Mastering Change: How Sales Engineers Can Navigate Conflicting Engineering Updates

As a sales engineer, there will be a day when engineering releases an update or new feature that breaks a key selling feature that you have been highlighting in a proof-of-concept. This will be one of the most frustrating days of your life because you will have to scramble to figure out what happened. You play a crucial role in bridging the gap between engineering and customers and there are times that engineering can have a fundamental disconnect from what they are trying to accomplish and the customer account team’s priority. These changes that engineering makes can profoundly impact your proof of concepts and conflict with the messaging you present to customers resulting in trust being broken between you, your company, and the customer. How can you effectively manage such situations? In this article, we will explore strategies to navigate these challenges while maintaining strong relationships with both engineering and customers.

Question, Collaborate, and Provide Feedback to Engineering and Product Teams

Even if you have good communication with the product teams, there still may be a chance that you will get caught off guard by changes made in a release. When engineering changes have the potential to negatively impact your proof of concepts and can impact revenue, you as the sales engineer need to ask a lot of questions. Try to learn why the change was made and where it is documented. It's important to collaborate with the engineering team. Communicate your concerns, explain the potential impact on customers, and provide specific feedback on how changes might affect the customer’s goals with your solution. The best is to provide specific use cases that can no longer be completed as expected. Instead of opposing the changes outright, offer constructive suggestions and work together to find a middle ground that satisfies both engineering requirements and customer expectations.

Escalate Internally

As a sales engineer, there is a high likelihood that you may not be in a position to influence a large change out the gate, but there will be channels that you can escalate your concerns and impact to a customer. This will be absolutely crucial to escalate this internally before you speak with the customer because you want to make sure that you can get the full picture of what next steps or actions will be taking place internally. Communicate the potential consequences of the changes to your immediate manager and relevant stakeholders in the organization. Clearly articulate how these changes may hinder your ability to meet customer needs or impact on sales revenue. By escalating the issue, you demonstrate your commitment to the company's success and open the door for further discussion and action. This is a great opportunity to lead by keeping track with meetings, documenting all outcomes, and following up on next steps.

Adapt and Reassess Next Steps:

These conflicting changes will most likely force you to adapt and reassess your approach. There may also be the chance that the release breaks a key feature that will not allow you to adapt in a way that will satisfy the customer. This will result in a decision of continued escalation or taking the lost with your opportunity. If you can adapt, embrace agility, and seek opportunities to leverage the new changes to your advantage. Engage with the engineering team to understand the reasoning behind the changes and brainstorm creative solutions. By adapting your proof of concepts to align with the new direction, you can demonstrate your ability to evolve with the product and show customers the value of the updates.

Communicate Transparently with Customers

After many years of being in a sales engineering role, I can tell you that customers can smell BS, so don’t lie to them. Honest and transparent communication with the customer is key when dealing with changes that conflict with the messaging you have shared with the customer. Inform your customers about the engineering updates, be clear what the impact will be on their goals, emphasizing the benefits (if any) and share the plan on the long-term impact on their experience. Address any concerns they may have and provide reassurance that their needs and requirements are still a top priority. By maintaining open lines of communication and demonstrating your commitment to their success, you can foster trust and retain their confidence in your solutions.

Provide Training and Support

You will need to take time and go through all your materials, assets, and documents to make all the updates to include the change. If you are a senior or principal sales engineer, offer to provide training and support to your team to ensure they are well-prepared to discuss the engineering changes with customers. This is a good opportunity to include sales teams to train them and expand your network internally. Conduct training sessions or workshops to explain the updates, the rationale behind the changes, and how to address any potential objections or questions from customers. By equipping your team with the knowledge and confidence to navigate these discussions, you can ensure a consistent and coherent message is conveyed to customers.

Collaborate and Provide Feedback

When faced with conflicting messaging due to engineering changes, collaborate with the product or engineering teams to find a solution that balances their requirements with customer expectations. Provide feedback on how the changes impact the company and suggest alternative approaches that align both engineering needs and customer interests. By fostering an environment of collaboration and constructive feedback, you can work together to address the challenges and find a resolution that benefits all parties involved. This is where sales engineers shine because we are the best at blending tech with business acumen.

Seek Customer Feedback

Once the changes have been implemented and communicated, seek continuous feedback from customers. Encourage open and honest conversations to understand how the updated flows resonate with their expectations. Actively listen to their feedback and use it to iterate and refine the customer flows further. This iterative approach ensures that you stay aligned with customer requirements and can effectively navigate any future engineering changes that may arise. This will also provide a great opportunity for you to rely on real world impact to engineering and make customer driven feedback to influence future changes to have a positive impact with customers.

Look for New Opportunities

The thing that makes sales engineers very effective in our roles is having trust in the solutions that we offer to customers, but if a change has a such a negative impact on customer experiences and your working experience then it may be time to reevaluate and decide if a new opportunity is right for. Our role relies on us being trusted advisors and if you feel that you can no longer maintain that trust then look for new opportunities internally or externally. This is the most extreme example of an outcome but it does happen when solutions change so drastically and can no longer offer the same level of experience as it has done in the past. This will likely be an option if you feel like internal escalation is not effective or if engineering continues to have a fundamental misunderstanding between customer messages and their roadmap.

As a sales engineer, navigating engineering changes that impact your work and conflicts with the messaging to customers can be very challenging. However, by communicating with engineering and product, escalating internally, adapting your materials, communicating changes internally and externally, and seeking feedback, you can effectively manage these situations. Remember, by ensuring your materials reflect the latest changes and actively engaging with customers, you can maintain alignment between engineering and customer expectations, that lead to successful sales outcomes.