How can sales engineering managers ensure their teams meet customer needs?

A good Sales Engineer Executive needs to understand what "pain" the solution is solving. It cannot be that a "product" is being built but something an end user needs to have. Star at the end and work backwards.

For example, let's say the customer needs a software solution. Understanding your customer means knowing if they prefer a user-friendly interface (like a smooth detective investigation tool) or if they need powerful analytics (like a detective with a magnifying glass for data clues). The sales engineering manager ensures the team is like Sherlock, solving the case by tailoring the solution to exactly what the customer craves.

Make sure your people are asking the right questions to uncover the needs that the customer needs solutions to .Also ask if the customer has a budget they need to stick with as alot of times the budget will dictate the type of solution you can propose !

Focusing on Continuous Improvement: Encourage a culture of continuous improvement within your team. Regularly solicit feedback from both customers and team members to identify areas for improvement. Implement changes based on this feedback to enhance your processes and better meet customer needs. By fostering a continuous improvement mindset, you can ensure that your team remains agile and responsive to customer demands.

Technical people like engineers really struggle with this because most have an analytical mind. It’s hard to find empathy when your brain thinks analytically.

Alignment is key for the sales engineering team and all key internal stakeholders. None more true than that of alignment between the sales engineers and the sales executives. Likewise, the sales engineering manager should also be completely aligned with internal stakeholders; especially sales management.

Key among customer interactions is understanding who takes the lead and who is in a support role. Typically sales and account managers have better soft interpersonal skills, which means they should lead challenging discussions, and jump in to answer sticky questions. Deciding who should be leading each portion of a discussion, and when, is key so customers don't sense any internal conflict. Another key is to coach all team members to feel comfortable to interject into a discussion when they feel they are best able to interject. This helps avoid the situation where the primary speaker always feels obligated to immediately respond to any and all questions, and those that may not be best for that situation.

a strong understanding of the company's products and services, as well as the technical knowledge to effectively communicate them to customers. Sales engineering managers can help their team develop this expertise by providing training, mentorship, and access to technical resources.

Many salespeople and marketers make the mistake of focusing on the features and benefits of their product or service. But prospects don’t want to buy a product or service. They just want results. By focusing on the results you can create for your clients, you’ll close more sales, and close sales of higher value, without having to increase your effort.

Sales Engineering Managers can enhance the effectiveness of training their team by leveraging their personal journey from an entry-level role to a senior-level position. It is important for all team members to have a solid foundation in areas such as database management, vendor inquiries, and the sales process to effectively execute their responsibilities. One way to visualize and understand the various stages in a sale is by creating a line chart. This visual representation can help identify major events within the sales process, enabling us to implement a strategic approach to support and enhance specific tasks. By taking this approach, we empower ourselves to drive innovation, streamline processes, and boost sales and productivity

Training your sales engineering team is like turning them into expert detectives with a black belt in problem-solving. Imagine you're sending your team to detective school (training), and you want them to graduate as the Sherlock Holmes of customer satisfaction. In this detective school, they'll learn the art of decoding customer needs, the science of crafting tailored solutions, and the magic of turning tech jargon into simple, understandable language (just like Sherlock unravels mysteries). For instance, if a customer speaks the language of "I want a faster software" (the mystery clue), your trained detectives know exactly which tech gears to tweak for speed.

As a leader, you should encourage and facilitate constant learning for your team. As the article states, not just technical/product knowledge, but business and interpersonal skills, as well. Knowing how to best field and respond to questions is just as important as knowing the answer to those questions. For technical skills, there's always something new to learn. Lead by example that it's best not to settle into complacency once you reach a level of competence. There's always something new to learn, and aggressive curiosity is a hallmark of a great SE.

Create a culture where your team is curious like a cat. Encourage them to ask questions, explore new ideas, and stay hungry for knowledge. The more they wonder, the more likely they'll stumble upon innovative solutions. Build a team with diverse skills and perspectives. It's like having detectives with different specialties. A mix of technical geniuses, creative minds, and user experience champions can crack the toughest cases. Innovation comes with trial and error. Allow your team the freedom to experiment, take risks, and sometimes, even fail. Provide your team with a tech playground – a space where they can tinker with new tools, technologies, and ideas.

Encouraging sales engineers to learn about competitors, complementary products/services, and frequently utilized customer solutions should be standard. Providing them with the time and resources to innovate and test different configurations helps them grow their knowledge and skillset. Often this becomes helpful in that while they might not be able to speak directly to a customer's situation, they can add value by speaking about a similar situation. This also allows sales engineers to better understand the wider scope of more customer environments.

