People way smarter than I say that success or failure is defined by one’s habits. Habits are actions that we perform over and over without even thinking about it, and there are some good ones and bad ones. An example of a good habit is flossing our teeth. A bad one is biting our nails or better yet, checking our email every time we get a notification. As for Sales Engineers, here are some good habits that we can cultivate to make our lives easier

The habits that I will be discussing could be daily habits weekly habits or monthly habits. Sales Engineers need to develop good habits to automate good behavior. That will help us get a lot better at what we do.

Here are some habits that I believe SEs should have.

1. Questioning what the customer is stating.

The customer is NOT always right. If they were, they would not need to consult with SEs, they’d just figure out what they need and buy it themselves. When a customer provides a statement like “I need this tool” a bad habit would be to believe them. A good habit would be to ask “Why?”. Ok maybe ask it in a nicer way.  

Asking why does a few things. It makes the customer attempt to justify it to you, but more importantly himself. How many times did your significant other, mother, or friend ask you why you bought something and your response was, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Or is that just me?

For example, when I graduated from University, I had this genius idea to go lease a BMW. Obviously, the salesperson leasing me the BMW didn’t question me giving him money with minimal work on his part, but neither did my family. If they had asked me why, and actually pressed on the topic, I might have not been able to justify doing something so stupid (my opinion and I’m sticking to it. Ask me why later) and would have considered a better alternative.

The big thing I want to point out here is questioning a statement is not a bad thing, again, if done nicely. That’s what helps SEs get to the bottom of a problem and then recommend a solution.

2. Keeping track of their action items

I wrote an entire blog post about time and task management. If you want to check it out, click here. We get so many requests from so many people. Account Managers ask us to follow up with a customer to make sure we have a technical close. Customers email us with questions. Product Managers want to know if a feature they are working on will be useful for our customers. The big habit that we should build as SEs is to document the tasks and update these tasks whenever needed, otherwise, some will fall through the cracks. It does not matter what tool you use. It could be a paid app, the CRM that the company uses, or the calendar which is what I use. As long as everything you need to do is in there, then it would be very difficult to miss a task.

3. Reading about new technical topics 

Reading, or learning in general, is a habit. For me, it is a very difficult habit to cultivate. There are always more important things to do, like call a customer, work on a demo, or anything else really. However, I’m finding that reading is fairly important. Learning new topics, digging deep into familiar topics, and reading industry news will give an edge to any engineer.

Building a habit to read is important and takes, at least for me, premeditation. I have to have the book in my line of sight so I can remember to pick it up and read it. In most days, I want to read 10 to 15 pages in a book. Some days I may run out of time for a multitude of reasons (mostly blaming my kids here), so if I read 1 or 2 pages, I would still consider that a success and helpful in building the habit. If you are in the same boat, just aim small and it will snowball.

4. Practicing being a Sales Engineer

Let me get on my soapbox. I give this example on as many opportunities that I am given. Basketball, football, and hockey athletes don’t sit around and do nothing until the game, and then they jump in ready to go.

Athletes practice their sport from a very young age. They continue to practice through their school year and university until they are drafted to their sport of choice. Before the season starts, they go to training camp and then continue practice before games and between games. They continue to practice all the way until the end of the season. They do not only practice their sport but most athletes also strength train, perform visualization and work on their minds (I think).

Us on the other hand, do not practice. We work, i.e. jump right into the game. We visit customers with minimal preparation, not practicing how to ask the questions, or visualizing the objections that our customers can come up with.  We prepare a demo and do one or 2 run-throughs before we have to go in front of the customer. We do the demo, and then we don’t practice another demo till we have the next one scheduled.

As SEs, we have to practice. We have to practice asking questions, listening, speaking clearly, starting conversations, demonstrating in person or via a conferencing tool. Building this habit is important and I am aware is hard. It takes a bit longer time to practice than it takes to read a couple of pages, and we barely have time to do that. Also, to practice is to take time away from meeting with customers. Saying that may give Account Managers heartburn. It is something however that is very important, and we should set time weekly to do it. Some of these listed above can be done while driving to or from customer sites, flying or while waiting for the customer in a lobby.

Again, aim small. Pick one aspect you want to focus on, could be asking  questions, and just focus on that. Practice by asking your family pointed questions, your Account Managers, or whoever you find, and you will get better at it.

5. Asking for something from the customer in return for a “favor”

This was a habit that I was scared to build. I’m still struggling with it and working on getting better at it.

Customers ask us for favors all the time, at least they do from me in my industry. Either with help configuring the devices, asking how things work, or loaner equipment. When we help the customer, this usually fills in the “trust account”. When the trust account is filled up to a certain point, we can start asking favors from our customers. If we are just starting, and the trust account is low, we can ask for small favors, like letting us know if someone else could use our services. As it fills up more and more, we can ask for bigger favors, such as referring us to that person who could use our services, or if the internal team wants to try out the competition, to fight against that or let me know about it.

