We The Sales Engineers: A Resource For Sales Engineers, By Sales Engineers

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