We The Sales Engineers: A Resource for Sales Engineers, by Sales Engineers: Recent Episodes

Ramzi Marjaba

Lots of resources are available for sales people, and a lot more for technical people, but not enough for Sales Engineers. This resource is available for Sales Engineers who are interested in learning from other Sales Engineers as many will be interviewed on this platform.

I’m always asked, “What does a great SE look like?” The problem is there isn’t one way to SE. Great SEs look like. The role is complex, and people do it differently.

So, let’s delve into the role's complexity and break it down through an evaluation form I created. I cover various aspects such as working with account managers, discovery, demos, proof of value, and technical know-how. I also emphasize the importance of customer relations and leadership skills.

Finally, I have some news…

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show324

Join us as we welcome Harman Bamra, who shares his unique journey from studying literature and international affairs to becoming a Solution Engineer (SE). Harman discusses his initial plans of becoming a diplomat, his background in literature, and how his passion for tech led him to digitize his family pharmacy business. Learn about his overlapping interests in tech and literature, the challenges he faced, and the strategies he used to transition into the corporate world of sales engineering. Harman also highlights the importance of understanding the 'why' behind customer needs and how his martial arts training influences his professional approach. Don't miss this insightful episode packed with practical advice for anyone looking to pursue a career in Solution Engineering

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show323

The episode features an experienced sales trainer Richard Harris, discussing the intersection of sales and sales engineering. Richard shares insights on earning the right to ask questions, building trust with clients, and the concept of economic impact. He emphasizes the importance of proper communication and collaboration between salespeople and sales engineers (SEs), addressing common challenges and misconceptions. The conversation also touches on leadership accountability, the value of practice, and personal growth. Richard highlights the significance of self-awareness, mental health, and balancing personal and professional life. The episode provides tips and strategies for salespeople and SEs to enhance their effectiveness and cooperation.

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show322

Our guest today is Devon Montgomery, a Lead Solution Engineer at Collibra. Devon's path to Solution Engineering is interesting. It’s not just that he was an SDR who got into Solution Engineering; what he was before and how he got there are also interesting.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show321

Many of us let our careers happen to us. Imagine if a CEO of a company just LET whatever happens to his or her company happen. They would be fired immediately from their role. But we can go through our lives and careers without being intentional in how we want to live our lives.

Instead, if we look at our lives like a startup and we are the CEOs, we can then look at our salary as revenue, our skills as the products that we provide, and our time as the service, then we can look differently at our lives. We can make decisions on what to improve and how.

This is how I teach my #SolutionEngineers to prepare for their customer demos or their Interview demos.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show319

Last week I mentioned the 10 mistakes that #SolutionEngineers make that drive Salespeople crazy. This week Wesley comes to the defense of these SEs. Wes and I discuss the dynamics and challenges faced by SEs and account managers in tech sales. Wes shares his experiences and disagreements with certain points raised in a previous podcast episode about common mistakes SEs make, such as hijacking meetings and not following up. The discussion touches on the importance of good communication, trust, and feedback between SEs and sales reps, highlighting how effective management and understanding can prevent many issues.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show318

So I’ve been in sales for a while. A few years now, and I’ve worked with several SE either as a sales person, a mentor, or a coach. And we love to joke around and talk crap about salespeople. I mentioned this before but on my first week on the job, I traveled to a quarterly training for both SEs and Sales. We had a common training session (marketing slides) and when that session was over and we were about to split up, my manager (SE manager) stood up and said “SEs stay here, those who have a lobotomy go to the other room.”

That’s how I was introduced to sales. It was a joke, and everyone laughed, but since then I knew I could make fun of salespeople because they do things that drive us crazy.

On the other hand, since I’ve been in sales there are things that SEs do that also drive me personally nuts. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen things that have made me so angry, I can see why AEs don’t want to bring SEs into meetings. Here are 12 things SEs do that drive salespeople crazy.

I caught up with Chris White on his Linkedin Live show a bit ago. This time he interviews me and we dig into what happens behind the scenes, or at least what should happen behind the scenes to make sure that SEs are successful in front of the customer.

Everyone loves what we do on the front end, working directly with the customer, performing, and getting the Aha moment. However, we can not do any of that if we don’t prepare, if we don’t generate leads (even as SEs), or prepare for discovery, demos, and POV. We barely scratch the surface. But it’s a start.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show316

AI is coming for us all. According to our guest, Anthony Palmoze, he’s heard many SEs talk about BDR being the first to become obsolete.

So we jump on a call to dig into what BDR is and see if it will be obsolete, or more specifically, what parts will be taken over by AI.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show315

I have my own opinions of what sales engineers should do, and how they should be involved in the sales process. My opinion is that they should be involved, early and often.

But I sell in the enterprise market, with a small number of customers. My SE is tied only to me, and the main decision-makers are the users who use the product. So it would make sense that my SE is heavily involved, follows up post-demo, and maintains relationships.

But when your product is being sold to other Salespeople, and the goal is to show them how easy it is to use, and the SE that supports your opportunities supports the opportunities of a few other salespeople, then the process and expectations are different. Adam Weekes is an AE Leader within Big Tin Can. He drops by the show to explain his views.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show314

Over the many years that I’ve been doing this podcast, we’ve talked about the skills required, how to manage the team, communication, relationship building. But we’ve never discussed the SE Big picture, how external factors like the economy can affect the role, and what moves can be made internally to save money.

So I invited John Simpson on this show to discuss that. John is the former head of Solution Engineering for EMEA at Qualtrics do discuss this in more detail.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show313

Solution Engineers have a lot on their plate, and I have the pleasure of adding one more thing to that plate...marketing

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show312

There are so many different selling techniques. I’ve personally been trained in Solution Selling and Challenger Selling. Full disclosure, I love Solution Selling, but hate challenger selling. I’ve also read SPIN Selling and then I noticed that a lot of them are similar, but they are all geared towards salespeople.

But Solution Selling was introduced a long time ago. Some say in the 70s, but I don’t have a source for that. Since then, solution selling evolved into Value Selling, and now the latest iteration is Insight Selling.

My guest, Sherri Mazza, is writing a book on. Most books are geared towards Sales, but Sherri is focusing on Solutions Engineers. Will will dig into her history, and present and the book itself.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show311

At the ground level, we all put our heads down and work. We demo, discover, and manage support calls. How we do all that is the tactical work. But what about the strategy? How do we move an entire organization from reactive to proactive? How does the organization incentivize people, or in other words, how do they line up their interests with their employee’s interests?

These are some topics I discussed with Fadi Bassil, the VP of Support at Incorta. Fadi is a fellow Lebanese, but that’s not what’s important. What’s important is what he has been able to achieve in such a short period since moving to the UK. Taking a step back, humbled himself, so he could move forward to where had a big impact on his organization and his company.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show310

Many of us go to university, wondering what we are supposed to study. Those of us who complete it then graduate, wondering what the job would entail. Once we get the job that we may or may not have thought we wanted, we find that we are bored out of our minds.

Some people stick with it and learn to love it, or simply stick with it. Others try to find a solution. That’s what today’s guest did. Sameer Kausar found himself in a job he was not excited about. So he looked within, and looked around, and identified Sales Engineering as a potential dream job. Since he got the job, he has not looked back since.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show309

My guest for today is Chris Beaumont and he is a recruiter. We discuss how people should approach the job hunt, and what they can do to increase their chances to secure a job. We also talk about what employers are doing wrong while they are trying to fill the few recs they have open.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show308

Life does not exist without stress. There’s also added stress when you’re in the sales world. So I wanted to share the causes of stress as I see it, and how I handle it.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show307

Engineers are not usually known as creative types. This is a strange notion for me as I think engineers are some of the most creative people. We might not be creating art (although some engineers are artists), but we are being creative in solving a set of problems.

The problem is it doesn’t show to the outside world.

But there are ways to do so, and Melanie Flores, my guest for this week found out that she can do it through Solution Engineering. It’s not just about solving a problem creatively. It’s about telling stories and asking questions where creativity can shine while being in an Engineering field.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show306

A big piece of Sales Engineering is Sales. Most engineers don’t like the sales part of Sales Engineering, but it’s what SEs have to excel at to be good at their jobs. Taking it a step further, SEs have to excel at knowing their customers and that will make every aspect of sales easier.

These are all topics of conversation that Alvaro Tuscano and I get deep into, in addition to the challenges of presales in Spain specifically, and how he overcame them to become a great SE and a trainer for other SEs.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show305

In this engaging conversation, Jason Zeikowitz discusses his experience as a Salesforce Technical Trainer. From handling an array of situations from training salespeople to construction workers who are initially resistant to using new technology, Jason shares the importance of combining questioning and communication to engineer buy-in.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show304

Mohamed, an experienced Solutions Architect, shares valuable insights about the hiring process and career progression at Amazon Web Services (AWS). He discusses various cloud roles, including Cloud Consultants, Cloud Providers, and Cloud Partners, emphasizing that there are opportunities beyond the 'big three' (Amazon, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud). He also provides a detailed view of the interview process at Amazon, including a discussion about the unique expectation of understanding Amazon's Leadership Principles and the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) interview technique.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show303

Moving from India to the US takes some adjustment. Even if you know the technology, the people change, the requirements change and the way you interact with people changes too.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show302

Sales Engineering is a transferable skill. Just because you’re in one industry today, does not mean you cannot move. Case in point Faraz who is today’s guest.

Faraz started off in networking and IT, then moved into several different industries and remained successful throughout.

We will discuss his journey and what he did to learn and be successful in these different industries as a Sales Engineer.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show3301

After 300 episodes, I bring the original cohost back. Binayak Kanungo, aka Bini, comes to join me again on the podcast to give us an update on his career.

