The state of Sales (Solutions) engineering in 2023

A lot has changed since I first started doing this 15 years ago.

I’ll save you the “back in the day” dreck, but suffice it to say what got us here will not take us there. Here’s a few observations I’ve noticed.

The first major change is the amount specialization and expertise required. When I started, it was enough to just be a smidge more technical than your salesperson, and the sales folks could get away with being the "dumb sales guy" and rely 100% on the SE s for anything technical. Seems farcical now, but at the time the amount of information that was available online was a fraction of what it is today, so customers were forced to take a call and see a demo to "learn more". Now, 80-90% of product research is done online prior to a company ever even contacting a vendor.

This is is generally good news. When customers get in contact, it's most likely because they've seen something on your company website that struck a chord with a use-case or some pain they're having, which in turn leads to less woody demos. This also means there just aren't that many places to hide for a mediocre SE anymore. The entire sales motion has been shifted in a technical direction, so the SE better have some proper in-depth content and detail to share because the salesperson is going to take care of all the generalist stuff. The prospect has likely seen a full demo on youtube already anyways. 

Following this same line the technical barrier for senior positions is much higher. You can still be a SE and do demos, but this is now a Sales Development position (SDE) and you’ll probably be on the marketing team and mostly work trade shows. Any sales rep who’s worth their salt can do a demo overview now and qualify 90% of the deals. SE’s time is now spent doing the tricker stuff like deep-dives with larger audiences, pilot planning, success-criteria definition, scoping, etc. Nothing that wasn’t already in a senior SE’s repertoire, but this is now the focus rather than the outlier.

With this comes a whole new set of skills that are moving from “nice to have” to “required” on a typical SE job rec. What got you hired as a senior SE 10 years ago would not get you hired for the same position now. In cybersecurity specifically, thinking that because you have a C|EH and a business degree will get you hired as a senior SE position right out of the gates is a recipe for disappointment. Unless you already have 5+ years experience I would probably pass on your resume for one of my open positions. I need folks who can write to an API, script in Python, know their way around network infrastructure properly and can rock a mic at a tech talk.

The third major change is the blur between pre and post sales. With technical know-how requirements continuing to increase, it’s only natural a bit is going to bleed over past the P.O. Nearly all software companies have pivoted to a subscription-model where the customer renews every year at 100%. When looked at objectively, it doesn’t take a genius to realize that throughout the lifetime of a customer, nearly ALL the revenue potential lies in post-sales. Once a deal is closed is when the real work starts.

For leaders, the breadth of understanding is more extensive than ever. With all these hyper-technical SEs on your teams, you need to understand what they know and constantly be shuffling folks around where they can make the most impact. I've always said that the best SE teams I've ever been a part of, either IC or coach, have been very diverse crowds. As a leader, you need to foster those skillsets and make sure that talent is being put to the best use. 

One of my tactics to help calm nervous testers is to let them know how many friends I have in the post-sales org and that I would never send them a customer where our software wasn’t a fit out of respect. Now however, I sure as hell wouldn’t do it because chances are I’m still going to have to support the roll-out long after the hammer drops. If you're working a territory like most sales teams, you're going to have to re-engage with the post sales folks if there's anything above and beyond a renewal that comes up the following year. If you threw something over the fence and post-sales managed to iron it out, is that customer really going to trust buying from you again? Doubtful...

TL;DR: Technical chops and specialization are the name of the game for SE IC folks, and broad understanding is key for leaders. The industry is getting more difficult, but that also means more job security and more money if you're working for the right org.

Why, in the Age of SaaS, Customer Satisfaction is Your Most Important Department

Woah, What the hell? 

Over the past year and a half, I have been running a post-sales team. This wasn't what I originally signed on as, but as with any startup you go where you are needed. The person we hired for the Director of Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) role ended up being deficient in a few key areas and I jumped in to help out and after a month or so that person was on my team 

Let me start by saying that I am not a good fit for this role in the traditional sense. I like things to have a beginning, a middle and an end, I do not like entitlement or taking orders of any kind, and I especially don't like listening to people complain. These 3 pillars were the world of CSAT as I knew it, and I was not thrilled about taking over this department. Despite this, over time I figured out a way to make it my own. 

The established sales methodology that has been in use since my career began shows the difference between pre and post sales can be measured in miles, not inches. Sales folks closing the big deals get all the glory and serve as a shining example of what grit and perseverance can achieve. Once a new customer is acquired, the customer satisfaction (CSAT) team just needed to listen to customer complaints, answer tickets, and make sure a few new features are released every quarter. Software sales and delivery has evolved dramatically in the past 20 years. When I was first learning the ropes, the typical sales motion was based on a heavy front-end sale and a small renewal. In a large part this was due to the style of delivery for software at the time; fat clients and appliances. Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings were a small, emerging part of the market and largely not yet trusted. Over time, SaaS offerings became the norm and permanently shifted the way we buy and sell software... and because of this traditional methods of selling to and retaining customers must be updated. 

So what does SaaS delivery do? In short, software just isn't as "sticky" as it used to be.  

When you buy a house, you own every aspect of that house. You own the structure, the foundation, the land, and all the bits that make up the house itself. As a homeowner, if you see a new house come on the market that's in better shape, or has some of the upgrades you want, chances are you're not just going to stop paying the mortgage on your existing house and buy the new one. No... you've invested serious time, energy, and money into the house you have now and moving is a huge pain. No... you'll probably just stick with the home you have. 

What if you RENT a house that is fully furnished? If you're living in a rented house full of rented furniture and we take the above scenario... would you move? I would... why not? I have no money and very little time or energy invested so why not make the switch? 

This is the fundamental difference between traditional and SaaS offerings. Because SaaS offerings are in the cloud, they typically require much less effort with installation, configuration and upkeep. As a result, it's much easier to switch should the right opportunity present itself.

Software just doesn't harbor the same loyalty as it once did. So how do we keep our customers? 

 First, let's think about the acquisition process... what does that look like? In enterprise sales, typically we have a sales team that primarily includes one sales manager and one sales engineer. Their sole purpose is to introduce the software, match a customer need, prove the value and close the deal. In my experience this process can be accomplished in 14 to 30 days, and at the end we've obtained a purchase order and we have a new customer. Bully for us. 

20 years ago, we would have been set at this point. The customer gets passed to the support team and we now have a new brand to put on our website and a slew of newly purchased hardware and software to deploy. With SaaS however, the relative ease of switching vendors is always looming. The software company can no longer just throw their new customer over the fence... what if the sales team from a competitor is already talking to them? I have learned this lesson firsthand. 

Up until this point my career has focused primarily on presales work... designing pilot deployments, proof-of-concept's (POC's), and building business cases. When you have a beginning, middle, and end to the engagement it's relatively easy to design a set of criteria and milestones to push to a positive completion. Contrast this with CSAT... once a customer has been acquired, the timeline to prove value stretches on infinitely. The success criteria defined in the pilot have (most likely) been proven out... and everything is SaaS so there is the possibility of losing the account at every turn... so what do you do?

The solution is the CSAT team needs to act more like sales. This doesn't mean they act like they're out to get something from their customers, but rather they are constantly showing, explaining, and "selling" the value of their software to their customers. CSAT can no longer just be "order takers" or "stewards". If all a CSAT engineer is doing is listening to complaints, answering tickets and drafting up feature requests on behalf of the customer, they WILL eventually lose that customer. It's not because that CSAT eng is doing anything wrong... the paradox is the customer could love their CSAT engineer and sing their praises constantly about how well they listen and take direction... but that doesn't mean they'll renew. 

So what... you lose a customer. The amount of revenue brought in year after year from an existing customer is a fraction of the initial purchase price, right? 

