In this podcast, we’ve had the pleasure of conducting a live webinar with our guest, Freddy Mangum, who is not a sales engineer (he’s in the C-suite level in fact), but he is highly passionate about the technical sales profession and believes that technical sales professionals are underrepresented within their companies. Today he shares with us his insights on how sales engineers can leverage their influence within their organization and impact the business.
Freddy Mangum is a go-to-market leader with over 25 years in the technology space. He started his career as a sales engineer at Cisco systems and then transitioned into leadership positions at companies involving product management, technical sales, business development and marketing, IPO, and acquisitions. He presently works with ForgePoint Capital as a venture consultant while also serving as an advisor to several SaaS companies and start-up non-profits.
Key Takeaways
Tune in to our conversation and learn about:
[8:12] How a painful loss of a 6 million-dollar-worth opportunity reminded Freddy of the importance of technical sales
[12:00] Why companies should put focus and attention to make sure technical sales professionals have the right skill set, tools, and support to impact the business
[13:20] How shallow or deep into the details should a technical sales professional discuss during a conversation with their prospects or someone in the C-suite level?
[15:41] The pitfalls of getting too “technical” during a pitch and how to guide the conversation to value instead
[17:15] 6 ways for Technical Sales Professionals to Gain More Influence within the company
- Field Position – What’s your position in the field as a company? Where do you spend your time?
- Teammates – Understanding your teammates and have a macro picture of your business.
- Inches or yards – Trust which move can gain the greatest impact on the company and vocalize that in a way that can land with the rest of your organization.
- Perform – Contextualize the technical skills and sales capabilities you currently have and those you need to develop and work on improving them.
- Play to win – Know how you can help improve the efficiency of the overall sales of the business. Don’t just aim to win on a micro-level of contribution to the business but win at a macro level for the organization overall.
- Keep score – Capture your performance metrics by tracking sales, conversions, deal, and award metrics individually.
[27:43] The advantage technical sales professionals have over other teammates in the company because they’re out in the field every day interacting with prospects
[33:11] How can a sales engineer figure out their skills and abilities, know what they’re good at, what they are bad at and how can they improve?
[35:44] How do you measure the impact of keeping track of performance metrics individually and within the company?
[41:00] What often gets overlooked in a technology sales company and what SEs can do to change that and demonstrate their value
[55:45] The benefits of keeping score for your own career development, future employment opportunities, and within your current organization
[57:35] What were some changes Freddy did after that 6-million-dollar loss to make sure the company doesn’t run into the same mistake again?
[58:43] What can an SE do if the company doesn’t have a method or process in place yet for managing technical sales?
Quotes:
On what the future of technical sales holds: “The level of influence and importance of technical sales is going to increase in the future. There is such an oversupply of technologies and products, that I think to be a buyer is very challenging these days and the role of a trusted technical advisor is gonna continue to become more and more important.”
On what sales engineers should remember in the future: “Make sure that you know that, and begin to track what you do and how you influence the company so you can educate others in the industry of the importance of technical sales.”
Links and Resources:
- You can connect with Freddy Mangum on Linkedin:
- Check out Freddy’s article on Linkedin:
