1-Not every great Sales Engineer (here) becomes a great SE Manager (there). It takes hard work, acknowledgment when something goes wrong, and continuous advancement. The same goes for Salespeople becoming directors. You have to want it. And you have to want to improve, and finally, you will have to do things differently.  

 

2- Most successful people in life have mentors and coaches. Tiger Woods, when he was at the top of his game, he had coaches. Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Oprah Winfrey, and even Warren Buffet had coaches and mentors. Sales Engineers should have coaches or at least mentors. Find yours so you can get where you want to go.

 

3-Compete against yourself, not others. Sales Engineering is a competitive sport, or at least I’d like to think so. However, there are so many moving parts that you cannot control as a Sales Engineer. You can ask for a feature, but you will not be able to build that feature. That is another teammate. So if you’re competing against other SEs in the same company or a competitor, how will that go? You can only control yourself and try to be better today than you were yesterday. That tends to help SEs improve and in the end, help close more deals. 

 

4- “Technical Win” – I know great SE thought leaders who love to talk about it. I know others who hate the term. I personally cannot decide if it’s a good term or a bad one. On one side, we cannot objectively measure it. On another side, unless the customer is actively working to deceive you, you can tell if you impressed them with your demo. Just know that your job does not end after a “technical win”. There is still follow up to be done. The customer might change their mind after talking to colleagues. Unless you have a purchase order in hand, then the “technical win” does not mean anything.  What do you think about this? Reply here and let me know.