The Trusted Advisor Sales Engineer

You can be a T/A with a low “P” score – many finance, legal, and medical professionals fit into that category. After visiting John, my accountant, I rarely feel uplifted and full of joie de vivre. However, I usually leave the meeting feeling reassured and confident that my taxes are in order and that I will not get in trouble with the myriad of fed

Remember that as S is the denominator (bottom) of the equation, a low score is good, and a high score is terrible. This measures how much you think about yourself and your company versus the customer’s needs. When you find yourself thinking about selling instead of solving, of quota instead of discovery questions, or of transactions instead of long

SEs are rarely accused of being greedy or just being in it for the money (a.k.a. coin-operated), so their form of Self is usually a little more subtle. However, many issues around a poor S can come from having the good intentions of being the best SE possible. Some classic examples are: Interrupting the customer. Because you know the answer! Consta

Six Ways To Decrease Your Self-Orientation Yes, I do mean “decrease”! Remember that high S is bad. You want the relationship to be about the customer, not all about you. Feelings. As well as going for hard data, try asking the client, “how do you feel about that?” It’s that touchy-feely area that SEs hate – but it can reveal a lot about what a clie

Positivity needs to be authentic. Showing artificial optimism, confidence and spirit can work against you as it is not the “real you.” Your body language will

Take The Blame. It is your fault if something goes wrong or doesn’t work or there is a communication failure. That’s both internal and external. Do Right. Be more concerned about doing the right thing than about being right.

“I’m a first-year associate at a prestigious management consulting company in the UK. Not a day goes by without someone higher up the chain of command reminding us that “the customer comes first.” We are told, “Do the right thing for the customer.” Yet not a week goes by without seeing several instances of those same senior managers flogging (Brit.

rediscovered his passion for all parts of the sales process. (Although the hamster analogy is terrible, you must admit that the visuals made you smile.)

issues, as (to foreshadow the next chapter) the #1 thing most mid to senior-level executives expect from a vendor’s presales organization is someone who understands their business.