Mastering Technical Sales
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Cover design by Charlene Stevens
ISBN 13: 978-1-63081-872-2
© 2022 John Care
685 Canton Street
Norwood, MA 02062
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Acknowledgments
It is impossible to mention everyone who contributed to the ideas and concepts within this book. At least twenty-five thousand sales engineers (SEs) have passed through the Mastering Technical Sales program since 2014. Thank you to those thousands of SEs at companies such as Google, RedHat, Palo Alto Networks, Salesforce.com, Juniper Networks, Veeam, Ruckus, Cisco, HP, Microsoft, and Oracle. To everyone who ever stopped me in the hallway during a workshop, contacted us through LinkedIn or email, contributed a fantastic idea in class (in whatever language), or said, “you should write about . . . ,” I hope you’ll find your contribution somewhere on these pages. SEs are pack animals, and we love to share our toys—so thank you so much and know that it means the world to me.
First, thanks to the editorial team at Artech House of David Michelson and Natalie McGregor. Next, a shout out to the fantastic facilitation team we’ve built up over the years—that’s Chris Daly, Angelo Rodriguez, Art Fromm, Jonathan Whiteman, Martin Gregory, JJ Song, Brian Conway, Dr. Jim Wagstaff, Rafique Ahmed, Masaru Someya, David Zhu, and CJ Ng. The constant stream of cultural modifications and constructive feedback from the workshops has made a better and more diverse manuscript. It’s been a humbling experience. I must also include Susan Tan and Jaslyn Soh, our operations and finance team in Singapore.
This book is about the personal experience of being a sales engineer. Much of the foundation was laid by the SE teams and my peers at Sybase, Oracle, Business Objects, Vantive, CA, HP, and Clarify. I know that I learn far more from my clients than they ever learn from me, so kudos to Lynn Gates, Chris Bridge, Ashley Hall, Dan Hodge, Michael Cooper, Bobby Hyam, Marco Guidobaldi, Megan Tomko, Kakali Bhattacharjee, Lys Arya, Romain Vivier,
and Richard Jackson. I also must mention some sales and SE leaders who share my passion that being an SE is indeed the best job in the world. That’s you Andrew Hobby, Amber Johansen, Jon Parkes, Matt Kestian, Marjorie Abdelkrime, Sean Wedige, Marc Hadler, Lara Meadows, Greg Cooper, Manuel Partida, Orcun Terzel, Michael Kelley, Paul Pinkney, Chris Runge, Vinod Chandramouli, Ken Wilson, Dan Bognar, Matt Maccaux, Marc Schnabolk, Sid Amster, Christine Washington, and Chris Harris.
A few people directly contributed material to the book or reviewed some of the chapters. To Andy Spencer, Sean O’Shaughnessey, Peter Cohan, Don Carmichael, Jose Mendoza, Tony Matos, Matt Darrow, Garin Hess, Freddy Mangum, and once again Dr. Jim Wagstaff, Art Fromm, and Chris Daly, I can only express my sincere gratitude. Of course, any errors, poor jokes, or lousy grammar are my sole responsibility.
That only leaves two more groups of people to thank. The first is the amazing team at Up2Speed. Tom King, Nick Dorney, and Michael Beruldsen, with a graphic assist from Gene Whitlock, have helped to take Mastering Technical Sales global and tripled our customer base. And, finally, the family! Full credit to my father, who instilled in me the spirit of entrepreneurship, and my mother, who taught me always to look on the bright side of life. Thanks to my children Amanda and Matt, plus Katie and my grandchildren Morgan and Rylee who are teaching me that being called “Pops” is the best job in the world. Last, but never least, my wonderful, amazing wife, Allison—mother of my children, mistress of dragons, herder of my thoughts, and the brains behind the entire educational operation. You have no idea of the power of your unshakeable and unwavering support.
Introduction
The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are.
—John Pierpoint Morgan
In 1849, French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr wrote plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose—the more things change, the more they stay the same. So much has changed since the third edition of this book hit the streets in 2014. Everything as a service (EaaS) is ubiquitous, and cloudification— converting applications, data storage, and compute cycles to take advantage of cloud computing—is now mainstream technology. In addition, most technology companies directly measure a large proportion of their revenue on a monthly consumption model rather than a quarterly billing cycle. As a result, the technical barriers to customer entry and exit are lower.