It is scary to ask for a “favor” from the customer initially, but as we ask and we get rewarded from it, the habit of asking for that favor will start to form. The more we do it, the easier it gets.

6. Time blocking

I get so much resistance from a lot of fellow SEs about time blocking, and I’m not sure why. A quick definition for time blocking is to set aside time on the calendar to do what needs to be done. If a Sales Engineer needs to contact customers, which I will discuss below, that goes into the calendar. If the SE needs to work on a demo, that goes into the calendar. The calendar is not just for setting up meetings, it is for organizing one’s life.

In my experience, if my calendar is empty, I never get anything done. I would forget what follow up items I need to do since I use my calendar to track all my action and follow up items. I would never have time to work on a demo or any other deliverable, and I would never have time to learn something new.

Building the habit of time blocking has saved me so much time, made me way more efficient, and has made me a better SE.

7. Reviewing the Funnel

Being part of the sales team, we need to sell. All the information about all the opportunities we are working on should be on the Customer Relationship Manager (CRM), and our Account Manager(s) should put them there. In addition to the tasks that were explicitly given to us by the AMs or we assign to ourselves, we should be looking at the CRM on a weekly if not daily basis to fill up the rest of our calendar with what we need to do.

Here’s an example. Let’s say the SE performed this amazing demo a few months ago. According to the opportunity record on the CRM, this opportunity should close in a couple of weeks. By working with the AM, the SE can figure out if there is anything that they can do to make sure that this will close.

On many occasions, I end up contacting the end user there to say hi, and make sure they don’t have any questions still bugging them. In most cases, the end user can provide me feedback on if they are still going through with it if all of a sudden they are looking at a competitor or any other intel which I can provide my AM.

8. Planning

Planning what? Planning everything. This could be planning the day, week, month or even year. It could be planning with the AM which accounts are going to be attached, which products solved the biggest problems and how to present those to the customer.

On one end of the spectrum, planning is very much related to the previous part “Reviewing the Funnel”. After reviewing the funnel, SEs know how much revenue is in there and how far away from your quota. SEs can plan with the AM which opportunities the AM needs the SE to follow up with. The same example as above can be used but on a larger scale. The SE plans which opportunities to follow up with, and when.

On the other end of that spectrum, planning could be as simple as figuring out when to take the next vacation and making sure there is someone to cover for them, or when would be the best time to work on the SE skills needed to do the job as best as possible. Without actual planning, this becomes an afterthought and no effort is put in to actually get better at what SEs do.

9. Being in touch with customers.

Hopefully, this is something we all do. If not, then we should get better at it. Being in touch with customers is not just when the customer calls/emails with a question, but through reviewing the funnel, the SE can figure out which customers need a touch point.

I personally have a list of my customers, and in addition to those I target when the funnel requires me to, I go through my list to see how I have not touched base within the last few weeks, and I make sure I visit in person. While planning, I put that in my calendar otherwise, it will not happen.

The reason I like to contact customers semi-randomly is that in some cases, the customer has been meaning to contact me with a new opportunity, but they get sidetracked with what is considered the more important aspects of their job. By showing up in person, or if you are not geographically co-located, calling them, the customer tends to remember to let you know about their opportunity and needs. This usually either leads to a discovery call right on the spot or if the requirements are more complex and more input is needed, a discovery call would be scheduled on the spot.

10. Taking notes

I get so confused when I witness Sales Engineers in customer meetings not taking any notes. I consider myself as a human being with a very good memory. I started off my career as a support engineer not needing to take notes. I work on an issue, I document it in the ticketing system that we have, and then I move on to the next ticket.

As soon as I switched to Sales Engineering, working with many more customers at a time and each with their own requirements, I found note-taking as a must and here’s why:

• If an opportunity takes months, I would like to remember what my initial conversation with that customer was, and if the requirements have changed.
• After meetings, I like to review my notes, consolidate them with my AM, and have one of us send them to the customer to make sure we did not miss or misunderstand anything. This helps protect SEs from customers claiming we said something that we didn’t.
• The customer, sees me take notes, and he or she assumes I’m interested in what they have to say, which I am.

Richard Branson, the founder of everything Virgin, prides himself in his note-taking ability and claims that some people have accused him of recording meetings because he “remembered” details which they don’t. Check out his book The Virgin Way: If It’s Not Fun, It’s Not Worth Doing

I’m currently trying out Rocketbook, the Everlast Letter book which can be erased with a wet cloth and I’m loving it. Note that this is an affiliate link. I get a small commission at no charge to you. If you use it this link, thanks for helping out We The SEs.

Habits are not easy to build, at least not the good ones. Below are some resources that I’ve found about building habits that can help with that aspect as well:

1- The one thing podcast

2- The power of habits by Charles Duhigg

3- Atomic Habits. Amazing book, just finished reading it and if you are interested in building the habits mentioned above, get this book first and see how you can implement it.

Which habits have helped you become a better SE? Also which habits are you trying to build now?