When I started this little project of mine, I did it because I wasn’t able to find resources for Sales Engineers. Everything I found was geared towards sales. Now that I’ve been doing this for over half a year with more than 30 podcast episodes published, I’ve run into a few more resources which I want to share with you.

Blogs:

Mastering Technical Sales 

John Care who runs Mastering Technical Sales was on Show 17 of the podcast where he talks about his history from being an SE all the way to SE director. He currently has a company that provides needed training for Sales Engineers through their organizations. His blog is updated every once in a while. The info in there is very valuable at least in my humble opinion.

John also has a beginner’s course for Sales Engineers on LinkedIn Learning (https://www.linkedin.com/learning/technical-sales-the-role-of-the-sales-engineer/welcome).

If you are a manager/director/VP and would like customized training for your team then you might want to connect with John on Mastering Technical Sales.

Sales Engineer Guy  

For the longest time, I didn’t know who actually owns and runs this site. A month ago I was finally able to figure it out thanks to my detective work and I was able to have the owner of this site, Greg Holmes, on my podcast (Show31). Greg’s got posts dating all the way back to 2007. They are short, easy to read and provides you with some ideas of things that you can differently. Posts come sporadically, but if you follow him on twitter @salesengguy or @GregHolmes007 ‏, there usually is an update there whenever he publishes anything new.

Daryn Mason

Daryn writes most of his blog posts on LinkedIn. He is a good guy to follow considering he’s been in the business for a while and has experience in a vast array of job positions. I’ve personally enjoyed his posts and I look forward to getting more posts from him.

We The Sales Engineers 

I had to plug this specific website and information provider in there. Will not waste your time describing myself since you are already here and you most likely know about what this site is all about.

SE Podcasts:

We The Sales Engineers

I have not heard of any other podcast dedicated to SEs. On the podcast, I interview sales professionals to help Sales Engineers get ideas of how they can do things or even people who are not SEs to break into this role to become SEs.  We’ve had discussions with Sales Engineers, Account Managers, Marketing Managers, and Product Managers. We’ve had conversations with SE trainers such as John Care of Mastering Technical Sales and Sales trainers like Anthony Iannarino, SEs who are still doing what they love like Anthony Taok or Jason Sheffield and even brand new SEs.

Books: 

Note that the links below are Amazon Affiliate links. I will make a small commission at no cost to you. If you use these links, thanks in advance!

SE books:

Mastering Technical Sales: The Sales Engineer’s Handbook by John Care. I have to admit, I have not read this yet, but everyone I talked to who has loves it. It has been described to me in 2 ways, either the SE Bible, or a university textbook.  

Sales on Rails by John Haldi: This book was born out of frustration. It’s a small book which elaborates on the basics of the SE position. This is a good book for those new to the role or is just looking to break into the role.

Demonstrating To Win!: The Indispensable Guide for Demonstrating Complex Products by Robert Riefstahl: Care to guess what this book is about? The title says it all, but the author also realizes that in order to do a good demonstration, a good discovery is in order. He provides great tips and ideas on how to do a good discovery, and follow it up with a great demo.

Sales Book:

SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham: Discovery is not about asking questions, it’s about asking the right questions to help the customer realize that there might be a better option than the status quo. It is based on years of research, following salespeople around to gather data.

The New Solution Selling by Keith M. Eades: This book provides a process on how to go from one stage of the sales cycle to the next. Also, similar to SPIN Selling, this book provides a way of asking questions to help them understand their deficiencies if they have any, and maybe start thinking of a solution.

Mindset books:

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. If I were to summarize this book with one thought, it would be if you want to be interesting, be interested. This is something that I believe that some of us fail at. We go into a meet, and instead of being interested in what they have going on, we are more interested in talking about our solution, or showing them how smart we are. I’ve had to sit and listen to salespeople talk about their 17-year career in sales and not at any point did they consider to see why the customer is in the meeting.  

The Success Principles by Jack Canfield. This is not about sales or about engineering. This book is about goal setting and achieving whatever you want in life. In show 22 of the podcast, Bob Emberly talked about taking control of your career. This book is about that. It’s about taking responsibility for everything in your life, not blaming others, figuring out what you want in life and then going after it.

The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan: This is all about prioritizing to the smallest task and then doing it. It also has some goal settings and some exercises to help you figure out what your priorities are. On top of the book, they started a company to focus on productivity. One of the way they help people is through a podcast. Check it out at The1Thing.com

These are some of the resources that either I find useful, or that were recommended to me by people I trust. As Sales Engineers, are there specific resources that you guys use? Comment below.