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S t r a t e g i c P r eS t r a t e g i c P r e -- s a l e ss a l e s
E n g i n e e r i n g :E n g i n e e r i n g :
Special Operations Forces for Technical Sales
Volume 1
Dan Herchenroether
Principal
Executive Summary
Selling enterprise software is more
challenging than ever. Corporate
Information Technology (IT)
departments’ budgets have shrunk since the peaks of the 90s and IT
managers still have nasty burns from over-hyped products that did not
solve their problems. Also, technology continues to move up the
complexity scale, requiring significantly more prospect education before
attaining the technical win.
Even in the face of renewed skepticism on the part of IT, software
vendors are still ignoring the one sales function which can substantially
improve sales efficiency: pre-sales engineering. Whether called “systems
engineers”, “sales engineers” or “customer consultants”, far too many
vendors treat the pre-sales technical team as a tactical resource or an
overhead item to be minimized rather than a strategic Special Operations
force which can shorten sales cycles and vastly improve customer
relationships.
The keys to creating that Special Operations force of systems
engineers are:
• Recognize the true value of your pre-sales personnel
• Expect more than technical prowess of your pre-sales
engineers
• Align the SE force with your sales goals and philosophy
• Train, motivate and compensate SEs for maximum payback
The Rise of Software
Think back to the 70s. Mainframe
vendors such as IBM and Burroughs sold
hardware first and most software was
written in-house by programming cadres controlled by central corporate
management information systems (MIS) departments as they were
commonly called at the time. The likes of IBM treated software as
something to throw into the deal. Their pre-sales SEs were more
concerned about hardware speed (remember “MIPS”?) and throughput
than what a particular application could do. What independent software
vendors there were simply followed IBM into an account and sold to the
same MIS customers, who were also likely to be the vendors’ biggest
competitor. The MIS people were, after all, developers as well and
independent vendors were viewed as a threat to their jobs.

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The environment opened up in the 80s with the appearance of
departmental mini-computers from Digital Equipment, Wang and Sun
Microsystems. Thus began the emancipation away from the computer
glass house, accelerated by the arrival of personal computers, the local
area networks, mainframe gateways and routers to link them together.
In particular, database management vendors such as Oracle,
Sybase, and Informix rode the decentralization trend. These vendors
perfected the direct corporate sales model for software, pairing sales
representatives with technical counterparts to introduce customers to the
arcane world of relational databases. Oracle invested heavily in their
technical sales teams and set the early standard for strategic technical
sales. Customers soon began to expect as high a level of technical
support from their software vendors as they enjoyed from their hardware
vendors. Following hard on their heels were enterprise application
vendors such as SAP, masters of the complex world of distributed,
client/server applications.
Throughout the 90s, software options proliferated in the market
creating often bewildering choices for business and IT directors. Many
information management directors became bewildered trying to
rationalize the trends - both real and passing fads - and the alphabet
soup of acronyms and terms: decision support, client/server, TCP/IP, CRM,
EAI, data warehousing, HTML, object orientation, GUI, spreadsheets, WAP,
middleware, SaaS, SOA, Cloud …
The technical complexity increased exponentially as did the need
to link all this software into a coherent whole. Sales reps relied
more and more on their technical partners to communicate the
value of their products to prospects.
By the mid-90s software had acquired a certain sex
appeal, supplanting computer hardware as the driving force in
technology. The initial public stock offering for Netscape rewrote
the rules for valuing technology, rendering passé the heretofore
requirement of three quarters profitability. Instead, revenue
growth became the benchmark for valuation. Once the profit
barrier to entry was removed, the venture capital spigots opened
wide. Seemingly, anyone with any idea – bright or otherwise – could get
venture funding. Prodded by their internal, status conscious customers,
corporate IT chased after every new software fad they could. Lastly, Y2K
issues gave them air cover to expand their budgets. All IT directors
needed to justify any necessary or frivolous purchase was to yell “Y2K!” It
was like shooting fish in a barrel for software sales reps.
