7 Ways the Role of the Pre-Sales Technical Sales Engineer is Evolving

Over the past few months, I have been working on a number of pieces of work including "How to Achieve the Technical Win", "SE Learning" and "Data-Driven SE Dashboards" and as a result of some of these pieces of work I find myself musing over what the future role of the Technical Sales Engineer (SE) looks like.

The sales process is changing and with it the role of the SE. What was considered as temporary ways of working during the COVID pandemic are becoming the new normal as companies continue to digitise their sales processes and adjust to new ways of working at an accelerated rate.

The traditional approach of a sales engineer has been:

1. Wait for the AE to get a meeting with a prospect
2. Meet with the customer's technical team face-to-face
3. Hopefully, spend some time understanding the customer’s requirements
4. Educate the customer on your product/solution - "The Pitch"
5. Document a Solution or respond to an RFP
6. Create a quote for the AE
7. Execute a tailored product/solution demonstration
8. Conduct a possible Proof of Concept
9. Install the product/solution or handover to professional services.

But things have and continue to change.

1. Blurred Lines and Responsibilities

The relationship building and deal closing responsibilities are no longer the domain of just the Account Executive (AE). With new technical buyers emerging in different parts of our customer's businesses it is equally important, some might argue more important, that the SE is building and influencing their network. With the idea of commuting to and spending time in an office less regularly gathering momentum, online influence rather than traditional relationship-building activities become equally important. Whilst the old adage "people buy from people" is still important, more value will be placed on the intrinsic business value of the solution. In this regard, the role of the AE will also need to change.

2. Online

Who would have thought that? "Zoom Fatigue" could have been a thing 18 months ago? But fast forward to a COVID impacted workplace and every aspect of the working day is playing out online. Employees are contributing on average more than 2 hours to their working day compared with when they had to commute to the office, but they also have higher expectations of meetings wanting to get to the point as quickly as possibly.

Much of the traditional approach of an SE has now moved online. The onus is on the SE to create compelling online meetings, demonstrations and even POCs that prove the value of your solution in the shortest amount of time possible. This means that it is even more important than ever to have a clear understanding of what good looks like for your customer.

3. Automated and Augmented

Much of the basic work traditionally done by an SE can now be automated. From guided self-service demo environments, automated proposal generators and tools like RFPIO to help with the answering of RFPs, the SE of the future can invest more time in their self-development and better understand where they can really add value to their customers. This does not mean that the role of the SE will become unnecessary, simply that more time can be spent on becoming a trusted advisor to your customers.

4. Data-Driven

With IT systems producing significant amounts of data about their usage, health and status, predictive analytics is playing an important role in helping both reduce support calls, as well as enabling customers to self plan upgrades and model new workloads; without an SE being involved.

But there is also increasing amounts of data that can be used to help systems engineering evolve towards a data-driven and evidence-based discipline, thereby enabling SEs to not only make better design decisions but also validate the impact of their solutions.

An SE must be adept at collecting and leveraging data.

5. Solution, not Product Specialist. Outcome-based conversations

In today’s world, by the time a customer contacts a vendor regarding a product or solution they will have already conducted many hours of research and have a good understanding of your product. Your product will be part of a much larger, multifaceted solution and the customer’s primary concern is will it all work together.?

The role of the SE becomes one of systems assurance and this is not a role that can be done by one individual. Therefore the secondary role of the SE becomes that of a resource orchestrator that can collaborate and bring in a diverse team of experts from their business, as and when needed, to assure the customer of the success of their desired business or technical outcome.

6. As a Service could change the game

Vendors are increasingly moving to "as a service" business models hosted on platforms that can offer a variety of capabilities to their customers. For many SEs, as a service and the evolution from selling products to integrating platforms could change the game in regard to the role of the traditional SE. In fact, their role could evolve to the true definition of Systems Engineering, that of someone who focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their life cycles.

As we move from selling products to provisioning platforms the role of the SE becomes much more focused on integrating the platform into existing processes, ensuring interoperability with the technology ecosystem, helping innovate the platform through the use of emerging technologies, reducing the time to market of the customer's initiatives, ensuring an optimal customer experience and constantly validating the value of the platform to the customer.

7. Empowered Trusted Advisor

So what does this all mean for the role of the SE? SEs are not required specifically for their product knowledge, but because they have a fundamental understanding of what the customer is trying to achieve. They have a point of view on how to achieve it and can evidence the impact their product and platform may have on the desired business outcome. The role of the SE has and continues to be the role of a trusted advisor that can work in partnership with their customer on value co-creation.

These are just my thoughts, what do you think? Are most SEs already doing these things or do they still need to evolve in some areas? Let me know in the comments below.