#202 The Effective Habits of a Great Sales Engineer

Notes:

Do you want to be more productive? Have you ever wondered how the most successful people are able to accomplish so much in a day? What’s their secret?

In this episode, Chris White is back to chat about all things productivity, goal setting, and habit building. He shares how he gets his tasks done during the day, how he reflects on his goals, and some top tips for being more productive as a sales engineer.

Chris White is an accomplished author, trainer, coach, teacher, and Sales Engineering leader. He penned “The Six Habits of Highly Effective Sales Engineers”, an amalgamation of over a decade of experience in the field where Chris is able to articulate the importance of a number of key habits that will lead any SE to success.

Eight Ignored Skills That Sales Engineers Should Have:

Exciting changes happening in Chris White’s business and what he’s incredibly excited for in 2022
Does Chris set New Year’s resolutions?
How to set goals and work on them so they don’t fall off
Why Chris starts every day by reminding himself what he’s grateful for
Chris walks us through his morning routine
How can sales engineers start their day or build a morning routine like a business owner?
How often should you review your goals throughout the year and when do you review last year’s goals in order to set goals for the new year
Understanding how far we’ve come and not just how far we still have to go
How to break down your goals into daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly habits
The reason why most resolutions fail
Why we should also be aware of bad habits or patterns that are preventing us from success
Getting to a point where we’ve reached a certain financial amount so that money is not the main driver anymore
Chris’s reflection on these three words: productivity, preparedness, and proactivity
The difference between being active and productive

Quotes:

“Most of the success is not just a demo but a customer meeting is based on what happens before the meeting. It’s the preparation, it’s the conversations, it’s the collaboration with your sales counterparts. That’s what leads to success.” – Chris White

“We need to be a little bit patient with ourselves and a little bit patient with the process and not beat ourselves up. If we’ve set ourselves some targets and objectives and we haven’t met them, evaluate what worked and what didn’t. Or where did we succeed? And where did we not succeed? Maybe we were overshooting our target. Maybe we underestimated how much work it was going to take. But don’t lose sight of the end game.” – Chris White

“As a sales engineer, the truth is, is that many of us are similar to business owners in essence, we own our own sort of business and that we own our own performance.” – Chris White

“We are all the CEOs of our own career. And so to me, as a sales engineer, we have an interesting mix of time that we completely and totally own and get to choose we have what we do and those that we completely and totally do not.”v – Chris White

“We have to think, in terms of where is my time dictated? And where do I own it? And how can I make the best of the time that I have?” – Ramzi Marjaba

“I would be working very hard to communicate, collaborate, connect with my sales counterparts, and do some strategic planning with them. What is the plan for this year? How do we plan to get to our numbers? What can I do to help you prospect? What can I do to help you farm and nurture some of our bigger accounts or some of our more important accounts? And if you’re a sales engineer, and you feel as though you have limited impact and limited control, I’d look for ways to exert more.” – Chris White

“I sincerely don’t expect perfection of myself or the people around me. There’s a reason why habit number six is to “perfect”, and I’m very clear to say that’s a verb, not a noun.” – Chris White

“There’s always room, even if it’s a half a percent improvement. And I’m always striving for that.” – Chris White

“Get 1% better on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. And as long as you’re trending upwards don’t compare yourself to other people.” – Ramzi Marjaba

“Enjoy the journey, not the destination.” – Chris White

“One of the things that I’ve learned for myself is my list of goals and objectives and my calendar has to be aligned. Right? Like they have to become buddies.” – Chris White

“It’s one thing to have the will to win. It’s another thing to have the will to do the things that you need to do in order to win.” – Chris White

“I don’t think any major objective is accomplished unless we can maintain our consistency and maintain our focus long after the enthusiasm for doing so has died.” – Chris White

“Anything worth really achieving takes longer than the enthusiasm lasts. But if we really want to get there, we need to maintain that momentum, in spite of not being as enthusiastic.” – Chris White

“Break down goals into habits, what are the habits I need to hit to get to that goal?” – Ramzi Marjaba

“In the end, whatever goal you need, you want to achieve, you need the habits to support you to get there, otherwise, you’re just not gonna get there.” – Ramzi Marjaba