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.

Sales Engineer Salary Bands

An average Sales Engineer salary varies on a bunch of factors...Here are a couple of the factors:  location (each city has its own supply and demand)...so someone working in the Bay area will command a higher salary than an SE in North Dakota.  SO if you are an upcoming SE, you may want to research cities than have a higher pool of companies to match up to your salary expectations.  Years of Experience is important, so if you are a SE who has covered the corporate fortune 500 space for 15 years will offer you more $$$ than and entry level SE will only a few years experience. A variety of experience is also important, as a Sales Engineer salary takes into account selling and solutioning in a variety of different marketplaces and segments. Strong supplementary skills around BPM, requirements gathering, project management, team lead responsibilities can also lend themselves to higher OTEs.  Vertical experience is just an important as product and competitive knowledge.  Typically vertical experts and SMEs can demand higher salaries and usually get them.  Previous Track Record is important, an SE that repeated supports a sales team that over achieves on their quotes can command a higher salary.  These are just a few of the areas to consider when negiotating an Sales Engineer salary

Sales Engineer Interview Demonstration Role-Play

I always have Sales Engineer Interviews with new candidates perform a demonstration role-play as part of the interview process...One of my previous mentors always did this and it always give him a great cross section of the potential of an Sales Engineer candidate.  Always have your recruiting team set the stage with your SE that this stage in the interview is to see how they present a solution that they are comfortable discussing.  It is important to have the interview candidate provide the following details at least a day or two prior to the mock demonstration event.  They need to tell the panel the roles of the interviewers, the current mock system/application environment and a couple KBRs (Key Business Requirements).  The demo is usually a 40-45 minute exercise that allows the interviewers to accurately gauge presentation effectiveness, delivery of unique business value, solution crafting, objective handling and thinking outside-of-the-box.

Try it in your next Sales Engineer interview process, and I am sure you will make it an important step as part of your SE evaluation process...Good Luck!

Sales Engineer Resume Tips

Sales Engineer resumes should allow highlight a Sales Engineer's most significant deal accomplishments. For example, ensure that you highlight your top 3 deals with associated dollar amounts. Your resume should also include quota attainment for the team that you have supported, assuming it is greater than 85%+. You probably want to highlight your largest win that was a competitive takeaway, and ideally use a competitive marketshare leader or well known vendor. Highlight in your resume an example of a win with a creative solution that was non-conventional. Ensure that you include a hobbiessection in your resume, as many good SE Managers are looking for well-rounded SEs. It also helps to list out any competitive sports you have played or competitions that you many have participated in. Everyone is looking for an SE who has a successful track record of winning

Sales Engineer Interview Questions

Looking for sales engineer interview questions to help you prep for an interview? Well, here are somes of the ones that I like to use for SE candidates.

-Describe your biggest opportunity that you ever worked on that closed? What was your role and how did you positively impact the decision?
-Describe your biggest opportunity that you have lost to the competition? What would have you done differently (if anything) during the sales cycle?
-Describe your pre-qualification checklist that you ask your sales rep for prior to demo'ing?
-Describe how Sales Engineers get engaged from a process standpoint at your organization?
-Describe an opportunity that you won which required you to quarterback and orchestrate resources from many cross-departmental groups to help progress a deal to closed status?
-Describe your greatest competitive win

Now, after screening and interviewing a candidate for product/industry knowledge and fit, I ALWAYS have them come in person and do a demo to me in role play as a prospect. I have them present something that they are comfortable demo'ing. This a where you see exactly how much value props and traps they inject into their presentation, not to mention how effectively they are able to handle objections. Look over for my next update of useful Sales Engineer interview questions.

Sales Engineer Interview Prep

With tougher economic times, getting an interview for a Sales Engineer position is becoming more scarce, so to make sure you are multi-threaded, consider the following suggestions to make the most our of your opportunity.

All good Sales Engineers know their YTD attainment for the sales team they were supporting as well as their revenue influence or revenue assisted metrics...Ensure you know where you stack rank vs your colleagues...Also, ensure that you have a collection of top 3 deals that you worked on that you can leverage to answer common questions around thinking outside of the box, biggest competitive win, going above and beyond to getting a deal done etc..etc..etc..

You also need to have some situational examples of deals you have won by using non-conventional methods, for example: setting up wired up, establishing a trust advisor role to gain access to the selection committee criteria etc..etc... Most SE just demo, but the SE who thinks outside the box improves their conversion ratio by setting up an effective plan of attack prior to demoing...Good luck on prepping for your interview...

Tips for a Sales Engineering Interview

If you are considering a move from consulting or development into the world of pre-sales consulting/engineering, and you are not certain of how to prepare for your interview and you are looking for some tips, hopefully this post can help you out. A logical starting point is to figure out how have you positioned or upsold additional functional in the past, such modules, consulting time, or training etc in your past engagements... A sales engineering manager is less concerned with if you delivered your projects on time and budget (although those are important attributes) or if you know 50 different developments languages and design patterns. Instead they are more concerned if you are able to 'position' (ie: sell) your unique value to an organization during pre-sales cycles based on your technical/solution crafting skills.

So here are my basic SE interviewing tips for folks considering entering into the sales consulting world for the first time, so that you can be better prepared before you jump into the line of fire of a bunch of Sales Engineering interview questions. So be prepared to discuss:

-Real life client examples of how you solved a business problem using technology solutions
-The business value that your technical/software solution has solved in business terms
-Your most complex solution/implementation and how you were able to grow future business based on your relationship with your customer
-Examples of how you were able to successful convey a technical process to a standard business user
-Examples of when you had to effectively present to C-level executives/business decision makers to successfully position your solution
-How you have been able to solve a business problem by thinking outside-of-the-box
-Details of how you were able to come up with a solution to a business problem quickly off-the-cuff

If you are already a Sales Engineer, the tips I provide would vary significantly, so stay tuned for a follow-up post on that...Good luck on the interview!