Blog
Notes:
We thought products sold to us were easily made for just a few months. But what if I tell you that they use a method where they only show the process to the customers in the simplest way possible to achieve a certain value? The truth is, there is a complex process all sales engineers hide behind. In this episode with Kris Newman, you will discover the processes that a product has to go through the achieve what they call “customer success”.
Kris Meulseman comes back on the show to discuss in more detail how to serve the process vs the salesperson, and what it means to serve the customer.
Eight Ignored Skills That Sales Engineers Should Have:
- What is the difference between buyer enablement and advisor enablement
- Giving what your customer didn’t ask for might be what they needed
- What do SEs show to the customers during the demo
- The 3 big blocks that help set the dream of the customers
- What type of motivation doesn’t work for presales engineers
- What type of motivation do most hybrid engineers have
- What is the perfect percentage of the patient base vs commission for SEs
- How to properly split the commission in terms of individual quota and team quota
- What the post-sales team has to do with presales quota
- The company where the presales engineers also do post sales
- How does a customer service team get rewarded for every customer success
- Is customer success more of an account management role or a technical role
- A broader explanation of serving the sales versus serving the process
- How serving the process makes the customer trust more and buy over a lifetime
Quotes:
“Coaches of people that are looking for a certain value to solve the pain they have, whatever pain that may be, and bring them to that realization. But the bringing to the realization is kind of your organization needs to be set up to do that. So that you don’t just overpromise and underdeliver, and do the opposite.” –Kris Newman
“If you’re a good presale person, a good SE, you’re going to delve into that, you’re going to broaden your understanding of what is happening at that customer. And the answer you’re giving them might be different from what they asked you, but it might be what they need.” –Kris Newman
“They know what they want. We’re helping them solve the problem with our tools. Not with somebody else’s tools. So, in the end, serving the customer is part of the process. It’s just not the process itself.” –Ramzi Marjaba
“We try as much as possible to look at KPIs that are actually linked to success as well as personal. So it can be training, it can be events that you go out to speak at, or have an external work you do, it might be successful demos. So, we link it to things that we feel are gonna be worthwhile for that person.” –Kris Newman
“The account manager does the sales conversations, the harder conversations about what’s the money conversations so that your customer success team can focus on really driving value, and they’re not diluting that with discussions about pricing.” –Kris Newman
“I wouldn’t say there’s a perfect solution. It’s just more of a mindset that you need to keep. Keep a view on if your mindset is we want to deliver that value, we expect growth through that. We follow that up, and you’re still in the business to grow the business.” –Kris Newman
“In the absolute best way possible, we’re gonna do everything we can to convince the customer that their pain can be solved, that we can bring into reality the dream with our solution. But there’s an edge. If we know that’s not possible then you can’t go over that. I won’t go over that promising something that I know full well, isn’t there, is never going to be realized. If you keep that in your head as a precise person, then you know that the value can be realized. So to me, it’s simple, just don’t sell something that will never be able to be sold.” –Kris Newman
