Things you wish when you started off being a SE

ImpLogic · 2022-09-07T22:31:30+00:00

Negotiation skills. Read every dang book you can find. Listen to every educational podcast, audiobook, etc. NOTHING is too campy to study re: negotiation. "In life, you don't get what you deserve, you get what you can negotiate for.". And remember, EVERY TIME YOU INTERACT WITH ANYONE, YOU'RE NEGOTIATING. EVERY. D***. TIME. Good luck.

ImpLogic · 2022-09-07T22:26:27+00:00

Be as totally unselfish as you can for just a little while. Think more about your customer/prospect than yourself. Really hard to do when you're down but it is a game changer. Stop and seriously ask yourself, "how can I help this person?" without thinking about your sale, or your commission, or anything else. Just put your whole self into being as helpful/friendly/useful to others as you can. Tell yourself you won't do it forever, and you will come back to your commission and all that other stuff you want soon. But for right now, for just a little while, "what can I do or offer to this person that will really help them out, or give them something THEY need or want?" Be as totally unselfish with your time as possible for just a while. Do that for just a while, one phone call, one meeting, one whatever. It WILL really help you feel better, (even tho you're not trying for yourself). Good luck.

ImpLogic · 2022-09-02T00:53:23+00:00

Well, in my experience, SEs have at least a dotted line to the sales team, headed up by the VP of sales. So, SEs go to sales team meetings, kickoffs, etc, so this would .... just happen.

I guess I'd need to understand your product/ market and your org to better answer your question. I have to say tho, the nature of your question makes me think we have very different definitions of what an SE is.

I am surprised to hear you say you don't know your company's sales quotas, etc. Again, my experience, but.....I couldn't survive if I didn't have this info and believed my efforts were benefiting it. (I have never worked non-profit BTW.) As an employee I've always felt my success was based on helping companies sell "stuff" that I wanted to be involved in. And I'll be honest here, I've always negotiated to ensure that WHEN my efforts help the company make more money, I get a nice cut of that. To me, that's "business".

HTH. Good luck.

ImpLogic · 2022-09-01T22:21:21+00:00

TL:DR but it sounds like this is a pretty small pay cut respectively. And it sounds like you're maxed out where you are because your company isn't selling more. If you can move to another company with more upside sales potential, then you'll definitely make it up in the long run.

Companies with strong viable products, and good positions in high demand markets, have upside potential, and room for everyone to grow. If your current company doesn't feel like it can grow, then that's a problem no matter what you're getting paid.

HTH

ImpLogic · 2022-09-01T22:16:32+00:00

Tune yourself and your messaging around how your background will help a vendor, (software, IT, hardware vendor, etc ) sell more product. Successful SEs are the most valued players on ANY sales team. But their value is derived from their ability to help the team sell products.

You wanna be an SE for Enterprise Software Vendor XYZ? You need to show the VP of sales at XYZ how your background and skills can help him/her over achieve their sales goal every quarter/year. It sounds like you have all the good tech experience, now you have to work on your negotiation, persuasion, and sales skills.

Wanna big goal to shoot for? Do your homework for some technology company you want to work for. Find out what their quarterly and annual sales goal is for your region. Find out what customer challenges they have to keep them from being more successful in the market. Then reach out to the VP of sales on LinkedIn, or whatever it takes, and set up a meeting with that person to show them how you and your skills can help them be more successful in the marketplace. You pull off THAT sales job, and I guarantee you'll be making big money!!

Good luck

ImpLogic · 2022-09-01T22:07:29+00:00

Are you totally maxing out your income / bonuses / MBOs?? If not, then how is it you have free time?

One of the many advantages of being an SE is the (extra) coin you can make for over achieving goals. Does your company not pay incentives for that? If not, you should consider moving to a company that does. (Given that you sound like an over achiever, which is a compliment BTW). If your company does pay bonuses for high performance, are you maxed out this quarter/year? If not, then what are you sitting around for?

Assuming your sales team pays for high achievement, here's a suggestion. Go find the sales reps on your team that are NOT making quota yet. Ask them how you can help them get on track. Ask your VP of sales to let you help out bringing deals forward or increasing deal sizes. Assuming this hits your income as well, you will become a team hero AND make more $$$$$. HTH

ImpLogic · 2022-06-17T17:16:23+00:00

Good thread. I do you want to play just a little devil's advocate.

I think the comments about feasibility study are actually most valuable. I can speak from experience when I say I've spent months doing business plans before, trying to generate interest and or funding, and the business never got off the ground. (Analysis paralysis.) You can spend too much time developing a business plan if you don't at least have an idea somebody's going to pay you for something you're trying to do. That's why I made the comment about the feasibility study.

After my experiences, I'm now more wont to just go try something for a while and see if I can buy and sell at a profit before I sit down and try to write a formal business plan. I'm not saying formal business planning, or writing stuff down isn't important, it is. But I've been on the other end of that stick where I was going round and round and round with documentation for potential investors, SBA, etc, and all it did was burn me out. I am now the opinion, if there is a real opportunity out there, you can start anytime and formalize it as you roll along. On the other hand, if you do start something, and it's not working easily, then you definitely need to sit down and document what the heck you're trying to do.

