#121 From Accidental Sales Engineer to the Founder of We The SEs

This week’s episode is quite interesting because Benny and I take a backseat from hosting while Akshat Srivastava of SENY “picks my brain” and makes me a guest on my own show. Stay tuned as he interviews me about my personal and professional life, my career trajectory as an SE, why I started the We The Sales Engineers podcast, and what the future holds for We the SE. Watch out for the Bonus Rapid Fire Round at the end, you don’t wanna miss it! 

Key Takeaways

Listen to our interview and learn more about:

• My beginnings in Lebanon and moving to Canada as a student first then as an immigrant
• My beautiful family
• How I got my first job as a support engineer through networking 
• Why I left my former job at Alcatel-Lucent to become a system engineer at Spirent 
• What sales engineers do from day to day and the contribution of their work
• The skills to demonstrate during a job interview
• How I achieved 130% of my quota in 2015
• Why it’s so important for managers to have great relationships with their employees
• Where I’m currently at in my career and considering a leadership role
• Why I started the We the Sales Engineers podcast in 2018
• How I balance my time between having a full-time job and working on We the SE
• The “Leave No SE Behind” initiative
• What I’ve gained and the rewards of starting a podcast dedicated to sales engineers
• How We the SE stands out from other SE learning communities
• Asking for feedback and learning about how to get better as an SE
• My plans for We the Sales Engineers in the future

Quotes:

Advice to folks who are looking to be hired as an SE: “If you work for a big company, stay close to who is selling to those companies. And if you’re part of the decisive criteria for that particular deal or product, it’ll be easier for you to apply for a job as an SE because that will come in handy to you. You’ll be valuable.” – Akshat Srivastava

“If you’re able to actually be one of the people working on that product and being an influencer that would help that sales team, the next time there’s an opportunity, they will come and talk to you.” – Ramzi Marjaba  

On how We the SE podcast affects my regular work: “It’s making me better as an SE. In almost every interview that I’ve done, there was always one nugget where I’m like, Yup, that’s what I’m gonna do the next time I meet a customer. So, it’s making me more efficient, allowing me to ask better questions to my customers, not being afraid to tell the customer what they need to do.”

Books and Resources:

The Six Habits of Highly Effective Sales Engineers by Chris White

Mastering Technical Sales: The Sales Engineer’s Handbook 3rd Edition by John Care

Check out my Podcast Interviews with these guests:

Chris White Show 95

Mark Green Show 113

John Care Show 17

Owen McClave  Show 117  

Sam Pena Show 79

Akshat Srivastava Show 66 

Many thanks to Akshat for hosting this interview! It was interesting for me to be a guest on my own show. 

If you enjoyed this podcast, please support the show by dropping a review or rating on iTunes. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/we-sales-engineers-resource-for-sales-engineers-by/id1378292171

And if you’ve been affected by COVID as an SE, please check out our Leave No SE Behind initiative so that we can help you. https://wethesalesengineers.com/no-se-left-behind-initiative/