Importance of Good SE Discovery

Most Sales Engineers are great at demoing, but the execution of effective discovery sessions is an area that Sales Engineers should ensure they are always fine tuning...The equation is simple the more that you know up front that you are able to collect during discovery session, the more effective the actual demo event will be, due to unique differentiation of your solution vs your competition...I compare it to a lawyer...The amount of time a good lawyer spends researching, asking questions, validating assumptions, and coming up with an effective game plan, significantly out-weights the time spent that the lawyer actually states his case in front of the judge in the courtroom... The battle many times is won or lost even before the actual demo event happens...Try to spend more time in the discovery phase, and you will see that you will often reduce the amount of time you spend in the demo phase...Good luck!

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!!!

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!!!