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

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