No. With a SaaS model, customers will buy a subscription to the service. These subscriptions typically renew annually... but not a fraction of the purchase price... for the ENTIRE purchase price. Yep, for SaaS delivered solutions, renewals are 100% year in year out... which makes the loss of a customer much more damaging to the vendor beyond just losing a logo. 

Couple that pressure with the difficulty of implementing a new, disruptive solution from a startup. This is the scenario that a typical startup CSAT eng faces with each new customer: 

• One or two proponents of your solution in a team of 20+ who have never seen it and don't like change
• Existing processes in place that have been built over years of research and tuning that will need to be re-tooled 
• Issues, delays & bugs that need to be explained to a team who are largely looking for any reason to shelve your solution 
• Other vendors that are looking for any chink in the armor to harp on and replace you come renewal time 

The good news is, there's a way to combat this litany of shit. CSAT engineers need to start thinking of themselves as guides rather than waiters. Coaches rather than waterboys. SHERPAS rather than assistants. This represents a paradigm shift in our idea of customer "care".. but I would argue it's actually far more caring than the previous methods. 

What happens if you are a sherpa taking a group of people up mount Everest and one of the folks in your group says "I want to go this way!" Will you listen to that person and take the group in that direction? Absolutely not. As a Sherpa, YOU are the expert and you know the best way to go. You would politely explain that if we follow the instructions of the person making noise we will all get lost and freeze to death or fall off a cliff. Based on your knowledge and experience, you would resolutely point the group in the right direction and press on. 

This is how CSAT needs to operate in the age of SaaS... letting the customer direct is no longer an option. If the value of your software isn't realized, it WILL be replaced. The only way for any customer to realize the true value of your software is for an experienced CSAT sherpa to show them the way. This is "value" selling, and though it's typically thought of as a sales motion, it is 1--% necessary to maximize customer retention. Remember, the SaaS model is subscription-based, so the value of the renewal is 100% or more of the original purchase price in perpetuity. Meaning the more customers you keep, the more your revenue compounds year over year, and this is by far the quickest way to show exponential growth.

Operator vs. Builder in an increasingly code-ish world

It's been a long time since I've written anything, and a lot has changed in a year. For those of you who don't know, I've moved on from the microservices world. I enjoyed it, but it tested me to my very limits. As with any challenge, I learned ALOT about the field, the tech, and also what I'm good at and what I'm not.

I consider myself fairly technical, but I am not an engineer/developer by any stretch, nor do I attempt to play one on TV. The world of microservices stretched my abilities in awesome new ways, including skills FAR beyond my previous capabilities. I spent more time in a Terminal window (usually multiple) in my 2 years in microservices than I have in the entire rest of my life combined. And no bones about it, 90% of the time I was completely lost (and I'm told that's considered normal)?

Prior to this gig, I was able to get along with bash fairly well, I knew my way around Linux and Mac via command line and I could do some light scripting... but mainly I was just running scripts other people wrote for me and modifying them when I needed to. I never needed to know how to build anything, especially from scratch. I didn't go to school for computer science, I've never taken a coding class, and I never had any real world application prior to force myself to learn. 

I was an operator, not a builder. 

In the world of containers and microservices, even being an operator is difficult. Anybody who has worked with Kubernetes or OpenShift will tell you:

  - Keyboard fatigue is palpable
  - Instructions are confusing (or unavailable)
  - There are a million commands to learn, each with their own function based on context
  - Error reporting is cryptic at best

 Ever tried to set up an OpenShift cluster from scratch? It's like trying to chop down a tree with a pocketknife. I've never operated in a space where the customer EXPECTS things to fail the first 10 attempts. 

That being said, there is a TON of money in this stuff. OpenShift typically costs around $10k per node...per NODE! A cluster for a microservices deployment has at least 10 nodes, but usually more like 200-500... that's a big chunk of change. 

This is because the microservices space is fundamentally different than traditional infrastructure. Once you get things deployed, everything operates with an extreme level of efficiency. Even at the basic level the amount of automation and resiliency far exceeds even the best of the best virtualization. That said, the space is still very much in it's infancy. Bugs abound (as they do with any software), support is minimal for non-RedHat orchestration, and there's just not that much generally available for it. This means lots of trailblazing. 

I define trailblazing in the engineering world as creating something that doesn't already have 10-20
stack overflow articles explaining the proper way to do it. For someone like me, this poses a huge challenge... especially in a startup with limited documentation and resources.

The people who sat in that office with me are some of the smartest, most talented engineers I've ever met. There were more folks with Ivy-league PhD's in my engineering team than folks who didn't have them... and those that didn't were definitely there for a reason. Trailblazing is a way of life for these brilliant minds. Fact is though, even engineers of this caliber struggle in this space... ask anyone I worked with, and that's saying a lot. In a startup that exists in an industry where EVERYBODY is still trailblazing EVERY day... things don't bode too well for the SE who's more of a "people person," do they?

At last, I arrive at my point. I am a firm believer that no one should ever stop learning. Acquiring new skills are how we can all continue to grow as people and increase our value in our careers. I also believe that any experienced professional knows where they excel, and where their weak points are.

There will never be any one person who is good at everything, so eventually no matter how eager you are to take something on, sometimes it's best left to the professional who made a career out of it. I will always try my damndest to figure something out before I ask for help... but eventually I have to take a step back and ask myself: "Is this the best use of my time?" More often than not, something that takes me half a day to choke through can be done in 5 minutes by one of the engineers I have the pleasure of working with.

The key is to maximize the value of their time as well as your. Any time an engineer is helping me figure something out is time taken from whatever engineering-centric task they're focused on. Because of this, I make it a point to document what I learn as much as possible every time, so they don't have to repeat the effort they've already put into my problem. I also put whatever I documented in a place available to everyone in the company, so the other folks on my team can reference our documentation before needing to go back to our engineering team. 

So previously, I was solely an operator... do I consider myself a builder now? Maybe a builder of how-to guides...

I Listen to ALOT of House Music, Here's Why

Anybody who knows me knows that I'm really passionate about music. I listen to everything... literally everything. From classical to metal, dubstep, hard dance, dark techno, trap, bluegrass, folk rock, classic rock, big band... whatever. The only place I don't really listen to music oddly enough, is in the car. For whatever reason I always end up listening to talk radio or podcasts. Regardless, music is a huge part of my life, and that includes during work.

For me, work hours are restricted to house music in various forms. When I'm not on the phone or in a meeting, I've got techno in my headphones. No particular sub-genre, but it needs to have a 4-on-the-floor beat with lots of energy and the longer the track, the better (live/recorded DJ sets are good). The most important attribute however, is little to no lyrics.

I always find it fascinating when people listen to rock or hiphop when they're trying to get shit done. For me at least, if someone is talking to me while I'm typing, I will inadvertently end up typing what they're saying. Same goes for any music with words, I'll end up with a bunch of song lyrics in the email I'm writing. I've tried classical, ambient, jazz, and various world music as well, those genre's just don't have enough energy to keep me productive. This is also not to say I absolutely can't work with wordy music in the background, but if I have it on in my headphones I find that the quality of my work dips and it takes me longer to complete if it's not a banging house set.

Would love to hear some thoughts on this... what do you listen to at work, if anything?

Also, here is my personal repository of work tunes for your enjoyment/productivity:

Matt's "Get Shit Done" playlist of sets

I also have a set of turntables and record my own sets sometimes, those are here:

Matt's Techno sets

RSA Security Conference 2018, the beginning of the end

RSA Security Conference is a circus.

Everyone I spoke with that went this year noticed a difference. All the companies are still swinging for the fences with extravagant booth designs, gimmicks and giveaways, but the attendees seemed more disillusioned this year than in previous years.

Security conferences are a funny thing... almost fickle really. Also a complete catch 22: they're good, until they become big.

This is sad to me. The whole goal of security conferences are to bring people together to learn and share ideas on security. The more people who get to share, the better right? Unfortunately this is not the case.

I have been going to RSA since 2007, so I've seen alot. I've seen the birth of the 2 floor booth, the rise and fall of the "booth babe", and the giveaways go from remote control cars to real cars. As things started to go to pot, the constant refrain was "yea, RSA is more of a marketing event, the real show you want to attend is BlackHat." Anyone who's been to BlackHat in the past few years knows that this is no longer the case either. I read that in 2001 (before my time) RSA boasted 250 vendors and 10,000 attendees, this year there were over 600 vendors and close to 42,000 attendees registered. What's interesting is the number of attendees was actually down from around 43,000 registered attendees in 2017...which I found interesting. These numbers are difficult to gauge regardless because of what a sprawl the show has become (is this people who actually walked the floor or just registered for the conference?) Half of the hotels in the city are rented out for customer meetings, venues in surrounding buildings are used, etc.


Contrary to popular belief, there is still solid content at both of these shows. I have friends who have presented at both RSA and BlackHat with relevant and innovative research with great reception. There are also still ways that both RSA and BlackHat recognize trail-blazing new vendors to help them get noticed. For example, my company was part of the "RSA Innovation Sandbox" and it drove all kinds of attention to our little booth, and I know BlackHat has similar methods of recognition.

So why is everybody so jaded?

These conferences are "pay to play" to the extreme. EVERYTHING costs money. Do you want a 10x10 or a 10x20? That costs money. Do you want internet? That costs money. Do you want CARPET at your booth or do you want your customers to walk on hard concrete? THAT costs money!

When all is said and done, to have even a SMALL presence at RSA you need to shell out at least $50k. That is ABSURD. If a company makes a $5k investment in a conference, folks are comfortable having casual conversations with potential clients and discussing their needs before mutually deciding it makes sense for another conversation. When it costs $50k you are scanning anything that moves and hoarding leads like a chipmunk getting ready for winter.

It's a shame really... because nobody wants that. Because of how ridiculously expensive it is to even be at the show,  companies need to do everything they possibly can to show a return on their investment, inadvertently turning these big shows into marketing conferences rather than security meetups.

The one saving grace (to RSA and BlackHat at least) is that all the vendors still go, which gives a great opportunity to reconnect with old friends, customers and colleagues. One such colleague, asked me why I don't blog anymore and hence... my first article in almost a year. So it's still good for that at least =]

Big Company vs. Startup

As many of you may know, I made the jump from Cisco to run Sales Engineering for a small startup in the valley. Even though my gig at Cisco was awesome, I am confident this was the right move for me. I know there are a lot of folks out there wondering whether or not they should take the plunge (because it is a huge risk), so I thought I would talk a little bit about my thought process in making this move. 

I have always been a risk-taker. I love fast cars, snowboarding, skating, cliff diving… you name it. My wife always tells me I’m missing that little voice in the back of my head that says ‘are you sure you can do this?” So I guess you could say my personality is slightly unhinged to being with… but that’s only part of the reason why I love startup life.

 I began my career as a sales engineer at a startup in 2007. I was employee number 25 in a company based in Boston with a satellite office in LA (I was in LA at the time). I was the 4th SE hire, which was impressive for a company of that size, but the way the model was built we had two SEs in Boston and two SEs in LA. 

I had no idea what I was doing, but I loved it. 

I was getting in early to prep and spending time with the engineers to learn the technology and the industry late night. The days were long, the office was a dump, my sales team was a shit-show, and my commute was horrific… but I didn’t care. I was learning new things at lightning speed, living in the awkward every day, learning the iron-clad fundamentals of what it takes to be successful, and attempting (and succeeding) at doing things I had no business doing. It was fun. 

I have often reflected on what I thought made this absurd lifestyle enjoyable for me. Why on earth would someone do that for a few days and then not run for the hills? For me, the reason is the challenge, the opportunity for rapid career growth, and the love of the unknown. My then CEO had this great saying that we were all just “bozos on a bus”, and I like that. 

I can actually sum up why I love startups in one quick back-and-forth in 2008 with one of my early mentors. We were out for a “career lunch” which you need in your 20s at a startup because you’ve been working insane hours and there’s no money yet for a raise and your manager needs to give you a pep talk and discuss the “long run”. Anyways, I was baffled about how she knew so much and always seemed to have a plan. So after a few beers I asked her, “You seem to know exactly what you’re doing… how do you know it’s the right decision? Have you done this before? When do you know what the next move is going to be?” 

Her answer would forever change my outlook on business and life. 

“Matt”, she said. “I just make it up as I go along. I never know what the next move is going to be, I make the most educated decision I can and if that doesn’t work, we say fuck it and try something else”. 

That’s why I love startups. Big companies can take chances as well, but if a decision is made to change something there are many layers of bureaucracy that your idea has to pass through before it can be implemented. What I love about startups is, if your idea is better than the idea currently in place, your idea becomes the company idea. The opportunity is always there to swing for the fences and make a huge impact in a very short amount of time (not to mention the upside potential, but more on later). 

That said, startups are not for everybody… and even with the ability of extreme influence and upside, not all startups are something you actually want to do. My first gig was pure luck. I interviewed on a whim, got the job, and it turned out to be one of the most rewarding decisions I’ve ever made. It started me on the path to where I am today. The thing is, if I hadn’t been willing to put in 12 hours a day for 3 or so years non-stop, it would have been a blown opportunity. 

That’s the other thing, in big companies everything is already established… tried and true. You can just leverage what others have done before you to make yourself successful. I think of it as hiking in the jungle. Big companies have already cut a trail for you that you can get to the top of the mountain. The path is well-formed with benches and supply stops, but it’s a roundabout way that’s going to take you a while to traverse. A startup has a general direction to the top of the mountain… maybe a few people have cut back some branches here and there… but it’s essentially bushwhacking. You have a map and a compass so you know where you need to go, and the way is potentially much shorter, but you have to figure it out (and you could be heading in the complete wrong direction). No supply stops, no rest areas, just a general idea and a goal. 

So why did I drop one of the cushiest jobs I’ve ever had to go bushwhacking again? Because I love the hunt. I love just "figuring it out." I love working with a bunch of intrepid explorers in uncharted territory, blazing a trail where there’s never been one. New technology, new market, new challenges... I love trying something new and failing because failure helps you grow. I love trying something and succeeding, I love helping other people succeed where they thought they couldn’t. I love the camaraderie, the “everybody does everything” mentality. I love the possibility of a MASSIVE payout if we pull it off. I love accountability and transparency. I love the trust that everyone in it is working just as hard as the next guy. 

So should you drop everything you’re doing and go join a startup? I don’t know… like I said earlier it’s not for everybody. There is also the very real possibility that the startup you join will crash and burn… most do. I must have turned away at least 60 or so companies before I finally made my choice… Cisco is a great company and I wasn’t going to leave for just any ol’ group of kids with a good idea. Going with a startup is losing your safety net… but with great risk comes great reward. At this point in my life my wife and I are in build mode so we’re swinging for the fences. It takes hard work, sacrifice, and “balls like church bells”. I’ve only been in it two weeks and I'm working as hard as I’ve ever worked my life… and I love it. So I guess you have to ask yourself “am I willing to work my ass off and take that risk?” For me, that wasn't even a question because that's what I do. 

The Case For Recycling Content

As we're rapidly approaching year-end, I thought it would be a good idea to broadcast a friendly reminder to back up your content... but not just your personal media, your professional content you've created.

