#238 Overcoming Lone Ranger Syndrome and Becoming a Great Team Member

Notes:

It’s not easy to know if you’d be a good fit for sales engineering, but it’s not a hard thing to give it a try. In this episode, my guest Cyrus Harbin shares his journey and realizations during his first year as a sales engineer, how he fell into the tech path, and some best practices in doing demo and discovery.

Cyrus Harbin is a sales engineer, Marine Corps veteran, content creator and host of the podcast Tech is the New Black. Before working in sales engineering, Cyrus was a full-time traveling poet and public event speaker.

With over 6+ years of experience in sales and profit optimization, customer service, IT systems security and management, and cross-functional teams leadership, Cyrus dedicate much of his personal time to my Patreon community assisting mainly black and brown men and women (basically POCs like myself) and others from under-represented groups to consider careers in the tech industry.

Key Takeaways:

Cyrus’s journey from doing a lot of public speaking engagements to entering tech and becoming a sales engineer
Why Cyrus chose sales engineering out of all the roles possible in the tech industry
What has surprised him about the role
One challenge Cyrus has had to overcome since he first started in this role
The problem most SEs seem to have – they want to do everything themselves
How Cyrus has embraced the support and building a bridge to others rather than being an island
One of the cool things about being an SE is that we exist in multiple worlds
What would Cyrus’s process be to make sure that he does not misunderstand the demo requirements
Why Ramzi sees demos as another part of the discovery
How is being part of the discovery changed the way Cyrus thinks about customer meetings and doing the demo?
Breaking the ice by telling jokes before the demo
Will Cyrus continue to feel the same way about sales engineering in 5 years?
The reason Cyrus started Tech is the New Black

Quotes:

“It’s not that you should learn more. It’s that you get to learn more.” – Ramzi Marjaba

“The thing that’s been challenging for me is not being an island to myself, realizing that I really have support, and even if I can handle it, that doesn’t mean I have to handle everything.” – Cyrus Harbin

“When I first became an SE, a Senior VP of Director of Sales told me that the best sales teams are those who know how to leverage other people.” – Ramzi Marjaba

“There’s no such thing as too many questions. I take note of people that have been in this space for 10 years, more or less, and seeing how vulnerable they are, seeing how often they ask questions and taking note and reminding myself, hey, they’re not above asking 1000 questions. They’re humble enough to admit when they’re confused or when they forgot something, but then they need to be reminded. Man, if they’re willing to learn from me, then I should be 10 times more apt to ask them questions and learn from them. So doing that has really helped. I have had a mindset shift. It’s helped a lot.” – Cyrus Harbin

“The more stupid you’re willing to look, in terms of asking questions, ironically, the smarter you actually are, because you’re asking more questions.” – Cyrus Harbin

“Nothing teaches better than actually making mistakes, or failing.” – Cyrus Harbin

“The more rapport you build, the more information you get. It’s not just about buying in the end. But if they trust you, they’re going to tell you things that they may not tell other people, which is great.” – Ramzi Marjaba

“So the whole idea of Tech is the New Black was really just showing people that there’s more to this space than what you thought there was. And so it’s really cool.” – Cyrus Harbin

Some of the things that you find cool. others might not. And some of the things that others might find cool, you will not. So if you focus on what you find cool, others focus on what they find cool and you both work together, and leverage each other. You will both be successful faster.” – Ramzi Marjaba