![](https://wethesalesengineers.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Thumbnail-4-300x169.png)
Blog
Notes:
If you have a passion for technology and enjoy talking with customers and prospects, you may want to consider making the transition to a sales engineering role. If any of this interests you, you’re in the right spot! Because that’s exactly what we’ll be talking about in today’s episode. As a sales engineer, you need to make sure that the product you are selling is right for the customer and that it’s easy to use. You’ll also need to know how to manage the sales cycle and understand how to close deals. You’ll have to have a solid understanding of how the sales cycle of large enterprises and major accounts differ.
With me today is Kyle Brown, a Sales Engineer at Zscaler in the enterprise market in the Chicagoland area. Kyle is very passionate about sales engineering making the switch from a sales role. He specializes in developing new business and brand loyalty through technical discussions, product demonstrations, proof of concepts, and product training using analytic skills to discover market gaps.
Key Takeaways:
- A little background on Kyle Brown and his role in the enterprise market as a sales engineer
- What the sales cycle looks like for large enterprises and major accounts
- The time an SE enters a deal or sales cycle is different across companies
- Differences between being a channel SE and a direct SE
- Why Kyle moved from his previous company to the company he’s working in now
- The number one thing most SEs often forget when going into interviews
- Which does Kyle prefer – working with existing customers or working with new prospects?
- Why do most companies require SaaS sales experience for SE roles
- The difference between selling hardware and software
- How lead times extend to other things in life, too
- Do you really need certifications?
- What Kyle has to say to anybody out there that’s afraid to leap a new technology
Quotes:
“It’s funny when you look back on your career, and you see where you’re brought into deals, and you start to learn what works best for you personally. I like to be brought in immediately just so I can sit there and learn the cables to the customer and understand them from the absolute get-go.” – Kyle Brown
“Even if you don’t like something, leave on good terms versus burning a bridge.” – Kyle Brown
“Be kind. At the end of the day, this is a job. My life is behind me outside that door, my three kids and my wife and my dog, and my family. I love this job. I love Zscaler. I love every minute that I’m working, but at the end of the day, it’s a job. And so you got to treat everybody kindly because you never know when something’s gonna happen.” – Kyle Brown
“Always ask why. When customers are gonna say something, don’t be afraid to either be silent, let them continue talking, or just ask why. Why do you need that? Or why do you think you need that? Or why do you want that? Or why did you come to that conclusion?” – Kyle Brown
“Your best business does come from your existing customers if they love the product, which most of us do, thankfully. Because it’s easy to go on there and say, “Hey, you’ve had a great experience with us for this solution. We’ve got this other solution that we sell on there”. They already feel comfortable with you, they feel comfortable with how to use your solution. So it’s a lot easier than going into somewhere new and explaining something completely new to them.” – Kyle Brown
“At the end of the day, what you’re fighting over is familiarity and comfort, right? You can have the greatest features in the world, and it might not get over the hump of familiarity and comfortability.” – Kyle Brown
“The number one thing that I tell the SEs at Zscaler is what we are fighting is complacency. That is the number one thing that we’re against. The largest hurdle that we have to get prospects over is understanding the architecture and understanding why they should go this new cloud route.” – Kyle Brown
“My dad always said, the worst thing that you can do is not apply or not ask for something, because what’s the worst that can happen?” – Kyle Brown
“If you want to go out there and move from networking to security, or security to networking, or move different technologies, you can do it. What drives all of us SEs is that we crave knowledge and we will go out there and we will learn. So when you articulate in the job interviews, like, “Hey, I’ve sold solutions, I’ve sold x, y & z… I am eager to learn. You show me something, I will read what I can read, I will listen to what I can listen to it. And I will learn it. And I will do it.” – Kyle Brown
“To anybody out there that’s like afraid to make that leap to a new technology. Go for it man, absolutely go for it, it is totally worth it if your heart is in it.” – Kyle Brown
“I think that your street smarts and your book smarts, and your customer smarts take you a lot further than having a certification.” – Kyle Brown
Links from the show:
- Presales Collective: https://www.presalescollective.com/
- Connect with Kyle Brown on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kabrown23/
- Reach out to Kyle via email at kabrown23@yahoo.com
- Follow Kyle on Twitter at @GigaKyle
- Or check out the Presales Collective: https://www.presalescollective.com/