Bini started off his SE career at a company called Assent, and although he was happy with the work there, the thought of wanting more pushed him to move on which turned out not to be a great move. That’s when Bini started facing some challenges. That’s what we will focus on today.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show300

Were you ever asked, “Where do you want to be in 5 years?” I believe I’ve been asked once, in an interview, and I had no idea what I wanted to do now, let alone in 5 years. I have not been asked since.

John Simpson on the other hand talks to his SEs about career action planning. Not only where you want to be, but how to get there too.

And for sales engineers, there are many options for what to do next, including staying put. We cover that in this podcast.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show299

Many Sales Engineers are getting hit with layoffs, especially when there’s a new acquisition. This happened to our guest before he knew what Sales Engineering was, Jeff Dryall. But it did not happen once or twice. It's happened multiple times, and Jeff used it as an opportunity to identify a new challenge and go after them, including becoming a Sales Engineer.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show298

Most SEs have an aversion to sales, which is why many have been very hesitant to enter the SE world. But as soon as we learn more about it, we understand that SEing is about solving problems which as techies, is what we want.

The same goes for our guest today. Chris Snyder is the first SE within his organization and he’s been thriving at it due to the support that he has, and the ability to get creative.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show297

Having someone who worked on the procurement side, the vendor side, and the value-added reseller side in a condensed period allows us to ask many questions and get a holistic view of these different roles.

Our guest, Wesley Bellman has that exact experience in addition to a few more, so we get to see the similarities of working in procurement and how they interacted with VARs.

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show296

We all have different paths into sales engineering. Some fell into it, and some fought for it. And once we get there, we find that not all sales engineering roles are created equal. Some require SEs to simply demo all day, and others have SEs on sight working to help an end user debug an issue they ran into. But all of them will have the SE deal with a salesperson.

Our guest today is Ryan Krueger who will tell us about his path to sales engineering and the challenges he faced to get there, and once he was an SE.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show295

As I watch my kids in their activities, I can tell what they are good at, great at, and what needs work. For professionals, who don’t have their parents watching their every move, every technique and reaction, we have to figure that out for ourselves.

My conversation with Jeff Perry is all about that. Jeff is a leadership and engineering coach. He takes me through some exercises to find my genius zone and uncover some self-limiting beliefs that I may have.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show294

A few weeks ago a discussion started on LinkedIn about vendors providing pricing on their web page. Damian Tomasino was for (with nuance), and John Care was against (also with nuance).

So I thought it would be best to jump on a call with Damian and John to discuss their initial thoughts and the nuances of it.

In this chat, we dig into their insightful opinions on this “controversial” topic, the evolution of the sales engineer's role, and the need for improved collaboration amongst sales engineers, account executives, and marketing teams.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show293

All sales engineers watching this show have been through the recruiting process in the past. Some have had great experiences, and some have been ghosted. It is hard. But looking through the other end of the process, SE Managers and Directors have to recruit and make decisions that can either greatly improve the SE team, or bad behavior can permeate throughout.

Along with my guest Co-host, John Hodgson, we interview Jeff Margolese and David Schultz, both great SE leaders with different backgrounds and experiences as we discuss the best process to recruit SEs.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show292

We've talked about moving into sales in the past. How to prepare for it, and what to do once we get there. The discussion with Mike today is similar, but he shares his own experiences. Why he wanted to move? What it was like once he was in that role and what did he learn?

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show291

Mohamad has an interesting story where he had to solve multiple problems in his life from leaving Egypt to the Gulf and then coming to the USA. From finding jobs that suit him, to learning on the job to do it.

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show290

Account Planning is something that Salespeople are responsible for. Many Sales Engineers try to stay away from that as it’s boring and many salespeople don’t come up with a good plan. However, in this video, I make the case why some Sales Engineers should be involved.

Here are the questions that we will answer today:

What is an Account Plan?

Who is responsible for the account plan?

Why should SEs care about having a good account plan?

Who would not participate in creating one?

And finally, how to Account Plan?

Show Notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show289

Are there any more secrets in this world? Actually, I’m sure there is, so let’s narrow it down to what we do. Are there any more secrets to Sales Engineering? There are many out there posting, teaching, and sharing their information.

Fortunately, yes there are still some secrets. Some are hiding in plain sight, and some that we actually need to dig and research to highlight them. Today’s guest Aileen McNabb helps with that today!

Aileen has been on the podcast before (show 155), but if you don’t know here, she is a former SE Leader, and now she is a coach and author who just published her first of what hopefully be many books, one of which she will discuss here today.

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show288

This week I chatted with Nate Broome from CaptivateIQ to discuss his career, his challenges, and what he is doing today at CaptivateIQ to build a great sales team.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show287

Technology changes on what seems like to be a daily basis. How we sell has not changed in ages. Sure, they slap a new name and tweak a couple of terms, but the process of selling remains the same. SPIN Selling, Solution Selling, Challenge Sale, etc. But after covid, the PreSales role specifically has had to change. Those who see it coming can prepare, others will be left as Sales Support.

Today’s guest is Paul Harris, Principle Solution Architect at Loftware. We talked about his interesting journey, where he had to make tough decisions, after being pushed into things he had to get out of. We also talked about the evolution of sales engineering, what it was like before the pandemic vs now, and where Paul thinks it will be in the coming years.

Many individuals are looking for a job, and there are many common complaints. “No one is responding to me”, “I’m being ghosted” etc.

In this episode, Ramzi discussed his thoughts about the job search, some rules, and how you can go about securing your next job. This is true whether you’re looking to break into Sales Engineering, or you’ve been doing this for many years.

As Sales Engineers, our job is complex, but it’s very hard to do if we don’t stay on top of our learning. Therefore a great skill that we need to develop is continuous learning. Or even more importantly the skill to set time aside to do continuous learning or to learn on the fly!

Today’s podcast is an interview with Max Van Burke, Director of pre-sales at Pluralsight for EMEA. EMEA stands for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. We will cover the topic of continuous learning, how Max tackles it, and what he expects his team to do as well.

And If you're not familiar with Pluralsight, it is a learning website that owns Cloud Guru that I’ve been using on my AWS journey!

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show284

Sales Engineering looks different in different companies. It looks different in the same company selling to different customers. And being able to service all different customer sizes is a skill that not many people have. Some organizations look for specific SEs with experience working with specific customers mainly since Sales Engineers method of working is very dependent on who they have worked with in the past.

And that is part of the discussion I have with Mohamed Barkhad today, a Customer Engineer at Google Cloud who has been a Sales Engineer for close to 10 years. We discuss how he shifted between roles and customers, how he shifted industries as well and how he learned to have tough conversations.

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show283

Startup Founders act as Salespeople, sales engineers, product managers, and many other roles. There lies the problem because some who have no sales experience make many mistakes in the sales process, and those without presales experience make more mistakes in the presales process.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show282

One of the most important tasks that sales engineers need to do is practice their trade, and yet this is one of the most overlooked. Today, we discuss what it means to practice to be fully prepared, what we need to practice, and how we can go about it.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show281

Today we talk to Cathryn Prudence, an SE Manager from Calgary Canada. We discuss what Calgary is trying to do to become a tech hub, but most of our focus will be on hiring Sales Engineers from unorthodox backgrounds due to some limitations. Show notes at https://wethesalesengineers.com/show280

We all reach a plateau in life and in our careers. Some we recognize, others we don’t. Some we want to break through, and others we’re ok staying within. And this is the main topic of today with Chris White.

Chris is a friend of the show. He’s been on several times so far, and you can find links to his previous episodes below, but today is all about being in a rut, recognizing it, and then doing something about it. Chris shares the ruts that he’s been through in his career, how he overcame them, and how he thinks others can overcome their personal struggles.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show279

Trevor Spires, an experienced Sales Engineer, characterizes the profession as full of highs and lows. In this episode, he discusses managing proof of concepts, sustaining momentum in product evaluations, and dealing with challenges. Trevor shares his lowest moments, emphasizing learning from failures, camaraderie within teams, and managing interactions with product managers. He highlights the unpredictable nature of outcomes, offering insights into maintaining resilience and knowledge. Tune in!

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show278

Last week, I had the privilege of being a guest on Chris Bussing's podcast, and it was a huge success. Now, I'm excited to have Chris join my show as we discuss his journey in account management, including his experience at Google. During our conversation, we touch on valuable insights for salespeople, such as separating self-worth from performance, dealing with layoffs, and how sales can foster personal growth. We also explore the advantages and disadvantages of being an extrovert or introvert in sales, the importance of caring for others, and the impact of my father's influence on my career. Moreover, we share tips on becoming an SDR, the foundational role of coachability, and handling objections effectively. Tune in to learn more and discover some great book recommendations related to sales.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show277

In this episode of the We the Sales Engineer Podcast, we explore how sales engineering can lead to a fulfilling life. I will be sharing my journey, tips for success, and insights into building a career in sales engineering. We will cover handling rejections, leveraging strengths, and the importance of human skills. Tune in to learn about the interview process, networking, and strategies for overcoming challenges. This episode emphasizes continuous learning, resilience, and finding purpose in one's professional journey.

wethesalesengineers.com/show276

In this episode we have Jonathan Davis, a Senior Solutions Engineer at Snyk. Jonathan emphasizes the importance of independent learning in technology. He shares his journey from an unrelated field to sales engineering, highlighting the significance of soft skills, understanding competitors, and building customer relationships. The key to success as an SE lies in mastering valuable skills, focusing on business outcomes, and continuous deliberate practice. Becoming an expert on customers' problems is the key differentiator in sales engineering.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show275

In this episode, we have Brian Geery where we discuss the exciting benefits of mentorship, the importance of clear expectations, and how to gamify the onboarding process. We also touch on making meetings more engaging, the role of sales enablement teams, defining ideal candidate qualifications, and the value of proof of concept. Throughout the episode, we share valuable insights and practical tips to improve the onboarding experience.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show274

