Have you ever wondered why you sometimes lose some deals even though you knew you had the perfect solution to your client’s problems? You’ve talked with the right decision-makers internally, done an excellent job presenting the product and demo, showed them the value of your solution, coordinated with your account executive, and yet the account still fell through? Well, there’s actually something else that we can leverage as SEs aside from knowing our product inside out and knowing how to sell. Curious to find out? Tune in to the episode and learn Max Lüpertz’s thoughts on what he calls our “unfair advantage”.
Max Lüpertz is the founder of Presales Rockstars, a company dedicated to empowering pre-sales professionals, sales engineers, and solution architects by improving their software demo performance to drive customer satisfaction and business growth.
Key Takeaways:
- How and why Max founded the Presales Rockstars
- The common mistakes most pre-sales professionals make
- What it means to have a proactive mindset
- How one can go from passively waiting on clients to proactively help customers
- Tips to transition from being just a “demo monkey” to leading a sales opportunity
- Biggest challenges he had when working with clients
- Core skills a presales consultant or solutions engineer needs to master today
- How an SE would be able to help his AE regarding buyer enablement
- How does one in a hybrid role not oversaturate their customers with too many messages
- How Max figured out that buyer enablement was his unfair advantage
Quotes:
[16:32] What Max calls the 3rd dimension in dealing with customers: “You need to be an expert in the product, and you need to know the basics about selling software, but I think there is a 3rd dimension coming on top now which I would call buyer enablement or providing a seamless customer buying experience.”
[34:31] What turned him from being merely a solutions consultant into a trusted advisor: “Knowing about all the pitfalls post – and pre- signature really has been cool and they (clients) believe that I genuinely had their interests in mind.”
Not So Fire Round
- What do you love about being a Sales Engineer or pre-sales consultant?
I love the opportunity to work with so many different companies and get a deeper understanding of their challenges and their business… Getting insights into the different companies was the most amazing part and also working with clients who are very passionate about their project was just super cool.
- What would you change about the role of Sales Engineers and pre-sales professionals?
I would change the perception so that we are more than just “demo monkeys” who come in and do the same repetitive demo over and over again… The company needs to understand what we are truly capable of, but also we as a sales engineer need to understand what our true superpowers are and that we can really provide value to the clients.
- What books, tools or resources would you recommend to other budding sales engineers and presales consultants?
Gold Mine Effect: Crack the Secrets of High Performance by Rasmus Ankersen
Garin Hess – Founder and CEO at Consensus
- Is there a deal that you lost that you feel like you could have done better and what did you learn from it?
I have lost a couple of deals but then it was pre-buyer enablement where I wasn’t really digging into all the different stakeholders’ and clients’ side. One or two days before contract signature, the guy came back to me and said they liked the idea of the tool because it was going to support the people internally, but because they hadn’t engaged in the whole process – they have to be engaged in the whole process very early on – they just said we’re going to stop the project here.
The takeaway here is to get the decision-makers or decision influencers engaged in the process early on and look at the solution from the client’s perspective and address any issues they might think of.
Connect with Max on Linkedin
Know more about the Presales Rockstars at http://presales.rocks/
Thanks for tuning in to this episode!
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 know someone who might find this episode useful, please share it with them.
This Post Has One Comment
Pingback: 4/1/1 Start and Keep At It | We The Sales Engineers