#291 The Mindset Shift From Sales Engineering to Pure Sales

Notes:

The most common move for Sales Engineers is to go into pure Sales. It seems to be the easiest move because there are many more opportunities to move into that role than to get into SE Management.

But today’s guest is a former SE Manager who moved into a Sales Director role. Mike Shore has been on the podcast before as an SE Manager, so it was great to talk to him after being in the Sales Director role. We discuss the challenges, the mental shifts, and a lot more.

Key Takeaways:

Why Switch from SE Management to Sales
The challenges faced when moving into sales
Advice to SEs who want to move into Sales
What are the right things to do
The mental aspects of Sales vs Sales Engineers
What it’s like being a player-coach
Compensation Strategy for Sales Teams
What’s next for Mike

Quotes:

“When I make a change, I like to make it big”- Mike Shore

“If you’ve got like the bug to move into sales, then you should, you should take that risk” – Mike Shore

[As an SE] You’re working on an opportunity, you’re working on a demo, you have that assigned out to you. In the sales role, you don’t have that. You have a lot more autonomy, but you gotta figure out what it is that’s the best task for you to do for that any particular day” – Mike Shore

[About Struggles] “It wasn’t finding stuff to do. It was finding the right things to do” – Mike Shore

“Finding stuff to do is easy, finding the right thing to do is a life changer.” – Ramzi Marjaba

“I think sales is just another version of sales engineering. It’s just solving the problem commercially instead of technically”. – Ramzi Marjaba

“In sales, it’s different ’cause you’re constantly working through rejection. You’re constantly running the roadblocks. You’re fighting inertia all the time.” – Mike Shore

“Sales are specialists at finding specialists.” – Ramzi Marjaba