In this episode with Gleb Sinani, a Ukrainian developer who relocated to Poland following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, we gained insights into his experiences as a freelance Sales Engineer and the challenges he faced while moving to a foreign country. Gleb shared valuable wisdom applicable to Sales Engineers, emphasizing the importance of technical and communication skills. Gleb also mentioned the diminishing demand for Sales Engineers and his personal journey of learning programming and developing soft skills. His superpower lies in perceiving life's challenges as part of the ordinary and having the ability to skip and revisit complex topics to gain a better understanding.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show273

In this episode we discussed how Sales Engineers can differentiate themselves, the potential impact of AI on their work, and the comparison between sales and presales. Tune in as we talk about the importance of effective communication, asking the right questions, building strong customer relationships, and staying informed about technology advancements, as well as the misconceptions about presales and sales roles.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show272

In this episode we address the lack of training and enablement for Sales Engineers (SEs) in many companies and also discuss the importance of sales and presales enablement, the role of a good manager in the process, and the common neglect of presales training. We will explore the challenges faced by newly hired Sales Engineers, the need for mentorship and coaching, and the benefits of continuous learning.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show271

In this episode, we have John Hodgson, the Owner and Director of Bright Dynamics, a staffing and recruiting company specializing in matching leaders with professionals in the presales field. John shares his insights in the hiring process from the perspective of hiring managers and sheds light on how they assess competencies and make hiring decisions.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show270

In this episode of We the Sales Engineers Podcast, Donald Kelly, Founder and Chief Sales Evangelist of The Sales Evangelist, explains the significance of side hustles and shares insights on how anyone can start one successfully.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show269

In this episode, join the conversation with Shivagni Dharne and Bryan Rios as they discuss various aspects of sales engineering in Japan. From the work culture to language requirements, interview processes, and the importance of soft skills, they delve into the unique challenges and opportunities in this field. Gain insights into the booming recruitment industry in Japan, the relationship between Sales Engineers and salespeople, and valuable advice on breaking into sales engineering. If you're interested in the Japanese work environment or considering a career in sales engineering, this episode is a must-listen.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show267

Should you always finish what you started?

For example, after landing a sales engineering role, are you going to stick to it no matter what even if it no longer works for you?

If these questions are bothering you, then this episode is for you.

Our guest for today is Meri Martinez, a Project Manager and Regulatory Specialist at Innolitics. Before her current role, she was a sales engineer who realized, after just a few months, that it wasn’t for her.

What did she do after realizing this? Also, how was her sales engineering role in the biomedical field different from typical sales engineering roles in tech? We answer these questions and more in our conversation.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show267

In this episode, Sales Engineer professionals looking to transition into sales will find valuable insights and practical advice from Doug C. Brown. Doug is a sales and business advisor, author, and CEO of Sales Strategies, and he will share his experiences and tips on becoming a successful salesperson. Whether you're an aspiring salesperson or seeking to enhance your sales skills, this episode offers actionable strategies to thrive in the sales industry.

wethesalesengineer/show266

Josh Price is the Manager for Solutions Engineering at Trella Health, an IT services and consulting company based in Atlanta. In this episode, Josh joins the podcast to talk about transitioning from music to sales, the health IT industry, and the challenges of being an SE leader.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show265

In this episode with Justin Ferber, Senior Consultant at The Search Experience, a recruitment consultancy specializing in building go-to-market (GTM) teams for tech startups, to talk about what startups are looking for from SEs, how they hire talent, and how they prioritize what talents to bring in.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show264

In this episode, Eric Finch provides advice on making a smart career choice between AE, SDR & SE. Eric Finch is a former US national team athlete and engineer who transitioned into tech sales. He became a global no. 1 seller for two years in a row at a 300-person high-growth startup, which has now gone public. Now, he runs an online business helping people break into tech sales. In this episode, I talked to Erich about the differences between sales engineering and tech sales and how one can make a smart career choice between the two.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/263

There is a part of Sales Engineering that is just pure facts and if you follow, you have a high chance in being successful. On the other hand, there's a lot of it as well that is art, and we go based on how we feel, we lean on other presales individuals' experiences. So when 2 people disagree, it's common, and each can learn something from the other. That's what we have here. A disagreement on my latest youtube video. @TonyMoze has recently been through the onboarding process, and I wanted to get what he thinks differently.

This episode is based on a session I did for members of the SE Hotline. It started off as a discussion of technical requirements and ended in discussing commissions and quota.

Looking for your first sales engineering job is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. But you can even run the marathon like a sprint if you aren’t careful—leading you to burnout!

This is one of many experiences that my guest for today went through along his journey to landing his first SE role. Raj Thakore, who is currently a Senior Sales Engineer at BlackBerry, came to me months ago to ask for coaching as he embarked on a journey filled with uncertainty and setbacks. He became a coaching client of mine for almost a year, and today, I invited him to the podcast to share the peaks and valleys of his six-month SE job search.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show260

“I did something that's out of the norm, which is what I suggest a lot of people do.”

This is what our guest for today suggests new SEs looking for work do: start side hustles and include them in their resumes. It landed him his first SE job and it might help you land yours. In this episode, we dive deeper into Ryan Friess’ SE career and learn the art of leveraging side hustles to secure SE jobs.

Ryan Friess is an experienced sales engineer who has worked for the information technology and services industry for years. Currently, he is a Senior Sales Engineer at ID.me.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show259

Paul H. Pearce is a Principal and Certified Training Partner at Great Demo!, a company founded by Peter E. Cohan, keynote speaker and author of a book of the same name. Paul H. Pearce describes himself as a “[c]ustomer-oriented, executive-level sales management professional with extensive experience developing strong and profitable client relationships, managing high-performance sales operations, and driving multi-million dollar contracts in an evolving Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) enterprise software market.”

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show258

In this episode, Trevor Spires talks about what are the pros and cons of working in a larger, more traditional company vs. working in a startup.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show257

In this episode of the We The Sales Engineers Podcast, I share with you a comprehensive look at my journey to becoming a Sales Engineer.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show256

Our guest for this episode, Adam Burgess, had a unique journey in sales engineering, which according to him started as an attempt to become a professional actor. Arriving at sales engineering with no prior experience, Adam needed somebody to teach him, an experience which he is now motivated to pass forward.

Adam Burgess is the Manager of the Sales Engineer Academy at Smartsheet. In this episode, we talk about his unique journey from acting to sales engineering, including a moment in his career when he realized he was stagnating and what he did about it.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show255

In this episode, interviewed Charlie Gerrior, a sales engineer for a decade and who is considered a leader in the SE world who helps other SEs get to where they want to go. On the show, he shares his best tips and strategies for how SEs who are currently in between jobs could find their next job, or better, their best job.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show254

My guest for this episode is an introvert like me, but he is deeply fascinated with building relationships, especially in sales. He describes many critical points in the sales cycle as opportunities where we could witness “humans being humans.” In this conversation, we explore how we can build better relationships with the people who buy from us.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show253

In this episode of the Sales Engineering Podcast, my friendly chat with Gareth Jones will give a comprehensive answer to these questions and provide an insider’s peek into what happens in career transitions, specifically toward sales engineering.

Gareth Jones, who describes himself as a father, husband, and comic book nerd, was an army officer for 12 years before being introduced to sales engineering through a serendipitous encounter. After leaving the military, he landed a job at Splunk, where he is now a Solutions Engineering Manager.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show252

In this episode of the Sales Engineering Podcast, we explore the different purposes of demos and discovery calls. We consider the different challenges inherent in them and the strategies we can employ to get around these challenges. Specifically, we focus on business discovery and technical discovery.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show251

Anthony Powell Moze, or simply Tony Moze, was not an SE when he first came into the podcast back in 2021. Listeners will remember him from episode 153 as the guy who was transitioning from healthcare and psychology into sales engineering. Almost two years after that episode, we bring him back to the podcast, now an SE himself, to talk about his journey in finally landing an SE job.

If you are currently and actively seeking your first SE position, you will find this episode really helpful. But everyone in the sales engineering field, no matter how long we have been in our roles, will learn a few things in this episode about the importance of humility, asking for help, and networking in continuing to thrive as SEs.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show250

Are you a manager with five, ten, twenty, or more people working under you? Have you ever reflected on whether you are doing a good job developing that amount of talent and putting it to good use inside the company?

This episode of the Sales Engineering Podcast is specifically only for managers, but employees working under managers could also benefit from this show by taking note of some best managerial practices so they could have something to raise to their superiors whenever there is a chance.

wethesalesengineers.com/show249

In this episode of We the Sales Engineers Podcast, I share with you a talk I recently delivered at SAP Customer Experience through the invitation of Jan-Erik Jank. The talk is entitled “Never Apologize: Five Steps to Convert a Pissed Off Customer.” In this episode, I provide you with the most critical steps you could take to handle difficult and potentially frustrating customer situations with the goal of saving your partnership with your customer.

wethesalesengineers.com/show248

Are you an aspiring sales engineer who wants to learn to become one without spending thousands of dollars? Or perhaps you are already thriving in your sales engineering practice and are looking for affordable ways to improve.

Here, at We the Sales Engineers, we offer an affordable coaching package that could help you find a sales engineering job or improve in one. We call it the SE Hotline.

In this episode of the Sales Engineering Podcast, I present to you what happens in one of these SE Hotline coaching sessions. In this particular session, I coached Jean Lubin, a Solutions Consultant at Standardtech who describes himself as “a customer-focused individual that enjoys helping people solve problems.” This episode features a 40-minute coaching call where we dive into a comprehensive discussion of the sales cycle.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show247

We kick off 2023 with a bang through an episode that answers 15 frequently asked questions from clients, podcast listeners, and YouTube viewers. Questions like these often lead to new content on the website, in the YouTube channel, and in the podcast. I encourage you to reach out to me for any questions related to sales engineering like these. I’ll be more than happy to respond.

