Hey, thanks for tuning in to the podcast every week. By the time this show comes out, we’re already in 2021! I just wanted to say how proud I am of the ales engineering community for coming together in 2020 and we’re sure as heck going to rock 2021 more than ever. Speaking of rocking, in today’s podcast we’re speaking with a guest who has written a book about rocking presentations and pitching products as a Sales Engineer.

Our guest, Oscar Santolalla, is the author of the book ‘Rock the Tech Stage: How the Best Speakers in Tech Present Ideas and Pitch Products, and is also a podcast host himself, having his personal podcast Time to Shine, where he talks about all things public speaking and is the host of the company podcast at UbiSecure called “Let’s Talk about Digital Identity”, connecting identity and business.

Join me and Beni as we chat with Oscar about the common mistakes Sales Engineers don’t even know they’re doing that could ruin their product demos or tech presentations and some tips on how to improve communication with our customers.

 Key Takeaways:

Tune in to the episode and learn: 

• What has been keeping Oscar busy
• Why he started his own personal podcast
• Difference between having a personal podcast and a company podcast
• Difference between webinars and podcasts
• Why having a podcast builds a relationship with your audience
• How he got started writing books
• What he found the hardest part of writing a book
• How can Sales Engineers improve their public speaking skills?
• The common mistakes SEs commit during presentations or demos
• How public speaking has helped Oscar become a better SE
• Tips on how to present very technical topics to a general audience or to non-technical people

Quotes:

 
24:04 On how to address speaking in very abstract terms: “It’s important to go to the concrete side. When you want to explain something, use stories or concrete examples, use cases. Those are the ways you steer clear of the abstract thing.”

28:09 On the most important thing in communication: “Know your audience. In the case of sales engineering, you have to anticipate the question of the audience and connect it to what you say.”

42:41 “Get your hands dirty, keep learning the difficult things, because that will help you to be really a rockstar in this type of role.”

Not So Fire Round

1. What do you love about being a Sales Engineer, or otherwise, being an SE leader? What do you love about being an author or a podcast host?

 Sales engineering is a role that I like a lot because of this combination of this technique, you need to learn new things to get your hands dirty, but at the same time, you are selling your persuasion creative skills that for me is a magnificent combination. 

2. What would you change about being a Sales engineer?

 That’s a difficult question… I think I might still have to learn more about public speaking. 

3. What are some books tools or resources that you may recommend that help people improve their public speaking skills or otherwise, just become better SEs?

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience

4. What separates the great SEs from the not so great or okay ones?

You have to keep learning also in the technical side, depending on the complexity of the software or the product you sell it might be enough that you know the product until one level and stop there, and then you are more like sales-oriented, you do the job well. But you could learn much more on that, and you may be able to do more complex things, give more advice to the customers, etc.

 Connect with Oscar Santolalla on Linkedin

Get Oscar’s new book Rock the Tech Stage: How the Best Speakers in Tech Present Ideas and Pitch Products

Check out his podcast Time to Shine – https://www.timetoshinepodcast.com/about/

Check out Ubisecure’s company podcast hosted by Oscar Santolallan: https://www.ubisecure.com/lets-talk-about-digital-identity-podcast/

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/