#193 Slow Transition from a Cost Center Model for PreSales

Notes:

Sales Engineering is not an easy profession. SEs have to deal with many people, from Sales, management, to customers. It is especially harder when the sales team was recently known as an implementation-only team.

This is where Andre Peixoto finds himself, managing a brand new Sales Engineering team that was, until recently, an implementation team.

We discuss what are the challenges that Andre and his team have had to overcome, and what he sees as the future of his team as they are growing and shifting into a true Sales Engineering organization.

Key Takeaways:

Why the integration team was started, and why move it to PreSales
Who deals sizes affects their process
Skills of implementation engineers vs PreSales and hiring for PreSales
Interviewing for Soft Skills
Building a process to help Sales
Challenges of working globally as one Sales Engineering Team
The downside of bringing an SE late
Incentivising Sales to want to continue to support customers after the sale
How Presales is incentivized
Pre-sales vs implementation vs Post-Launch
Challenges of a brand new SE team
New Accounts vs Existing Accounts
Who supports the customer
Doubling the SE team and the challenges that come with that

Quotes:

“Teaching Hard skills, or teaching technical skills, is so much easier than teaching soft skills” – Andre Peixoto

“Things were said or promised to the customer that was not feasible, and that dents the relationship” – Andre on SEs on coming in too late into a deal.

“I think it’s about the dimensions of the problems, but the problems in its core are basically the same” – Andre about issues facing big or small teams.

“You’re better off having an SE quiet and just listening for 30 minutes on a presales call, then try to sell the technical side on your own without confidence.” Andre Peixoto

“Trust your Sales Engineers, just give them advice, and try not to do things yourself because if you’re doing everything, you’re not doing anything right.” – Andre Peixoto