Over the years I have generated tons of content in my professional life. Meeting outlines, hundreds of powerpoint presentations, notes, whitepapers, training guides... the list goes on. To be honest, a lot of the stuff is crap, but there are still a decent amount of gems in there. Gems that if I apply a few tweaks, could probably be used later on in different applications.

Recently,  I did a sales engineering training for a client who had just hired two badass SEs that came from the support and engineering world. These guys were sharp and hungry, but without a SE background. To me, this is the best situation I could ask for. Smart, driven students; no bad habits to break.

The obvious next question is, what stuff have I created that can be used? The actual SE profession applies across all lines of business, so IMO it doesn't really matter if you're selling software or snowblowers, the method is going to be similar. That being said, nothing I've created is an exact fit to any new application, so everything requires at least a bit of customization.

People have told me "you reuse your content? Isn't that short-changing your clients?" I believe the opposite is true, if I don't leverage at least the basics of the content I've created that has made my other clients successful, I would be shortchanging my new clients. The concept is called "reinventing the wheel."

You may think you've created something amazing, but you never really know until you can apply it somewhere else.

 One of the things I struggle with is: "Is this a one-off?" After much useless agonizing, the answer is almost always no. The first step is to break down your creation, what do you have? Even something as specific as a pitch has a cadence you created. Is there something effective about this particular cadence? What worked (or bombed) about this method? Even a good call can be repurposed. Break it down, what are the pieces of the call? Every conversation has a beginning, a middle, and an end... what was effective about that approach? Are there any elements in there that can be applied elsewhere? How can you create a template for that call?

More often I find that good training meetings can be reused elsewhere if I keep the topics more or less universally applicable. What are some of the overarching topics that exist across all lines of business or products? There are several that come to mind; competitive analysis, intro/intent, ecosystem/integration, presentation skills, overcoming objections... let's take "finding need" as an example. I wrote a piece about need and the importance of it a few months ago here. There isn't a product out there that people will buy if they don't have a need (or want) for it, so I figure it's pretty universal... all we have to do is template-ize the content.

After you've been doing this for awhile, you'll start to realize you've created a process, and then that process becomes part of your brand. My approach is as much a part of my professional identity as my skill set, and my approach is supported by content I've created. Seems worth it to me...

SE Fundamentals: Pregame Playbook

I get alot of questions around proper preparation for a call. This depends on the type of call of course, if I'm doing an eval wrapup it's going to be different prep than a demo, so for today let's focus on the demo. In how to make a compelling demo every time, I talk about how to keep the content fresh, but before you do any of that you need to know how to get some content in the first place.

A quick disclaimer to start this one off: A great call can be had under any circumstances. Some of the best calls I've ever done as a sales engineer have been completely off the cuff with zero preparation. At the same time, I've also been caught with my pants down not knowing something I should have to help close the deal. I'm not saying you always need to do this thorough prep, but it's far more likely that you're about to bomb your call if you haven't prepped than if you had. At the very least it won't be as effective.

Step 1: If your current sales engineering gig is anything like mine have been, most days you're most likely going to be doing more than one call per day (if not, you probably need a new sales rep). As all those prospective customers are going to be talking to you about the same thing, they're probably all in relatively similar professions. My area of expertise is network security, so the majority of people I'm going to be speaking with are somewhere on the "security engineer" totem pole; be it individual contributor role, manager, director, or CISO.

So, in the morning before any of my calls I take a look at my newsfeed for relevant content for the day. I use feedly, but there are hundreds of other aggregators out there that all do basically the same thing: go through your list of sites/blogs and bring them to you in a nice, curated list. Mine looks something like this:

Where to find said blogs you ask? Google my friend. I googled "top security blogs to follow 2016" and I got a veritable bevy of content. Don't just follow any douche with a megaphone and good SEO, make sure they're proper thought leaders in your industry.

Every morning before your calls for the day, spend 10 minutes and look at the top stories of the day for your blogs and find something to talk about. They don't have to be super in-depth, scholarly explanations of the issue at hand, more something interesting and topical to come to the call with to grab their attention. On calls you're always trying to establish yourself as an industry insider, so the more information you can come with, the more engaged your prospect will be. Plus you may learn something. Be interested, be interesting.

Step 2: Now that we have our topical factoid, it's time to move onto our prospect. Every deal is all about the who, so we need to first know WHO we're talking to. There are three places I always look for this (and in this order):

1. LinkedIn
2. Twitter
3. Personal Blog

The reason I do it in this order is I am purposely going from business relevance to personal relevance. Why? Typically, things we have in common business-wise are going to be more effective in the beginning. As the personal relationship progresses, we may find out we both enjoy hiking or cheer for the same football team, but in the beginning I'm looking for shared VALUES rather than shared hobbies. There's also a big difference between doing your due diligence and just being creepy, but we'll get into that later.

The first thing I look at on LI is shared connections. If we know some of the same people, it's a quick way to establish rapport. If there's nothing there, maybe something about their company is interesting. Do you know anyone who works/worked there? Do you know anyone who has given them a recommendation? How about previous companies? What about where they're based? Do you know someone who lives there? Have you traveled there in the past? What about companies they follow (if there are any other than the company they're currently working for)? I focus on these points first, as they're less cheesy in my mind. If none of these things pop, I move on to their college. To me, this is a stretch... because the chances that the person you know that went to the same school as your customer is slim to none... and your customer knows it. I never look at the skills they've been endorsed for or their groups, unless I want to pop it in as a tongue-in-cheek aside about the craziness of LI.

There are also those folks who have a skeleton LI profile... being in security I run into it all the time. So my search then takes me to Twitter and/or their personal blog. Twitter is a great place to get to know your customer... I look at it as a kind of halfway platform between professional and personal. Most folks will tweet about business-related issues, but with a personal touch on it. I'm not that guy who's gonna dig back through 5 years of someone's tweets, but I'll typically look back a few mos to see if anything relevant comes up (interesting retweets, opinions, etc).

Personal blogs, same thing. I don't have the time to read everything they've ever written in the <10 mins I have to prep before a call, but I'll usually have enough time to skim through a post or two.

I have heard of folks leveraging Facebook for prep as well, but I don't and I would caution you on this one. It's considered good form for a SE to do their due diligence on the normal business channels (LI, twitter, blog), but if you're not careful on FB you can look like a stalker... and nobody likes a stalker. In my experience, your prospect is going to be much more receptive to the fact that you were both interested in a recent news story or share a skill than a comment about his kids or something.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, make sure you talk to your Account Executive before the call. Prep work is only good if the subject is going to be receptive to it. Between the two of you, you should be able to get a proper plan in place. Also, in the many years I've been practicing these techniques, I have never once been called out for being too intrusive. On the contrary, most folks appreciate it. If my customer says something like "wow, you spent a lot of time researching me" I simply respond "Absolutely I do my homework. I want to make my demos as curated as possible, plus I like to know who I'm talking to so I can keep my comments relevant." The last thing your customer wants is just another generic commercial.

The last thing I do before any call is take a deep breath and clear my head. Sounds kind of silly and zen-ish for a tech guy I know, but there's a lot going on in my mind at any given moment, and the key to a good call is giving my customer my undivided attention. People on the other end of the line can sense if you're focused or not (ever get the sense someone is doing email instead of watching your presentation?), so stay focused.

Prep and focus... do it.



Anything else anyone likes to do before their calls? Drop me a line.

How to make a compelling demo every time

Demos are one of the core competencies of being a Sales Engineer. Every customer-facing SE has done at least one demo in their career... most of us learned how the business works by doing them. But, like everything we have to do that's repetitive, it can get old over time. I can't even tell you how many phone screens I've done over the years with senior SEs who tell me "oh, no... I don't do demos anymore... you don't have junior SEs or sales people who take care of that part?" Erm... no.

