The 7 habits of highly effective sales engineers
December 8, 2011 § 9 Comments
Selling complex technology frequently relies on the efforts of the technical pre-sales team. Surprisingly, given the importance of this role, it seems that every company has a different name for these professionals. Some of the most common titles include:
- Sales engineers
- Systems consultants
- Sales support analysts
- Systems engineers
I’ve been a sales engineer, and I’ve led my share of sales engineering organizations. Based on many years of experience, I’ve found that there are very few people out there who possess the special blend of talents necessary to flourish in this challenging but potentially lucrative job. Here’s a list of those traits along with links to posts about each one:
Many sales engineers spend a considerable amount of time working on proof of concept (POC) tasks. If you’d like to learn more about this aspect of the job, be sure to check out some of my other blog entries.
If you’re curious about other technical sales and sales engineering subjects, click here.
rdschneider 
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience on this topic. As fellow IT professional, albiet with less years under my belt, I have found this information valuable for new job I will be starting soon. Generically speaking, I think these habits would be effective for any IT person who has contact with clients.
I am starting a blog of my own at completelytest.com and I hope after a bit of practice [we spell it with a ‘c’ in Australia] I can blog as well as yourself.
Thanks again. I look forward to the final instalment of self-direction.
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