As SEs we often get left out in the cold when it comes to the almighty SPIFF. SPIFFs are easy to manage and measure when it comes to the sales rep. SPIFFing SEs has it’s own set of unique benefits and pitfalls and can certainly be tougher to gauge success. While it’s been increasingly common to tie an entire account team to the SPIFF where the inside rep and SE can benefit, this watering down effect does not often drive SE activity. I think it’s time we devote some attention to driving SE-focused SPIFFs.
Are you missing out on bonuses?
September 6, 2011 By
I regularly receive questions pertaining to bonus splits for SEs. Many want to know what their variable comp should be given their seniority. Others have brought in a big deal and didn’t feel they got a fair shake. In this article we’ll explore some common scenarios and what you’re likely to find as you move up the food chain.
Top apps for SEs
July 25, 2011 By
I must admit to being fairly intrigued with my new iPhone. This is probably because 1) I’ve had the same old Blackberry for 5 years now, and 2) I had to wait for such a long time to get it on Verizon because I wouldn’t switch away.
During my conversion I of course plunged head first into the world of apps. The first of course being an Angry Birds download. In my research I came across many top 10 lists for various audiences and I thought we (SEs) warranted our own.
I went about this list in a couple ways. First, being cheap, I prioritized apps that are free that do the job well enough. While a couple apps are iPhone specific, I specifically selected some apps because they had wider availability for our android friends. Finally, I assumed you spent a lot of time at customer sites and a moderate amount traveling regionally within the US.
Some of these I’m sure you’ll be well aware of, but hopefully there’s a few nuggets in here worth your time.
So, in no particular order:
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Dragon Dictation (free)While the speed at which high school students can whip out a text via thumb-typing is certainly impressive, there are better ways to writing that 2 paragraph reply on the fly. Dragon provides a free mobile version of their desktop software that records and transcribes your voice. I can attest that it actually works very well and saves me time on anything over a 1-2 sentence reply. Simply open up the app, dictate your message, make a few (if any) corrections, and copy it into an email, text, clipboard etc. It’s dirt simple and really shines because of its accuracy. |
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Mapquest (free)Mapquest is the only free app that gives you voice prompted turn-by-turn directions and is GPS integrated. I’m sure there are many better solutions out there for a fee, but I get by just fine with this app and it rarely can’t locate the place I’m going. It does lack a good general map-based search feature which Google does so well, hence I do have to switch back and forth sometimes. That said, it allows me to skip carrying a second stand alone device or paying the 10 bucks at the rental car counter. |
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Award Wallet (free)Assuming you travel you probably have a few different accounts for air, hotels, cars, etc. and it can good to see what rewards options you may have with each one. Award Wallet syncs all of that data and makes it available on your mobile while traveling. That should save you some hassle of having to log into a half dozen single purpose vendor apps. By keeping all of the data in one place it gives you a single view itinerary of your trip. Very handy. Another companion app is TripIt, which was recently purchased by Linkedin. It also manages your travel and has a easy email option to load data, but it doesn’t monitor reward data as Award Wallet does. |
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Mocha VNC (free)As much as we try to compartmentalize and make ourselves self sufficient on the road, there are always times it would be great to have access to our home or other desktop systems. This app gives you remote access to your VNC server from your phone. Navigating takes some getting used to, and you definitely wouldn’t touch up a photo using this, but if you need to get to something to attach in an email, or start an FTP upload, it will allow to get it done. |
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SalesForce.com Mobile (free)For users of the SFDC CRM tool, this gives you quick access to perform reference checks and quick searches for something you may need onsite. |
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EverNote (free)This note-taking app narrowly beats out the Microsoft OneNote app simply because its host version is free online. It has all the features EverNote users expect and the interface is quick to move around in. This doesn’t replace taking notes in a meeting, but does allow you jot quick notes and record critical bits that you need synced when you get back to your laptop. |
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iBooks (free)iBooks is here not because of the app itself, which everyone likely already has, but what you can use it for. Most folks overlook the PDF option. Simply take your product manuals, whitepapers, and other docs and load them in bulk. Whenever you’ve got some downtime you can make a little progress or look up an important tech fact when your laptop isn’t nearby. |
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Linkedin (free)I find the mobile app useful when you’re at the customer site and you find out you’re going to meet someone unexpected. During a 5 minute break (restroom or otherwise) you can do a quick search and get some good data about the prospect. usually it turns up at least something in common you can use to build rapport. |
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Card Munch (free)Snap a quick photo and it gets turned into a contact record. Good for removing clutter and having to keep track of them for later. Side tip: Keep the cards out and accessible while in the meeting. Arrange the cards in the seating order of the table to keep names straight. Only after the meeting should you scan and discard. |
