Comments on: The SEven SE Sins.  #7: Believing What You Hear http://salesengineering.com/blog/2008/01/29/the-seven-se-sins-7-assuming-face-value-is-enough/ Sales Enginering | Pre-Sales Performance Excellence Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:01:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Sniganoo http://salesengineering.com/blog/2008/01/29/the-seven-se-sins-7-assuming-face-value-is-enough/#comment-9 Sniganoo Sun, 03 Feb 2008 19:40:28 +0000 http://salesengineering.com/blog/2008/01/29/the-seven-se-sins-7-assuming-face-value-is-enough/#comment-9 As an SE (or Pre-Sales Engineer as we cal them in the UK) I find that Sales reps rule the roost in terms of knowledge and information surrounding the prospect. They often give the SE just enough information about the situation, whether it be one or two nuggets regarding their pain points or business drivers for looking at our solutions or in most cases, just the company name, vertical market, number of users and existing solution. I hear the phrase "Can you do an X demo tomorrow?" more times than I are to share! A major challenge for the SE is to get the sales rep to think of Pre-Sales as valuable consultants rather than people who can answer technical questions. It is something I am working on and hope to achieve in order to create and add more value to the business. Anyone can answer a technical question but not anyone can work on creating a technical solution. Sales and Pre Sales need to be seen as equally important in the sales cycle. I don't see that happening any time soon but I would wager that if they were then revenue would increase exponentially as a result. As an SE (or Pre-Sales Engineer as we cal them in the UK) I find that Sales reps rule the roost in terms of knowledge and information surrounding the prospect. They often give the SE just enough information about the situation, whether it be one or two nuggets regarding their pain points or business drivers for looking at our solutions or in most cases, just the company name, vertical market, number of users and existing solution. I hear the phrase “Can you do an X demo tomorrow?” more times than I are to share!

A major challenge for the SE is to get the sales rep to think of Pre-Sales as valuable consultants rather than people who can answer technical questions. It is something I am working on and hope to achieve in order to create and add more value to the business.

Anyone can answer a technical question but not anyone can work on creating a technical solution. Sales and Pre Sales need to be seen as equally important in the sales cycle. I don’t see that happening any time soon but I would wager that if they were then revenue would increase exponentially as a result.

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