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4/1/1: 4 Random Thoughts from me, 1 tools to help Sales Engineers, 1 quote for motivation
4/1/1 Thinking is Important, Why do We Not Do it?
By Ramzi Marjaba
4/1/1 Weekly
4 Random Thoughts, 1 Tool, and 1 Quote
Sales Engineering, or as is becoming more popular, PreSales, are not very well known outside the sales community. Even beyond that, in many cases, when a bit deal closes, the upper levels of an organization tend to give credit to the Salesperson who closed the deal. If the salesperson is smart, they may give credit to the SE who helped on the deal.
This made me curious about what the upper levels, the C-Suite, or VPs of Sales think of Sales Engineers. That was why we talked to Anthony Bettanin, the COO at Loop1, to see what he thinks of Sales Engineering.
Listen to that discussion here
One of the things he tackled is how a Sales Engineering Org Structure can affect what an SE focuses on. Depending on that structure, they can go from a strategic advisor to an order follower. That brings me to this weeks’ video where I talk about the 10 Myths about sales engineering, one of which is SEs report to Salespeople.
Now let’s jump into the 4/1/1
4 Random Thoughts From Me:
1- The lower the SE Leaders report in the Sales Organization, the less strategic their role is. If an SE reports straight into a sales director, then they are just technical support for the Account Manager and customer. If the Global SE Leader reports to the CRO, then we can be true partners and have strategic conversations.
2- We don’t set time to think. Anthony cycles to work every day, and that time where he’s cycling, he can just zone out and let his brain roam. That’s when ideas come in, problems are solved. However, most people don’t have that, especially during the pandemic where commute has pretty much stopped. We’re so busy doing things, that we don’t schedule a time to just think.
3- Sometimes we think we’re doing people a favor by solving their problems. Anthony points out that if he does that for his managers, he’s depriving them of the opportunity to grow and lead. Sometimes I think we should be doing the same thing with our Account Managers. Some just dump the things that they don’t want to do on us.
4- We don’t always need to fix large problems. Sometimes a small tweak is all it takes. Your demo is not going the way you want it to, you don’t have to get rid of the whole script. Maybe you can simply tweak something, and try it out. When a sports team is playing badly in the first half of the game, the coach does not replace the whole team. They may substitute one player, or even two, but more importantly, they “adjust” the game plan.
1 Tool:
Notion is an all-in-one productivity tool. I currently use it to track my to-do list, my customer interactions, my habit tracker and so much more. And there are so many different youtube videos to show you how it works.
1 Quote:
“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
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