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O Player HD (free)If you’ve tried to take some movies with you on the road, you know what a pain it is to convert everything to Quicktime format. O Player plays pretty much everything. Even better, it can wirelessly access a Windows/Samba share to copy files (in addition to via iTunes). While the entertainment value on the plane is good, it also is great for productivity. Similar to iBooks, you can load up the webex recordings and other (e.g. .avi) content. Fill in your downtime into some training cycles. |
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ApptDialer ($4)This is a gem of an app for iPhone users. I’m sure you’ve noticed (and if you’ve used a Blackberry you definitely notice) that you can’t direct dial a conference number+passcode from the Location field in a calendar entry. Since some of them have 10-digit passcodes this quickly had me searching alternatives. Outside of jailbreaking your phone, ApptDialer is the way to go. It gives you a slide wheel of all numbers in an invite and constructs the complex dial code for you. Don’t tell them, but I would have paid $10 for this. Side tip: If you’re always dialing into a certain bridge like yours, your reps, boss’s etc. you can construct the same dial sequence in a contact record which is even quicker than using ApptDialer. Why Apple blew this feature so badly I don’t know, but I’m sure it involved a kickback from someone. |
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Calendar Alarm ($2)This is another app for the blackberry->iPhone converted crowd. You quickly notice there is no way to snooze a calendar invite. Cal Alarm does a bit more but that’s the killer feature that actually made me shell out a couple bucks for it. |
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Webex Meeting Center (free)Most of us spend a good deal of time delivering webex-style presentations to remote customers. This app is handy for two reasons. First, it allows you to view While I mention Webex, GoToMeeting and others are available that have a similar featureset. |
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Dropbox (free)I don’t keep it a secret that I love dropbox and use it for a great many things. The dropbox app works as advertised and comes in very handy for accessing notes and any other files that natively open on the iphone. Since I keep my active customer folders inside Dropbox it gives me access to pretty much everything else I need on the road. My one complaint is that I can’t set it to sync all files in certain folders. That would be the icing on the cake. |
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Toodledo ($3)With a myriad of free options why pay 3 bucks for a task list? The answer is simplicity in my case. Toodledo is the only free web service that allows for Outlook synchronization. I wrote about this in depth in my GTD series. Toodledo made a smart business move charging a 1-time fee for an app (something I would do) to pull money in from an otherwise free service that many rely on. This allows me to keep 2 different computers, and iPad and iPhone all synced and it works very cleanly. Side tip: Many people sync Outlook via “contexts”. The Toodledo app relies on folders. Therefore, you’ll need to reset your sync app to map Outlook categories to folders. |
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Flight Aware (free)This app simply gives you the most reliable flight status of any source/app I’ve tried. They must have a mole in flight traffic control because I get time updates several minutes faster that competing services. The first update is almost always the eventual arrival/departure time as well; contrast that against SWA/AA/UA/etc updates that seem to update in increments of 15 minutes (my guess is to let passengers down easy?). |
What’s Your SE “Bus Count”
June 20, 2011 By
I came across a new phase here the other day. The term is “bus count.” As in, how many of your people could get hit by a bus before your team/company/etc was in real trouble. That gave me a good laugh and it got me thinking about the sales and SE organizations in a company.
In any technical field it can take a long time to rebuild lost expertise. The ramp time for a typical SE is 2-4 months, and that’s just for basic profieciency. Mastery of course takes much longer.
This timing varies by industry and product portfolio, but a theme I’ve recognized is that the more depth on your team (your bench strength) the easier it is to rebuild and maintain talent levels. That means it’s much easier to replace talent that exists elsewhere on your team than it is to gain a new competency.
I think there are a couple reasons for this. The primary one being the mentorship equation. If someone can be “shown” how to do it, it’s far simpler than asking someone to figure out how to learn something new on their own. Receiving direction, having a sounding board, and even the perception of having a safety net helps immensely.
The implications for SE Managers then becomes 1) keeping an accurate inventory of your critical skills, 2) keeping an eye on your perverbial bus count to insure you’re not in the danger zone, and 3) always be looking for ways to operationalize the skills acquisition process so that you have learning paths in place before you really need them.
The implication for SEs is far simpler: Specialize where your team’s bus count is dangerously low. Also see Unique Value on TSE more on this.
So, you do what again…?
March 26, 2011 By
I’ve had this article in draft state for a long time. I recently got dragged into a discussion between a well-meaning sales manager and Sales Engineer to help mediate a dispute about job responsibilities.
This prompted me to formally address what I consider to be the role of an SE.
Definition
A Sales Engineer is a member of a sales team whose specialty is a deep understanding of their company’s solution portfolio and is adept at positioning solutions to best address prospective client’s perceived needs.
