Sales Engineer Responsibilities Beyond the Demo
Summary
TLDRThis video explores the multifaceted role of a sales engineer, emphasizing that it extends beyond product demos. It covers responsibilities such as conducting proof of concepts, managing RFX processes, contributing to product marketing through content creation, acting as a technical advisor, and bridging the gap between sales and product teams. The host also touches on the potential for involvement in webinars, sales training, channel partnerships, and post-sales support, highlighting the dynamic and varied nature of the job.
Takeaways
- 🎯 The primary role of a sales engineer extends beyond product demos to include a wide range of responsibilities.
- 🔍 A significant part of the job is conducting Proof of Concepts (POC) to validate product fit for prospective customers.
- 💼 Sales engineers often lead the RFX (Request for Information/Proposal) process, managing responses and proposals to potential clients.
- 📝 Many sales engineers double as product marketers, creating content like articles, blog posts, and videos to support sales efforts.
- 🤝 They act as technical subject matter experts, providing support and advice to both customers and sales teams throughout the sales process.
- 🔗 Sales engineers bridge the gap between the sales and product teams, often initiating product enhancement requests based on customer needs.
- 📈 They may be involved in various aspects of business development, such as webinars, sales training, and channel partnerships.
- 🛠️ Depending on the company, sales engineers might also participate in post-sales activities like implementations and customer relationship management.
- 💡 The role is dynamic, requiring constant learning and adaptation to new technologies and market trends.
- 🌟 The diversity of tasks makes the job of a sales engineer exciting and challenging, offering broad exposure to different areas of business.
Q & A
What is the primary role of a sales engineer beyond product demos?
-Beyond product demos, sales engineers are involved in various roles such as conducting proof of concepts, managing RFX processes, creating content for marketing, acting as technical subject matter experts, liaising between the sales and product teams, and potentially handling post-sales responsibilities.
Can you explain the concept of a 'Proof of Concept' (POC) in the context of sales engineering?
-A 'Proof of Concept' (POC) is a phase where a prospect wants to trial the product to validate if it fits their organizational needs. The sales engineer assists by configuring the solution based on the business requirements to demonstrate its effectiveness.
What does the RFX process involve in sales engineering?
-The RFX process stands for requests for something, which includes RFI (Requests for Information) and RFP (Requests for Proposal). Sales engineers often lead the RFX process, responding to these requests by explaining how their solution addresses the business need and providing pricing details.
Why might a sales engineer also be considered a product marketer?
-In smaller companies, sales engineers may double as product marketers due to their product knowledge and business acumen. They are often responsible for creating content like articles, blog posts, and videos that the sales team can use during presentations or to engage leads.
What is the significance of a sales engineer being a technical subject matter expert during the sales process?
-As a technical subject matter expert, a sales engineer is responsible for answering any technical inquiries from customers or sales reps, providing quick and accurate responses to build trust and facilitate the sales process.
How does a sales engineer act as a liaison between the sales and product teams?
-Sales engineers serve as the middleman between the sales and product teams, identifying customer needs that may require product enhancements. They work with both teams to define requirements, assess market potential, and justify the need for product improvements to win deals.
What additional responsibilities might a sales engineer have in a smaller company?
-In smaller companies, sales engineers might be responsible for conducting webinars, sales training, developing channel partnerships, creating playbooks, and even making enhancements to the company's website.
Why is the role of a sales engineer considered fun and engaging?
-The role is considered fun and engaging because sales engineers are constantly learning, working with diverse personalities, staying updated with various technologies, and improving their skills across sales, marketing, and technical domains.
What are some potential post-sales responsibilities for a sales engineer?
-Some potential post-sales responsibilities include implementations after the sales process and working with existing customers to maintain relationships, which can help in retaining business and enhancing customer satisfaction.
How can a sales engineer contribute to product enhancements based on customer demands?
-Sales engineers can contribute to product enhancements by creating product intake tickets or enhancement requests based on customer needs. They work with the sales team to validate these needs and collaborate with the product team to develop solutions that meet market demands.
Outlines
🔍 Exploring the Multifaceted Role of a Sales Engineer
This paragraph introduces the video's focus on clarifying the various responsibilities of a sales engineer beyond product demos. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the full scope of a sales engineer's job, which includes proof of concept (POC), RFX processes, content creation, and acting as a technical subject matter expert. The speaker also mentions the potential for sales engineers to be involved in product marketing, especially in smaller companies, and to lead the RFX process, which includes responding to requests for information (RFI) and requests for proposal (RFP). The paragraph sets the stage for a deeper dive into these topics.
