How can your Sales Engineering team adapt to changes in cloud service models?

Sales Engineering is a tech savvy role and requires SE up to dated in technology. Cloud tech is something which is highly desirable and keeps on evolving. Depending on the industry type or customer needs, Cloud models could vary. For digitally native businesses which are internet based companies, B2B startup it could be SaaS, for others it could be PaaS, IaaS model or even DaaS as well. We SEs need to upskill and keep ourselves aware about service models, based on the use cases and needs, to suggest proper service model to the customer.

Sales Engineers are always evolving, and unlike customers, SEs are compelled to keep up with technology advancement. Cloud tech is a part of it. Go beyond "understanding" and obtain as many certifications as possible to provide value to the overall sales process.

To adapt to evolving cloud models, your Sales Engineering team should: 1. Grasp cloud service models: Understand IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. 2. Master cloud providers: Gain deep knowledge of offerings. 3. Articulate value proposition: Clearly communicate product value. 4. Tailor demos: Customize to highlight cloud integration. 5. Align with sales team: Collaborate for synchronized strategies. 6. Foster continuous improvement: Promote ongoing learning for staying current. Implementing these strategies enables your team to adapt to cloud changes and deliver value to customers.

I have always sought to pair myself with SEs as much as possible. Domain knowledge is essential. If this is supported and encouraged on the organization level then the close rate is substantially higher. #sales #technology #salesengineer

Take a step further and ask to be included in the IT operations related to Cloud services. Join your company's DevOps, OpSec, and IT crews to observe and learn from their day-to-day work with cloud providers. If unavailable, ask to take part in your current customer's engagements with cloud providers when contracts allow for that much involvement.

All the service providers provides the same or similar kind of features/offerings. There are many factors to be considered while choosing a cloud provider. Proper research and a thorough competition analysis among the cloud providers about the specific feature needs is required by SEs. Some of the aspects to be considered are - Regional Availability(and data residency), Pricing, SLA of the service, Hidden Charges, Discounts, etc. Sometimes, large enterprises work with multiple cloud vendors as well.

In order to be effective in your role as a sales engineer, when pitching cloud service models, it helps to command authority by providing evidence of success. Whether other customers have already deployed your solution in a cloud environment, or by using your company's own experience with the cloud as a reference, your expertise must deliver precise answers to any objections presented by the customer.

Demos are part and parcel of SE responsibilities. In my experience, we do have specific demos for Fintech, Healthcare, on-demand, etc. which are generic to a particular vertical. I usually customise them as per customer needs and try to include customer paint points and use cases focused on customer benefits and value addition. This helps in building trust with customer and they can resonate their needs with the customised demo. It really helps.

Templated demos should be avoided, as they convey an image of staged and wired purpose-built product presentations. Request a specific scope for a proof of concept or demo, and focus on flawless delivery of the features that cover it. Also to be avoided, generic and broad-reaching features presentation, like "show me everything that your product can do" style engagements. Instead, offer to focus on a limited number of features based on your discovery process as to the customer's pain points.

Always be there for the sales team. There should be no questions from the sales team left unanswered, nor is your time ever so limited as to not provide sales teams with sensible support. Remember, you are a SALES engineer.

Sales Engineer and Sales team work hand-in-hand and complete collaboration. Communication and collaboration is the success to key of any sales organisation. Feedback and insights sharing, handle objections, acknowledging gaps and working on to fill the gap is very important. Helping sales team in closing the deal by leaving no questions unanswered is one of the important responsibility of the SE.

Ce qui était un obstacle hier, est devenu un atout majeur. En effet hier, on préférait avoir ses services en local afin de se prémunir de la coupure internet et donc, de l'indisponibilité des machines. Les serveurs qui sont hébergés en data center dispose de connectivité inégalée, et les entreprises disposent également de connexion à Internet très largement dimensionné leur permettant un confort d'utilisation identique à une configuration on premise. Aujourd'hui, la forte adoption du télétravail permet à tous les utilisateurs d'utiliser n'importe quelle connexion à Internet pour se connecter aux applications. Par conséquent si le serveur est local et que la connexion à Internet de l'entreprise tombe il devient bien moins disponible...