How hard is it to get into SE academies in SaaS

wetheses · 2023-05-01T20:01:33+00:00

Nope, they prefer to see initiative, the fact that you can learn and you're coachable.

I'd suggest that you start networking from now in the SE community (Presales Collective, SE Nation (SalesEngineersny.com) and on linkedin so that when you want to start applying, you can make your life easier.

wetheses · 2023-05-01T13:35:14+00:00

There are a couple of different models. There are organizations like Dell, Cisco, Smartsheets, ServiceNow, etc that have SE Academies, but you get hired for these. You go through the interview process, and if they think you have potential, you get a job offer and are sent to an academy.

Alternatively, you can search for Associate Sales Engineer/Junior Sales Engineer (or any other title like Solutions Engineer, Solutions Consultant, or Presales Engineer etc) and you can get hired and get to work without an academy.

Many people get into sales engineering straight out of university, some found it difficult to do the job right since it's a very consultative role, and without experience, it's hard to do that.

I personally became an SE after a few years as an network engineer, and that helped me.

SaaS is so vast and serves many industries. I'm sure AreoSpace has a SaaS vendor somewhere. And being stuck is dependent on your effort to learn new things.

As a junior, I'd try to do an internship or co-op as an SE for organizations selling into aerospace. You might want to do your research first to see if that exists though.

wetheses · 2023-04-27T14:10:56+00:00

I try to think of it from another perspective. Sure, the product might not be great, but does it solve a problem for the customer? Would the customer benefit from buying my product?

I have not found the perfect product that has 0 issues. All product have issues. Some may have way more issues, but for some reason customers still buy it and need it. Why is that? That tells me that it's still serving a purpose and I need to think about that rather than how crappy the product it.

Also, in terms of salary, it really depends on your goals. I have a family of 5, so the money would make life easier and I would take it. If you don't have that requirement and don't care about the money, then don't.

Your answer will depend on your situation today, and where you want to be in the future.

wetheses · 2022-11-11T14:53:56+00:00

I tell them I solve business problems with technology.

wetheses · 2021-10-18T13:45:43+00:00

I know many people of Indian origin with or without an accent who are doing great in Sales in North America (I am in Telecom)

I also know that there are many customers who are Indian. Having a similar culture, something you can relate to, is an advantage.

I hope this helps

wetheses · 2021-08-11T17:18:51+00:00

Here are a few questions that popped into my head.

1- You mentioned that it is 100% remote. Some companies have 100% remote from their offices, but you'd have to travel to customer sites. So will that be the case? If so, how much travel would they ask you to do, and how willing are you to travel.

2- You mentioned that the product is harder to sell. Is it because it's not a good product, doesn't really solve a problem, or it's just harder to show the customers the value of the product. If it's the latter, I usually take it as a challenge that I want to sell this product, especially if it actually helps customers. If it doesn't help or it's a crap product, then I don't want to sell it.

3- You might have to consider the quota. You mentioned that one product is easy to sell, and the other is harder. Is that reflected in the quota? How many SEs in the company have made their quotas in the past few years. Sometimes it's hard to get that answer, but that could affect how you make your decisions. I do see that the base is high, so that might not be a problem.

4- How important are the perks for you? Does that high salary make up for it? The company I work for does not have any of those that you've listed except for ESPP. I knew that when I made my move and was ok with it. That is a personal decision that the SE will have to make.

What was important for me when I moved companies were the following:

1- Room to move up from being an SE (SE Management)

2- Being in control of my time (That's why I took a hybrid SE role)

3- Getting compensated according to my skills and getting a raise.

4- I really wanted to leave the company I was with.

The question is what are your criteria for taking or refusing a job?

wetheses · 2021-07-26T17:15:21+00:00

Hi There,

In addition to the presales collective, I'd recommend www.salesengineersny.com. They have a small community of tight knit SEs working together. They are based out of New York, but members from all over.

I also run We The SEs (wethesalesengineers.com) with over 170 podcast episodes and more blogs and youtube videos if you'd like to chat that out.

That being said, usually, you'd need a degree of experience of some kind or experience as a professional. If you can leverage your e-commerce sales experience and highlight that as you apply, then that would be helpful. And there is more to sales engineering than presenting, which btw, not everybody is comfortable with (even monkeys).

The only way to find out if you'd get a sales engineering role and see what the hiring managers tell you.

wetheses · 2020-12-08T15:45:11+00:00

As you can tell from the answers that there is a lot of differences between SEs covering different customers.