Lost in this feeding frenzy was a disciplined role for systems
engineers. Because of the sheer volume of sales calls, most vendors
focused their pre-sales teams on performing crisp demos and
presentations, and replying to requests-for-information (RFI). Despite their
best efforts, sales teams were still dragged into prolonged pilots or the
dreaded competitive proof-of-concept or bake-off. The usual remedy
was – and still is – to park a systems engineer on site for the duration of the
project.
Quality SEs chafed at this state of affairs. The technical SEs wanted
to show off their technical prowess and not simply be trained seals or
By the mid-90s software
had acquired a certain
sex appeal, supplanting
computer hardware as the
driving force in
technology.

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prospect babysitters. They wanted to take charge of the technical sale.
Sales reps, however, treated their SEs as marionettes, controlling the SEs’
movements and story for the benefit of the prospect. They also expected
their SEs to deflect – or more likely be impaled by – the technical arrows
shot from prospects. Naturally, intelligent and ambitious SEs, viewing
themselves as technical super heroes, rebelled against such control,
particularly from someone they considered as inferior, technical heathens.
Once the inevitable cultural conflict erupted, frustrated SEs moved on to
other opportunities leaving sales reps and managers to hire more
compliant “demo Dollys”.
Upper management complied. They came to view the technical
sales role as overhead to be minimized. Sales reps were continuously
hired but not a commensurate number of SEs, increasing the burden on
the existing engineers. Burnout of SEs increased as did conflict between
sales reps as they vied for increasingly scarce technical resources, the
lack of which reps used as an excuse for their blown opportunities or
extended sales cycles. Turnover in the SE ranks surged ahead further
exacerbating the shortage of technical talent. Because the revenue kept
flowing, however, management rationalized all this as a cost of doing
business in the new economy.
A New Sales Environment
Of course, every party comes to an end
and the software bender ended
violently. Scores of vendors with dubious
product and finances disappeared. IT
awoke to quite a hangover with volumes of useless product on their
computers and shelves, and faced questions from management about
something called “return on investment”. For instance, we saw many a
telecom company commit to millions of dollars of Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) software only to see a fraction of the planned
implementation and no discernable return-on-investment.
After the tech bubble and Y2K hype passed, we have returned to
more rational market conditions. Chastened by management for their
earlier excesses, IT buyers are now very skeptical and demand proof of
value from vendors. That usually means a pilot project or the competitive
“proof-of-concept”. While these were common during the bubble era,
they are de rigueur today. Decision makers are not accepting the career
risk of buying without extreme due diligence. However, IT’s
methodologies for evaluating software continues to reveal how naïve and
uninformed many IT groups still are, creating the risk of further
disappointment with the software industry. Vendors should be proactive
in shaping evaluations instead of deferring to the prospect as was the
case in the 90s.
What this means to the sales organization is that the SE can no
longer be a tactical, off-the-shelf resource but must evolve to be
the Strategic SE. For a sales team to achieve that evolution, it
must recognize the true value of the systems engineer and expect
more of the pre-sales engineer. A “demo Dolly” does not fit the
profile.
What this means is that the
SE can no longer be a
tactical, off-the-shelf
resource but must evolve
to be the Strategic SE.

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The increased emphasis on pilots and POCs puts tremendous
pressure on pre-sales technical resources. Unfortunately, vendors have
poorly hired and trained their SEs for these more demanding times. The
view of SEs by sales reps and managers needs a significant upgrade. The
formerly tactical SE now must be a strategic part of the sales cycle,
actively owning and managing the technical relationship with the
prospect.
Let’s start over and redefine the pre-sales technical role for the
new software market. It can be summed up thusly:
The pre-sales systems engineer is responsible
for achieving the technical win.
Technical wins equal revenue. The responsibilities of the Strategic
SE are still largely the same – demos, RFI responses, pilot/proof-of-concept
project management, expectations control – but the strategic SE should
shoulder the responsibility for marshaling the proper resources in order to
get that win.