Yet the underlying professional skills we use to conduct the sales process remain remarkably the same. We ask questions; we listen; we answer questions; we seek out pain and gain, build relationships, and attempt to position our portfolio as uniquely qualified to solve the business problems we have jointly identified with the customer or partner. There is, thankfully, more of an emphasis on the buying process (rather than selling) and certainly a focus on the value that a sales engineer (SE) can bring to the customer.
What has changed is the technology that surrounds those professional skills. Although an SE may still conduct product demonstrations, make
technical slide presentations, deliver custom whiteboards, or run a proof of concept, there are now multiple tools to make life easier. Companies are integrating automation and artificial intelligence (AI) into the SE sphere of influence at a breakneck speed. Virtual reality is commonplace; bots are everywhere; and long before the fifth edition of this book comes out, we’ll have AI assistants listening in on live sales calls and offering suggestions on how you can improve your presentation, phrasing, and overall pitch.
These changes mean that I have written six new chapters, eliminated five chapters, split two chapters in half, and significantly revised or rewritten every other chapter in the book.
You, the Audience
If you are reading this book, you are undoubtedly responsible for navigating through a complex technical sales environment. The techniques I cover are remarkably independent of what you are explaining and selling. Whether it is hardware, software, or services; a physical data center or virtual cloud; networking, security, storage, financial services, medical equipment, or solar-powered devices, it does not matter. What does matter is that you team up with your sales counterpart, and your job is to sell your portfolio to the end customer. The complexity of the sales environment means that there are two sets of buyers: a business buyer and a technology/domain expert gatekeeper. So, there are two sets of sellers: one focuses on the business and commercial aspects, and one focuses on bridging the technical aspects across to the business needs. The sales engineer is that bridge builder.
A quick Google search for sales methodologies yields more than 50 million hits. Amazon shows more than 100,000 books within its sales category. So why do we need yet another book? Unfortunately, 99.9% of those materials focus on old-school selling1 and target the quota-carrying salesperson. This book is for the sales engineer—those who engage on the technical side of the sales and buying process, who are usually the people who know how everything works.2 Some of the more complex transactions I see today involve multiple customer teams of 20–30 people, each specializing in some particular aspect of the technology or the business. Many have advanced degrees in systems architecture or a similar field.
1. Think ABC: Always Be Closing.
2. Don Carmichael, one of the thought leaders in the SE world, once proposed a job title “the person the customers really want to speak with.”
Using the Book
The book is modular, so that you can pick and choose the topics of most relevance to you at the moment. For the brand-new SE, I would suggest that you mostly follow the chapter order, as the chapters build upon each other and follow a somewhat logical sequence. The experienced SE can read through the Contents and select the top three chapters of interest. You do not need to run through the book in sequential chapter order. It is not a murder mystery novel (spoiler: the salesperson is always the killer anyway!), so you can skip chapters as you wish. Each chapter is short enough so that you can read through it in 10–15 minutes and apply the lessons the next day. When reading through the material, you should personalize each technique to fit the genuine and authentic you. You will also need to consider country- and culture-specific modifications. Tactics that work well in the United States do not always apply to Europe and Asia-Pacific and vice versa.
The chapter format is simple and designed to help leverage the material. First, review the list of goals at the start of each chapter. Then use those goals (usually three) as a framework to internalize the contents. Next, read the chapter, and please highlight any materials that jump out at you and make an impact. Whether reading a paper copy or an e-copy, I expect to see annotations, highlights, and sticky notes throughout the material. Next, read the Skill Building table at the end of the chapter and use that summary to put all the concepts together and create a list of action items. The skills tables have two sections: the new SE and the more experienced SE or SE manager. Finally, create a plan to make it happen.
Many Mastering Technical Sales customers form a book club. They assign different chapters to pairs of SEs and ask them to create a short 5- to 10-minute summary presentation of the key learning points from the chapter. That usually leads to an animated discussion and a collection of to-dos and modifications to current systems and materials. It is even more fun when the salespeople or business development representatives join in, as that helps promote a deeper understanding of the different roles.