Looking Deeper
There are a lot of carefully chosen words there. Let’s look deeper:
- a member of a sales team – SEs form a partnership with the other sales team members. They do not own accounts though they may be assigned to them. The accountable sales team member is the sales representative
- deep understanding of their portfolio – SEs can be brought in to assist with many complex products and services, and are not necessarily technology oriented
- positioning solutions – SEs refine the company’s marketing and sales message based on qualification of an individual customer
- best address – SEs must overcome solution-specific objections from the customer and showcase the solution in a competitively beneficial light
- prospective client – SEs are engaged “pre-sale”. Post-sales solution design, implementation, and maintenance are handled by a separate services and support function
- perceived needs – SEs assist with the qualification of leads as well as help uncover additional needs that may only be discernable by solution experts
Even with this additional explanation, there is still a lot of ambiguity with regard to what the specific duties of an SE entail. This is due to the varying nature and complexity of the hiring company, product or service, industry, customer base, and sales team. A job description, then, is still required to specify the scope of an SE at a given company.
Roles and Responsibilities
By no means is this complete, but this framework should provide a good frame of reference.
Qualifying
As product breadth or complexity increases, one individual, at some breaking point, will no longer be able to completely uncover new business opportunities from the nuance of conversation between various members of the prospect’s buying center. Often this comes from those who are highly technical and responsible for the eventual solution implementation.
The SEs role, then, is to be able to understand, process, and translate prospect’s highly complex wishes or pain points into potential green field, cross sell, or upsell selling opportunities.
Common SE activities during this stage include:
- Participating with the account team on early-stage prospect interactions
- Hosting additional information gathering sessions with technical members of the buying center
- Assisting the rep with making a go/no-go decision
Positioning
After an opportunity has been qualified at both a business and technical level, the sales rep must make the call whether to engage a prospect or not. Once the go ahead decision is made, the entire sales team embarks on a process to position their solution as one that best meets the prospect’s identified need.
The sales rep, again at some breaking point, may not be able to fully articulate the solution’s capabilities, or—more importantly—overcome specific objections. The rep still owns the company’s positioning efforts such as company reputation, pricing/ROI, capability to deliver, etc. The SE specifically addresses the merits of the specific solution in terms of 1) how it addresses the prospect’s need, and 2) how it does that better than other available solution.
Since any given solution is never technically perfect, there is always competition, even if the competitive solution is that the prospect does nothing. Therefore, both the rep and SE must work together to ensure that the prospect understands the merits of the solution in totality.
Common SE activities during this stage include:
- Educating the prospect on industry norms and best practices
- Educating the prospect on solution capabilities. This is typically done in the conference room is presentation and illustrative formats
- Demonstrating how a product solves the specific use cases for the customer
- Providing a recommended deployment methodology or architecture
- Contributing to RFPs
Proving
All prospects require validation of what’s been presented to them by the sales team. This could be as simple as the prospect relating what they’ve been presented to something they already believed. This is a rare case, often this is an active process undertaken by the sales team.
A validation can come in many forms. The rep might have to validate the vendor’s stability by providing publically verifiable accounting statements. The SE must prove that solution matches the prospect’s use case. The rep and SE can work together to provide a neutral 3rd party reference (known as a “reference sale”). The SE can provide a custom-tailored miniature version of the solution. This could range from a detailed presentation (a “conference room pilot”) to a full product deployment in a lab or production environment.
Common SE activities during this stage include:
- Working with the account team to identify suitable customer references
- Configuring a solution-miniature that can be shown to the validate the use case
- Manage a full pre-sale implementation of the product, sometimes involving professional services, product management, and technical support
Transitioning
After a sale is made, it is the SEs responsibility to ensure that the customer now realizes the benefit of that purchase. While the SE will rarely be responsible for conducting the implementation, it remains the account team’s responsibility to maintain ongoing customer satisfaction.
Common SE activities during this stage include:
- Facilitating knowledge transfer to any professional services organization for implementation including the client’s needs and expectations
- Introducing the client to the post-sales support organization
- Making routine inquiries to ensure ongoing satisfaction and eventual realization of the benefits that were articulated during the sales cycle
- Cultivating members of the client’s implementation or administrative team that can assist with future customer references
Business Development
While typically less defined than account team responsibilities, the SE organization may also carry a mandate to help with business development. This can be accomplished via participation in industry events, contributing to industry best practice (often characterized by “thought leadership”) and helping maintain an established sales channel (often via partner firms).
Common SE business development activities include:
- Belonging and speaking to local industry trade associations
- Staffing booths at trade shows
- Providing training to channel partners
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So far I’ve covered the tactical “whats” that encompass the role of the SE. There is a broader treatment of the role which involves recommended background, experience, education, success factors, behavioral traits, and general job responsibilities not directly tied to account management and business development.
I plan to address those topics in a follow up article. In the meantime, if you have other suggestions please let me know and I’ll to this as I go.