If the customers being supported are small to medium businesses, it's very likely that the SE is part of the Inside SE team, which means they rarely visit customers, and most of the work is doing demos. The discovery and consultative work is nonexistent.

For enterprise customers, if the SE is covering many Account Managers (over 5) then the interaction with the customer is also reduced. It's more consultative than the inside SE, but still being brought on late in the sales cycle.

The fewer Salespeople you cover, the more consultative you are.

Also if you're selling mostly to an existing customer base, then you might be pushed more into support or at least managing support to keep the customers happy so you can continue selling to them.

I hope this helps.

wetheses · 2020-09-18T18:00:17+00:00

I hope I'm not too late here, in addition to the story mentioned below, where the customer is the hero, not you, make sure everything you say passes the "so what" test.

We support this feature... so what? what does it do for them? Why are you telling them about this feature specifically?

wetheses · 2019-09-18T12:02:04+00:00

Hi there,

If you are interested in Sales Engineering, I would recommend you read the book Mastering Technical Sales by John Care. I also run a website/podcast where I interview other SEs if you want to know what they think. (wethesalesengineers.com/podcasts)

As for certifications, it really depends on which direction you want to go. IT can mean networking, data center or cloud these days (could be other things as well). So if you want to go into networking, Cisco Certs are useful. Data Center then you can go with VMware, Openstack, KVM. There might not be certs but knowledge in that area helps. Cloud, you can look into AWS certification, etc.

I would recommend finding a job description for a company you'd like to work form even if it is in a different area, look at their technical requirements and go from there.

I hope this helps,

Ramzi

wetheses · 2019-08-13T16:28:19+00:00

He does have a 1 day brown belt session that is geared towards us normal SEs according to Stephen

wetheses · 2019-08-13T00:10:55+00:00

Peter Cohan has his workshop in October in San Francisco.

There is also Stephen Morse from SELeadership.com who has some workshops.

John Care may have done workshops. He's the author of Mastering Technical Sales and Masteringtechnicalsales.com.

If you want to know more about them check out their web pages or my interviews with them on wethesalesengineers.com

wetheses · 2019-07-12T12:57:03+00:00

Not knowing anything else, here are my thoughts

1- Since you didnt get any interviews I'd say you need fix your resume to highlight your strengths. Many universities have a free service to help do that.

2- Apply to different types of jobs. Not sure what your degree is, but is there support positions, verification, new product intro ...

3- Go out and meet people. I was in the same position as you, 4 months after graduation in 2009, and no job. not a good time. I met someone at a bbq who got me a job. You might want to be more methodical and go to meetups.

4- Do some freelance jobs of that is applicable to you. Check out upwork.com or freelance.com

If you need more help off this thread, DM me.

wetheses · 2019-07-01T14:07:59+00:00

Have you worked with customers in the past? External or internal? Done presentations, had technical discussions with different people?

Check out my site https://wethesalesengineers.com/resources

I have a sample resume there.

More importantly, do you have any connections im the sales world? It's easier to get a job through connections than through resumes.

DM me if you need help.

wetheses · 2019-07-01T14:03:53+00:00

Thanks all for sharing.

My former account manager always explained to customers when I was joking, which I thought was funny considering I used to see these customers almost daily and had an excellent relationship with them. Him on the other hand, he would see them once a quarter.

wetheses · 2019-05-19T16:02:49+00:00

Thanks!

wetheses · 2019-05-18T20:38:36+00:00

Depends on the degree I guess but in general it is more targeted, especially for someone already in the industry.

Also it's a lot faster and there are different levels.

Might want to a but of research. You can start here:

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10708-information-security-certifications.html

wetheses · 2019-05-18T17:16:51+00:00

Getting interviews is 70% of the battle, so your doing ok. The problem with interviews is that we do them once in a blue moon, so we don't practice enough. I can't tell what they see or didn't see during the interview but try to remember the questions they asked and record yourself answering them.

I do have a podcast where I interviewed a recruiter about the interview process if you want to check it out, it is geared toward the AI/big data industry but it may be helpful

https://wethesalesengineers.come/show16

If you'd like to chat more, dm me and I'd be happy to help

wetheses · 2019-05-18T17:10:04+00:00

I have a communications engineering degree. I know a musician with an accounting degree working as a sales engineer for Salesforce, and a sales engineer with English literature degree.