Systems Engineers as Special Ops Forces
As stated in our historical review above,
sales management traditionally viewed
the SE as a tool to be directly
manipulated but not expected to generally think on his own. The new
tech market demands that SEs be more like Army Special Operations
forces. In the words of the Command Vision statement of the United
States Special Operations Command, their troops are:
“…thoroughly prepared, properly equipped and
highly motivated: at the right place, at the right
time, facing the right adversary…”
Special Ops are directed to their targets by the commanders but
once on the ground, have the training and intellect to make the right
tactical decisions to infiltrate the target. SEs may not be chasing terrorists
or targeting a safe-house for smart bombs, but we can draw
organizational parallels.
Thoroughly Prepared / Properly Equipped
Special Ops troops are trained and
trained, and trained some more before
being allowed to perform in the field. All
too often, new SEs are simply thrown into the fray, left to fend for
themselves. One of the extreme – but effective – examples of proper
training is the legendary IBM training of the 60s and 70s. No customer-
facing representative, whether sales, marketing or technical, ever came
close to a customer or prospect until they finished a several-months-long
indoctrination and training. Most new SEs will not need that kind of
intense training, but it is typical that a new SE will need three months to
get up to speed and one to two weeks per quarter of ongoing training.

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Here’s the typical curriculum to be covered:
• Product Technical Training
Technical training must include in-depth product usage and
technical internals. Technical depth is critical. The SE should
come out of the training with a greater knowledge of the
technological underpinnings than most of the expected
prospects. It is deadly for the sales cycle if the prospect fails to
respect the technical acumen of the vendor’s representatives.
An overlooked – discouraged, actually, in many cases – is
frequent interaction between field technical teams and
product engineering. Sure, we do not want our precious
engineering talent distracted from the critical task of building
product but engineers need to understand – they crave,
actually – how their products are being used in real life
situations. Nobody knows that better than the field systems
engineers who can speak the engineers’ language.
• Product Positioning
What is the target market? Who is the ideal prospect? Where
the product is not appropriate is just as important to identify as
the ideal fit. The SE should be able to ruthlessly qualify an
opportunity for technical fit after the initial meeting. Wasting
valuable resources on low probability prospects propagates
throughout the sales organization.
The SE is especially valuable in the product feature/benefit
feedback loop with Marketing who should rely on field
engineering data to validate positioning assumptions.
• Competitive Landscape / Objection Handling
Many a sales manager has rationalized away the need for his
SEs to know the competition. “I’d rather my SEs know more
about our own products than the competition,” they say.
Army Special Ops study and analyze the enemy’s strategies
and tactics in order to form a defense and uncover
weaknesses to use against them. The Strategic SE on the
ground in a prospect account should be expected to defuse
the land mines set by the competition and lay down some of
his own.
Equally important is the training SEs receive about dealing with
hostile audiences. Human nature being what it is, a defensive
or equally hostile attitude on the part of an SE will sink a deal
regardless of the correctness of his position.
• Meeting Management
The SE cannot always depend on the sales rep to drive a
meeting’s agenda. In our divide-and-conquer sales strategy,
once the entry has been made into an opportunity, the SE will
be expected to manage the process leading to a technical
win while the sales rep manages other aspects of the sales
cycle and uncover other leads. The SE will be empowered to

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structure briefings and planning meetings with the goal of
keeping the prospect’s focus on the right issues.
• Technical Training
There’s an old adage about two lumberjacks in a competition
to see who could fell their trees faster using axes. At the start,
both begin to furiously whack away at their tree trunks. Then
to the astonishment of the crowd, one lumberjack stops to
sharpen his axe. The other lumberjack, smirking at his
competitor’s foolishness, keeps chopping at his tree.
Repeatedly, the second lumberjack would chop for a while,
and then pause to sharpen. After a while, it became clear to
everyone that he was going to win the race, all because he
had the more consistently sharp tool and chopped deeper
with every stroke.
After every engagement, Special Ops individual and team
performances are critiqued and the training adjusted to
address any weaknesses. They take nothing for granted.
