Sales Engineer Job Description: Unsung Hero
I was sitting in the airport over hearing the conversation of a guy who was clearly a sales engineer (aka solutions consultant, solutions architect, solutions engineer). Judging by what he said it was a pre-sales call where he handled the finer points of the proposed solution to the prospective customer. He navigated through how the solution would work in their current technology environment, scoped use cases, mapped integrations, and told customer stories. I sat in awe observing excellence.
This guy was really good.
Think about the tightrope walk that sales engineers walk. They sit between two parties that are sometimes at odds: sales reps who want to sell anything to anyone and service delivery people who only want to sell the right deals to the right customers.
The sales engineer lives in between two extremes.
- If s/he scopes too thoroughly, doubt and risk creep into the mind of the buyer. Too much discussion on 'how our solution will exactly work/not work' and an overkill of clarification questions and caveats jeopardize the sale. Confused buyers do nothing. Buyer confidence that the vendor can solve their problem erodes.
- If s/he doesn't scope thoroughly enough the deal might be destined to be a disaster for all involved later. When a salesperson or sales engineer too quickly says, "Sure we can do that" it sets up misaligned expectations that implementation will be a breeze. Later when implementation is challenging, delivery people and customer success are left holding the bag of you-know-what. Or worse the customer thinks the solution can do something it can’t. The customer grows frustrated and client services people end up with an unfair amount of extra work that could have been avoided with a more thorough solution scoping in the sales process.
Back to my friend in the airline lounge. He did a masterful job of clarifying what the customer was saying and providing just enough detail to advance the sale. He also set realistic expectations without going too deep on caveats. In several instances he pulled in the salesperson to add value while also not allowing her to run with her own agenda. At one point there was a misunderstanding, and he jumped in with a few questions of each party to align them. When the call ended he asked confidently if the solution met their needs and advanced the opportunity to a proof-of-concept that the buyer and seller agreed upon.
So here’s to you sales engineers out there accomplishing the near impossible. Without you deals don’t get done. Customer value isn’t created. And the B2B economy grinds to a halt.
You are the Navy Seals of sales. You are the special forces who pull it all together and make it all work in the interest of your own company as well as the customer. And most of you don’t even get a commission.
It’s time for us to say thank you. Nominate one of your favorite sales engineers and/or solutions consultants by writing their name in the comments. These people deserve to be recognized. They will appreciate the thought.