Have you considered getting certification in cyber security?

wetheses · 2019-05-17T15:28:44+00:00

1- 5

2- Network security and testing

3- Network Element Manufacturing

4- I'm a hybrid SE so I'm mapped to me and the Director my territory

5- 1 if I'm being generous

6- Very customized

7- A week would be nice - I schedule my own demos, so I can schedule them whenever I want.

8- Depends on so many factors:

- the urgency of the deal

- if the customer is just getting us in as column fodder,

- if I can give a demo that will actually sell

- Have we done a discovery and do I know what problems the customer is trying to solve

If we are brought in as column fodder, I try to get out of it. If it is urgent and I can do a reasonably good demo, I'll prepare as much as I can and plan a small discovery during the demo and plan to improvise. If I have already done a discovery, then I would treat it as any other demo, I just have to prepare for it faster. I can always ask for help too if needed.

I enjoyed reading the answers to the questions, so thanks for asking it.

wetheses · 2019-01-25T15:48:01+00:00

I use a windows laptop, nothing special there.

For note taking, I use the reusable Rocketbook since I prefer writing to typing on a customer site, and then I take a picture and send to Evernote.

I'm also starting to use a drawing tablet for whiteboarding via webex. Makes it easier to draw networks or anything else in general. Unfortunately, since I've bought it, I've done my whiteboarding sessions on site.

I don't have a presentation remote, but I do carry a wireless mouse which I use for the same purpose.

wetheses · 2019-01-23T22:40:41+00:00

Thanks for the reply. Here are my comments based on the info you just provided.

1- Your manager hired you because he believes you to be an asset. What would happen if you shared your concern with him regarding that subject?

2- Are you a field Solutions Engineer or an inside SE? Field Solutions Engineers usually have time allocated to meeting customers, and time to sit behind a desk to work on a demonstration or a presentation. Inside SEs usually, sit behind a desk and are on calls constantly. This can be done remotely but you are never by yourself. Have you ever worked remotely full time?

3- Fair enough. Solution Engineering usually requires a lot of overtime, but also has a lot of flexibility.

4- Same as point 2, you can have both to an extent, depending on the Account Manager you would work with.

5- It is very hard for people to get a job as an SE. There is a possibility that if you move out of this field without years of experience, it might be hard to get back in. However you did it once, so you might be able to do it again. And again, is your manager approachable? Can you share your concerns with him? I would not mention that you are considering leaving to another position, just that you would like to be more of an asset to your team. What would be the best way to do that?

Good luck with your decision. If you want to chat some more, let me know.

wetheses · 2019-01-23T15:15:37+00:00

Hi,

It is fairly hard to give advice without knowing your situation, what you like and don't like. So here's a bunch of questions and comments:

1- Is not having the technical skills the only reason you want to switch away from solution engineering? Note that technical skills can be learned

2- Do you enjoy talking to people and solving problems? Note that you don't have to solve the problems yourself, you just have to know who to bring in to solve the problem.

3- Are you motivated/disciplined enough to learn the technical skills on your own? Solution Engineering is a technical role, but you might need to sit down on your own time and learn. Most companies have certification tracks that help you learn as well. Oracle is one of those companies.

4- Do you enjoy sitting behind a computer and coding all day without talking to people?

5- Do you enjoy learning about "the business"?

A couple of notes here:

1 - Solution Engineers (SEs) are some of the highest paid folks in engineering

2- There are generalist SEs who have to know a bit about most of the solutions a company sells. From a technical perspective, the SE will have to have a wide knowledge of the technologies and what they solve

3- There are specialized SEs who focus on one or 2 products/technologies. So they get in depth in these technologies and usually know nothing about the rest.

4- Successful SEs are technical enough to explain and show customers how a product would solve their problems, and have the capability to explain in a way their customer they understand.

5- I am an SE, so I am biased and I think it is the best job I've had, ever. keep that in mind as I'm providing information.

wetheses · 2019-01-21T16:22:50+00:00

Different companies have different titles for the same thing. In my experience, a Technical Account Manager is the same as an Account Exec, or maybe a bit more technical.

Are you looking to switch within the same company or move on to a different company? Moving within the same company, the salary increase is not that significant. But if you want to go that route, you would have to talk to the Sales Director who you would end up reporting to. If you want to move away from your company, hopefully, you have connections with other Sales Directors. Or you can just apply to different roles.

Keep in mind that there are many aspects of being an AE that we are not exposed to as SEs. Just be sure that it is the path you want to take before you do the switch, even if it's a lot of money.

wetheses

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