In this episode, I discuss various topics—from relationship-building and boot camps to leadership and essential books to read.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show246

Dan Caffarey returns to share several tips for keeping your customers engaged during pre-sales presentations. Dan uses his background as a Cambridge-qualified business English coach to provide tips on managing speech, body language, and voice during presentations, while I give my own advice from a sales engineer's perspective.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show245

In this episode, Aaron Moncur shares how he fell in love again with engineering through entrepreneurship. As he shares in the podcast, gaining more control over the vision of your career by building a business that allows you to realize that vision could be everything you need to give engineering another shot.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show244

Whether you’re new or seasoned in the presales world, you would have your share of both highs and lows. In this podcast, we often talk about the wins and how to become a successful sales engineer, but in this particular episode, we’re focusing on the other side of that. Along with my co-host Chris White and guests, Bill Balnave and Kerry Sokalsky, we share our very own demo and presales horror stories and the lessons we’ve learned from them.

wethesalesengineers.com/show243

Michael Griego is a world-class sales trainer and sales effectiveness management consultant based in California. In the last 20 years, he’s founded MXL Partners a Silicon Valley-based sales effectiveness consulting and training firm. He’s conducted sales management consulting for companies around the world and has led sales training for thousands of salespeople in companies ranging from Silicon Valley startups to Fortune 500 firms. His books are 42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness and No Excuses! A Better Way to Sell.

David McCulley is the Senior Vice President of Sales Engineering at Provarity, a full lifecycle and continuous Proof-of-Value platform that provides enterprise sales and purchase stakeholders with real-time visibility, seamless collaboration, and AI-powered insights. Provarity’s platform combines intelligent services for workflow management and collaboration and success monitoring to transform how businesses, partners, and customers manage the enterprise customer lifecycle.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show242

Before you can build a stellar product and launch it to the masses, you need to have a thorough understanding of what the product is. In this episode, I talk with Dan Hellerman of Saleo to find out why he chose to be in charge of Product, why he and his co-founder and CEO still do demos to this day, and why the role of Sales Engineers is so important in the sales cycle.

Dan Hellerman is the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Saleo, which is a demo environment platform that helps software companies create great software demos to win and retain more customers. Saleo is the only platform in the market that allows you to control your actual live software demo in its live native environment. They have worked with companies like Drift and Clary and SalesLoft, and Terminus to help them power their live demos.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show241

With me today is Kyle Brown, a sales engineer at Zscaler in the enterprise market in the Chicagoland area. Kyle is very passionate about sales engineering making the switch from a sales role. He specializes in developing new business and brand loyalty through technical discussions, product demonstrations, proof of concepts, and product training using analytic skills to discover market gaps.

James Connor McCann is a Pre-sales Consultant for CyberRes which is a dedicated business unit from MicroFocus, which specializes in cyber resilience specifically. He has been with the organization for 12 years since graduating from university. He started in support before transitioning to a Solutions Consultant which is the presales role at the same company. He’s got to cover the Netherlands, Nordics, UK & Ireland and is currently based in Belfast.

Shownotes: wethesalesengineers.com/show239

Cyrus Harbin is a sales engineer, Marine Corps veteran, content creator and host of the podcast Tech is the New Black. Before working in sales engineering, Cyrus was a full-time travelling poet and public event speaker.

With over 6+ years of experience in sales and profit optimization, customer service, IT systems security and management, and cross-functional teams leadership, Cyrus dedicate much of his personal time to my Patreon community assisting mainly black and brown men and women (basically POCs like myself) and others from under-represented groups to consider careers in the tech industry.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show238

Sarah Halley is currently the director of solutions engineers at Ungerboeck. After she graduated, she moved to South Africa and worked as a marketing intern. Funnily enough, she fell in love with sales engineering when she came home to Germany. Sarah experienced working in an SDR position but it wasn’t her favorite later on she found what she enjoys most and it helped her grow.

If you're interested in learning more about how to improve your discovery skills, then this episode is for you. In this episode, we walk you through the discovery process (Larson and I do a little roleplay to show you), mistakes most sales engineers and AEs make during discovery, questions to ask to better uncover your buyers’ needs and priorities, how to know whether they are qualified to purchase your product, and a little bit of how equity works for startups.

Larson Stair is the CEO and co-founder of Gondola, formerly known as Demoflow, a sales enablement solution that helps to codify the sales process – whether it's discovery calls, product demonstrations with AEs and SEs, or better ways to be working together on those two parts of the sales cycle. Before starting his own company, Larson spent 10 years in the sales environment, having held multiple roles within SaaS as an SDR, SE, AE, and SC. He is deeply passionate about entrepreneurship, software start-ups, and full-cycle SaaS sales.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show236

In this episode, we discuss what sales engineering enablement means, how it’s different from sales enablement, why both can influence and improve the SE or salesperson’s role, and how if you’re interested, you can become an SE facilitator yourself. Also, it’s good to clear a lot of misconceptions I had about sales engineering enablement and look at it from someone else’s perspective.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show235

Bill Belnave has 23 years of presales gigs and now transitioned into helping folks do the job. He has been both a sales engineer and a manager for the past years working for big companies. He has degrees in both engineering and business.

Rob Vanstone is currently a Sustainability Catalyst. He has worked as a consultant, director, and Vice President in sales engineering before. They both agreed that being an SE leader demands support to succeed.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show234

Kevin Naglich is the founder of Deliberate English. The company helps international sales engineers who have an intermediate or advanced level of English speak more confidently in presentations, meetings, demos, proof of concepts, and faster through active deliberate practice. He has worked as a sales engineer for 10 years in a cybersecurity company and found an issue that led him to start the company. He said communication is his strong suit and his saving grace that helped him get through the imposter syndrome.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show233

Damian is a Principal Security Engineer at Feroot and the Founder and Head Sales Engineer at Cyber Informants, a small startup focused on pre-sales in cybersecurity. With over a decade of experience in cybersecurity sales, Damian is dedicated to shaping the future of the field.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show232

Trevor Spires is a Senior Solutions Architect at AWS with over 10 years of experience in consulting and pre-sales architecture for web software and IT infrastructure. His technical expertise includes Network Engineering, Security/Compliance, and Infrastructure/Cloud Computing, as well as consultative and customer-facing skills. He is also passionate about video production, content marketing, music, and excessive coffee consumption, and has a YouTube channel under his name.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show231

Dan Caffarey worked as a business English and communication teacher for many years travelling around the world. His love for teaching and helping made him decide to coach solutions and sales engineers who are not native English speakers to communicate with their clients better, sound more natural, and actively listen without zoning out.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show230

Jason Marc Campbell is the author of the upcoming book Selling with Love. He interviews thought leaders from around the world on topics of leadership, team building, communication, productivity and so much more. He is a public speaker who’s shared the stage with the likes of Gary V, Jason Silva, Vishen Lakhiani, Lisa Nichols, and more. You’ll quickly recognize him through his high energy and passion for making a positive impact in people's lives.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show229

Jeff Perry is a leadership and career coach for engineers and technology professionals. He helps people level up their careers in a holistic way by working together with them on mindset, Career Clarity, how to land that dream job that you're looking for, and present yourself in the best way. Jeff has a wide background in different engineering functions and has also worked in engineering leadership.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show228

Anthony Campanale is currently the Senior Solutions Consultant at Cheetah Digital. He has worked as a principal, SaaS, presales, associate, internet marketing, and technical consultant and analyst for the past 2 decades for different companies. He revealed that his interest was not in delivering the solution, has been curious about how technology can solve problems because of the Apollo 11 Space Mission when he was Seven, and being a hybrid didn’t work for him.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show227

Brian Geery is a Badass Software Demo consultant who has helped countless companies, including well-known brands up-level their demo game. He is the managing partner of SalesNv for over 30 years now. SalesNv is a demo coaching company to improves a team’s win rate by turning good software demos into blockbusters. This is the third time that he will be interviewed by Ramzi, and he said he is willing to do a demo audit free of charge.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show226

Kenneth Kutyn is the Solutions Consultant for Product Analytics and Experimentation at the company, Amplitude. After finding a problem in his previous role with building brand new presentations every time he needed to talk to a customer, he built a tool to solve that problem. He has since moved and worked on making that tool available to the public.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show225

Tanner Howell is the head of the sales engineering organization at a cybersecurity upskilling company, RangeForce. He is an experienced IT Professional with a demonstrated history of working in the security industry and a research environment. He also has a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering. Rather than doing implementations in SaaS solutions, their company is more about knowledge of their space. Different types of cybersecurity professionals, and being able to converse with them.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show224

Kris comes back to dig into more details about what he means by serving the process, not the salesperson.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show223

Kris Meulemans the Global Head of Customer Operations in Materialize. He is a Presales Leader with years of experience in multiple industries. He also shared tips and tricks on how to gain the trust of the customers to tell their pain points.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show222

Mastering Technical Sales is THE Book that every sales engineer should read. The 3rd edition, and the one that I’ve read, came out 8 years ago. But things have changed significantly over the last 8 years. They changed enough to warrant a 4th edition of that book which includes many updates.

John Care, the author of the book, comes by the show to discuss what those changes are. John has been on the show a couple of other times, so check out those episodes as well when you’re done.

Full Show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show221

Is it easier to have only one product to sell? What happens when the company grows, either organically or through acquisition? Does it get harder or easier? Is it any different? These are all questions that I tackle with my guest David Ledger.

