How can Sales Engineers improve their relationship with their partner in sales, and vice versa? We’ve got Rob Curley and Steve Foster on the podcast this week to discuss what makes a SE-salesperson relationship click, and what doesn’t. Join us in our insightful conversation as our guests describe each other’s strengths, their work ethic, and what makes them work so well as a team.
Steve Foster has had over 13 years of experience as a Sales Engineer at Riverbed, and before that he was a systems engineer at Cisco. Rob Curley is a sales leader at Riverbed managing 5 reps across the UK. They both met at Riverbed and worked together as a Sales Engineer- salesperson team before Steve moved on to his current work at Netskope as a Senior Sales Engineer.
Key Takeaways:
Tune in to our conversation and learn:
- How Rob and Steve met and ended up working closely together
of their qualities made them work well as a team - Their take on a dedicated 1:1 SE-Salesperson relationship versus a pool model
- Why asking questions is so important in maintaining a good relationship between an SE and salesperson team
- How challenging each other led them to work better individually and as a team
- How Steve became so brave in asking questions, challenging people’s ways and taking risks
- Does having similar personalities contribute to the SE-salesperson relationship?
- How to become a better judge of people’ character
- What Rob and Steve would change in the hiring and interview process for sales engineers and salespeople
- Ways that SEs can be recognized as a great asset not only by account execs but by the entire company
- Should an SE be more salesy?
Quotes:
On what makes a SE-salesperson relationship work: “When you look at the relationship between sales and pre-sales, it’s ultimately about mutual respect.” – Steve Foster
If you have the confidence, the bravery to state your belief with backing and sincerity, I believe the right customers will respect that, and they are the right customers you should be selling to. – Rob Curley
“There’s a bunch of talented SEs but they don’t have the confidence to bring up their points of view. And sometimes it’s up to you as a salesperson to bring out that confidence and bravery in your SE and demonstrate their skills and abilities.” – Rob Curley
On what makes a sales engineer distinct from a systems engineer: “A sales engineer may take what was a situation where, technically, the solution was an 80% fit, but got it through to a close because he was able to identify the problems and challenges he was there to solve and aligned those to the business… You won’t always find a good sales engineer. You can find a good system engineer, but I think a good Sales Engineer is worth double what a system engineer is.” – Steve Foster
Not So Fire Round
- What do you love about what Rob did for you as a salesperson?
Steve: Rob respected what I did and made sure he gave me the airtime and space to build respect and position that I needed to create a status point. - What do you love about what Steve did for you as a Sales Engineer?
Rob: I felt Steve trod respectfully in my job. He took a lot of pressure off me to be able to do the important things that I needed to do… You cannot buy that kind of support anywhere but when you do get that, it makes a salesperson feel like they have superpowers because you get to be in two places at one. - What resources would you recommend for sales engineers and salespeople?
Steve:
Mastering Technical Sales by John Care
Rob:
Follow Force Management on Linkedin and their website
Connect with Rob on Linkedin
Connect with Steve on LinkedIn
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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/
