#67 Sales Engineers, CEOs, and Mentors

A common conversation I have with other Sales Engineers is what next? Here are the options I hear in response in order:

1- Stay a Sales Engineer. Most SEs I know love their job. It is challenging and yet flexible. They don’t have to worry too much about quota, and they are not the ones being destroyed in a funnel review. 

2- Sales. Some SEs see the opportunity of going into sales. They don’t mind the quarterly fight over the funnel or working with customers to close deals. So that fact that they can make a lot more money as Salespeople is appealing.

3- Technical Marketing: This seems to be a third viable. Some think that switching to marketing might mean a pay cut. That doesn’t mean it’s bad money. It could also mean it’s a dip before making more money. Others just enjoy doing that work. I know SEs who switched and did not get a pay cut at all. 

4- SE Management: There is only a handful of SEs who get the opportunity to go into SE management since there are only a handful of SE Management jobs. 

I have not heard a single person talk about becoming a CEO. I have not met all SEs, but it does not seem common, yet I think that SEs are uniquely qualified to do so. They know engineering, sales, and now with the advent of social media, they learn marketing. This might be a simplistic view, but they definitely help, and that is what we discuss today.