David Ledger is a Regional VP of Sales Engineering and a Sales Enablement provider. He is a strong proponent of learning and improving. As the organization grows, the portfolio grows with it and so should the Sales Engineer’s skills.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show220

Andy Paul is an author, a podcaster, a speaker, and a consultant. He is ranked #8 on LinkedIn's list of Top 50 Global Sales Experts. He is the owner and the host of the podcast "Sales Enablement with Andy Paul,” the show already has over a thousand episodes and continues to inspire thousands of sales professionals every week. Andy has also written two award-winning sales books, "Zero-Time Selling" and "Amp Up Your Sales". He recently published the book “Sell Without Selling Out.” Discover why Andy decided to remain in sales and what motivates him.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show219

How would you react if someone who pursued Computer Science, worked for NASA, and hated it? How about when a sales engineer who has worked in a known and successful company would resign and work in a startup instead? In this episode, find out why Desanka Aleksov grew to love developing again and came back not just as a computer engineer or a salesperson alone, but as a sales engineer.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show218

When looking to hire a sales engineer, experienced or rookie, there are certain criteria that leaders look for. In this episode, I discuss that with Jimmy Barens, Head of Solution Engineering at Yext.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show217

Are you still doubting what to pursue between post-sales and pre-sales? Do you want to know the difference between the two? In this episode, you’ll get to know a former technical expert who shifted to sales engineering and became a vice president even after having an unsatisfied buyer and making a mistake worth $30,000 in his early years in the field. Come and join the rollercoaster journey of Paul Vidal towards his current position!

Paul Vidal is the Vice President of Customer Success at Reprise. He has more than 15 years of experience in data management, technical, and sales. He is a Technical Expert and has two master's degrees in Computer Science. He started in post-sales but changed to presales after he realize he loves to design solutions. He also considers sales engineering as one of the best professions because it combines puzzle-solving and people skills.

My guest this week is Woody Evans, a Presales Leader with lots of experience. He runs a Discovery University at his current job with the intention of extracting what value means to customers, then making sure he provides that value.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show215

Are you new to sales engineering? If you are maybe just a few years into the role and you’re wondering how you can become an all-star, then this episode is for you. My guest Ganesh of AVEVA answers questions about the type of people he hires and sees potential for sales engineering growth. He also talks about the most essential quality you need to have as a sales engineer.

Ganesh Venkataramanan is the Vice President of presales for AVEVA, which is a software company that laid up the global account region within AVEVA property sales. His background is originally in projects and delivery which may be a good starting point for anyone from a technical sales or presales or sales engineering background. Along the way, he decided he enjoyed sales and that’s where he thought he could make the greatest impact. Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show214

So you're a sales engineer—what does that mean? Sales Engineering differs from company to company, industry to industry, and even individual to individual. The great thing about being a sales engineer is that there are so many ways to be one. It's important to understand what makes the organization successful, and what makes the individual happy. My guest this week is Amber L. Fallon. Amber went through a few SE roles before her current positions. Some were great, some she did not enjoy. We discuss why that is, and what folks can do to understand what they want in a Sales Engineering role. Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show213

For anyone who has ever given or received feedback, you’ve probably noticed how tricky it is to discuss. Either people are too harsh or they’re not constructive enough. Or maybe you fall into the trap of being disingenuous and saying something nice in an attempt to make someone feel good without actually saying anything of use. There are ways to overcome these obstacles, though.

In this episode, Kelsey Frost of ClickUp shares how valuable feedback is and how she creates a culture of constantly providing and receiving feedback within her team.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show212

There are always two sides to each story. In our case, it’s us, the providers, and the clients. What do our clients really want from us? Why are they acting this certain way? So on and so forth. Learn how you could get into your customers’ minds as Antoine Snow of AvePoint shares his experiences of having been on both the provider and client side!

Antoine Snow is the Manager of Solution Engineering at AvePoint Public Sector. In this episode, Antoine dissects the clients’ minds so service providers would know how to go about better with their moves at hand. He also dives deep into the differences between public sectoral projects and enterprises.

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show211

In this episode, we're joined by Rafael Lluis, the Head of Sales Engineering at Liferay. We’ll talk about how he got into the field of sales engineering and what it takes to be successful in his role today.

Rafael started his career in consultancy and then moved on to presales and eventually became a Sales Engineering Manager. Today, in his current role, he manages a diverse team of international SEs and how they collaborate across different countries, cultures, and requirements. We talk about where the presales team spends most and least time and where they should be improving, as well as best practices in planning sessions, demos, and "critique sessions." We also discuss how sales engineers juggle learning with other priorities—and what they're looking for in their ideal hire. Finally, Rafael shares what he sees as the future of presales and the skills that people need to work on to succeed.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com

Larger vendors cannot be everywhere all the time. That’s why they partner up with channels and value-added resellers so they as the vendors are focusing on the larger customers, channel partners and value-added resellers can help the smaller ones and provide a quality service. Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show209

I receive emails on a consistent basis from managers asking for tips on tools that are out there for Sales Engineers. In the last couple of years, there has been an emergence of tools.

Chris White and Kerry Sokalski did a lot of research on these vendors and they came to discuss their research.

Check out the full show at: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show208

When an employee joins a new company, they are usually assigned a mentor. This mentor could be the best thing to ever happen to the new employee, however, my experience has not been that positive, at least not with assigned mentors. So in this episode, I will be talking about why Assigned mentors are not the greatest, and what we can do to overcome that.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show207

Anyone who works in sales knows that trust is not easy to come by. It’s easier for Sales Engineers than salespeople due to the “Engineer” in the title, but we are still working with people who we may have not met before, asking them to share information that they would not share with anyone else, so it makes sense that they are wary of providing it.

We need to build that trust. And trust is the topic of conversation with Richard Jackson today. Richard is an SE leader based out of Austin, Texas. We will discuss the SE industry there, as well as how we can work to build trust, not only with customers, but with salespeople, product managers, and anyone else we encounter.

Hard work pays. So does dedication. Who knew? A lot of people did, including Dustin Allen, my guest today.

Dustin was in the military, got out and followed in his family’s footsteps, then decided to do something different. He did that something different and posted about it online. Being open to posting online provided visibility for him which is why a vendor servicing Dustin’s employer offered him an SE role and his career has taken off.

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show205

It's always great to talk to pure Salespeople. In this case Brent Keltner, President of Winalytics, where he helps clients with their build their best go-to-market. We discuss the purpose of sales, the role of a Sales Engineer in the sales process as seen from Brent's point of view and so many tips and nuggets are shared. Check out the full podcast at https://wethesalesengineers.com/show204

Have you ever felt that your job’s scope of work is too broad and that there actually is a separate profession on a certain task you tackle? Fil Capiral currently works as a Senior Solutions Engineer at Shogun, an e-commerce service provider company, and he shares his experience on focusing on sales engineering, a role he’s been doing besides coding, computer science, and consultancy for more than 10 years.

In this episode, Fil shares how he was able to identify roadblocks and come up with solutions that differentiated him and allowed him to get a promotion to a management role.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show203

Reading body language is not very easy, but we can control what body language we want to convey to the people, and that is what I discuss with my guest, Mark Bowden.

show notes at https://wethesalesengineers.com/show61

Do you want to be more productive? Have you ever wondered how the most successful people are able to accomplish so much in a day? What’s their secret?

In this episode, Chris White is back to chat about all things productivity, goal setting, and habit building. He shares how he gets his tasks done during the day, how he reflects on his goals, and some top tips for being more productive as a sales engineer.

Chris White is an accomplished author, trainer, coach, teacher, and Sales Engineering leader. He penned “The Six Habits of Highly Effective Sales Engineers”, an amalgamation of over a decade of experience in the field where Chris is able to articulate the importance of a number of key habits that will lead any SE to success.

Full Show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show202

Are you a sales engineer very early in your career? Do you feel like you lack mentorship in your current company and need to find support and guidance somewhere else? Or perhaps you’re in a different role and sales engineering seems to interest you, but you’re still not 100% sure if this is for you? Well, I hope this episode helps you because we’re talking to a listener of the podcast who has been in the same boat and has finally landed a role in a company she likes.

Christelle Joseph has just moved into a sales engineer role at Snowflake. Christelle and I have worked together through her challenges in her previous role, and through these sessions, we came to the realization that it would be best if she finds a Sales Engineer role elsewhere. We discuss why in this podcast.

Show Notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show201

Welcome, you made it to our 200th episode of We the Sales Engineers Podcast! Whether you’ve just started tuning in to this podcast or you’ve been listening since the very beginning, thank you for your support! It has been my privilege and great pleasure to share all the lessons and experiences we’ve had on the show. With that, here are 20 lessons I’ve learned from recording 200 episodes and having countless conversations with people inside and outside the sales engineering space!

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show200

What is one piece of advice you give to new SEs or you've received? I talked to Jeff Margolese, who gives his advice. We discuss what Sales Engineering is to him and how he has decided to run ServiceNow's Sales Engineering department.

Full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show199

As an SE, we get to do the fun stuff. That’s according to our guest today, but I would agree with him 100%. Our job is one of the most rewarding jobs out there and yet, there are still many ways where our role could be improved. That’s why in today’s episode, Justin shares why he loves sales engineering so much and how he helps other SEs to become better as an SE manager. Justin Hammon is the Manager of the Solutions Engineers at CivicPlus, an expert in local government website design, development, content management, and e-government tools and applications that promote community involvement and participation. CivicPlus does software solutions for local government, specifically in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show198

Paul Urfi is the Director of Solutions Engineering at Armory.io, an enterprise software company commercializing the open-source continuous delivery platform, Spinnaker. Armory enables enterprises to unlock innovation by reliably deploying software at scale, leveraging our enterprise-grade, multi-cloud continuous delivery platform, and 24/7 expert support. In this episode, learn how Paul went from SE to SE leader to now Director of Solutions Engineering, why he is so passionate about building great presales teams, the important things to remember before going into a discovery call, and the role SEs have to play in the entire sales cycle. Show Notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show197

In this episode, Tim Brömme and Jan-Erik Jank come back to the podcast to have another casual chat around their roles as a sales engineering leader and an individual contributor, what they love about presales, how to coach team members, and what character traits most companies are looking for when hiring sales engineers. Tim Brömme and Jan-Erik Jank are presales professionals and leaders with a passion for technology, people, and leadership. They are also hosts of the Sales Excellence Podcast, a podcast for Software B2B Sales & Presales. In this episode, we chat about how they started podcasting, what they love about it, and what they want to improve upon.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show196

If you’re a sales engineering manager, you know that your people are the lifeblood of your company, and you want to help them succeed as much as possible. But how? It's not enough to just give them tools and training. They need support too – someone who can answer questions when they arise or even anticipate what those questions might be before they happen so you can preemptively address them. That's why in this episode, we have Derrek Young with us to talk about how you as an SE manager can provide support for your team members and make sure every one of your SEs has everything they need at their fingertips so that nothing gets in the way of closing deals faster than ever before.