Likewise, vendors should take nothing for granted with their
strategic SEs. Without continuous training the SE will lose his
edge, will not be able to adapt to the changing dynamics of
the marketplace, with negative implications for sales cycles.
Keep your SEs sharp and they will continue to beat the
competition and earn revenue.
• Sales Training
Many times, SEs – and their management – forget that they are
in sales. The strategic SE is a sales rep in sheep’s clothing and
should be what sets a sales organization apart from its peers. If
the sales organization has adopted a methodology, the SE
must internalize that as much as the sales reps. Unless the SE
goes through the same training as a sales rep, alignment – that
word again – with objectives and sales strategy will not occur.
It is important that SEs ask themselves if what they are doing
day in and day out is on the path to revenue. If some activity
is not, it should be questioned.
Sure, the clever VPs of Sales out there will try to use the
revenue criterion as an excuse to cut back on sales training
expenses, but think again. Those VPs will drive the SE
organization out of cultural alignment with the rest of sales.
Ergo, the technical sales efforts will fail with the subsequent loss
of revenue. However, the objective sales manager willl
recognize that a forecast validated by his reps’ technical
partners is significantly more accurate than by the responsible
sales rep alone. Therefore, sales training is on the path to
revenue!
Properly Equipped
It should be obvious that SEs need to be equipped with sufficient
hardware, software and communications to properly develop and

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demonstrate the vendor’s products. However, sales or financial
management will often try to minimize the SE toolkit. Doing so is like
handing a soldier a box of bullets with no weapon to fire them with.
Beyond the demo and presentation needs, the SE’s mental health is at
stake if he is constantly frustrated by a lack of firepower. A ten or twelve
thousand dollar outlay is trivial to maximize a return on the six-figure
investment in an SE.
Right Place / Right Time / Facing the Right Adversary
At what points in the sales cycle is the SE most effective? Figure 1
shows a typical sales “funnel” segmented into the usual phases of the
sales cycle.
Validation
Negotiation
Competition
Qualification
Lead Generation
Validation
Negotiation
Competition
Qualification
Lead Generation
Figure 1
The Strategic SE will be most effective in the Qualification,
Competition and Validation phases.
During qualification, it is the strategic SE’s responsibility to
determine whether the prospect’s pain will be relieved by the vendor’s
product. Customers in the new tech market will not tolerate the force-
feeding they endured from vendors in the 90s and if a product does not
fit, the vendor should do the right thing and move on. The trained,
strategic SE will be more able and responsible for the technical
qualification than the sales rep.
The Strategic SE will own the competition phase. As project
manager, he will marshal the necessary resources to fully support
whatever project – pilot, proof-of-concept, RFI – the customer defines as
criteria to meet for success. The SE will be alert to competitive threats,
both from market competitors and internal politics. The SE will also be
actively looking for other applications for his products within the prospect.
Once the competition phase is complete, the SE will make certain
that the results are properly validated. He will fend off objections from
whatever source and be sure that no detail is left to chance.
Highly Motivated
A well-trained, well-equipped Strategic SE will be a confident and
effective weapon in sales, able to operate independently of sales rep
partners. Strategic SEs want to be winners and will be strongly motivated
to win for winning’s sake. However, in sales, nothing motivates like

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compensation. In fact, if an SE is not motivated to over-achieve and reap
his bonuses, he may not belong in a sales environment.
Compensation Plan Alignment
A detailed compensation plan is highly specific to each
organization and as such is outside the scope of this white paper.
However, there are some key concepts to consider.
In the past, SEs’ compensation consisted of a base component
and a bonus component. Typically, SE base salary would be in the 75-80%
range of on-target earnings. The structure of bonus plans varied greatly.
Some were based on revenue achievement, quota achievement,
objectives or a mix of all three and most would have a maximum earnings
level regardless of how well the sales force did during the quota period.
What was nearly ubiquitous about the SE plans was that they were seldom
in alignment with the compensation plans of the sales reps.