In addition to the standard text, you will see two additional features. The first are hints. These are specific applications of the techniques that I have gathered from students. The second is some more extended case studies. These are either personal stories or stories from customers that illustrate one or more of the points within the chapter text.
The Bottom Line
Over the past 20 years, more than 40,000 sales engineers and other technical personnel have participated in our workshops. We have delivered these workshops in eight different languages in at least 35 different countries. I know that if you embrace the techniques in the book that you will achieve a better win rate, experience higher customer satisfaction, hit revenue targets, and feel greater job satisfaction. The book intends to help you accomplish the following:
1. Make enough money to be satisfied;
2. Improve your skills;
3. Keep your sanity and composure.
Enjoy the read.
Chapter Goals
Explain who and what is a sales engineer.
What are the critical attributes of a sales engineer?
What Is a Sales Engineer?
What you choose also chooses you.
—Kamand Kojouri
What is a sales engineer (SE), and what do they do? That existential question brings to mind the cocktail party question. You meet someone at a party, and they ask you what you do for a living. You proudly reply, “I am a sales engineer!” Unfortunately, they look at you blankly. That is the fundamental problem with our job. If you were to respond that you are a nurse, a lawyer, a teacher, an architect, or even (gasp) a salesperson, you would receive a nod of understanding. But a sales engineer? You now need a few extra sentences to explain. You are hoping that your newfound friend does not lose interest and decide to refresh their drink instead.
What Is a Sales Engineer?
A sales engineer is a unique blend of four distinct skill sets or personalities. There is no perfect mixture of these personalities. What is essential is that the SE possesses each trait and can quickly morph between any combination of them. The variability of the skill sets shows itself in the multitude of job titles for the profession. The generic and historical term is that of a presales engineer,
Mastering Technical Sales: The Sales Engineer’s Handbook
dating back to a clear division between the activities before the sale and support/installation activities after the sale. There are now well over 50 different job titles, including the most popular sales engineer, solutions engineer, solutions consultant, solutions architect, systems engineer, customer engineer, and technical account manager. Add in other variations with cloud, value, and success in the titles, and the result is general chaos. The final complication is that engineers and architects are protected titles in some countries, so it is almost impossible to agree on a common title within one company, never mind the entire industry.
Reverting to the four skill sets, they revolve around the technical engineer, the salesperson, the trusted advisor, and the storyteller/explainer. Let us examine each of those in a little more detail.
Role #1: The Technical Engineer
There is a misconception that an SE needs a technical background, can program or code in multiple languages, and knows every product feature within the portfolio. That is simply not the case. Some of the best SEs in the business have backgrounds in English literature, philosophy, ancient Roman history, or journalism, just as many practitioners have degrees in information technology, science, engineering, or mathematics. As a hiring manager, I have recruited a full range of personnel, ranging from a published Shakespearean scholar to a rocket scientist from NASA. What matters is the ability to learn just enough about a technical topic to sound knowledgeable. That in itself is a significant skill that leads many SEs to think of themselves as a mile wide and an inch deep.
The SE must then translate that knowledge into a language that everyone else can understand. Most commonly, that is speaking technically with the technicians, explaining business outcomes to management, and debating strategy and options with the executive suite. The engineer component of the title means that we pride ourselves on our technical knowledge. Our technical credibility becomes one of the keys to building successful and winning relationships with those around us.
Role #2: The Salesperson
Make no mistake about it; you have an obligation to sell your company’s products and services. Most often, that occurs more indirectly when partnering with a direct quota carrying salesperson. This concerns some individuals with a predominately technical background, as they have an aversion to sales, which they perceive to be dirty and deceitful. An optimistic view is that you are the catalyst to spark the relationship between your customer and your company. You are selling yourself, your products, and your com-
pany every time you interact with the customer, just in a softer and kinder way.
For a prospective or new SE, the basic rule is do no harm. As long as you understand the sales and buying processes, have a clear demarcation of roles and responsibilities, and have open communication with your sales partner, you are in good shape. If you can learn technology, you can quickly absorb enough about the art and science of selling to become a highly competent SE. As you’ll see later in the book, a proportion of SEs lateral across to a sales role and do exceptionally well, as many of the skills are transferable.