Derrek Young is the Worldwide Director of Sales Engineering at Stack Overflow. In this episode, you will discuss how to get to know your team, the LOLA approach, and most importantly, build a culture of feedback.

Show Notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show195

Currently, there’s the Great Resignation happening. However, it’s been difficult retaining good talent for a while. Some individuals move companies in a few months, others in a couple of years. Those who stay with one company for more than 10 years are rare. Is it even a good thing to stay with one company that long?

Damien Hanna, the President of The North American Association for Sales Engineers and an active SE Leader at Citrix comes on the show and we discuss why people move, how organizations and SE leaders can entice people to stay, and having tough career conversations to move up the ranks, or move out of the company.

Sales Engineering is not an easy profession. SEs have to deal with many people, from Sales, management, to customers. It is especially harder when the sales team was recently known as an implementation-only team.

This is where Andre Peixoto finds himself, managing a brand new Sales Engineering team that was, until recently, an implementation team.

We discuss what are the challenges that Andre and his team have had to overcome, and what he sees as the future of his team as they are growing and shifting into a true Sales Engineering organization.

Full show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show193

Jason Cutter is a Sales Success Architect & Keynote Speaker and Author of the book Selling With Authentic Persuasion. He has spent the past 17 years selling and leading sales teams. He’s seen the perennial problems facing salespeople and has helped individuals and teams move past their insecurities and find success in sales. Hopefully, in this episode, he can help you do the same as a sales engineer.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show192

The world is a changing! It's getting harder and harder to meet customers face to face, but easier and easier to touch them indirectly. This week we talk to Patrick Pissang, the author of The Social Sales Engineer. We discuss why he wrote this book, and how Sales Engineers can turn into Social Sales Engineers.

Full podcast at https://wethesalesengineers.com/show191

Sales Engineering is the perfect role for a mother or a father. We get to set our own time, on our own schedule, and be there for our family. We also get to be great at something.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show190

One of the most important and most challenging steps toward completing a POC or proof of concept is getting a technical win. As sales engineers, we're expected to fulfill the customer's requests but at the same time also guide them through the complexities of the buying process. Is there a way to make it easier for you and your customers? Find out as we talk to a lifelong sales engineer as he shares his learnings on how to evaluate sales procedures, increase technical close ratios and reduce the length of sales cycles in this episode of We the Sales Engineers.

What are the three biggest ingredients of a successful SE? Find out on this week’s podcast, as we bring on Mike Atkinson of Armis.

Mike is the Principal Solution Architect at Armis, and a cybersecurity leader with broad experience in consulting practice management, presales engineering, project management, security policy, network design, and troubleshooting. He has interviewed over 200 sales engineers over the course of his career and he is also an experienced speaker and co-founder of the Chicago Security Meetup.

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/188-amazing-interview-stories-with-a-principal-sales-engineer

How do you explain what sales engineering is to someone completely new to the organization? Are introverts better than extroverts at becoming sales engineers? Let’s find out in today’s episode with Amir Ibrahim.

Amin Ibrahim is a PreSales leader with seventeen years of experience in tech and currently helps companies smash sales targets by building strong teams and amazing careers. He is the Senior Director, Value & Solutions at Hootsuite, and is passionate about building, whether it's new teams, roles, sales motions, or ways to use technology. Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show187

I’m joined today by Kyle MacArthur, a Presales Strategist with 16 years of experience consulting with Fortune 500 customers in both the USA and the UK and has worked across industries including Retail, Banking, Insurance, Telecommunications and more

SalesEngineering is a weird role. We don't go to school or university to learn about it. Most people who do it started their careers doing something else. Today we talk to Andrew who finds SEs in the strangest of places as well. Check out the shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show185

Skills needed for SEs are much different than those in larger organizations, potentially. Also, different products being sold to IT could require different skills. We discuss these topics with our guests.

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show184

Joel Duffield is the Lead Solutions Consultant at Vidyard and has been a listener of We the Sales Engineers podcast since its humble beginnings in 2018. Now he is an SE Lead! We talk about his journey

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show183

Salespeople usually have more visibility in their organizations. When a CEO or CTO wants to give kudos to a Sales team, they usually mention the Salesperson's name, and if they want to be more inclusive, they would say "and team". I have always been curious about this, so we decided to talk to a COO to see what his view is about Sales Engineering Full show:

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show182

Being a founder-based seller can be tough. For one, you’ve got to wear multiple hats, and two, it becomes harder to take track of all the things you’re running. What we see most founders struggle in is handing that baton to sales roles, especially presales. In today’s episode, we talk to Joseph Fung on why that is so, what founders can do to get out of that sales role fast, and how sales engineers can make many founders and company owners’ lives so much easier and better. show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show181

The Sales Engineering role has been through several revolutions. We have moved from being a technical resource to demo jockeys, to value sellers and now we are moving into the social world. That is what we discuss with our guest.

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show180

Many people I work with expect promotions or expect opportunities to just land in their lap. Throughout my career, I've noticed that the people who have opportunities simply fall in their lap, they have been preparing for them for years. This is what this show is all about. How our guest, Andy Ryan, started learning about a new industry before there was even a role in that industry. When a role opened, it fell in his lap. The question is, would it have fallen in his lap if he had not learned about it and prepared for it?

Full show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show179

What would you do as a manager of 22 solutions consultants in your department? How would you handle their many pressing concerns and build relationships and at the same time give feedback for each person on your team? This episode pretty much sums up what we would do if we could change the role of presales within an organization. Also, Tony shares how he was able to move the role of presales from a subservient role under the sales division into more or a partnership and beyond. shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show178

We are not perfect. Mistakes can be made. Some small ones that we can just brush off, others that are big. Big enough that causes someone to lose on a guaranteed job. We talk to Vaibhav Malik who although he did everything right, one mistake caused him the job. Luckily he learned from it and found another job that he is excited about. Check out the full show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show177

Akshat Srivastava is one of the co-founders of SE Nation and a friend of the show. We discuss his blog post about interviewing the interviewer during a job search, to make sure we are a good fit.

As a beginner SE, it can be quite difficult and overwhelming not knowing where to start. Do I study technical first, or do I train in sales and speaking with customers? In this podcast, my guest and I discuss the five different phases of sales engineering, how my guest, Samuel West got started as an SE and what he’s learned being a solo sales engineer at the company he works with. We also go into how to scale as a solo SE and how we can help close more deals at the end of a quarter.

Samuel Joseph West has been a technical sales engineer for the past five years specializing in cybersecurity software. He also works with the SE community to try and help bring more people into the role of SE and try to keep developing that role.

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show175

What differentiates someone as a good leader? This can happen before the person is even promoted to a leadership role. Today we talk to Sonu and see his story and he became the reluctant SE Manager.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show174

Thinking about giving presales a shot? If you are considering switching careers and wondering about the potential room for growth or longevity you could have in this role, then this episode is for you. Today, we chat with Supriya Yerramilli as she shares how she decided to become a sales engineer and her journey preparing and getting herself into that role.

Suriya Yerramilli changed careers from public accounting to working successfully in the tech space. Her previous experience working as a product specialist, full-stack developer, instructor at General Assembly in coding programs such as Python Programming, Front-End Web Development, and Software Engineering Immersive has led her to her dream role as a sales engineer.

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show173

A major aspect of Sales Engineering is performing a demo. Some managers have time to go through their SEs demos, but most of the Sales Engineer Managers have other urgent issues that need their attention. That’s where Kerry comes in. He has reviewed countless demos and coached so many SEs, and today we will talk about what he looks for in a demo and how we can improve it.

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show172

Over the course of my career as a Sales Engineer, and while interviewing other SEs on the podcast or coaching and training some of them, I’ve found that our role just keeps on evolving. While we are required to have excellent technical knowledge product and sales skills, there’s a lot more to it than you think, that even new, aspiring, or even experienced SEs still get wrong to this day.

So, in today’s podcast, my co-host Binayak Kanungo and I explore the top five mental hurdles most Sales Engineers run into throughout their SE career and how to overcome them.

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show171

I often ask people who are new to sales engineering what their career plans are. Most of them answer to learn coding or public speaking, but rarely do they have a deeper reason or motivation behind learning them. It’s because most job descriptions for Sales Engineers list certain skills and qualifications such as multitasking and persuasion, but these skills are not as necessary as you think.

That is why in this episode, I want to focus on the valuable skills that can help you become an indispensable SE and advance your SE career (without you even realizing it). We will examine situations where you can apply deep work and focus and show alternative skills you can learn to set yourself apart from other SEs.

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show170

As a sales engineer, it’s not enough to have exceptional technical knowledge about the products. It also needs to have an in-depth understanding of the customers and how the product can help solve their pain points and challenges. One way to do that is to master handling objections. How do the SE and the sales rep go handle a sales conversation where the sales team and the prospects walk away happily in the sale? Is it possible to create a win-win situation for both parties involved despite the customers’ many objections?