I believe it takes great skill to learn something new and to master it, but it takes FAR more skill to keep the edge sharp on something you've already mastered. To me, calling yourself a great SE and not doing demos is like saying you are an excellent pastry chef but you don't make the batter. Sure, sometimes you'll have a sous chef, just like occasionally you'll have a junior SE do a demo, but if you don't enjoy doing it, you aren't practicing the craft in it's entirety. 

Far more often than this, I run into SEs who still do demos, but begrudgingly so. And I get it... you're at an early or mid-stage company that's trying to train junior salespeople on how to book activity... and you're on your 5th unqualified, woody demo of the day. Trust me, I've been there... it's rough. By the time 3 o'clock rolls around you're getting a bit snippy with your AEs and you're slugging back that last cup of coffee you always regret. You probably have Facebook and a few other time-wasters opened in a browser window on your other monitor, thinking about your commute, wondering what your friends are doing... you're BORED. 

If you're at this point, chances are your demos have been fairly shitty for awhile now. Usually the first indication that you're heading in this direction happens shortly after you memorize your demo script and find your own spin on it that works (around 3 mos in, usually). Once you've found your groove, you start to get lazy and go on autopilot... then it's an avalanche of mediocrity from there. When you're lazy, you're not paying attention or asking the right questions. If you're not asking the questions, the prospect isn't engaged. If the prospect isn't engaged, chances are they're probably doing the exact same fucking thing you're doing right now... looking at a slideshow of the 10 worst child-star celebrity train-wrecks on buzzfeed or something. It goes without saying this is a MASSIVE waste of time for everyone involved, but how do you beat the boredom? How do you get excited about something you've already done hundreds of times and will probably do thousands more of before you're done?

The hard truth is, if you're bored doing demos it's your own damn fault... period. 

Some of the biggest mistakes I see SEs make are reading slides, not asking questions, and regurgitating the same content over and over again the exact same way. Don't get me wrong, the demo script is there for a reason, let it be known one of the keys to becoming a great SE is to read and memorize what others have built before you BEFORE you add your own spin to it. The reason for this is not so you can just chug thru the script verbatim for every demo you do, it's so you can nail down the CONTENT, then build variations on it to make it more compelling for the prospect. It's like riding a bike... you shouldn't do wheelies until you can ride in a straight line for a bit. 

So reading slides... I'm not going to belabor the point of how sleep-inducing this is, but if you have to read your own slides or say things like "as you can see on this slide", you may as well just put down your headset and go take a nap because that's what your prospect is doing. Instead of reading, ask questions about the slides. Pick a talking point on the slide and ask "do you ever deal with <insert point here> in your day to day?" It's a win-win for getting more information. If they say yes, then dig into it; if they say no, then you can respond "interesting, most folks I talk to in your shoes deal with that all the time. What does your day-to-day look like?" Worst case scenario, you get them talking and you learn something. 

This feeds right into my next point... not asking questions. I actually call this out on my demos before I even start presenting. I'll say something like: 

"my intention is to figure out whether or not my product is a fit for your environment. If it is, that's excellent; we'll figure out a package and I'll help you deploy it. If it's not, that's ok too; I wouldn't sell you anything you don't need. In order to keep my comments relevant to what's going on in your world, I like to have an open dialogue so feel free to ask me any questions you have and I'll do the same. Does that sound good?" 

If I don't get a verbal "yes" in one form or another, I will say "No problem. We have a huge library of videos on the website you can sift through and our marketing team runs a great webinar every Wednesday. My AE will reach out in a few weeks to check and see how that goes... if you like what you see we can try this again at a later date." and kick it back to sales.

This probably seems like a dick-move, but in actuality it's really not. If the prospect doesn't want to talk to me, having me pepper in questions and them feeling uncomfortable answering is an unproductive use of time. They will be much more engaged watching a non-interactive video than sitting there biting their fingernails hoping I won't talk at them. There's also a right and a wrong way to ask questions, which I will get to in a future post. 

The last piece is keeping your material fresh. This piece is different, because it's as much for you than it is for your prospect. Sure, they'll benefit from topical anecdotes and new feature release information about your product, but you will benefit arguably even more because you will draw energy from new content. This can be anything, to be honest. Maybe you inject a story about a previous call you had with a different prospect that will lay up a value-add for your product:

"I was just on a call with another guy earlier this week who was scanning all 8000 devices in his network BY HAND. "

 then try a question

"How big is your network? Does it take you that long to scan your devices?" 

Blogs are also a great place to get fresh material. If your company has a blog, grab a quote or an idea from one of the thought-leaders in your company and find an appropriate place to inject in your demo cadence. I have a plethora of blogs and news sites I check every morning to start my day with new hotness.

Lastly, on the other end of that phone is a person. Just TALK to them. Some of the best demos I've ever given were ones where I never shared a single slide. They're expecting to see your product, but the dirty little secret is there's probably lots of products that do what yours does. Customers don't buy products just because of the product, they buy the product because they like the people who are selling it to them. Don't be a demo donkey.

SE Fundamentals: The Need Behind the Need

This is one of those responsibilities that should be shared between sales and sales engineering... But is often not the case.

Apart from the who and the how (which should WITHOUT EXCEPTION be obtained by sales), the Why is the most important element of any deal. The why not only helps dictate the direction of the demo and POC/POV, but also gives us something tangible to fall back on later on in the deal cycle if it starts to go sideways. It reminds us why we think we can bill here, but also prospects of why they engaged with us in the first place.

The challenge with the why, is we all have a tendency to get generic with both the ask, and the description. In the security space, the need "we have to be more secure" is a great example of this. I can't tell you how many times I've asked an AE "so why did the prospect decide to join the call today?" And I hear some variant of "well, the prospect told me they need to be more secure and are always looking at security products". That's like a car dealership lot attendant coming to a sales guy and saying "there's a guy out there who wants to go faster and is always looking at new cars, I think we should talk to him!"

The reason finding the need is so important, is because time is so important. If a prospect isn't sure why they're looking for the product you're selling, they're probably not ready for a customized 1:1 demo. If this is the case they should be directed to your company website and/or YouTube page . Except for extenuating circumstances, an AE should NEVER schedule you on a call with a prospect unless they know WHY we're talking to them.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Oftentimes I get requests from AEs to hop on demos because "they have money, but I'm not sure why he agreed to see our product". In my book this is ok SOMETIMES... and ONLY if we have the who and the how. We can be nice, but I can't stress enough how this can NOT be the norm. If an AE preps me that they're unsure of the need, I will always agree to do the call and help them figure it out... unless I know they're making a habit of it and taking advantage of my good nature. Most often, I get a generic need that needs to be dug into one layer deeper.

So what is that next layer? For argument's sake, let's take the "we need to be more secure" proto-need. The first thing I'm going to ask is "why?" "Mr. Prospect I respect that, we all need to be more secure... So what's driving this sudden need to look at security products?" This should hopefully start to highlight something tangible that the prospect is trying to accomplish, but more often than not, the next response is "we're always looking at the latest technologies." To this I will most likely reply "well we definitely have the latest technology here, what current technologies are you leveraging? Do you think that's adequate? What other new and emerging technologies have you looked at? What element (or lack thereof) in your current security posture keeps you up at night? Did you see on Krebs the other day? This worried some of my other customers that they may have gaps in their infrastructure that could allow the same thing to happen, did you feel that way?" 

