Crossing the line between the tech vault and headset-wielding sales reps, technical salespeople may be the most important link in closing enterprise-wide deals for today’s technology companies.
They bring solid people skills as well as intimate knowledge of their high-tech products to the table, making them an indispensable part of modern sales teams.
Technical salespeople do not typically perform the earliest steps in the sales cycle: gathering leads, calling prospects, or arranging initial meetings. Instead, they work in a team with a front-line traditional sales representative.
In some organizations, technical sales reps may find themselves exclusively partnered with one or more front-line reps or assigned by territory, while in others they may focus on a particular expertise and be brought in on relevant deals.
Clarify Inc., a developer of front-office software products for large corporations, employs sales engineers as this critical link in the sales process. Carol Chase, senior sales engineer at Clarify’s Downers Grove office, said her role is “to help the sales representative define the client’s business problem at hand and communicate the technical details of how the solution addresses the user’s business problem.”
Chase said that while in some organizations technical sales double as post-sale support, Clarify ultimately turns installed customers over to support specialists. The flip side is that sales engineers are held accountable for account turnover, and reap the rewards from a commission pool.
Sales engineers do not typically depend on commission and are paid solid base salaries. Since it is not commonly an entry-level position, new hires can earn upwards of $50,000-$60,000 in salary to start.
The lifestyle of a sales engineer requires a certain amount of flexibility — Chase said that sales preparation, including building sales presentations and demonstrations, occupies 30 percent to 40 percent of her time and that she and her colleagues travel as much as half of their work days. “But they’re short trips, maybe out at the client a day or two days (at a time.) And you have more than one deal going at a time, so that keeps you hopping.”
Technical salespeople are expected to have an intimate knowledge of their products. Being able to identify client needs and understand how the company’s products can solve a client’s needs is critical.
Russ Glover, regional sales engineer manager for Clarify, says that he is looking for people who can “understand the business requirements within the context of how those requirements map to our specific technology. They can take the ball and analyze where the client’s business is effective and where the pain points are.”
Taking a requirements analysis and building a technical presentation is the climax of the sales engineer’s responsibilities. After meeting with the client, comparing notes with the sales representative and crafting a strategy for solving a client’s problems, they are sometimes solely responsible for creating the presentation and product demonstration that will ultimately result in a signed contract.
Many technical sales jobs are hiding under other headings in the statistics. According to estimates by the Illinois Department of Employment Security, there may be about 2,500 identifiable technical sales specialists in the state in 1999.
Robert Rice of Gregory Laka and Associates, a Chicago high-tech recruiting firm, pointed to software development firms as well as software consultants as the top employers of technical salespeople.
What makes a likely candidate? Glover looks first for technical ability: “Skills to work with client-server applications and the ability to work with them in depth are my No. 1.”
Sales experience, although important, plays second fiddle. “Sales engineers need to be comfortable presenting to an audience as technical or even more technical than themselves, but also communicating with end users and senior level decision makers, to show that they understand the business problems. Aptitude for communication is important.”
Rice agrees. “Going from a technical background into sales is an easier transition than going the opposite way, because when you have the technical skills and go into a sales position, you have the knowledge to convey the technical details.
“Coming from a sales background and going into technical sales,” Rice added, “they have to learn a lot — it takes more initiative and delving into books.”
And that learning curve may give the “sociable tech” the leg up on the skilled salesperson when moving to technical sales.
