TLDR: Joe Apuzzo interviewed with the Pipeline Press team to talk about the role and importance of a Solution Engineer (SE) in the sales process. Sales is a team sport, and the SE plays a strategic role in helping the customer understand the value of your technical solution, or as some would say helps talk nerd to the prospect.
What is an SE and why is it an important role in sales?
A Solution Engineer is a technical sales subject matter expert brought into the sale cycle to assist with helping the prospect to understand the technical value of a solution or product. The SE’s role is critical to help convey technical aptitude and solidify product and industry knowledge.
What role in the sales process does an SE play?
Typically, an SE is brought in during the presales process, as early at the demonstration phase. Some organizations have an SE on all calls with customers and prospects, while others at selective times.
Depending on the situation, the Account Executive or Sales Representative would have completed some discovery, allowing for the SE to help explain the product or solution tying that initial discovery of problems the customer is looking to solve to the value of the solutions the company sells.
What makes a great SE?
Personally for me it is that perfect mix of technical knowledge and the ability to relay that information to someone who may not be as technically savvy.
Working with a sales rep can take time to find balance. There needs to be a symbiotic relationship of who speaks when, what role each person is to play on the calls, and what the objective is of each call. A great SE is the technical crutch that truly helps sell the value of the product at a deeper level for the customer.
What are common struggles of an SE?
The struggle with any technical role is always soft skills. The best recommendation I can give is outside learning.
There are so many organizations that can help, for free or minimal costs, as well as programs within your organizations. The same can be said for learning more technology.
I’ve sometimes seen the SE overstep their boundaries on a call by stepping on toes. A best way to prevent this is for pre-call prep with your sales person to strategize.
What has your sales journey been thus far?
My sales journey started in the IT support/break-fix world. But funny enough I’ve always been a bit of an extrovert and loved speaking with people. That’s something most IT back office people are not.
After a few years and help from my mentors, I was able to marry the two skills of technical and a people person into a consultative sales role. I became an SE and fell in love with the role.
I’ve worked for multiple startups as an SE, then joined Coro as the first SE in the company. From there with a lot of hard work and dedication to the technical aspects the solution provides as well as training others I was promoted into a Director of Solution Engineers role in which I had a team of multiple SE’s reporting to me.
As the company found tremendous success, so did I. I was promoted to the role of Senior Sales Director to help bridge the gap between sales reps and solution engineers.
