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Identifying & Rewarding Top PreSales Performers

John Care, Author & Influencer on the topic of Technical Sales, ran a study to find out what would be the cost to a business to replace a top-performing SE. They uncovered that it would cost the business from $3.5M-$6.5M. That’s a lot of money!

In an environment where headcount is cut frequently, preserving your top talent is critical. An effective way to keep your team in their seats is making sure they feel valued and recognized – which is why, in one of our most recent discussions, we highlighted a few challenges (bullets below) and then asked “How are XC Leaders identifying and rewarding top performers in PreSales.”

• SCs not Considered as Potential Awardees: Culture sees them as overlays and as a result unable to participate
• Identifying the Metrics to Reference: Total Closed Revenue, # of Deals Supported, etc…
• # of Teams Members to Include

What became immediately apparent was almost every PreSales Leader has had to fight to make sure their teams are being recognized and rewarded. Some quite frankly admitted they aren’t even at the point where their team is being considered.

Most organizational leaders have not grasped the importance of top performing SCs being rewarded for their efforts. George Kuruvilla, VP of PreSales at Wrike, shared,? It is up to each PreSales leader to “change the culture and award top performers. We should challenge the norm, and the one way to do that is by showcasing the contributions of the team above and beyond the predefined metrics. Don't just focus on the quantitative metrics; show how the team is impacting the business qualitatively."

Here are a few other suggestions that were shared:

• No “Club” trip; consider alternatives such as opportunities for trainings and certifications that help them to grow their career. Also, one leader shared that they send their top performers to Trade Shows with “Full Passes” to have fun. Easier for the business to digest because the options are benefiting the company as well as the employee.?
• Recognize top performers on a broader organizational calls (All Hands, SKO, etc…) monthly, quarterly, or yearly to validate your team but also increase organizational awareness of SC contributions.You could also include awards such as “Rookie of the Year” or “SC of of Year.”
• Instead of Club trips, make gifts/awards more meaningful. Not everyone wants to drink booze, golf, and go to Mexico. One business allocates a budget to each organizational leader to give meaningful gifts to top performers (wellness retreat, gaming computer, etc…)
• Leverage a percentage to decided # that attends. Ex. Same % of SCs go as AEs, say 10%.?
• You can leverage metrics such as # of deals supported, bookings, and or # of demos/RFPs/POCs. However, it can be important to be recognized other contributions to? the team (recorded demos, customer content, etc.) as well. Maybe you send the person who closed the most revenue, the person who supported the most deals, and the person voted by the team as the #1 team player/contributor.?

It’s time for Top Performing SCs to be recognized and it can be costly for the business if organizational leaders are overlooking their SCs.?

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Job Opportunities ??????????

• Calabrio: Sales Engineer (DACH - Remote)
• Axon: Sales Engineer - Enterprise (US - Remote)
• Samsara: Enterprise Sales Engineer (London - Remote)
• Stack Overflow: Technical Sales Enablement Lead, Team (US - Remote)
• Copperleaf Technologies: Solutions Consultant (US/Canada - Remote)
• Stack Overflow: Senior Business Value Consultant (BVC) (Remote)
• New Relic: Spanish Speaking Solutions Consultant (US/Canada - Remote)
• Tracelink: Solutions Consultant (US - Remote)
• Azul Systems: Pre-Sales Operations Director (Remote)
• Motive: Enterprise Sales Engineer - (US - Remote)
• Planview: Solutions Consultant (US - Remote)
• Clari: Sr. Manager, Upmarket Sales Engineering (US - Remote)
• Cortex: Senior Sales Engineer (US-Remote)
• Noble: Sales Engineer (US-Remote)

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Vivun 2023 PreSales Study on The Power of the Strategic Demo

Participants will Receive Copy of Results

Demos. How many do PreSales teams do? Which ones have strategic impact? In what other areas does PreSales spend their time, and what would team members RATHER be doing? These are the focus areas for the Vivun 2023 Spring Benchmark report. And now we need your help to address them.

We recently posted questions for our next Benchmark report, and I'm inviting you to participate. By being a part of the benchmark, you'll receive an exclusive full data set of the results, in addition to the main narrative that we release to the public.

Here's a link to the new set of questions.??

Upcoming Events ??

• Dec 19: Xpert Community - Thought Leadership Discussion on “FY24 Budget Show and Tell” and Coffee Tasting (Invite found in Community )
• Dec 20: EMEA Virtual Cocktail Making Event
• Dec 21: Accelerate Your Impact on Revenue in 2023 with Henry Sowell, VP of Solutions Engineering Operations at Cloudera
• Jan 11: SF Executive Dinner
• Jan 18: Chicago Executive Dinner?
• Jan 19: Helsinki Executive Dinner
• Jan 25: Xpert Community - Discussion with Frank Tisellano on “PreSales Headcount Planning & Justification” (Invite found in Community )

Questions? Suggestions? Features? Connect with us ??

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Till next week! ????