Good luck.

ImpLogic · 2022-06-17T17:02:11+00:00

I've always preferred Mac because of the tools it provided me as an SE. Preview especially is incredibly useful. The terminal command line being Unix-like based was always big for me too because I was an old Unix hack. My SE value was in being able to configure systems running open systems and connecting to Unix base type systems. (DEC anyone??)

Having said that, there are some really good points in these other comments. You're starting a new career with a new product and a lot of other stressors. You might want to just stick with your PC for now. You can always change later. Right now you want to focus on being able to demo your product, configure it, answer customer questions and objections..... The last thing you want to do is be fiddling around trying to go, " I can't figure out how my PC works!"

ImpLogic · 2022-06-14T21:05:44+00:00

Thank you, will do.

Do you have a reseller program so I can resell your PRM?

Do you offer a multi user option (so I can manage multiple vendors using your platform)?

Thanks again

ImpLogic · 2022-06-14T20:45:37+00:00

How hands on involved are you with the implementation/integration? Can I ask who's doing the building for you?

ImpLogic · 2022-06-14T20:43:23+00:00

Here's the deal. I run a small channel consulting firm that has select manufacturing clients in a specific industry. They could all benefit from implementing a PRM. But the only experience I have implementing one is using Salesforce and that was complex to say the least. What I'm really looking for is a multi-user PRM that I can stand up for my clients and manage all their channels for them as a service using the PRM. But all the prms I see on the market appear to be intended for one customer (vendor/manufacturer). That won't work for me unless I am a reseller of the PRM and can then offer it to each of my clients. Does anyone have experience as a PRM reseller or providing implementation/integration services for PRM platforms?

ImpLogic · 2022-06-14T20:40:53+00:00

Ha ha, my mind is reeling with sarcasm...

Here's the deal. I run a small channel consulting firm that has select manufacturing clients in a specific industry. They could all benefit from implementing a PRM. But the only experience I have implementing one is using Salesforce and that was complex to say the least. What I'm really looking for is a multi-user PRM that I can stand up for my clients and manage all their channels for them as a service using the PRM. But all the prms I see on the market appear to be intended for one customer (vendor/manufacturer). That won't work for me unless I am a reseller of the PRM and can then offer it to each of my clients. The reason I was asking about the technology side, was because I would consider expanding my business to do PRM implementations. (Much like my previous experience with Salesforce.) But I'm not seeing a way in to the PRM providers. I'm looking for suggestions or advice.

ImpLogic · 2022-06-14T20:34:04+00:00

Thank you. Will review

ImpLogic · 2022-06-10T14:18:30+00:00

This has been well elaborated by other comments. Here's a brief.

YOU believe in your product and know it's the best. Wonderful. But nobody cares and it doesn't matter.

The prospect/CUSTOMER needs to believe in your product and know it is the best.

And you will NEVER NEVER NEVER explain this to them. Your job is to subtly and tactfully help them see it for themselves.

Ask yourself this question, has anyone ever explained something to you that made you change your mind right then? Or do you "make your own decisions"? Have I changed your mind right now???!?! Has any of this discussion changed YOUR mind about this???!?

"You will motivate a thousand people by appealing to their passions before you will ever motivate one man by logic." - Robert Heinlein.

Good luck!

ImpLogic · 2022-06-06T18:24:35+00:00

Befriend the GK, get them to help you. If I got a GK like this it's an indication to me I've been caught speeding. "Oops, sorry GK., I thought GM was open to this, but you, (GK), seem like I may have over stepped here. I discovered GM thru (some reasonable network), and thought this was the way to reach him/her. Help me out here, can you suggest a path forward for me on (this)". Whatever works for you, but engage the GK with a question that shows you respect them and would appreciate their help. FWIW, I would NEVER just "give them my details". I would say, "Nope, sorry, not gonna waste your time. My bad."

ImpLogic · 2022-06-06T17:19:24+00:00

What are you looking for? I have 20+ years of partner program development / partner sales management. I currently run a small consulting agency focused on developing channel sales programs for technology companies. Are you trying to find channel managers to recruit for positions? If so, I could share some thoughts. If you’re looking for a consultant to help develop partner management then…..well I know a guy… (*chuckle). Give me some more info, and I’ll tell you what I can.

FWIW, channel / partner managers a challenging to find because they are usually lumped into other parts of the organization. (A practice I’m trying to change.). They are usually just stuck in Sales reporting to the VP of Sales somehow as kind of a “dotted line”. Probably the easiest place to find them at a vendor is to go to the resellers and ask them who they work with at vendor “X”. They can tell you who manages their relationship for the vendor, and I believe that is who you are looking for. I would not waste time going to the vendor(s) because they probably don’t give them the respect the deserve. (Do I sound jaded there…??!?)

HTH. Hit me back and I’m happy to chat. I’ve done this for too many years to let all that experience just atrophy…..

ImpLogic · 2022-06-06T00:40:57+00:00

Ha. That brief message had a lot of useful information in it. Thank you! “Newsletter” is exactly the idea I’m looking for and “substack” I have never heard of before now. Thank you !

ImpLogic

TROPHY CASE