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

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.