This line of questioning is aggressive, but because I don't have an actual need from the AE's disco call, it's going to tell me a few things. First, should I be on this call? Or... should they be watching a demo video on the website and the AE follow up in a week? If I deem the video is the best option, this is not a "fuck you junior AE I am above doing your worthless call", but more "let's see if the customer still wants a customized demo once they learn what the product actually does". This will also tell me whether or not I'm on the phone with the right person. The right person is most likely NOT someone who watches commercials for a living and has a free hour in his day, but someone who is invested in the outcome of the problem my product is looking to solve. Lastly, and probably most importantly, I am looking to educate the AE on the questions they should be asking before they engage myself or someone on my team for a call. During this line of questioning, the AE is most likely still on the call and listening in... And I'm always watching to make sure they're taking notes so the next time they're better prepared. 

I've always worked at startups and recently I've been doing some consulting for some companies that are at ground zero. Just hired a sales team, no formal training process, no predefined qualification requirements. In these cases, the LAST thing I want to do is insist. My AE's are ultimately the ones who are going to be building the customer base, therefore building the value of the business and making me money. If they're not adequately trained.. it is MY job to help. I can't stand asshole, entitled SEs that think every call should be handed to them on a sliver platter. The type of SE I'm looking for on my team is the real deal nose-to-the-grindstone SE that will suck it up and help the team figure it out. As SEs, sales training falls into our periphery so If you're too jaded with junior reps, go pound sand. 

Of course, if we're talking about a senior AE that should know better, I will throw them to the wolves every time. A proper sales bullpen has a pack mentality and if the SE respect factor is set up properly you can bet your ass the pack will eat the weak ones for breakfast... which is as it should be. As SEs we are an important element of the divining rod that tells which AEs will make it and which ones should try a different profession.

Thoughts on the October 13th SE MeetUp in SF

pSales Engineers are a rare breed and we come in all shapes and sizes from a million different backgrounds. Because of this, it's often difficult to find a crew of SE's to bounce ideas off of and share experiences with that aren't in your immediate circle.

The SE MeetUp held at the Talkdesk office yesterday evening was a rare experience. In my 10 or so years in the profession I have never seen that many SEs in one room. Everything from senior managers, principals, directors as well as junior folks and even a few that were just curious about the role. And EVERYONE was talking up their companies and hiring like CRAZY.

The "fireside chat" as it were, had 3 accomplished SE professionals from 3 different organizations chatting about their experiences in a panel format, with a crew of about 50 or so other SE participants. They had a nice selection of beer and finger food (the natural sustenance of the SE), and some comfy couches to sit on during the talk. When I say "fireside chat', it basically means they have a loop of a nice warm fire on the projector or flatscreen from youtube because you can't literally light anything on fire in an office building. Of course this being a SE meetup, the "fire" was a 5 hour clip of Darth Vader's armor being burned from Star Wars Episode VI instead of some festive logs crackling in a fireplace... but that's to be expected for this crowd.

The content was excellent, and there were some extremely relevant recurring themes that I wanted to highlight.

The first, that Jesse from Talkdesk pointed out, is the importance of having an opinion. The context for this comment was "how to nail an interview", but it definitely extends beyond that. As SEs, we must be opinionated about our products and services. The AE is always going to sell it like it's the second coming, but sometimes I feel like SEs think they need to be perfectly objective all the time. In my experience, this is not the case. And it's DEFINITELY not the case if you have aspirations of moving up in your role.

As SEs, we kind of fall in this purgatory in between the completely objective post-sales/support side, and the massively opinionated sales side of the house. We're left wondering... "how hard should I push?", "Should I push at all?" The answer is yes, and here's why.

As professionals, we all have decisions to make on the organizations we work for. It's VERY IMPORTANT that the company you choose represents YOUR personal brand. It's never going to be perfectly aligned, but at the very least you need to join a company where you believe in message of the team you're working with and the value of the product you're selling. When both of these pieces line up, it's easy to be opinionated. Why would a customer go with a company when the people selling it don't believe in it? You wouldn't buy a car from someone who told you "yeah, it's kind of shitty but it may work for you... I just don't like it that much." Plus, what AE is going to want you on their enterprise call if you're milktoast when it comes to talking up the product?

That brings me to another challenge that was shared by most folks there... the relationship between you and your AE. Having worked with hundreds of different AEs from all different skill levels and walks of life over the past 10 years, this topic probably warrants a post all to itself, but here's a few thoughts on it in the interim:

SEs are chameleons that can adapt to nearly any situation. A colleague of mine once said "a great SE is someone who can talk sports with a sales guy at the bar one minute, then talk shop with his engineer the next." That's not to say you should ever alter your actual personality to adjust to situations necessarily, but you need the full range of content to be effective. The same goes for your relationship with your AE. When I start working with a new AE, I treat them like a prospective customer. What are they excelling at? Where do they fall short? What are their interests? What drives them to be successful? What do they do on the weekends? How did they end up in this place in their lives?

Always pregame with your AE to discuss the best next steps with the customer (also will most likely be another post). Also pay attention to how they speak to prospective customers on the phone and in person. Even if their approach doesn't jive exactly with yours (and it probably won't), remember the customer was on a call with your AE so... chances are that customer was responsive to your AE's methods. Because of this, it will behoove you to perpetuate a united message throughout, or at the very least keep a positive image of your AE when speaking to customers.

The last and most important piece on the topic of the AE/SE relationship... don't talk shit about your AE to the customer. If you have a problem with the AE, talk to their manager about it... NOT the customer. Remember, if the customer is going to buy, they need to know your AE's intentions are as good as yours. Even if the customer thinks you're the greatest SE in the world, they won't buy unless they trust your AE as well.

I would highly recommend going to one of these meetups if you get a chance, it's a great way to gain perspective and meet like-minded folks. Check it here:

http://www.meetup.com/Sales-Engineering/

Why I Quit Playing Video Games So Much

I love video games. I love the idea of playing in a world where there aren't any real consequences. All of these games out there that say "you die once, you start over" or "we try to make it as realistic as possible"... screw that. Why would I want to play a game where you can only carry two guns instead of 12? Why would I want my character to be able to actually die when I jump off a building for no reason? Doesn't make any sense to me... I want to be able to stand on the roof of a car going 200 mph through the middle of a city and shoot a RPG at a jet fighter from my bionic arm. THAT'S what I want.

My favorite types of games are the ones where you get to upgrade your player and your player's stuff over time. GTA series? Love it. Just Cause 3? Amazing. No Man's Sky? Beauty. I love the ones where you feel a connection with your character, the ability to make your character cooler and more powerful over time... being able to build up an arsenal of currency, weapons, and vehicles to the point where I'm nearly invincible... that's what I like. That being said, I am very particular about the games and type of gaming I play. I have no interest in playing online against other players, nor do I want to play as more than one character so I'm not susceptible to WoW or any of those other MMORPG's.

Even when you omit the online play, there's a few inherent problems with playing video games... in my case the main one being how much time it takes to amass the attributes for your character. Any gamer will tell you that the level of investment for modern games is monumentally more time compared to what it was 20 years ago. Ever play GTA5? It ain't Mario Kart. It takes time to learn the controls, it takes time to learn the game dynamics, and it takes time to collect, build, store, and master other elements in the game. Over hours, days and weeks you build up an amazing world for your character in your TV... and as a result you spend all your time in front of it because it's more fun than real life.

The second big problem is a side effect of the first. While you're building up your amazing world in your TV, your life outside the TV isn't actually getting any better. You're not learning anything new from the game that would be applicable to your real life. None of the amazing button-pushing skills you've mastered will make you more well rounded, and you're DEFINITELY not doing your wallet any favors in the long run. Yes, maybe you're not going out to the bars and spending cash as much... but at least at the bar you have a chance of something positive happening that benefits your REAL life, or AT LEAST make a good story.

