#145 Putting Yourself in a Position to Get Lucky

Are we giving our salespeople the credit they deserve? When I was just starting out as an intern, I didn’t really think much of salespeople and thought they were untrustworthy people who’d say anything to get you to buy. But as I went further into my career and began to learn more about the sales aspect of sales engineering, I realized just how important their role is in the company, and without their help, everyone would be out of a job because we wouldn’t be able to sell anything.

In today’s episode, Bini interviews me about my experience working in a hybrid role, how I got into doing more of the sales side of sales engineering, and what made me want to start the We The Sales Engineers Podcast in the first place.

Key Takeaways:

Tune in to our conversation and learn about:

• A little bit of my education and career background and why I wanted to go into engineering
• How I learned to become a leader just by asking questions and helping people out
• How networking helped me land my first sales engineering job
• How company culture really affects your quality of work
• Why it’s okay to apply to different jobs even without knowing what it’s going to be like
• What my experience was like entering into sales
• The distinction between salespersons and Sales Engineers
• Why I prefer being a Sales Engineer over being a salesperson
• What I enjoyed and didn’t enjoy about being in sales
• Why I started the We the SEs Podcast
• Why building the right relationships at work is so crucial
• What I would say to my past intern self about sales and salespeople

Quotes

12:02 When the right opportunity presents itself: “It was just luck at that point, but I put myself in that position to get lucky, I was there. I was networking.”

24:50 How to build good relationships with your customers: “Building relationships with existing customers is easy. If they have a question, just be there. Just show up and say hi, you don’t need to do extravagant things, it’s not like you’re taking them on a date or bringing them flowers. If they need something from you, be there for them.”

40:02 How We the SE started: “I wanted to ask people questions, and maybe they can tell me how to do it right. I got a lot better since I started We the SEs. I can feel myself asking the right questions, I can feel myself talking to the right people, having different strategies, different techniques in my toolbelt, but i still haven’t mastered it. I still have a long way to go.  I still need to work on my storytelling, I still need to work on my technical knowledge, right? Because a lot of sales engineering is about engineering as well, so that’s what i need to work on.”

 43:45 On taking on more responsibility as a hybrid: “I feel like a lot of the jobs is based on how your relationship is with your boss… When I was just doing pure sales engineering in this role, my relationship wasn’t great and I felt very anxious, and as I did more sales, and took over from my boss, my relationship got better, I felt less anxious about my relationship I felt better where I stand. Yeah, I’m doing stuff that I might not enjoy, emailing, shipping, but my relationship got better, it was worth it. That’s how I saw it.”

50:04 On my respect for salespeople: “If it wasn’t for salespeople, no one would have a job, it’s a symbiotic relationship. You need engineers to develop the product, you need salespeople to sell it. You can do all the best product in the world, but salespeople need to sell it… Salespeople are problem solvers, they’re just doing it on the commercial side versus the technical side.”

Not So Fire Round

1. What do you love about sales engineering or being a Sales Engineer?

The strategy, being able to ask the right questions so that the customers see that you solve their problem. not selling the solution, asking the right question so that they sell it to themselves

2. What would you change about the sales engineering role?

I would increase the value and make sure that Sales Engineers have SE managers versus salespeople managers.

3. What tools, books or resources would you recommend to Sales Engineers?

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear

4. What separates the great Sales Engineers from not so good ones?

The need to learn, the need to get better. 

Other Resources Mentioned in the Episode:

https://wethesalesengineers.com/the-31-rules-of-sales-engineering-leadership/

https://wethesalesengineers.com/discovery-and-demonstration/

https://wethesalesengineers.com/129-keeping-up-with-an-insanely-changing-sales-world/

https://wethesalesengineers.com/95-the-6-habits-of-highly-effective-sales-engineers/

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating or review and get a chance to win a copy of The Essential Guide to Navigate Your Proof of Concept written by one of our guests on the show, Tony Matos.