You're a sales engineer looking to make a lasting impression. How can you show your value to the company?

Establishing yourself as a SME on a certain topic sets the tone for what value you can provide to your organization and to customers. Being able to design complex solutions and then articulate back to sales teams on how you contributed establishes your credibility and demonstrates you can win.

Only way to get appreciation and recognition will be through expressing the product knowledge we have. This will give confidence to our team to rely on us for complete support to customers including service/maintenance. And we will be remembered for the support.

This is trickier than you might expect, because products are constantly undergoing change and a good SE knows everything about their product in its current AND future state. If you can form early relationships with members of your Product team, and meet with them regularly, you will not only understand the product but also intimately understand its trajectory and the vision behind it.

First and foremost, I believe one must focus on enhancing customer relationships by providing technical expertise that supports and amplifies the sales process. You should also stay proactive in identifying and resolving potential technical challenges before they become issues, thereby increasing customer satisfaction and trust. Continuously expand your knowledge of industry trends and product updates to offer cutting-edge solutions. Taking initiative in cross-functional teams to drive innovations that improve product offerings is absolutely essential to establishing yourself as a SME, which in turn creates that long lasting impact.

Once you've tackled the traditional training materials of your organisation - identify your core offerings and reach out to the relevant subject matter expert. Experts will be happy to have a short call with you to tell you what's latest and greatest about their particular subject area. This gives you a unique insight into the product roadmap - and how to successfully discuss the future of your product with clients.

Being a great sales engineer is about understanding your customer's problems. You need to ask good questions and really listen to their answers. Figure out what's bothering them and what they're hoping to achieve. Once you know that, you can explain how your product can help them reach their goals. Think of yourself as a trusted advisor, showing them how your solution solves their specific problems and gets them the results they want. This builds trust and makes them more likely to choose you.

Once you've familiarised yourself with your technology stack and the solution at hand - try to identify the problem the solution is applied to. This can be identifying a particular industry, a potential customer profile. Do some research on common pain points in these areas and how your product is the solution to that problem. Be honest in conversations with clients so they can trust you with the invisible. The solution is just the tip of the iceberg.

Understand your clients wants & needs is the most important thing about being a Sales Engineer. It's important to actually rather than just assume. But It doesn't just stop there it's also understanding your own products & making them a recommendation that fits exactly what they need - BECAUSE YOU ASKED :)

Communicate ON PURPOSE! Agree the purpose of any presentation, demo or meeting with the other parties BEFORE it happens... Take a presentation as an example: Reach out to the audience beforehand and tell them the outcome you're aiming for, and what you're planning to cover - and ask them how well they feel that meets their needs. Go back and forth with them (and your sponsor - the person that asked you to do the presentation) until everyone is agreed. This does not need to be 'War and Peace', it can be a few lines on an email. This approach not only establishes and builds rapport with your audience before you meet them, but it ensures you will deliver exactly what they need and achieve the required outcome(s). All you have to do is ask!

As an SE there is a distinct advantage of having a perspective that spans all departments (sales, marketing, operations, product, development, etc.) Having the ability to communicate effectively, especially across multiple interdependent teams, will be instrumental. More than likely your SE team will be involved in multiple ongoing motions, so managing them all with effective cadences will help keep them all moving towards success.

SEs can have a tendency to overexplain and get technical when it isn't needed. One of the best things I learned is to say the minimum and let prospects add questions. Just because you have some deep technical background in your product doesn't mean the prospects wants/needs those details. If so, they can ask, otherwise tell them what they need to know to be confident in your solution.

Never Stop Learning! You can find dozens of presales-specific articles and blog posts at https://GreatDemo.com - see the Resources pages!

When it comes to learning here are the 3 things to consider: 1. Have a learn-it-all mindset not Know-it-all. The curse of knowledge is real(not remembering what it was like to not know something), but if you are always in search of expanding what you know this will always stand you in good stead especially when you ask a customer a question to which you already know the answer! Seek out information and always be curious! 2. Feedback is a gift! Feedback from peers, customers or leader is always a gift. Wherever possible to take feedback & make it actionable! 3. Find a Mentor. Getting other perspectives is essential to a growth mindset. Find someone that will challenge you & hold you accountable to doing what you say you want to!

At the end of the day it is about what sort of measurable value and impact you are able to provide. Thorough discovery, empathy, and genuine efforts to build a relationship are all foundational to any successful engagement. These traits will ideally lead you to more wins, sales, & business. It’s imperative you have the capacity to be reporting on these engagements and motions so you can then in turn draw actionable insight that will allow for continuous improvement.

An SE is no longer responsible for just delivering a demo that is feature function but more what VALUE its going to bring to the customer and their problems alongside providing the value internally to the company and the sales team. An SE is now a part of the complete sales cycle and even beyond the point when the deal is closed when handing over all customer to their dedicated CSM. The SE continues to remain a voice of the customer, and if there is one thing that remains constant for the customer through the sales cycle, and post-contracts, its the SE.

Sales/Solutions engineering is such a cross-functional role given the special mix of skills people in these roles poses - value-oriented, ability to translate technical jargon into simple digestable concepts, strong storytelling just to name a few. Another way to demonstrate value is to find avenues to amplify and accelerate the work of your cross-functional partners. Volunteer to work on webinars, one-pagers, design reviews, conference speaking slots, etc. Capitalizing on these moments will help showcase the dynamic value of sales/solutions engineering with the company but also contribute to building your personal brand! Love a win-win scenario ??

Similar to the above of understanding a customer's pain points is the idea of demoing just to those pain points. A lot of SEs (myself included) are used to doing a whole platform overview and covering areas while nice for the prospect to know, aren't something they will use. Something I'm looking to get more of in discovery is honing in on the 1-2 things a prospect needs from my solution and honing in on that to start and if needed, expanding from there.