It's also not limited to consoles and computers anymore either. Clash of Clans, Game of War, Boom Beach, Candy Crush... these are all even worse in my opinion. These are called "casual games"... but they're not "casual"... and they're fucking expensive if you actually get into it. A couple months ago I met a 50-something mid-level business guy in an airport who had his iPad out and he was playing Game of War Fire Age. I asked him about it and he proceeded to brag to me that he was one of the top 100 players in the world... as if I would be impressed by this somehow. Turns out, to get to that level he had spent close to $5,000 in micro-payments. 5 large on a fucking iPhone game!!! This was the worst I've ever heard of to this day, but I hear stories like this all the time. People get caught up and end up wasting hundreds of dollars on something that has NO TANGIBLE VALUE.

It's basic escapism. It's the same reason people end up partying too much... you don't like your reality, and it's easier just to ignore it than it is to fix it. But I can tell you, the longer you let this shit go on, the tougher time you'll have getting out of it. The longer you live in your virtual reality, the further behind you get in your actual reality. I'm a firm believer that there will come a time when business is conducted in VR, and you will end up leveraging technology for most business dealings, but the skills you learn from playing a video game will still never apply.

Looking for alternatives? Learn something. Read a book, write a blog, go outside, goto a museum, go sit at a bar and talk to people who sit down there, walk the streets of your city, people-watch, exercise... there are million things to do in this life (I'm beginning to sound like my father, but he was right). The reason I quit playing so much is because I started to realize how much money I was losing. All the time I was wasting sitting in front of the TV could've been used to increase my skill level and further hone my craft... but instead i was blowing up zombies and crashing cars. Sometimes the value from video game alternatives is indirect, but at least once a day now I am able to see tangible benefits in my career from putting down the controller.

I get it, the real world sucks sometimes and you're an introvert so video games are entertaining... but you know what is also entertaining? MAKING MONEY. And I know there are games where you can buy/sell stuff in the virtual world.. but what happens when you're 40 and morbidly obese with zero social skills? Talking about impressing the ladies (or gentlemen)!

If you feel the need to play and it's something you really enjoy, by all means go for it. I still play every once in awhile on the weekends... but don't let it take over. Your real life will thank you.

 (courtesy of dorkly.com)

This post is dedicated to one of my dearest friends and business partners who recently called me out on my bullshit. Always surround yourself with people who care more about your success than your feelings.

So... We Have a Probe Orbiting Jupiter...

And this took so long because... ? Be forewarned, there is much factual information in this post but it's a rant.

First of all I am thrilled we're orbiting Jupiter, but come on NASA... we just sent a probe out beyond Pluto, an extensive Jupiter expedition should have been done YEARS ago. I get it that all space discovery is expensive, and Jupiter is really far away, but as a species we are REALLY behind right now. I also know the argument "let's focus on fixing this planet before we go someplace else", but if we don't get off our asses and start doing some serious exploration, we're not going to have any idea where to go, even!

I have always been a space and astronomy nut. Something about a science where there is the possibility of discovering something brand new that's never been seen before is fascinating to me. We also discover something new virtually EVERY time we explore anything... so why aren't we exploring more stuff? New Horizons flew past Pluto in ONE DAY, and do have any idea all the science we were able to do in <24 hours? It's insane! And we're STILL discovering stuff, just today scientists determined that because of the shape and behavior of the informally-named Sputnik Planum there's most likely a 100KM DEEP OCEAN ON PLUTO. What?!?

There are 8 planets in our solar system, did you know the last time we were up close with two of them (Uranus and Neptune) were 1986 and 1989 respectively? Why is that? One of them is tilted completely sideways unlike ANY other planet in our solar system, and the other one has the fastest sustained winds (2000+ mph) we've ever seen and we don't know why. Is this not interesting to us as a species? It's 2016, I figured by now we would at least have probes orbiting all the planets.

Part of the problem is all the planning necessary to launch one of these things. Unfortunately we haven't really developed an assembly line process for building long-distance space probes. As a result, by the time one of our probes visits the places we haven't been to, the technology is on the brink of obsolete. It took 10 years for New Horizons to get to Pluto... it was launched in 2006. Do you remember what sort of digital camera you had in 2006? Pretty sure the megapixels were still in the single digits... most people were still on Windows XP listening to music on our iPod classics... crazy right? And it's that level of technology sophistication that's on a spacecraft hurtling through the outer reaches of our solar system.

It's this type of problem that makes me confident we're doomed as a species. In 2015, the US spent $601 Billion on defense. The NASA budget you ask? $17 billion. Yep, the budget to build and develop sooper-cool jets and explody bombs in this country is 34 times larger than budget for understanding how and why we're here. One final thought on this, the development of the new F-35 fighter plane build by Lockheed Martin cost the US taxpayers $1.5 trillion dollars. Yes, trillion with a T. The cost of sending a probe 4 billion miles from earth and capturing tons of priceless scientific data? 700 million. mic drop 

The SE Spectrum (A philosophical quandary)

Sales Engineering is a fence, I've always said it. On the one side, you have the sales side of the job... The other obviously engineering. Every SE I've ever worked with falls on one side or the other, but never all the way in one direction, and that's the way it's supposed to be. Inherent in being a SE is you can't be a Tea or Green Party candidate, you have to fall somewhere in the middle (otherwise you' d just be a sales person or an engineer).

The good news is there's no right or wrong way to be a SE. Some of the best SEs I've known are more backend-focused and fall very far on the engineering side of the spectrum. Others, (like many of my mentors) love being on the phone with customers and are more on the sales side. It all depends on what you want in your career. I find that that most of the "architect" level SEs are further on the engineering side and a majority of the "evangelist" type SEs are more on the sales side. The key is to figure out what you want and start making decisions to help you head further in that direction. Most of you that are younger in the game probably aren't quite sure what you want yet. I can tell you that early in my career I flip-flopped quite a bit with my decision.

Many of you know my first gig was in a vulnerability assessment company, which in the beginning gave me topical access to network infrastructure data and I could do basic scans and tell network engineers what patches they needed to apply. It wasn't exactly lighsaber duels, but as I learned the SE craft it was the perfect amount of technical for me to practice my technique and build confidence. Then one day that company bought an open-source penetration testing tool, and I was gobsmacked. All of a sudden I had access to something that could do really cool shit. Rather than telling someone they needed a Microsoft hotfix or something, I could break into vulnerable machines and screenshot their desktop! Huzzah! 

I became so enamored with this tool, I decided I wanted to make it my core competency. I studied it, developed an entire demo and trial process for it, I even designed marketing material and a presentation cadence for trade shows. It was awesome... Until I got my paycheck. In my exuberance for this new product I had completely overlooked the fact that the average sale price of my new toy was $16k a pop, vs close to $100k for the VA solution. Don't get me wrong, the time I spent was definitely worth it. Because of the time I spent with the new product I increased my technical chops 10-fold, got face-time with some far more technical folks, and was able to attend some far more interesting conferences.

I was at an inflection point with my career. I could continue down the technical path and potentially get really good with the new product and enjoy the new and interesting world that came with it... Or I could go back to the other side and help out my bank account. I spoke with my friends and colleagues about it, and my mentor at the time gave me some advice that impacts my career decisions to this day. He told me:

"Ask yourself, what it is about this new product that has you so enamored? Is it the new product and technology, or is it learning something new and developing a new process around it?"

It was then I realized I had my first point of reference on the SE spectrum... And it was on the sales side of the divide. I thought the new product was cool, but what I really enjoyed was the ability to analyze the market, figure out the audience, and develop a new way to engineer the sale. The big divining rod I gained from this experience was:

Don't let any one product dictate your direction as a SE.