Sales engineering managers can ensure their teams meet customer needs through innovation by continuously training, encouraging creativity, collaborating, teaching teams to be adaptive, utilizing technology, and establishing metrics based on innovation. By integrating innovation into the team's tactics and operations, sales engineering managers can position their teams to proactively address customer needs with inventive and practical solutions.

Sales engineering managers play a crucial role in ensuring that their teams effectively meet customer needs and drive sales success. By implementing strategic initiatives and fostering a customer-centric approach, sales engineering managers can empower their teams to deliver exceptional customer experiences and achieve organizational goals. -Understand Customer Needs and Pain Points -Align Technical Solutions with Customer Requirements -Empower Sales Engineers with Technical Expertise -Measure and Monitor Team Performance -Recognize and Reward Customer Success- -Embrace Customer-Centric Technologies -Continuously Adapt and Evolve -Foster a Culture of Customer Advocacy -Seek Customer Feedback -Measure and Monitor Team Performance

É fundamental garantir que os gestores de vendas compreendam seu papel específico no processo de vendas. Obtenha a adesão ao compromisso de aderir à sua parte na experiência do cliente. Para garantir que as equipes atendam às necessidades dos clientes, os gerentes devem alinhar metas e KPIs individuais com a estratégia de vendas. A equipe tem que está atenta à jornada do cliente. Comunique claramente os objetivos (receita, comunicação, expansão, metas, linhas de produtos, margem, etc.), expectativas e funções da equipe. Monitore o progresso da equipe, oferecendo feedback, treinamento e reconhecimento.

Acredito muito na idéia de contribuir para que minha equipe tenha paz para cumprir suas atividades. Um dos desafios desse tipo de atividade é justamente lidar com as demandas comerciais mas na mesma intensidade se habilitar tecnicamente, fazer os logs de atividades e por fim, estar preparado. Eu entrego os méritos do meu time para o time. Dou publicidade as feitos e funciono como um facilitador para as suas necessidades.

Throughout my journey, I have consistently invested substantial energy into the intricate task of fostering motivation particularly in contexts that demand a high level of articulation. This complexity arises from standing in front of diverse individuals, each possessing a unique mindset, distinct style, and varied approaches to accomplishing tasks. This endeavor requires finesse as it places you in front of a multitude of personalities, all with their own methods of achieving objectives and overtaking obstacles. Sometimes you do right, sometimes you do wrong. There is not a recipe, it's mostly all about experience.

Understand Customer Needs and Pain Points： To meet customer needs， it is essential to first understand what those needs are. Sales engineering managers should encourage their teams to engage in active listening and ask probing questions to uncover the customer's challenges， goals, and expectations. This understanding forms the foundation for tailoring solutions that address specific customer requirements.

Like all roles in the sales org, tying back to revenue is key. Beyond win rates, analyze deal cycle length and average sales price. Sales velocity here is important to understand whether the additional resource is driving meaningful increment revenue (either is seller hours saved and/new revenue obtained).

This is one of the best way for evaluation, but in this case we need a proper data structure which let the customers to register their comments and categorized them. Then it would be possible for sales manager to analyze it.

track the team's performance to ensure that they are meeting the selected needs. This can be done by tracking metrics such as customer satisfaction, win rates, and time to close.

managers should regularly provide feedback to their team members on their performance. This feedback should be specific, actionable, and timely. Sales engineering managers should also provide coaching to help their team members develop their skills and improve their performance.

Leveraging my experience, I've discovered that setting clear, attainable targets within specified timeframes, alongside a direct control and reward approach, leads to favorable outcomes. For example, if an annual goal is achieved in just six months, a creative reward could involve providing individuals with an extended six-month break. This contrasts with setting overly ambitious targets that might strain the entire structure due to their unrealistic nature. The emphasis here is on maintaining a balance, avoiding undue stress on the system while still fostering motivation through achievable objectives.

Another thing that can go a long way is having regular "value stream mapping" discussions with folks from all departments. When the sales team can see how every little decision affects the next department down the line then bterr decisions are made on the front end.

In my experience, there are multiple sales interfaces with clients. Whether you're in Outside Sales, Inside Sales or operational Sales Support, you must be a "sustaining resource" for the customer. Meaning that YOU are the expert and quick to get back to the customer if you don't have the answer, WITH the answer. Time is money and customers will choose the supplier that helps them get the most productivity with the least effort. In most cases "price" only matters if you offer nothing of value outside of price. So, KNOW your company's value proposition to the customer, make it a statement that you can articulate and LIVE it! If you can't, then get together and dig deep to correct it, quickly. Lastly, ask relevant questions and LISTEN.