Blog
Notes:
Technology changes on what seems like to be a daily basis. How we sell has not changed in ages. Sure, they slap a new name and tweak a couple of terms, but the process of selling remains the same. SPIN Selling, Solution Selling, Challenge Sale, etc. But after COVID, the PreSales role specifically has had to change. Those who see it coming can prepare, others will be left as Sales Support.
Today’s guest is Paul Harris, Principle Solution Architect at Loftware. We talked about his interesting journey, where he had to make tough decisions, after being pushed into things he had to get out of. We also talked about the evolution of sales engineering, what it was like before the pandemic vs now, and where Paul thinks it will be in the coming years.
Key Takeaways:
- Paul’s Journey to Principle Solution Architect
- What is a Principle Solution Architect
- Moving in and out of SE Management, and planning to move back in
- How the pandemic has changed the way customers want to interact with the sales teams
- What are the new skills that Sales Engineers have to develop
- How these skills will improve an SE’s career
Quotes:
“Selling in what you think it,I always go, I think of Gil from the Simpsons whenever people talk about a traditional sales guy, he’s desperate to get that deal and stuff, and, I would even say right now, with enterprise selling, that isn’t even what sales guys do” – Paul Harris
“I didn’t feel ready the first time and now spent some more time in the field. I’ve built up that experience and I now feel like I can be effective in that role” – Paul Harris about being ready for management
“SEs in this community, we all set very very high expectations of ourselves and We always come out of a demo of a presentation going I could have done this better I could have done that better” – Paul Harris
“The people who are really, really critical are the directors, are the VPs, are the C level, because they don’t kind of care what the product actually does. But I’m having to go, this is the ROI. This is the efficiency you’re going to gain from implementing this solution” – Paul Harris
“ I have had to stand and present to an audience that stretched everywhere from a guy whose job is operating machinery and then all the way around the table to the CIO and the CTO and kind of having to give the same presentation and engage all of those personas in quite a short space of time” – Paul Harris
“The frustration comes from sometimes being like, we just need to be able to strike that right balance between giving people the information they’re looking for and getting enough out of it that I can scope the solution correctly” – Paul Harris
“Every meeting is a discovery. Every meeting is a demo. Maybe you’re not actually demoing, but you might be whiteboarding” – Ramzi Marjaba
“Every time an SE opens their mouth, they are either adding value to a deal or removing value from a deal” – Ramzi Marjaba
“If you are creating quality strong content, you’re going to be able to automate a lot of what you do that bottom 30% that you hate doing” – Paul Harris
“As an SE, you’ll get more insight based on the questions that they ask about what’s important, what’s not important, which will also allow you in the negotiation process.” – Ramzi Marjaba