We all work for labels, and unless you plan on staying at one company for the rest of your life, it bodes well not to focus all of your energies on one particular product. Widgets will come and go... Figure out your relative place on the spectrum and hone your craft.

The Benefits of Promoting Your Brand as a SE

First-off, you can probably find 10,000 shit posts about this same topic written by some douchey self-proclaimed "E-Marketing" guru or something, but that's not the image you want to portray if you want to maintain your level of respect as a Sales Engineer. One of the biggest challenges in anyone's professional career is to get noticed for the right reasons and not look like an attention whore. This challenge is exacerbated substantially when you happen to be an introvert and have an inherent phobia of associating your online personas with your professional image.

But lo, all is not lost. For in the infinite scale and grandeur of the internet we have been anointed exquisite gifts that, if used properly, can work as if they were specifically designed for technical introverts like myself. I use these gifts, but I had to be teach myself through trial and error over a number of years how to do it properly. Here are some of the things I've learned:

LinkedIn

On of the most obvious first steps is to set up a LinkedIn account. I know it's played out and most of the posts have become months-old memes and shitty "brain-teasers", but it's still the best reference anyone has for getting your professional profile. Make sure you create a custom URL for profile. Sounds corny but it makes things easier to put in email signatures and business cards. 

When it comes to LI, there are a few commonly overlooked things that can make you stand out. For me, I've had more compliments on my Summary than anything else (don't be afraid to plagiarize). In the "Experience" section, make sure you put a little blurb about what you actually do at that company rather than just the company tagline. Feel free to put personal accomplishments in there, but don't make it look like a huge deal unless it actually is. Nobody gives a shit that you got your CISSP so... put it in there, but don't be a dick about it. 

Lastly, on the topic of things that nobody gives a shit about... nobody cares where you went to high school so leave it out. In my experience if I didn't actually know the person in high school, the connection wasn't strong enough anyways. If that's the angle you're trying to work in a deal, you're probably not going to close that deal. Think about it.

UPDATE: One very cool thing about LI that I learned recently is it is WAY MORE ephemeral then most people think... far more than any other social media. I have started testing out tweets in LI before I actually put them on twitter. If you post something to LI, you'll get nearly instant feedback on it, but it will also fall down the queue so fast that if it turns out to be a shitty post it's gone before you know it. You can also delete the post and it's almost like it never existed. Unlike twitter and FB, people don't have LI posts under a microscope so you can get away with testing the waters a bit. 

Twitter

Next, set up a twitter feed and start following the insiders in your industry... just google it, trust me. Put your twitter handle in your LI profile. Job hunters that are worth their salt that are looking at your LI profile are going to look at your twitter feed. I treat my LI profile as something I could easily show my grandma and my twitter feed as only being shared with my friends and people who think I'm interesting. Try and tweet relevant stuff... retweets are good too but if you do, at least tag an opinion to the retweet. You will make or break your twitter persona with the use of relevant content. Try using something like feedly and following a ton of RSS feeds relevant to your field and write posts on interesting stories you find. You can also use something like tweetdeck and create lists to keep up to date. Also try and respond to tweets with something insightful. If the person you're tweeting at retweets your tweet, that's instant publicity and confirmation that you have something to say.

Facebook

EVERYBODY looks at Facebook: recruiters, managers, colleagues... your grandma... everyone. I did some serious research on how to lock it down, read this to get a decent headstart. The idea with Facebook is to keep it populated with enough static data so an anonymous person can at least see that you're a social person, but not enough to reveal anything too personal. I updated my Facebook profile like 3 years ago, haven't touched it since, and only post very occasionally if at all. 

It seems daunting in the beginning, but once you get the hang of this it's easy. I have a tendency to think and be creative in chunks... followed by long periods of flat-line brain activity. To combat this, when I have an epiphany or ten I write a bunch of tweets and schedule them, or start a bunch of blog posts and leave them unfinished for a later time when my brain is in tapioca-mode.

trying to be a coder

Historically I've been more on the sales side of sales engineering. My first gig I was a borderline demo-donkey for the first couple years, didn't ever even need to touch a terminal (or command prompt as it was at that time). As anyone will tell you, it's really easy to get in a comfort zone where you're the big fish in a small pond.

 In the spirit of not being the guy who isn't getting any better, I developed some strong relationships with the engineers at my company and dove headfirst into the world of coding (sort of). I've written "scripts" before to do specific tasks... that of course meaning I would come up with an idea, fail at writing the first function and then go bother my dev friends for help. Once the first function was working I would continue to repeat this process until the script was complete.

 One of my extremely intelligent colleagues developed a visualization tool called OpenGraphiti that can take any relational dataset formatted in JSON and graph it in 3d (this is a gross over-simplification and doesn't even come close to doing justice to just how amazing this thing is). It's a brilliant piece of software and it can do amazing things, but it's complicated to get running, putting it out of reach for most sales-leaning engineers like myself. So, as a public service, I decided to take a run at writing an install script for all the prerequisites.

Step 1: Figure out everything that needs to be installed.

This part was easy, it's all listed on the OG site. The challenge is you have to install things before you can install other things (yodawg) so I grouped them together accordingly to keep track.

Installers and Repositories:

git

brew

Core Components:

xcode (mac)

python

Packages:

requests

investigate

shodan

geoip2

networkx

Software:

opengraphiti

miner script

Other stuff:

datasets

Step 2: Decide what language to use to write the installer.

Since I am most familiar with bash I decided to use that.

Step 3: Write the script

This took a few tries to get working. Logic states that to install packages, you need package installers. And from previous experience, I know that in order to get any code at all to work on a mac, you need xcode. After much fettling, I learned that there's no easy (or fast) way to install xcode, so I just put some text at the beginning of the script to let people know that they need to have this first:

echo "Automated OpenGraphiti installer 1.0 created by mrbarrett"

echo "IMPORTANT: You must have xcode installed (mac) before running this script!"

Step 4: Test

This was the extent of the niceties in the script. Everything else was just a lump of brew installs and git-pulls. Worked great on my machine, sweet. Then, inevitably, we hit a roadblock. Of the 15 people I sent this to, 13 of them reported errors... fml.

After some more head-banging I figured it out. It was a mixture of not having Xcode installed (RTFM), not running Xcode before installing (RTFM) and having the wrong version of python installed (I found out later 2.7.10 isn't installed with brew, you need an old-fashioned download from python.org).

Eventually we got everyone installed... but not before me being "your company's computer guy" and physically sitting in front of everyone's machine individually and getting it running. The phrase "no good deed goes unpunished" comes to mind... Regardless, it was a good exercise. I continue to practice writing stuff and understand the basic structure but it's like any other skill... if you don't use it regularly you forget.

For the .000001% of you that are reading this because you're struggling getting OpenGraphiti installed, you can find my script here (it also grabs some baked datasets from my own personal git):

#!/bin/bash




ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)" &&

brew install git &&

brew install glew &&

brew install cmake &&

brew install pkgconfig &&

brew tap homebrew/versions && brew install glfw3 &&

pip install networkx &&

pip install pygeoip &&

mkdir ~/OG_Demo

(cd /home && 

    git clone https://github.com/ThibaultReuille/graphiti.git --recursive ~/OG_Demo/graphiti && 

    git clone https://github.com/ThibaultReuille/raindance.git --recursive ~/OG_Demo/raindance) &&

(cd ~/OG_Demo/raindance && make) &&

(cd ~/OG_Demo/graphiti && cmake . && make) &&

mkdir -p ~/OG_Demo/datasets

    (cd /home &&

        git clone https://github.com/mrbarrett/baked-graphs.git ~/OG_Demo/datasets)

echo "Done!"