For instance, a typical rep’s compensation plan might be $100,000
base with on-target earnings of $200,000. On top of that, the rep would
have an accelerator ladder at 110%, 125% 150% or more and would be
uncapped. Additionally, special incentives such as new account, services
revenue goals or other bonuses were offered reps but not necessarily SEs.
This mismatch of monetary motivation inevitably led to reps chasing ever
more dollars while the SE would have no motivation to work any harder.
Since one of the tenets of building a strategic SE force is having every part
of the sales organization in alignment, this situation needs to be
addressed.
First, we are not saying that SE compensation should be on a par,
dollar-wise, with sales reps. The reps are, of course, still responsible for the
management of the sale cycle and take significant risk by accepting a
quota, falling short of which threatens their livelihood. If an SE is willing to
take on quota then he should be a sales rep. What we are advocating is
that the structure of the compensation plans be identical with respect to
incentive and motivation. If the rep’s plan has a commission accelerator
at 110% of quota, then the SE’s plan should have a kicker. If there are
bonuses for new accounts for reps, there should be some reward for the
SE on the deal. (Indeed, strategic SEs are most influential and valuable
when selling into new accounts.) When the compensation plans for reps
and SEs are in alignment, conflicts in motivation are avoided.
Variety
Technical people are naturally inquisitive and crave learning and
new challenges. One common error in technical sales is parking an SE at
the same accounts after winning the deal. The customer grows fond of
“their” engineer and complains when the rep takes him out of the
account. Naturally, the rep will acquiesce and return the SE to his prized
customer. There are three primary consequences of this scenario.
First, the SE is not available to conquer other new accounts. This
slows down innumerable sales cycles, increasing the demands on the
technical team as a whole. Second, the SE becomes stale and bored. A
bored SE is an unhappy SE and will soon start looking for more interesting
work, probably with another vendor. Lastly, parking an SE precludes
placing revenue-producing professional services engineers – the true
implementation experts – on the account, or making partners happy by

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referring new business to them. Enforce the discipline that while the SE will
still be an important part of the vendor’s team after the sale, the SE does
not “go production”.
Trust
The SE has to feel that his judgment and opinions matter in forming
the strategy for products, marketing and management of the sales cycle.
This is not to imply that the SE is truly a super hero. Management and the
sales rep still has ultimate responsibility for any decisions regarding how a
particular prospect challenge will be met. However, SEs have unique
insight into the technical and organizational opportunities, and the
competitive threats in an account. As such, their opinions should be given
significant weight in ongoing account management discussions. Failure
to do so will waste resources on low probability opportunities.
Hiring Profile
Now that we have defined the proper infrastructure and
environment for your strategic, special operations SEs, what criteria
defines the ideal SE for the new tech sales force? Here are some
dimensions:
• The ideal SE is more than technical
The primary responsibility of a pre-sales systems engineer is to
communicate the technical inner-workings of a product to
prospective customer in order to secure the technical win. At
minimum, SEs must have good communication and
presentation skills and, of course, technical depth to answer
the most arcane questions. The best SEs take full ownership
and responsibility for gaining that technical win by managing
proof-of-concept projects and organizing seminars and other
activities designed to insinuate the SE into the prospect’s
technical team.
• Broad-based Education
Your candidate need not have written an operating system or
reverse-engineered Microsoft Word but a bachelor’s degree of
science from a program with intensive systems curriculum is a
minimum requirement. Hybrid programs such as Information
Systems may have less technical depth than a Computer
Science program but have yielded very good SE candidates
because those candidates can apply software to a problem.
Probably because it is so rare, prospects are always impressed
when a vendor can talk his business language. Candidates
with a business degree – think MBA – on top of a technical
degree will serve you and your prospects well.
• Pioneer Spirit
The ideal candidate will have SE experience, preferably at a
startup. The environment of a startup is vastly different than at
a mature company. Resources are scarce; the SE will likely be
remote, working from a home office or will be traveling
frequently. If the candidate has not worked for an early stage

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startup, ferret out how dependent he has become on
infrastructure and staff support. The candidate must prove that
he can work independently, roll his own resources and think on
his feet. Of course, check references.
