Babette Ten Haken

Contact Babette
  • Home
  • Programs
    • Keynotes
    • Breakouts & Workshops
    • Professional Innovation Coaching
  • Blog
  • My Story
    • Testimonials
    • Honors & Awards
  • Resources
    • White Papers
    • Do You Mean Business? – The Book
  • Contact Me!
You are here: Home / Collaboration And Convergence / 4 Steps to a Great Sales Engineer Career

4 Steps to a Great Sales Engineer Career

October 23, 2013 by Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

What does it take to create a great sales engineer career?

Many companies still see a sales engineer as, well, sales engineers. This perspective is status quo and marginalizes sales engineers from the dynamic, and revenue-producing side of business development and sales.

A sales engineer can be a salesperson with a strong technical side who is able to sell. Sales engineers can be an engineer with some strong, and not-so-soft, sales skills also responsible for project management and design processes after a lead has been identified and qualified.

There’s a lot of latitude in whom and what constitutes a sales engineer these days. However, sales engineers still are inserted into the sales equation on an applied-as-needed basis or a need-to-demo basis. In their marginalized role, sales engineers can be completely mis-aligned with the sales process.

If you decide that the career path you want to pursue is that of a sales engineer, I recommend that you prepare yourself to think on both sides of the sales-engineering continuum, no matter what role you initially play in this process. Here are four considerations for you about how to create value, and ROI, as a sales engineer.

1. Sales engineers have a unique position at the business table

You serve as a liaison between sales and engineering. Your ability to combine your technical and non-technical perspectives can make you a relevant and valuable partner to both buyers and sellers.

2. Sales engineers are the rule, rather than the curiosity

In today’s competitive global economy, professionals who can participate in the business and revenue development processes in this cross-functional manner are going to become the rule rather than the curiosity.

3. Sales engineers generate revenue

The key to generating revenue for your company, and providing value to your customers, is your comfort in choreographing the customer conversation. How can you learn to have these types of dialogues and customer discovery?

4. Successful sales engineers are involved throughout the process

How are you limited by your current corporate culture? Do you only participate in the sales process when it’s “time to demo?” That’s just Old School.

Whether your company leads with their sales or engineering side, rushing to close the sale and demo may prevent you from fully developing the breadth and depth of the problem. Learn how to have the types of sales-engineering conversations with your customers and colleagues they don’t yet know they want to have with you.

You may find, as the sales engineer, you have a larger role to play in business development. Leave yourself open to that idea, even if your company culture isn’t quite there yet. Don’t limit yourself by being Old School, even if your employer still may be stuck in that status quo mindset. There’s more to you than that.

Babette Ten Haken is a catalyst, corporate strategist and facilitator. She writes, speaks, consults and coaches about how cross-functional team collaboration revolutionizes the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) value chain for customer loyalty, customer success and customer retention. Her One Millimeter Mindset™ programs draw from her background as a scientist, sales professional, enterprise-level facilitator, Six Sigma Green Belt and certified DFSS Voice of the Customer practitioner. Babette’s playbook of technical / non-technical collaboration hacks, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon. 

This article first appeared on the Salesforce.com blog. It is reproduced here with the original author’s permission.

Enjoy this post? Please share it!

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on LinkedInShare on EmailShare on Reddit

Filed Under: Collaboration And Convergence, Customer Experience, Success, Loyalty, Retention, Professional Development Tagged With: sales engineer, sales engineer career, sales engineers

About Babette Ten Haken

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Hire Babette to speak at your next conference or corporate meeting.

https://youtu.be/Yf-h80O_QZ4
Sign up to receive posts via email
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide
No spam, ever. Promise. Powered by FeedBlitz
SalesProCentral
Customer Experience Update

Categories

  • Collaboration And Convergence
  • Customer Experience, Success, Loyalty, Retention
  • Human Capital & Industrial IoT Workforce
  • Professional Development
  • Trending Book Reviews
  • Uncategorized

Recent Posts

  • Target Working with the Best so You can be Your Best!
  • Your Post Pandemic Career Strategy Evolved. Now what?
  • 3 One Millimeter Mindset Professional Goals Blog Posts
  • What Is Your Professional Career Voice: Leader or Follower?
  • Why Your Professional Core Capabilities Limit Your Value

Archives

Storytelling for STEM Professionals and Left Brain Thinkers Speaking Programs. Learn more....

Contact Babette
Sign up to receive posts via email
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide
No spam, ever. Promise. Powered by FeedBlitz

Recent Posts

Target Working with the Best so You can be Your Best!

Your Post Pandemic Career Strategy Evolved. Now what?

3 One Millimeter Mindset Professional Goals Blog Posts

Follow Us!

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on LinkedInFollow Us on Instagram

Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions

CATALYST FOR PROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION: Storytelling for STEM Professionals and Left Brain Thinkers Speaking Programs.
Sales Aerobics for Engineers®, All Rights Reserved 2021 ©
By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies