You’re struggling to keep your sales team organized. What platform can help you stay on top of everything?

CRM Review: 1) CRM: Customer relationship management is the platform where the SE manages all their accounts. Tracking, POs, contacts, sales cycle, objections, etc. Learn a CRM (Salesforce, Oracle, Zoho, HubSpot, Monday, Capsule) 2) Purpose: Offers data driven insights per customer to gage their sales cycle. Each customer will be different so no customer is the same. As the SE you report all the info with the customer into the CRM. Crucial to keep track of the customers key information & data. 3) Workflow Streamline: CRM's are used to manage multiple customers. On average an SE should cover 30-20 accounts (including prospects, legacy, leads, & focused accounts). Each company has their own SE platform. Learn it, use it, & master it!

There are finally some systems for Sales Engineering managers to manage their day-to-day tasks. Yes, I said finally because a CRM is NOT a tool for Sales Engineers. Sales Engineers and their managers can be an input to a CRM, adding valuable insights into the opportunities being worked. SE leadership may use the CRM to view dashboards and track performance, but the usefulness of typical CRMs ends there. There are purpose-built tools from Vivun and Homerun Presales that provide real value to people in presales roles.

There are 3 reasons we are using a platform for our Sales Engineers: 1 - We use a ticketing system integrated to our CRM where sellers can request an SE to be assigned to the opportunity. Deeper technical resources and assets are also requested through this system. This gives us insight and analytics around who is requesting which types of assistance. 2 - We use a system to track product gaps directly against the opportunity. SEs can input details about the desired product functionality and our Product team can see how much potential revenue would be impacted by developing the feature. 3 - SE sentiment added to the opportunity. The Sales Engineer has specific fields to input their thoughts on the technical aspects of the opportunity.

The first place to start in choosing a solution for the Sales Engineering team is to carefully consider the problems you need to solve. Think about where the SEs are struggling or where they are spending too much time. Once you have the problem defined, take some time to develop some metrics on the potential value that will be realized upon solving it. Benefits typically fall into three buckets, time savings (efficiency), cost savings, or improved user experience. Finally, do some research on the cost of the potential solution. You will need to make a business case to your company to convince them to spend the money on your solution. In today's economic environment, that can be a real challenge.

CRM Functionality: 1) Configuration: Configure for your systems to a way that makes it easy for you to use. Add, remove, and change it to a specific way that favors your style of working. 2) Optimize: Keep it simple easy. A simplified CRM portal will help you stay organized with all the info from all your accounts including: updating meetings, demos, product presentations, & outreaching. Learn to maximize the use of you CRM for your account full benefits. 3) Decisions: Understand the information you have per account and learn where to prioritize your time. Use the data from your accounts to make quick effective decisions as well as know which accounts will provide a ROI based on the sale cycle.

CRM Benefits: 1) Time Savings: Automate & streamline your operations for each account. Reduce any repetitive task and maximize your focus on key account priorities to be reach your quarterly goals. 2) Collaboration: Work with your local team including your engineer, manager, & specialist to stay complete customer task. Record keeping & reviewing past meetings will provide the right information on how to penetrate an account. 3) Customer Engagement: Organization provides a clean record of customer information. This leads to developing a great relationship with the customer as you become more aware of their demands, products, pain points, & supply chain forecast. No matter the SE platform, maximize it to its fullest potential!

It's too easy to be distracted by all the shiny objects in our Sales Engineering space. It seems that VC firms have just now figured out that SEs are smart people who have a big impact on sales organizations. Go back to my comment on point #3 above and start with the question you need to answer. Otherwise, you are going to end up with a "cool" solution that may not provide any real value.