That’s exactly what we’re talking about in today’s podcast with Amazon's #1 International best-selling author and America's #1 expert in revenue expansion and sales optimization, Doug Brown. He is the founder and CEO of Business Success Factors, a company offering business training, and Vibitno.com, the web-based company that accelerates sales, and has advised companies such as Intuit, CBS Television, Procter & Gamble, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Nationwide, Embassy Suites, Inc., among many others. Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show169

Moving jobs is stressful enough, but moving as a VP of Sales Engineering, owning a continent, is a different kind of stress. We discuss that with Greg Holmes, how he managed the move and handled working with a new team.

full show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show168

Over my years of being a Sales Engineer, I’ve come to know and am still learning about new terms and roles that help in the organization. One of these roles is around enablement, sales enablement, or revenue enablement. Many are still uninformed about this role and often have it confused with marketing, channel sellers, or customer success managers.

As you’ll learn in today’s episode, revenue enablement does not fall into any of these roles, but it’s orchestrating and collaborating across all these channels to have effective customer conversations as well as address the needs of all departments throughout an organization. We invited John Moore aka The Collaborator to shed more light on this topic.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show167

In this podcast, Peter discusses his role and life at VMware Canada, how he empowers his team to maintain their mental health, and how he keeps his sanity working as a sales leader and technical director.

full show: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show166

What is the right way to grow your Presales Organization. Many do it as an afterthought whereas our guest today has a process in place for it.

Gary Sloper, a former PreSales Leader at Oracle saw a trend in the market that encouraged him to leave his job and start his own business. What did he see? And how does his business help the customer? We chat about it today.

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show164

In this episode, Chris discusses how to prepare for a demo - from the discovery to setting up the right systems, practice, and figuring out which areas to focus on. Discover how to go from a demo jockey to giving skilled, engaging presentations focused on helping customers with their technical challenges and solving problems. Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show163

As an SE leader, how can you effectively lead and develop your team to be better Sales Engineers while developing your own social and technical sales skills? You must enjoy taking on new challenges, testing your mental and physical limits, love coaching and training people in your team, as well as figure out how to ensure the growth of the prospect business and share with them the best way to perform better. Michael Townsend shares his experiences as a Sales Engineering leader with us in this podcast, as well as the habits you need to build to excel as a sales engineering manager.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show162

This show is sponsored by: Success.app Learn how you can stay on top of your proof of value, and make sure that you and your customers are working together to be successful. Book your demo: https://calendly.com/pudding-app/wetheses

Thomas Edwards is a Solutions Consultant and Enablement Specialist for Financial SaaS Solutions with expertise in automating and controlling the entire financial close process for large firms. As a Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA CGMA), he has a strong background in finance and accounting. Thomas started The Modern SC blog to share his thoughts about the Solutions Consultant role, was previously a Solutions Consultant Manager where he looked at automating many of the mundane SC work. Full Show Notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show161 This show is sponsored by: Success.app Learn how you can stay on top of your proof of value, and make sure that you and your customers are working together to be successful. Book your demo: https://calendly.com/pudding-app/wetheses

If you’ve been following this podcast long enough, you’ll know that I built this to create a community of Sales Engineers all over the world so we can all grow and learn together. But how many of you belong to an organization catered specifically for your profession? Ken Lambert, the current President of the North American Association of Sales Engineers (NAASE), aims to bring Sales Engineers and technical sales reps across North America in one organization to enable members to connect, create Certified Sales Engineers and advocate on behalf of the profession. The organization provides members with opportunities to network on industry-specific forums, webinars, and blogs. Moreover, through its membership, a certificate is awarded to Sales Engineers that designate them as skilled, life-long learners who are passionate about client success. In this podcast, we talk about why he founded NAASE, the commonalities and differences between Sales Engineers working for software and non-software industries, how he differentiates himself from other Sales engineers, and how you can prospect on Linkedin or connect with prospects without being sleazy. Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show160

Neeraj is the founder of Snackwyze. Snackwyze is a software product to help SaaS sellers create interactive walkthroughs, step-by-step guides, tours & demos from screen recordings in seconds.

Before starting his own company, he was the Product Marketing Lead at Cisco for 8 years.

In this episode, Neeraj tells us what his role is as a product marketer, how it’s different from corporate marketing and somewhat similar to sales engineering, how he founded his own company, and what Sales Engineers can learn from product marketing as a skill.

Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It --- https://amzn.to/3xFMkzi (Affiliate)

Course: The Road to Sales Engineer (https://wethesalesengineers.com/r2se)

This episode is sponsored by

Consensus: go to GoConsensus.com/demofest to register for the demofest. use code df21marjaba to register for free

and

Success: Go to Success.app/wetheses to see how you can stay on top of your proof of value, and make sure that you and your customers are working together to be successful.

Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It

There are some common skills that SEs should have. Demonstrations, asking questions, storytelling, whiteboarding, and so on. However, there are a few that will level up your game. In this episode, we're going to talk about 8 skills that are mostly ignored or rarely talked about that you could definitely take advantage of if you want to advance in your career. What’s great about them is that you can apply them to just about any area in your life, outside of work. But if you worked on 2 or 3 of these skills a year, imagine how exceptional you could be as a Sales Engineer.

Course: The Road to Sales Engineer (https://wethesalesengineers.com/r2se)

If you listen to the podcast version, you'd head that this episode is sponsored by

Consensus: go to GoConsensus.com/wetheses to see how you can automate your demos and speed up the sales cycle

and

Success: Go to Success.app/wetheses to see how you can stay on top of your proof of value, and make sure that you and your customers are working together to be success.

Have you ever had an interview which you felt really good about, and then you went home and never heard back from that company again? Don't you wish you knew what went wrong or whether there was something you missed in the interview process? We're very familiar with the common dos and don’ts, such as “don't be late, look presentable, smile and act natural”, etc. But what if there was still something extra that you could do to impress your hiring manager and get the job?

In today's podcast, Bini and I discuss the uncommon mistakes most Sales Engineers commit whenever they go for an interview. Knowing about them beforehand can help you prepare for an interview and increase your chances of being a more solid and qualified candidate. Without further ado, here they are below. Tune in until the end to find out the last three!

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show157

As employees of the corporate world, talking about how much we make, the perks of the jobs, and how much we work to get that payment is frowned upon. Employers don’t want the employees to know what the other person is getting paid. On many occasions throughout my career, a manager gives me a raise only to follow up by saying, please don’t tell anyone about how much you are making.

The goal for today’s interview is to eliminate all that. We talk to John Cook, the Senior Marketing Manager at Consensus, who did a lot of research into the subject. In 2020, he released the Sales Engineer Workload and Compensation Report based on this research.

Today, we chatted about the 2021 report that he is currently working on!

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show156

There are a few topics that should be discussed more when it comes to Sales Engineering and Presales but really are not. One of those topics is “Personality”.

That’s where Aileen McNabb comes in. Aileen is a Sales Engineer and Sales Engineer Director who left the corporate world to start her own company to help Sales Engineers not only get better at their jobs but also get happier.

In addition to talking about Sales Engineering understanding their personality, we talk about them understanding the personality of the people they are talking to. Whether it is a Salesperson, customer, husband, or wife, it is good to understand their personality so we can tailor our discussions in a way that relates to them.

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show155

What I've learned over the years of being an SE, is that you have to consistently push yourself to learn and adapt if you wanna be a good Sales Engineer. It's not enough for you to learn one product or stay there, you need to keep learning and growing and experiencing new things in order to really deliver your best work. In today's episode, we're going to answer the question: How can you constantly push yourself to become a great Sales Engineer?

Our guest Jose takes us through his journey from graphic design to IT to finally Sales Engineering and how each industry prepared to become great at his role now as a solution architect. He also shares with us what it means to learn in a circular fashion, the importance of culture in any organization, and the role SEs play along with their AEs or salesperson.

full shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show154

Is Sales Engineering right for you? And is it possible to become a Sales Engineer without prior technical experience?

In today’s podcast, I talk with Tony Moze about what to expect or prepare for when switching from different careers into Sales Engineering. Tony, coming from a healthcare and psychology background, just recently discovered his interest in the tech side of things and wants to explore Sales Engineering. We hope that by the end of our conversation, you get a glimpse of what it’s like being in a Sales Engineering role and consider it as a possible career even if you’re from a totally non-technical background

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show153

Doc Ballje is a Subject Matter Expert and Solutions Architect in the printing industry. One would not think that the print industry as a complex sale, more as a commodities sale. Doc is able to actually move it from being a commodity to a solution and closing the deal.

Chris White is an accomplished author, trainer, coach, teacher, and Sales Engineering leader. he’s joining us once again to share with us what he’s learned over the past years training salespeople and SEs alike and how both roles can work best together to deliver outstanding results for the company

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show151

Sales Engineering is so nuanced, and with 150 episodes published, we’ve talked about many topics. We’ve talked about storytelling, relationship building, demonstrations, proof of concepts. However, throughout all these episodes we rarely talked about the basics. That is what this episode is about.

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show150

As we go through our careers, we need to differentiate ourselves. The status quo is ok for some, but these are the people at risk of being let go first in the event of a pandemic or any other reason. So let's talk about how we differentiate ourselves.

Full Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show149

we'll go over with: the expectations salespeople have of SEs, the expectations SEs have of salespeople, and how to set realistic expectations so it's a win-win situation for both sides of the team.

full show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show148

In this episode, we talk about Matt Elsom's history, how he started as a Salesperson and worked with “unofficial” Sales Engineers. We learn about the Sale and Sales Engineer’s culture and relationships, how things have changed. We also learn what Matt has found about the Sales Engineering community.

show notes for this episode are at:

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show147

Faraz Syed is currently the Senior Director in GTM/Sales of Professional Services at Genesys and has over 25+ years of experience specializing in GTM and strategic leadership with a background in software sales, technical sales, and customer success.

Faraz shares with us the three areas you need to continuously work on if you want to improve your work as a Sales Engineer.