🤝 The Sales Engineer as a Bridge Between Sales and Product Teams
Paragraph two delves into the sales engineer's role as a technical advisor and liaison between the sales and product teams. It discusses how sales engineers handle technical inquiries from customers and sales reps, and how they are often responsible for creating product enhancement requests based on customer needs. The speaker also touches on the sales engineer's involvement in webinars, sales training, channel partnerships, and potentially post-sales activities like implementations. The paragraph highlights the dynamic nature of the role, which requires constant learning and adaptation to different technologies and business landscapes.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Sales Engineer
💡Product Demo
💡Proof of Concept (POC)
💡RFX Process
💡Content Creation
💡Technical Subject Matter Expert
💡Liaison
💡Product Enhancement
💡Webinars
💡Sales Training
💡Channel Partnerships
Highlights
Introduction to the role and responsibilities of a sales engineer beyond product demos.
Explanation of the proof of concept (POC) process and its importance in sales engineering.
The role of sales engineers in assisting customers through the POC to validate product fit.
Discussion on the RFX process, including RFI and RFP, and the sales engineer's involvement.
Insight into the sales engineer's potential leadership of the RFX process.
The dual role of sales engineers as product marketers, especially in smaller companies.
Responsibility of content creation for sales and marketing purposes.
Sales engineers as technical subject matter experts during the sales process.
The importance of responsiveness in building customer trust.
Sales engineers as liaisons between the sales and product teams.
The role in creating product enhancement requests based on customer needs.
The impact of sales engineers on product improvements for winning deals.
Variety of additional responsibilities including webinars, sales training, and channel partnerships.
Mention of potential post-sales responsibilities such as implementations and customer relationship building.
Emphasis on the dynamic and multifaceted nature of sales engineering roles.
Encouragement for prospective sales engineers to understand the full scope of the role.
Call to action for viewers to subscribe and engage with the content.
Transcripts
everyone and welcome to the league of
sales Engineers first of all Shameless
plug if you like this channel if you
like my video go ahead and hit that
subscribe button give me that thumbs up
that really helps out my channel but in
today's video we're going to talk
through something that I've noticed a
lot of prospective sales Engineers
looking to get into the world of sales
engineering or just Tech sales in
general they don't necessarily know the
roles and responsibilities of a sales
engineer outside of doing a product demo
so what I want to do is I want to take a
few minutes to go through some of those
other job responsibilities that you all
should be aware of so you go in well
prepared knowing what your potential
day-to-day as a sales engineer would
actually be alright so we all know about
the product demo which is just giving a
demonstration of the solution basically
the variation of a sales pitch that
stuff where we're golden on I think from
an overall SE idea perspective and if
not maybe I'll make a whole video
talking about the product demo but some
of the other responsibilities that some
people just might not be as aware of are
what I really want to talk through as a
part of this video so first and foremost
let's talk through the POC the proof of
concept so after a customer actually
sits through or I should say a prospect
actually sits through your actual
product demonstration they're not
necessarily always ready to buy a lot of
times they want some sort of validation
they want proof and they want to
actually trial out your solution in
order to identify if your product
solution what you're actually trying to
sell is a good fit for the organizations
hence the proof of concept so it's
similar to if you ever sign up to any
sort of Subscription Service yourself
and you want to try out a seven day
trial it's the same concept they'll work
with you as a sales engineer to help
them through the proof of concept
configure anything that's necessary
based on their business need to actually
demonstrate if your solution actually
solves for the business need that you're
promising during the discovery as well
as the demo call of the actual sales
cycle the next which is fairly lesser
known than even the proof of concept is
the rfx process so rfx it's another term
for requests for something so what
you'll normally run into is an RFI or an
RFP an RFI is going to be requests for
information and RFP is going to be a
request for proposal maybe make a video
that goes into this a little bit more
detail but literally RFI or this side
the RFI is actually them just reaching
out to multiple vendors for information
to solve for business need or a pain
that they have whereas the RFP is they
actually want a proposal from these
vendor solutions that they send this
proposal to in which case you'd respond
back explaining how Your solution solves
for that as well as pricing all that
good stuff
um and oftentimes the sales engineer is
actually the one leading the the actual
RF so and so you might have a proposal
team that will support you along the way
and be almost like the owners of the rfx
but oftentimes that is the
responsibility of the sales engineer
that's tied to that rfx also I don't
want to scare all of you if you're going
in as a more associate level even a
mid-level sales engineer but you're new
