Becoming an effective Solutions Architect/Sales Engineer Part 1

"I'm old = I have perspective."

As hard as it is to come to terms with this, I have been in the tech industry in some form or fashion for approximately 24 years. A while back, I was speaking to a manager about how longevity can provide advantages in our industry, and he put it best when he said it provides 'perspective'. The fact is that when you are in an industry for any length of time you have seen and learned from a lot of successes and a lot of failures. This perspective cannot be learned. It has to be lived.

And with this perspective comes soft skills. The soft skills needed to be successful as a Solutions Architect/Sales Engineer could fill a 10 page Venn diagram.

One of the key challenges I have seen in my time is the ability to obtain and apply these soft skills necessary for success in sales related technical roles. This series will hopefully hit on some of them and help people either looking into a technical sales role, or someone who is already in this position and looking to grow in their role.

Repeat after me, "I am in sales."

The first thing I will say is that it is all about being part of a team, and that team's goal is to sell. We can sugarcoat it all we want, but if you have a product you believe in, your primary objective is to help people utilize that product. As I was typing this, I almost got out the thesaurus to replace the word "sell".

Oh crap! I'm a salesman!

It has developed such a negative connotation. I will say that it was a stereotype that I fought and basically ignored for a long time in my career until I was able to come to terms with it. It may not sound like a big deal, but it can severely affect your success. To be successful, we need to be proud of what we do. The fact is that I (and my employer) make money because customers buy a product that I am responsible for selling. Now, how you go about this is up to you. But if you look at your activities throughout a day, week, month, or year, if you aren't focused on achieving this primary goal, you may not be in your role for long.

I run into sales stereotype challenges on a weekly basis in my role. Untrusting customers thinking I'm trying to "get in their pocket". Assumptions of social acquaintances based on the sales aspect of my career. Even my own need to focus on the technical aspects of my role when talking with people to validate myself. It is up to me to challenge them when needed, and to do my job in a way that chips away at that image. My approach with customers is to primarily be an educator related to where my product fits, and doesn't fit. If it is something that fits their use case, then we proceed further. If it doesn't fit, we move on...no harm, no foul.

For many this image or notion of being in sales is something they are comfortable with, but I can tell you that especially for technical people moving into technical sales, if you tip toe around the sales aspects of your role, you will be handicapping yourself and your sales team. We do what is comfortable. As technologists it means we will take on every technical side project we can just to stay in our comfort zone.

So, where do we go from here? As I mentioned, this will be a series on the SA role, and I want each blog to be a digestible chunk of information. In subsequent posts, I will hit on the following:

• Being part of a sales team - you are not a resource to be brought in for "technical validation"

• Who do I serve? - My customers? My manager? My sales partner? My team? My family? (spoiler - yes to all)

• What do I actually do? - sales is my primary goal, but how else should I spend my time?

• When the product isn't the problem. Helping my customers prepare to leverage my product is often as or more important than the product itself.

• How do I handle the pressure of a QUOTA? - This is harder than you might think for us techies.

• What about my personal brand?

• How should I approach continuing education?

• Whatever comes up as we dig in further.

I hope people find this valuable. I know that the effort writing this helps me hone in my daily activities and motivation. I will try my best to be open about successes AND failures. I've probably learned more from the latter than the former!