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show146

In today’s episode, Bini interviews me about my experience working in a hybrid role, how I got into doing more of the sales side of sales engineering, and what made me want to start the We The Sales Engineers Podcast in the first place.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show145

Mike Orth is a Data Center Architect of Software-Defined Solutions and a presenter for Dell Technologies. He helps salespeople, customers, and partners with HCI and IT infrastructure and is currently based in Limerick, Ireland.

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com

Steve Benson, the CEO of Badger Maps, shares with us what it's like to lead remote sales teams, why he chose to merge CSA and SE roles in his company, the challenges of training and coaching remote salespeople, and what companies can do to enable their remote salespeople to perform better.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show143

Our guest, Oscar Santolalla, is the author of the book ‘Rock the Tech Stage: How the Best Speakers in Tech Present Ideas and Pitch Products, and is also a podcast host himself, having his personal podcast Time to Shine, where he talks about all things public speaking and is the host of the company podcast at UbiSecure called “Let’s Talk about Digital Identity”, connecting identity and business.

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show142

Meet Jeff Lewis, not a Sales Engineer, but a customer who works with Sales Engineers. Listen to our conversation with Jeff as he gives his insights on what he thinks Sales Engineers can do to serve their customers better and some things they should probably stop.

Russ gives us a no holds barred answers on how he realized he needed to step up his game as a Sales Engineer, how Sales Engineers can put themselves out there, and how to become a better SE leader.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show140

In this episode, Garin helps us understand the buyer’s journey and what that means for us Sales Engineers. We also talk about how sales teams can shorten B2B sales cycles and drive sales more effectively by equipping the right people promoting their solution and improving the customer’s buying experience.

Jon Scott is the founder of ScopeStack.io and they provide a way to automate the creation of a Statement of Work. He started is because he hated the manual creation of the SOWs and was pulled to solve it.

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show138

Joshua Smith is currently the Senior Sales Engineer at Varonis, a cybersecurity company pioneering in data security and analytics. In this episode, he talks about how he was able to bounce back after losing a job due to the pandemic and the highs and lows of starting out in a new company and industry.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show137

Show sponsored by CloudShare.com. Check out CloudShare.com/wetheses for a free month

John Hodgson is an independent presales specialist recruiter working mainly in the enterprise software application and SaaS space in the UK. Join us in our conversation as he shares with us his perspective as a recruiter for presales professionals and answers all our burning questions!

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show136

It’s always tough looking for a new job. But there are some things you can do to make it easier for yourself. Our guest today is no stranger to the podcast, and if you’ve been tuning in long enough then he might not even need an introduction. Nevertheless, I wanted to interview Binayak Konungo on this episode because he just moved to a new company and I thought it might be nice for you, the listener to get an insider look at how he did it.

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show135

Tim Brömme and Jan-Erik Jank are presales professionals and leaders with a passion for technology, people, and leadership. They are also hosts of the Sales Excellence Podcast, a podcast for Software B2B Sales & Presales. In this episode, we chat about how they started podcasting, what they love about it, and what they want to improve upon.

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show134

When someone is writing their resume, the most common thing is to just write down what their role entails, however, the focus should be more about what they have done for that company and what they can do for the next company. So here are 8 questions you should ask yourself while building your resume

In this episode, Tony Matos drops in to discuss what is a proof of concept, when we use it, and how we can put ourselves in a position to win the deal through a POC

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show132

SEs are an underutilized resource. One major obstacle we need to overcome is going from a GoFor to proactively help customers, which adds value for our organization, and trust from our AEs.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show131

James Kaikis is a solutions engineering leader at SalesForce and co-founder of the Presales Collective. He has spent most of his presales career in startups, and before that worked in leadership roles in various industries - athletic, facility, recreation, and hospitality. As the host of PreSales Podcast, he is dedicated to growing the Sales Engineering and solution consulting community together by providing resources, knowledge, network, and mentorship to develop long, impactful careers.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show130

One of the first books that helped me become a better Sales Engineer and made me change the way I did my demos, it was Demonstrating to Win, and we’re very lucky to have the author of that book on our podcast today. Bob Riefstahl shares with us how we as Sales Engineers can give more impactful demo presentations, how much the selling landscape has changed and how we can adapt and thrive in it, and why he believes salespeople should be able to do demos.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com

We sit down with Dr. Amanda Rico to discuss how you can effectively leverage your resume and LinkedIn profiles to build your online presence, stand out and get noticed by recruiters, and advance in the hiring process.

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show128

In today’s episode, we chat with Matthew Darrow, who has spent a huge chunk of his career as a Sales Engineer before starting his own company. It was a blast learning about his experiences from starting out as the youngest SE to becoming the VP of pre-sales almost overnight, the strategies he and his team used in raising money to fund the startup, and the influence of having great mentors and a support system on building and leading his own team today.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show127

In today’s podcast, we get to see how having a background in pre-sales can be beneficial in leading a startup or founding your own company. Join me in my chat with Larson Stair, a former Sales Engineers, as he gives us a peek behind the non-traditional path he took towards becoming a CEO.

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show126

In this episode, Jeroen Corthout shares his perspective on building a startup – from leaving his secure job as an Account Manager to leading his own company to build their online presence to getting customers the unusual way (without a dedicated sales team).

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com

Since the start of the lockdown, many people were effected through a loss of job. We started #NoSELeftBehind initiative to help SE highlight their strengths and hopefully get a job.

Do you need personal branding as a Sales engineer? Our guest today gives us enough compelling reason to believe so. Join us in our conversation as William Arruda lets us in on the benefits of having a personal brand and how we can use it to become more successful within our company and line of work. If you’re wondering how you can make yourself stand out in a world that’s gone completely virtual, you surely won’t want to miss this episode.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show123

How can Sales Engineers improve their relationship with their partner in sales, and vice versa? We've got Rob Curley and Steve Foster on the podcast this week to discuss what makes a SE-salesperson relationship click, and what doesn't. Join us in our insightful conversation as our guests describe each other's strengths, their work ethic, and what makes them work so well as a team.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show122

This week’s episode is quite interesting because Benny and I take a backseat from hosting while Akshat Srivastava of SENY “picks my brain” and makes me a guest on my own show. Stay tuned as he interviews me about my personal and professional life, my career trajectory as an SE, why I started the We The Sales Engineers podcast, and what the future holds for We the SE. Watch out for the Bonus Rapid Fire Round at the end, you don’t wanna miss it!

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show121

In this podcast, we’ve had the pleasure of conducting a live webinar with our guest, Freddy Mangum, who is not a sales engineer (he’s in the C-suite level in fact), but he is highly passionate about the technical sales profession and believes that technical sales professionals are underrepresented within their companies. Today he shares with us his insights on how sales engineers can leverage their influence within their organization and impact the business.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show120

Scott Cassidy is the VP of Aslan Training & Development, a sales company that’s been around since 1996, specializing in helping inside sales reps, sales leaders, and they’ve been helping some of the largest companies from a customer service perspective to some of the largest financial firms.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show119

As Sales Engineers, we often focus on the process – learning how to get better at sales, qualifications, discovery skills, demos, but rarely do we associate creativity to help us… until this podcast

Figuring out your career path as a sales engineer is not a walk in the park. Sometimes it takes a lot of pivoting and perhaps even forging your own to get to a role where you feel the most fulfilled. In this podcast, our guest Owen McClave shares with us his journey from starting out as an individual contributor to becoming a solution architect manager. We dive deep into why and how he took the driver’s seat that led him to pivot throughout his career, some tips for sales engineers during job interviews, and the importance of recognizing and showing your value.

shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show117

Rob Falcone is the author of Just F*ing Demo, and he joins us on the show to discuss his history, how he got to Sales Engineering and then Director of Sales Engineering, and what pushed him to write his book.

Show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com

A leader can make a huge difference in someone’s career. Leaders can take an active role in pushing a Sales Engineer forward to achieve their goal, a passive role in doing that, or an active role in holding them back. Our conversation with Gary is all about pushing SEs forward.

Shownotes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show115

Mike Shore drops by to discuss how SE Managers can coach their teams to build better relationships with their Account Managers, hold them accountable, and win together.

show notes: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show114

If you’re good at your job, you get to write your own ticket. Have you heard of that? Well, we’ve got proof. Mark Green discusses how he got to become a Technology Evangelist, why, and what that actually is.

Shownotes at: https://wethesalesengineers.com/show113

Some Sales Engineers get a bad rep. SEs are demo jockeys, SEs are not motivated to sell since they have a high base. Sometimes SEs are thought of as a fill-in AE since AEs are thought off as just order takers. Also, people think that SEs are developers. That is it part of their job to create custom products for their customers.

Gee started his career in software design, more specifically DevOps. He has now come to support DevOps as a Specialized SE for his organization. This episode we will talk about that, how he works with Account SEs, and selling in the pandemic age.

https://wethesalesengineers.com/show111

Are Sales Engineers limited in terms of function to Discovery calls, demos and Proof of concepts? There are so many other things we do that no one ever talks about.

Tucker Snedeker started his corporate career as a Sales Engineer. After 10 years he moved into Sales. We discuss why he did the move, and why he enjoys about it and what he doesn’t. We also discuss how he likes to work with SEs.

SE Manager is viewed as a first line manager, in charge of the care and feeding of SEs that report to them, it’s a position.

"You Miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Michael Jordan - I think What do you do if you are being left out important pieces of the sales process? You fight to be a part of it. If you don't ask to be a part of something, you will never be included. That's what Kirk did. He fought to be part of the discovery process. We will discuss how and why. We will also discuss how that helped him and his organization.

Feedback can be hard to take but it’s important to remember that you will always be biased towards yourself. Trust others to have your best interests at heart when they’re providing you feedback. Similarly, you must have the best interests of others when you’re giving them feedback.