Understanding your customer: a guide for the New Sales Engineer

With lockdowns, WFH transitions, and COVID related disruptions it can be hard to take a step back and re-think how we sell. Our customers lives have changed dramatically and we need to understand how to adjust our engagements.

The Pandemic is bringing this to the forefront, but after over almost 20 years of engaging with, being part of, and leading sales engineering teams, I've seen that deeply understanding who the customer is and how they buy is the biggest driver of success, but often completely overlooked by most SE training programs.

Every sales enablement program emphasizes tailoring your message to the customer, but so often the focus is on the role based persona and assumptions of work. Most technical sales enablement moves past the needs of the individual very quickly and transitions to the organizational or technical benefits of what you're selling.

In reality, experienced technical sales people naturally tailor the message not only to the buyers’ technical requirements, but also to their daily work, personality, and motivations. By nature, the sales engineering role gives unique opportunities to connect alongside technical and functional conversations unlike a rep who is always assumed to be selling.

My hope is that this article gives the new SE starting out a framework to consider your customer more holistically and encourages you to use that understanding to engage more meaningfully and productively... to help you genuinely understand where they are coming from, and what they care about so you can empathize with them and deliver your message in a way that resonates. 

Who is my customer really?

You probably have guides on how to engage with different buyers based on functional roles, but very little time is spent on understanding why an individual makes purchasing decisions. Most ‘rational’ drivers for a purchase are actually used for a post hoc justification of an emotionally driven decision (seriously, google it)

Understanding your buyer should absolutely begin with the standard Business Demographics (role related details), but it should also include Day in the Life (Business Ethnographic) activities, and most importantly Psychographic (likes and dislikes) profile information as well.

Business Demographics:

Nothing too complex here, this is how we often think of a buyer profile or persona

• Title
• Functional responsibility
• Reporting structure (Above and below)
• Years with company
• Certifications & Associations
• Previous Employment
• Technology Background

Business Ethnographics

(Nothing to do with Ethnicity) A slight level deeper but still superficial: what does the person actually spend their time doing in a day? Two people in the same group with the same title may have drastically different day to day experiences even when in the same office, let alone when working from home. Ethnographic research is the foundation of a design thinking approach to creating a meaningful experience.

• Day to Day Activities
• Style of work ( Hands on, Strategic, Administrative, etc.)
• How they interact with peers
• How they interact and communicate cross functionally
• Who are really their customers
• Whom do they influence/support
• Who influences/supports them
• What is their daily schedule like, and how reliable is it
• Are there kids in the house learning over zoom
• Can they take a 3 hour meeting
• Does their workspace have reliable internet

photo credit ( www.lyncconf.com/ )

Psychographics

This is where you really start to understand how to connect. Psychographics are all about the buyer as a person in a broader context than just their job. What do they like, want, fear, and hope for? The goal should be to understand how they think, what they care about, and to empathize with their experience

Learning Styles: how your buyer learns should inform how you present to them

• Visual- lots of diagrams and charts, Graphical slides
• Auditory- Conversational, Calls, Conversational references
• Offline Reading/Writing- Whitepapers, articles, handouts, “slide-docs”
• Kinesthetic- joint whiteboarding apps, hands-on exercises

Career Focus

• Technology & Methodology ideology- are they a microservices purist, opensource dogma, dev ops skeptic, RDA centric (resume driven architecture: insert buzzword trend here), etc.
• External visibility- speaking opportunities
• Professional motivations - keeping their head down, aggressive growth, etc

Personal details (potentially sensitive topics) : family, sports, hobbies, travel, etc.

• One has to be very careful here in respecting boundaries, especially with religion, politics, and family conversations, but non-professional activities and motivations are often the basis for much stronger relationships

How do I find the info?

Don’t profile stalk and try to gather every last bit of information about every buying influencer, but try to gather enough understanding to really articulate to your key contacts that you care and understand about what they do and their motivations.

• Public Sources: Blogs, Articles, LinkedIn, and Twitter are the best public source of information on your buyer, the way they see themselves, and how they would like to be seen. You should always look on the linked-in profile first once you have the contact info. You can learn about their interest in outward recognition, technology preferences and articles they have written or find interesting, as well as any shared connections you may have who can provide some more insight (I personally avoid facebook/instagram like the plague because I find the learnings too personal and easily crossing the creepy line).
• Ask your network: The world is a small place, you’ll often find a 2nd degree connection who can provide some insight or even better, a warm re-intro.
• Observe, and most importantly ask them: see if you can hop on an informal zoom, ask them about their day to day, and their hobbies. Ask them about the stickers on their laptop that no one gets to see, it’ll tell you a lot about what they care about and how they want their peers to see them. 

Don't let it be one way, share: Build rapport by sharing about yourself as well, allow yourself to be a little open and vulnerable. This takes time and has to be earned, but informal contact, and the moments before and after structured meetings are the best time to build a personal relationship. This is especially true when we're no longer having in person meetings and meals together

What do I do with what I know?

Consider what you've learned

• What you know
• What don't you know
• What do you think you know
• Do they fall into any established buyer personae playbooks
• How do they differ from established personae

Make some messaging hypothesis

• What are their biggest day to day pain points
• What are the themes that will resonate the most
• What messaging tools will resonate the most (cool tech, biz benefits, customer stories, horizontal use cases, etc.)
• What are likely objections, and can you respond
• What technical proof points will bring them to an “Aha”
• What times of the day and modes are best to deliver messaging ( afternoon conversation, early morning whiteboard, digital happy hour etc.)

Create the right team coverage map for your contacts

• Are you the right point of contact, you can't connect with everyone
• Who on your team will best connect with them
• Whom do they listen to inside and outside the org
• Whom can they influence within the org

Test & adjust your hypothesis

• Validate your knowledge gathering and assumptions, test and iterate your messaging. Bring new team members into the process to assist. Leverage cross functional team members

Empathize & help them out

This is possibly the most important point. This isn’t a quid-pro-quo discussion, but when you make a real connection there are activities you can deliver or connections you can make that will help your contact attain professional and personal goals and demonstrate your commitment.

This approach should be reserved until you have a real connection with the contact, but there are lots of ways to engage alongside of the usual technical sales process steps 

• Additional technology education on their interest topics: send articles, deliver brown bag sessions, curate conferences, make connections with peers at other organizations
• Internal Visibility: share their perspectives with superiors, highlight the quality of their work in senior meetings, or help support airing their concerns (use QBRs, maturity assessments, workshops, etc.)
• External visibility: create blogging or speaking opportunities, recommend them for speaking engagements, re-share their posts, etc.
• Professional Development & Networking: help them find candidates or consulting support, introduce them to other customers or technology thought leaders, assist them in finding their next role
• Non-professional engagement: Introduce them to contacts related to their non-professional interests, connect with them over activities, and engage with them on philanthropic efforts.
• Stay in contact! - Keep a periodic engagement cadence with anyone you’ve built a strong relationship with. They can act as a sounding board and advisor for you, as well as potentially be a buyer again.  It costs very little to keep a list of your contacts and periodically update them on technology trends and articles you find interesting, or just check in to see how they’re doing in these challenging times. 

Even if you don't get a single incremental sale out of this approach, you will develop deeper understanding of the lives of your customers and that will help you deliver more meaningful messaging and maybe even get you a few new friends.