Sure, there is plenty of competition for experienced technical
talent. Vendors who adopt the Strategic SE philosophy will be
more able to attract top talent weary of being pigeonholed
into the stereotypical role of sales marionette. They are out
there waiting for a chance at freedom.
• SE needs a Sales Personality
Again, the SE is part of sales. Companies that separate SEs
from the sales organization or merely rely on raw technical
expertise fail to get the most out of the resource. It’s about
organizational alignment with the goals, marketing strategies
and compensation of the sales team. The best SEs have a
competitive streak and are driven to make the sale.
SEs should be lead generators. Once imbedded at a
prospect, the SE can look for other sales opportunities which
the sales rep can then follow up on. It is this divide-and-
conquer strategy that most fully leverages the SE’s skills. Look
for analytical and “what if?” skills.
• Broad Technical Proficiency
Does the candidate have experience in the technologies your
product embeds or will use in deployment? This may be very
straightforward. For example, if you are selling an application
server add-on, your SE will need at least some hands on
experience with Java, html, and scripting. Be careful, though,
that you don’t black ball a candidate simply because his or
her skills don’t map to every technological need. Training can
fill in any gaps, provided the candidate is motivated and can
prove past experience picking up new expertise
independently.
• Poise under fire
Resist the urge to hire anyone simply because they can deliver
a canned demo or marketing slideshow. This is an Achilles Heel
of many sales managers. They like to believe that they can
control the proceedings by saying “we’ll take that offline” or
“please hold questions until the end”. Forget it. If your product
has any level of technical complexity, an audience will try to
take the presentation into the technical weeds. Even if the rep
or SE is successful stonewalling the questions, the prospect will
be very annoyed. The candidate must have experience
dealing with challenging audiences or demonstrate the poise
to do so and be bold enough to chuck the whole presentation
and chalk talk the material.
• Strong Communication skills
The candidate should demonstrate writing competence. The
SE will have to design and execute project plans, respond to
requests for information, and be able to convey, clearly and

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succinctly, field observations to headquarters. The SE will be
the eyes and ears for the startup and any inaccuracies or
incomplete reporting will potentially send the product in the
wrong direction.
• Unselfish team player
Yes, it’s a two-way street, but it will be incumbent on the SE to
cultivate and grow relationships within the company to
properly do the job. Dealing with a field sales organization is
likely to be a new experience for many – if not most – of the
headquarters staff, particularly the engineers. An experienced
SE will establish the right culture and communication
mechanisms between the field and headquarters technical
groups.
Teamwork is also critical from the prospect’s perspective. The
early adopter projects tend to be lengthy and complex, and
working with fresh software guarantees that problems will crop
up. The more the prospect can rely on the SE as part of their
team, the more likely the technical win.
Now that we have defined our target SE profile, how do you
find candidates? Thankfully, the market has flipped from one
of sellers to buyers. After the bloodletting of the last few years,
there is a larger pool of quality candidates. Certainly, your
stable of recruiters will have quality candidates, but simply
working your industry network will uncover “A” players.
Conclusion
The old ways of treating pre-sales technical engineers as a tactical
part of sales cannot support today’s demanding market. The SE
organization of today’s technical vendors must be the Special Operations
Force of sales, acting as the forward observers, infiltrators and competitive
warriors in the technical trenches. Vendors who fail to organizationally
align and compensate their field technical human resources to meet the
post-tech bubble market are doomed to mediocrity or worse, abject
failure. Liberate your SEs, train them to be Strategic SEs and you will
liberate your sales cycles and revenue as well!
SellingAir, LLP acknowledges the valuable input of Michael Ping in
preparation of this paper.
Also, portions excerpted from the author’s previously published
article, “Attention Software Startups: Hire Your Pre-sales Technical Talent
NOW!”, SoftwareCEO.com, 12-02-2004