I caught up with Chris White on his Linkedin Live show a bit ago. This time he interviews me and we dig into what happens behind the scenes, or at least what should happen behind the scenes to make sure that SEs are successful in front of the customer.    Everyone loves what we do on the front end, working directly with the customer, performing, and getting the Aha moment. However, we can not do any of that if we don’t prepare, if we don’t generate leads (even as SEs), or prepare for...

AI is coming for us all. According to our guest, Anthony Palmoze, he’s heard many SEs talk about BDR being the first to become obsolete. So we jump on a call to dig into what BDR is and see if it will be obsolete, or more specifically, what parts will be taken over by AI. show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show315

I have my own opinions of what sales engineers should do, and how they should be involved in the sales process. My opinion is that they should be involved, early and often.   But I sell in the enterprise market, with a small number of customers. My SE is tied only to me, and the main decision-makers are the users who use the product. So it would make sense that my SE is heavily involved, follows up post-demo, and maintains relationships.    But when your product is being sold to other...

Over the many years that I’ve been doing this podcast, we’ve talked about the skills required, how to manage the team, communication, relationship building. But we’ve never discussed the SE Big picture, how external factors like the economy can affect the role, and what moves can be made internally to save money.    So I invited John Simpson on this show to discuss that. John is the former head of Solution Engineering for EMEA at Qualtrics do discuss this in more detail.   show notes:...

Solution Engineers have a lot on their plate, and I have the pleasure of adding one more thing to that plate...marketing   show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show312

There are so many different selling techniques. I’ve personally been trained in Solution Selling and Challenger Selling. Full disclosure, I love Solution Selling, but hate challenger selling. I’ve also read SPIN Selling and then I noticed that a lot of them are similar, but they are all geared towards salespeople.   But Solution Selling was introduced a long time ago. Some say in the 70s, but I don’t have a source for that. Since then, solution selling evolved into Value Selling, and now the...

At the ground level, we all put our heads down and work. We demo, discover, and manage support calls. How we do all that is the tactical work. But what about the strategy? How do we move an entire organization from reactive to proactive? How does the organization incentivize people, or in other words, how do they line up their interests with their employee’s interests?   These are some topics I discussed with Fadi Bassil, the VP of Support at Incorta. Fadi is a fellow Lebanese, but that’s...

Many of us go to university, wondering what we are supposed to study. Those of us who complete it then graduate, wondering what the job would entail. Once we get the job that we may or may not have thought we wanted, we find that we are bored out of our minds.    Some people stick with it and learn to love it, or simply stick with it. Others try to find a solution. That’s what today’s guest did. Sameer Kausar found himself in a job he was not excited about. So he looked within, and looked...

My guest for today is Chris Beaumont and he is a recruiter. We discuss how people should approach the job hunt, and what they can do to increase their chances to secure a job. We also talk about what employers are doing wrong while they are trying to fill the few recs they have open.  Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show308

 Life does not exist without stress. There’s also added stress when you’re in the sales world. So I wanted to share the causes of stress as I see it, and how I handle it.  show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show307

Engineers are not usually known as creative types. This is a strange notion for me as I think engineers are some of the most creative people. We might not be creating art (although some engineers are artists), but we are being creative in solving a set of problems.  The problem is it doesn’t show to the outside world.  But there are ways to do so, and Melanie Flores, my guest for this week found out that she can do it through Solution Engineering. It’s not just about solving a problem...

A big piece of Sales Engineering is Sales. Most engineers don’t like the sales part of Sales Engineering, but it’s what SEs have to excel at to be good at their jobs. Taking it a step further, SEs have to excel at knowing their customers and that will make every aspect of sales easier.    These are all topics of conversation that Alvaro Tuscano and I get deep into, in addition to the challenges of presales in Spain specifically, and how he overcame them to become a great SE and a trainer...

In this engaging conversation, Jason Zeikowitz discusses his experience as a Salesforce Technical Trainer. From handling an array of situations from training salespeople to construction workers who are initially resistant to using new technology, Jason shares the importance of combining questioning and communication to engineer buy-in.   show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show304

Mohamed, an experienced Solutions Architect, shares valuable insights about the hiring process and career progression at Amazon Web Services (AWS). He discusses various cloud roles, including Cloud Consultants, Cloud Providers, and Cloud Partners, emphasizing that there are opportunities beyond the 'big three' (Amazon, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud). He also provides a detailed view of the interview process at Amazon, including a discussion about the unique expectation of understanding...

Moving from India to the US takes some adjustment. Even if you know the technology, the people change, the requirements change and the way you interact with people changes too.     Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show302

Sales Engineering is a transferable skill. Just because you’re in one industry today, does not mean you cannot move. Case in point Faraz who is today’s guest. Faraz started off in networking and IT, then moved into several different industries and remained successful throughout.  We will discuss his journey and what he did to learn and be successful in these different industries as a Sales Engineer. show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show3301

After 300 episodes, I bring the original cohost back. Binayak Kanungo, aka Bini, comes to join me again on the podcast to give us an update on his career. Bini started off his SE career at a company called Assent, and although he was happy with the work there, the thought of wanting more pushed him to move on which turned out not to be a great move. That’s when Bini started facing some challenges. That’s what we will focus on today. Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show300

Were you ever asked, “Where do you want to be in 5 years?” I believe I’ve been asked once, in an interview, and I had no idea what I wanted to do now, let alone in 5 years. I have not been asked since.  John Simpson on the other hand talks to his SEs about career action planning. Not only where you want to be, but how to get there too.  And for sales engineers, there are many options for what to do next, including staying put. We cover that in this podcast. Show notes:...

Many Sales Engineers are getting hit with layoffs, especially when there’s a new acquisition. This happened to our guest before he knew what Sales Engineering was, Jeff Dryall. But it did not happen once or twice. It's happened multiple times, and Jeff used it as an opportunity to identify a new challenge and go after them, including becoming a Sales Engineer.   Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show298

Most SEs have an aversion to sales, which is why many have been very hesitant to enter the SE world. But as soon as we learn more about it, we understand that SEing is about solving problems which as techies, is what we want. The same goes for our guest today. Chris Snyder is the first SE within his organization and he’s been thriving at it due to the support that he has, and the ability to get creative. show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show297    

Having someone who worked on the procurement side, the vendor side, and the value-added reseller side in a condensed period allows us to ask many questions and get a holistic view of these different roles.    Our guest, Wesley Bellman has that exact experience in addition to a few more, so we get to see the similarities of working in procurement and how they interacted with VARs.    shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show296

We all have different paths into sales engineering. Some fell into it, and some fought for it. And once we get there, we find that not all sales engineering roles are created equal. Some require SEs to simply demo all day, and others have SEs on sight working to help an end user debug an issue they ran into. But all of them will have the SE deal with a salesperson. Our guest today is Ryan Krueger who will tell us about his path to sales engineering and the challenges he faced to get there,...

As I watch my kids in their activities, I can tell what they are good at, great at, and what needs work. For professionals, who don’t have their parents watching their every move, every technique and reaction, we have to figure that out for ourselves.   My conversation with Jeff Perry is all about that. Jeff is a leadership and engineering coach. He takes me through some exercises to find my genius zone and uncover some self-limiting beliefs that I may have. show notes:...

A few weeks ago a discussion started on LinkedIn about vendors providing pricing on their web page. Damian Tomasino was for (with nuance), and John Care was against (also with nuance).  So I thought it would be best to jump on a call with Damian and John to discuss their initial thoughts and the nuances of it.  In this chat, we dig into their insightful opinions on this “controversial” topic, the evolution of the sales engineer's role, and the need for improved collaboration amongst sales...