#203 Identifying Challenges, Fixing Problems and Snowballing the Results

Notes:

Have you ever felt that your job’s scope of work is too broad and that there actually is a separate profession on a certain task you tackle?

Fil Capiral currently works as a Senior Solutions Engineer at Shogun, an e-commerce service provider company, and he shares his experience on focusing on sales engineering, a role he’s been doing besides coding, computer science, and consultancy for more than 10 years.

In this episode, Fil shares how he was able to identify roadblocks and come up with solutions that differentiated him and allowed him to get a promotion to a management role.

Key Takeaways:

Fil’s transition to tackling a new journey on sales engineering
How Fil acquired guidance and mentorship through the We The Sales Engineers Podcast and Ramzi Marjaba
How Fil became and excelled Shogun’s first Sales Engineer without formal training on the role
Fil was able to create Shogun’s process and ways of working for sales engineering
Seven months into the SE role, Fil was promoted and now handles not only the pre-sales part but also the post-sales aspects – full circle field engineering
Fil now leads multiple teams of SEs
Emphasis on the importance of coaching and mentorship

Quotes:

“A Sales Engineer’s journey is kind of like a snowflake.” – Fil Capiral

“You weren’t trying to solve my problems, you were just asking questions, to make me think about the problem in a different way.” – Fil Capiral on Ramzi Marjaba’s mentorship approach

“I was really having fun with the solution engineering role, because it really is an individual contributor role, like even you, you work with a lot of team members, but like you are in control of your own world for the most part.” – Fil Capiral

“It’s been really satisfying to be a big part of the business and add value.” – Fil Capiral

“It’s a numbers game, we’re not gonna be able to take every deal.” – Ramzi Marjaba on taking defeat in not acquiring the sale