to the organization you may not get too
many requests for proposals or rfis but
know that that is a typical job of a
sales engineer if you don't have a
dedicated proposal team again even if
you do you still might be responsible
for rfx's just really depends on your
organization so hopefully that gives
some some clarity there
some other things I've also seen a lot
of times especially at smaller companies
a sales engineer is also a product
marketer whether we want to or or we
don't want to be that so in other words
because we have the product knowledge we
also have the business Acumen so we have
kind of a mix of both we're oftentimes
responsible for creating articles blog
posts videos for the website videos for
the YouTube channel all this content
that the sales team might actually
leverage either during a presentation or
to send out to a lead so a lot of times
we're actually almost like
again product marketing we're content
creators for a lot of organizations not
necessarily so for the Enterprise
companies out there maybe a little bit
but for the smaller companies I've seen
a lot of sales Engineers have a large
responsibility of that content creation
another more obvious one is outside of
doing the demo you're the technical
subject matter expert during the actual
sales process and that can mean a lot
more than just the product demo or even
the proof of concept any sort of
technical questions your customers have
or even your sales rep you're working
with has you should be there to assist
them along the way so when a customer
sends an email with a quick inquiry you
want to be as responsive as possible to
that inquiry that's one way to win trust
with your customer so just being a
technical advisor is such an important
role during the actual sales process for
an actual sales engineer a sales
engineer is often the liaison between
the sales team and the product team as
well so that's something definitely
important to note in other words if
you're working on an opportunity with a
large Enterprise customer maybe like the
retail Giants of the world like Walmart
or Target and through conversations you
identify that they have a need that fits
your product solution but you don't
offer today it's typically your
responsibility as a sales engineer to
actually create some sort of product
intake ticket some sort of product
enhancement requests to meet the
customer's need and provide some
validation that you'd work on with the
sales team to really justify the need
for this product enhancement in order to
win a one or two million dollar
opportunity and maybe even other
opportunities so you'd look at the
overall business landscape but you as a
sales engineer would typically lead that
process where you're working on the
requirements based on the customer
demands you're working with the sales
team to identify what the the actual
Market is for that enhancement you're
requesting and that's oftentimes
overlooked that's such an important role
as a sales engineer because again we
have the sales Acumen and we have the
technical Acumen so it's no surprise
we're the middleman between the two and
we work with both teams in those
scenarios where we are looking to
improve our solution in order to win a
deal or win multiple deals or retain
existing business that's something else
that that a product enhancement can
actually support right there's a lot
more I can go into you might be
responsible for any sort of webinars you
might be responsible for doing sales
training you might be responsible for
working on channel Partnerships so
training resellers or creating vendor
relationships some organizations I've
seen sales Engineers be responsible for
creating playbooks as well as any sort
of maybe even some some enhancements to
the website so really depends it kind of
goes all over depending on the company
you're working for I've also seen some
SCS require or be responsible for some
level of post sales so actually doing
implementations after the actual sales
process or working with existing
customers to continue to build those
relationships so really the list kind of
goes on and on I wanted to provide full
transparency to all of you because there
is a lot more to being a sales engineer
than the actual demo and honestly that's
what makes this job so much fun we're
constantly learning we're working with
all sorts of different personalities we
have to keep on Trend with different
Technologies we're improving our skill
set across all these different segments
sales marketing
tech software really you name it we're
getting exposure to as sales Engineers
so hopefully that was helpful for all of
you I've seen this come up quite a bit
with people that are looking to get into
the role as a sales engineer they don't
fully comprehend that being an sc is
more than just doing a product demo so I
wanted to create a quick video for all
of you just to give that that little bit
of an overview
and again if you like this video go
ahead and subscribe hit that like button
that really helps out my channel I'm
gonna try to be more which I say more
proactive with with creating these
videos so hopefully you all like this
content and yeah I you know stay
connected let me know what you think in
the comments below
um
but that's it take care everyone
Ver Más Videos Relacionados
Le marketing c’est quoi ? - Définition du marketing
Cómo hacer un Plan de Ventas en 3 Pasos
The Difference Between Marketing vs Sales - Dan Lok
Zero To $1M in 12 Months: Step 3 of 8 - The $10K Launch
How to use ChatGPT for Sales | B2B Sales Tips That Actually Work
Don't go for MBA in Marketing without watching this! All about salary and worklife in Marketing
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)