Hopefully this will head off a “gentlemanly discussion” or two in the future.
Stop Charging Customers Extra
February 3, 2011 By
One thing that bothers me selling and buying enterprise software is the propensity for some companies to try to charge for every little incremental addition in the product.
Oh, you want the reporting engine, that’ll be $50 a seat extra. Two processors in that system, that’ll be a extra $1000 per agent. You want the product to actually do what it says in the PPT? Yea, that’s gonna cost you.
You get the drift.
As SEs we rarely get much say in the price point and structure. While we would love to avoid the price conversation altogether, it does come up during technical conversations. Customers have (rightfully so) gotten good at ferreting out where incremental charges come into play.
Rather than play that game and deflate enthusiasm for all the cool stuff I’m going to show them, I now use a different tactic. Between my rep and I we never go in with anything less than an all-inclusive license plan and mindset.
So when the inevitable question comes up about a particular module being extra, my answer is simply “no, we include it” and my rep can later follow up with the question “do you think you’ll take advantage of this feature?”. If the answer is no, guess what we can offer them: A discount!
If you think that’s a bit underhanded, imagine the next time you buy a car whether you’d like a sticker price to be all inclusive, letting you find ways to find ways to save versus seeing a low sticker and being hit up constantly for this add-on or fee until you’ve had enough. I think the former is a far better (and honorable) buying experience.
Is Your Rep Falling Down on the Job?
January 20, 2011 By
What do you do if your rep is pulling his own weight?
This is the gist of a question I recently received from a newer SE via email. It’s a tough question and one I don’t think I’ve addressed here before. Since the answer is involved I thought it would be best to describe my approach more thoroughly here.
First, when you’ve worked in the business long enough, this situation invariably happens. Usually it doesn’t start to manifest until you yourself have been in the role long enough to have worked with a variety of reps to understand what works and what doesn’t.
Second, when you’ve been in the business long enough, the situation will eventually reverse and, justified or not, your abilities will be called into question.
This is a face-paced, high risk/return game we’re in. Succumbing to the continuous pressure and jumping to rash decisions is all too easy a trap. All it takes is a quarter or two of missed results for the pressure to be ratcheted up enormously. It’s in your best interest to take a step back and rationally assess the situation. It takes real skill not to get caught up in the blame game.
Don’ts
- NEVER go straight to your boss or the sales manager with the issue. Put yourself in their place and ask how you’d react to that. Not positively I’m sure.
- Don’t assume you know everything the rep is and isn’t doing. I see it time and again where SEs don’t appreciate the work that goes on behind the scenes to get meetings together, remove business barriers, negotiate contract/legal, etc. Get the “my rep just schedules the meetings and I do all the work” out of your head. It’s hard to counteract the overconfidence effect or egocentric bias.
- Don’t assume your rep has the benefit of seeing the strategies and tactics other reps you’ve worked with are using. Just because you’ve seen the presentation done a dozen different ways (and have learned what works best) doesn’t mean your rep has. It could just be a simple coaching issue.
- Do not ignore the problem if you feel it is impacting revenue. At the end of the day you are paid by the company to maximize revenue for a set of accounts. You are accountable for your sales targets, even if less directly.
- Never take matters into your hands and subvert the strategy your rep has put in place. That directly undermines trust in the relationship and damages your reputation.
Do’s
- Almost without exception you should bring up the problem with your rep directly first. Start with a casual comment. Maybe something like: “Joe, I saw the PM give this presentation the other day and he skipped the 15 minute company introduction slides and the audience really seemed to appreciate it. Maybe we should give that a shot.” That sounds way better than “Dude, you’re putting them to sleep in there!”
- Escalate the directness of your comments in response to their effectiveness. Have the frank conversation and get it out in the open in a non-threatening way. For those with some difficulty with this skill, I recommend Crucial Conversations
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- Be cautious and courteous with offering advice. Your reps will appreciate advice from you about as much as you’d appreciate their advice about being a better SE. Mileage may vary.
- If all else fails, you have to get management involved. Typically there will be a dedicated SE manager you can interface with. Only take this step if you’ve exhausted every other avenue and your rep knows you feel strongly enough involve others. The last thing you want is them getting called into their boss’s office about an issue they thought was between you two. That whole “trust” thing is kinda important.
- Even better: Offer to discuss it jointly under an “account strategy session” with the sales manager. Let the manager mediate. It doesn’t have to be a negative conversation. If you’ve done your homework, acted professionally, and still been outvoted, you’ve done your part. It’s out of your control and you can rationally decide to stay or explore other options longer term.
The golden rule should really be your guide here. Put yourself in his place, think of how you’d like your SE to react and follow that approach. The most important thing is to maintain the trust within the relationship. Your career success as an SE is ultimately determined more by whether the sales force respects and trusts you versus just how well you can demo the product.