Presales
When crafting a job description for a presales professional, different organizations develop numerous ways to say the same thing - what it all boils down to is "overcome the customer's
technical objections". In some cases those descriptions run for several pages, but the position can easily be summarized by those 5 words. Whether you call them a Presales Engineer, Sales Engineer, Systems Engineer, or Solutions Architect - the goal of the presales professional is to become a trusted advisor to the customer and to technically insure the customer's satisfaction with their selection.
Presales engineering isn't about 'feeds and speeds', it's about discovering the business need and being able to recommend and apply the right technology (or process) to resolve that need. It's about being able to recognize a customer's environment and identify the role that the product will be able to play and what the advantage is to the customer over competitive offerings. If a sales call is going to be based on stats and spreadsheets the sales representative can pass those out and the decision will quickly evolve to a price comparison. The customer is looking for a solution, not a product, and being able to recognize that is what separates a good SE from a great SE.
I try to encourage my teams and others that I work with to develop their own methods and messages. You can get a good base from the experiences of others and their messages but it won't resonate with customers and partners until it is your message. Without a personal experience or fundamental belief in the product, process, or solution, it's just a pitch and it really is hard to represent a solution that only consists of a tagline.
Testimonials
"Steve is always willing to assist and go beyond normal efforts to ensure we properly provide the necessary information to these prospects. Steve has the uncanny ability to discuss business benefits (rather than features) of our product set. After our call this week, the prospect thanked Steve for his valuable time and turned to me and said 'I would like to see a demo of this ASAP'" - David Hall, Sales Manager, Hewlett-Packard
"I have reviewed the Technology Primer for Sales Professionals and think it's fantastic. I was wondering if we could distribute this document at Sales Kickoff" - Raquel Winkler, Marketing Manager, Bluestone Software
Just a Thanks for bringing Steve Myers in here. His daily Tech Tips alone have made a world of difference for me. He's 'Bluestone for Dummies', I swear" - Statia Vesper, Inside Sales Representative, Bluestone Software
Some of the companies and products I have been associated with include: