I am biased, but I believe variety makes pre-sales engineering the best job in the tech industry. The first sales colleague I asked for confirmation looked at me weirdly but it didn’t take long to get a second opinion – I found this after a quick search becoming an SE.

The demands on a pre-sales engineering (SE #salesengineering ) team are plentiful and diverse. The pecuniary rewards and public adulation can be lower than for their account manager colleagues. The variable component of the salary is often lower too. On the upside, there is great visibility for the SE in many aspects of a company’s activities. This leads to interesting and varied days “at the office” and “on the road”. Also, as a group, I will generalize that they all have a passion for their product, solution, and vertical. Every SE manager has the raw material required to make a good job of it. Let me share some tips on how I build my SE teams and lead individuals to success for the benefit of the company.

SEs require a significant investment in training, knowledge acquisition and in the field experience to perform at the highest level and SEs with this become a very valuable asset to the company. We need to make sure turnover is low, productivity high and results at, or above, expectations.

How did I build my SE teams? My 5 Steps to structure Sales Engineering teams.

Variable pay, visible rewards

Let us say that pre-sales engineers have 20% variable pay. This is enough to motivate and structure the approach to daily tasks. If I don’t help to sell, my pay will decrease and I won’t be able to afford large fries anymore. So, my focus is to sell. The objectives must reflect this.

I would generally split the 20% into 2 parts, maybe of 10% each, to allow some fine tuning. It is, for example, rare that account managers and pre-sales engineers work on a 1:1 ratio. I have worked on a 1:4 ratio. Each pre-sales engineer is therefore on call to 4 sales managers with 4 targets and many more different accounts. With a potentially large and conflicting source of requests for support setting the team on the right road at the start of each year is key.

Player Coach

It was not possible, as the manager of an international team, to sit behind the desk and manage the team from a distance. I needed to feel the pleasure and pain of the market, the solution, the technology. Unless there is sufficient budget, giving the manager some share of the portfolio keeps costs down. So, player-coach it is for me. A player with similar pressures to deliver value in their own market segment, solution, technology or some other element that I own. And coach, to encourage the team to overtake their leader and exceed goals; to become stronger together than the individual members of the team.

Flexibility and Structure

The objectives set at the start of each year, and reviewed at least once halfway through, must be focused on selling. I would ask the sales team to identify their top 3-5 accounts and align these with the objectives of the individual pre-sales engineer. These accounts are the must-win accounts and everyone knows they get pre-sales support, no need to ask, it just happens, whenever is needed. After that, we have a sales target for the region. Let’s divide that amongst ourselves and identify with the account managers, who own those top 5-10 accounts, where those $$$ will come from. This should define a list of next level priorities.

Booking these $$$ gives each SE their on target earnings (OTE), for the first part of the 20%.  

As we have seen earlier, there is another aspect. Pre-sales engineers do not operate independently. They rely on each other every day. To clarify technical points, suggestions on architecture, pricing, and market background. In my teams, there has always been a need to cover for each other too. Therefore, we need to address the balance between team and individual commission. I have always preferred, and it’s not a right-wrong decision, individual commission. The fixed 80% of the salary package, which does not vary, covers the shared responsibility. Establish this clearly for the team and intra-team support, backup cover and help should be a lot smoother.

Team spirit, recognition, and accountability

This shared responsibility is built on team spirit where everyone is seen to be taking their share of the pain/gain. When people are successful I, as their direct manager, acknowledge this in a manner that they find acceptable. I would also ask the sales team manager to celebrate their success too. Those who are not achieving success should be held accountable and given the support needed to amend their methods and approach.  They are part of the team and the investment in each member is high and not to be discarded lightly.

Innovation

The pre-sales engineer (SE) role is based on many things. We have seen that learning and sharing the knowledge is one element. I believe making it easily accessible is another as I discussed earlier using our communication skills.

To support these aspects, the provision of supporting collateral, data sheets and presentations is essential. These are continually evolving. The standard corporate deck is a source of ideas and inspiration, but as a pre-sales engineer, I rarely present it as is. And every customer will have their own individual problem and maybe a view of where our solution can help them. So, the pre-sales team must have time to prepare each meeting and must make that time as short as possible to keep productivity high. Many will have, for example like me, a 100+ slide master deck that they select material from to prepare each meeting. This master deck will evolve which each presentation delivered.

For large deals, a successful presentation will generate a Request for something – RFI or RFP. Responding quickly and accurately to these is critical. This is a huge part of the pre-sales’ day. Any optimization, automation, etc will bring great savings over time. Wherever possible tools to make the process easily repeatable and error-free are a boon to productivity. 

Tools pre-sales engineers

Having up to date presentations and quoting tools are essential tools pre-sales engineers need. But why stop there? My favorite tool was the simple script that took my calendar and turned it into an excel sheet to help me respond to the requirement to track my activities. A tedious task that took too much of my time (although some people may debate that) and turned it into a simple formatting task that could fill the occasional 10-minute gap in the day. This tool came from within the team, trying to solve our “day job” issues.

Back to my point, every pre-sales engineer must have an objective to innovate as part of their targets, or KPI/MBO. Keep them thinking about how to improve. Not only their day job, but the products, process, interactions, and deliverables to increase profit and productivity and also keep the pre-sales engineering profession moving forward.

Conclusion

The pre-sales engineer (SE) comes with enthusiasm and passion pre-installed. They need a leader who transforms their energy into valuable achievements, that their deliverables are seen as valuable and they are rewarded. That the team, manager, and members, are all pulling together and that everyone is accountable. Over time this generates trust and a desire to excel that helps all overachieve and go home each day wanting more.

Let me take your challenge and define a structure looking at headcount, training, rewards and location amongst other things. Contact us now.