next question....so, do you like it when your competition plants traps for you??? Most SEs HATE it when it happens, BUT great Sales Engineers love competitive traps against them..... Say that again?!? YES, great Sales Engineers luv it when the competition tries to launch a competitive trap for them...

Why you ask? Simple....Think of this sports analogy, take an NFL cornerback who's sole responsibility is making sure that the quarterback and wide receiver don't connect for a pass completion. So all cornerbacks try to stop this from happening, BUT great cornerbacks ANTICIPATE the quarterback's pass ('trap' in the sales world), so when the pass is delivered a great cornerback is so well prepared to counter that they usually are there to pick off the pass and transition to an offensive threat in which the other team is not usually prepared for.

So ensure you work on your responses to common traps, so that you are prepared to transition from a defensive position with confidence, your prospect will appreciate your knowledge and increase your trust advisor status with them. So, use competitive trap defense in conjunction with offensive trap positioning, and your conversion rate will increase...Guaranteed!

SEs Gathering Non Functional Requirements

So you have your prospect's business process flows captured, test data uploaded, key business drivers documented...So you should be ready to go into demo prep phase, RIGHT?...Well, almost...don't forget asking your prospect about the non-functional side of the business. Most software Sales Engineers know that we should be asking all of the 'ability' questions, but often we forget, and sometimes these areas tie back tighter to the executive's key business requirements.

You know the ones I am talking about, like: availability, scalability, reliability, security, etc...

Knowing your companies strengthens in these areas can allow you to plant effective traps for your competition, even if they have a stronger point-solution than yours!!! The SE who you are competiting with at the well-known competitor will probably forget to do so. Give it a shot!!!

SEs Leaving Competitive Traps

It is truly amazing that most Sales Engineers know their competition's product stack inside and outside, backwards and forwards...Why is it then that many senior SEs do not plant effective competitive traps in their deals. They all 'know' they should, but they often forget to do so.....Sure, it takes time to strategically plan out how to set a trap up, work on your delivery of the trap, and then have an appropriate 'call to action' for your prospect to follow-up on that trap. Yet, many SEs get lazy and forget to do so.

BUT, isn't that what you competition is doing to you already?!? Think to yourself, how many times have I had to answer that loaded question of, "How do you compare your solution to vendor x?" Most SEs (the good ones...) can answer this in a heartbeat in their sleep, but too many times discussing competitive landscapes is very reactive, instead of being PROACTIVE.

Here's what I mean, unfortunately many SEs only answer a planted question, and it is ONLY then that they begin their offense on the competition, which truly comes across as mud-slinging the other vendors as it is typically not well planned out and comes across only as a retaliation to the original question...

Being a seasoned Sales Engineer, keep a cool head, and plan your PROACTIVE competitive attacks/traps carefully as you normally do your REACTIVE competitive replies and you too will increase your close ratio!!!