Role #3: The Trusted Advisor and Consultant
The well-rounded SE seeks to understand their customer, both personally and professionally. The consultant aspect applies to learning about how things work, understanding the current and anticipated set of problems, and establishing a golden future where problems are solved and business outcomes are gained. That is all accomplished with patience, discipline, curiosity, and a tight linkage between the technology features and the business drivers.
It is not enough to provide advice. The customer must trust your advice. Your customer must listen and then (we hope) accept and apply your advice. You are part consultant, teacher, psychologist, and counselor, with a sprinkling of financial expertise as seasoning. This is yet another example of the multifaceted role that an SE plays during the entire customer lifecycle. Paying more attention to this component of the job softens the sales aspect of the profile. Most SEs naturally lean into this skillset as it fits the desired technical/business mixture and allows for a gravitational close1 instead of a hard sales close.
Role #4: The Explainer of All Things (the Storyteller)
The previous three personalities are all severely diminished without practical communication skills. Understanding the customer’s business and designing innovative solutions is no use if you cannot explain those solutions (and subsequently sell them) to others. The consummate SE needs to be multilingual and fluently switch between Techie, BizTalk, and ExecSpeak. Imagine explaining a network packet sniffer to those three different types of customers! Unless you are highly technical and are in a room with a dozen other technicians, deep-diving into the intricacies of speeds, feeds, and features will not progress the sales opportunity. Your mission is to explain ex-
1. Everything naturally and inevitably comes together to win the deal. Most salespeople are (rightfully) paid to speed the deal along, which is where the conflict occurs.
actly how your portfolio will help your audience make money, save money, or mitigate risk. For an individual, that can be as simple as the promise that they will go home on time every evening.
One of the most effective communications methods is using stories. In addition to livening up a meeting, a well-constructed story will make you memorable, interesting, and compelling. That is a fantastic position for any SE in any sales situation. So, the final extension is to be the explainer of all things and not be limited to the explainer of all technical things. The feeling when your customer says, “I see what you mean,” is priceless.
All the Other Skills
I like to think of the SE team as the oil that keeps the engine of sales running. In fact, we are the lubricant that powers the entire company. As an SE, you have the opportunity to interact with every other department. You will touch sales, support, corporate marketing, product marketing, product management, engineering, education, professional services, and even finance, legal, and HR. The smaller the company, the greater your reach. There is no other position within the company outside of the executive suite that casts such a vast shadow as the SE team. In reality, you use all of your skills in dealing with prospective customers internally every day.
Romain Vivier, a solutions consulting manager, uses a graphic representation (Figure 1.1) during the hiring process to illustrate the modality of
Figure 1.1 A graphic representation of a sales engineer. (Reprinted with permission from Romain Vivier.)
the SE—known within his company as a sales consultant. Couple all these attributes with a positive attitude, persistence, curiosity, plus a desire to win—and you have a world-class SE. I especially like the graphic as it does emphasize the unique skill of listening. Too many engineers want to hear themselves talk, yet the practical engineer knows how to ask the right question and then shut up and listen.
At heart, we are fixers and pleasers. We like to make people happy, and we want to solve problems. If neither of those outcomes motivates you, then sales engineering is probably not the right job for you. Similarly, if you require a routine and predictable day, want certainty over your schedule, and to know precisely what you will be doing on Thursday, you should look elsewhere.
CASE STUDY: Family Dynamics
As a personal example, when my daughter (an engineer) and I decide to fix something or start a project, my wife (teacher/psychologist) and son (lawyer) know that the best thing to do is to get out of our way. The engineers always prevail through a combination of brute force, stupidity, and the occasional flash of brilliance. It is not always pretty or elegant, but the outcome of our efforts solves a problem. Of course, the rest of the family will say that we do not always listen very well or solve the right problem—but that is a story for another book.
E E E E
Summary
When I ask hiring managers for a word that describes what they are looking for during the interview process, the most popular reply is attitude. However, when I ask for a second word describing the perfect SE once onboarded, that response is adaptable. That flexibility encapsulates the fundamental role of the SE. You must readily switch from the technical to the business aspects of your portfolio; you must build relationships with the hundreds or thousands of people you meet each year and do that with charm and grace. You must accomplish all that with the understanding that most people do not know what you do or how you do it and are clueless about the implications of the job title.
