Sales Engineering.mp4

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

Sales engineering is a hybrid of sales and engineering that exists in industrial and commercial markets. Buying decisions in these markets are made differently than those in many consumer contexts, being based more on technical information and rational analysis and less on style, fashion, or impulse. Therefore, selling in these markets cannot depend on consumer-type sales methods alone, and instead, it relies heavily on technical information and problem-solving to convince buyers that they should spend money on the seller’s products or services, in order to meet a business need (that is, to satisfy a business case). A sales engineer is thus both „a salesperson that understands and can apply to engineer“ and „an engineer that understands how to sell engineered systems“.

The essence of the sales engineering role can be called by various names. Which name is most apt can even depend on which industry it is used in. Some common job titles that involve the essence of sales engineering include sales engineer, solutions engineer, solutions architect, systems engineer, customer engineer, pre-sales consultant, technical account manager,[applications engineer, or field applications engineer. The term systems engineering has various shades of meaning, however, as it is often more or less synonymous with industrial engineering; but in any market economy, industrial engineers will often end up providing some sales engineering as a necessary portion of their work. Service technicians in industrial fields may also find that their work challenges them to provide some sales engineering, to whatever extent they are capable of providing it, because they interface with customers having problems with equipment (or lacking the right equipment) and seeking solutions (anywhere from diagnosis and repair, to identifying entirely different systems that could be used instead).

Teaching customers
Many products and services purchased by large companies and institutions are highly complex. Examples include airliners, weapons systems, and IT systems (such as telecommunications, or databases and their dependent applications for purposes such as logistics or customer relationship management). Sales engineers advise customers on how best to use the products or services provided.

The sales process also may require some technical proof of concept or tech demo to be assured of the practicality of the solution. Sales engineers normally will ensure these efforts are successful.

Tailoring of solutions
Sales engineers also collaborate with the design, production, engineering, or R&D departments of their companies to determine how products and services could be made or modified to suit customers‘ needs.

Personnel considerations
Talents, skills, knowledge
The companies that employ sales engineers need to sell their products or services to generate income, but since engineers and scientists usually have substantially different personality traits than those required for sales work, there is a role for people with a combination of abilities. These individuals must have a technical understanding of the complexities of what their company supplies together with sales skills. This combination of traits is not common.

Travel, communications, telepresence, compensation
Sales engineers may spend 20% to 70% of their time traveling, and they may work a flexible schedule due to the needs of the sales organization they support. Most sales engineers telecommute or spend a limited amount of time in the office. Skills with IT that help remote people communicate better, such as teleconferencing, videoconferencing, web conferencing, and telepresence (e.g., GoToMeeting, WebEx, Live Meeting, Fuze Meeting) are put to good use both on and off the road.

Sales engineers, like their sales representative counterparts, are hired based on their geographic location rather than their proximity to the corporate, or even regional, office. Working in another part of the country, or even outside the country, where the corporate offices are, a sales engineer may only make it to corporate headquarters once or twice each year.

Sales engineering resources
Sales engineering is often different from traditional sales roles. The systems, products, and technology that a sales engineer sells are often complex and expensive. Traditional sales strategies, especially „hard closing“ techniques, may not work and in some cases can even hurt a sale. As technology advances, so must the sales strategy of a sales engineer.

Consultative approach
Sales engineers and technical sales reps must perfectly understand the product or service they are selling; they should be able to explain in detail how it works, what business value it offers, and the results that customers will achieve.