I posted a revised 2009 version of the New Years Resolutions for the Sales Engineer on the website.
I also note in passing that one of my resolutions is going to be that I must use this blog way more than I did in 2008. So stay tuned for that.
Read an interesting explanation of the current financial crisis over the holidays entitled "So Simple A Caveman Can Do It". this explains the crisis in caveman terminology with Ug and Og. Very enlightening!!
The December 2008 MTS Edge Newsletter was distributed early this morning. Sign up for the newsletter at our website if you don't already receive it.
This month's lead Talking Point article is about Trials, Evaluations and Proof of Concepts - all of which can either be a great revenue source or a resource sink for any sales organization. The article looks at some best practices and also the economics of conducting POCs. We are working on a more sophisticated economic analysis which should get published over the holiday break.
In Chapter 19 of Mastering Technical Sales, Aron and I talk about The U In Technical Sales. We focus upon your specific goals and objectives, your career, and how to maximize your personal brand. Not many Sales Engineers think about their personal brand and what that really means. Think about it for a second .. if an outside consultant were to approach your peers, your manager and the salespeople you work with – how would they describe you? You would hope to hear words such as dedicated, committed and hard-working; these are descriptors – and not particularly unique. Would you be known as the SE like this one: “that’s the guy/gal who can do <insert skills here>, won the big deal at <insert big customer here> and crushes the competition”?
Although you should only have a single brand – you can have multiple facets, depending upon who is looking – as long as they are all authentic versions of the truth. An example would be to have your boss view you as hard-working, always willing to take on new assignments and the go-to person for “x”, your peers view you as someone who is always willing to help out and as someone who shares their toys, the salespeople view you as someone who fights in the trenches with them, and senior level management view you as an SE who adopts innovation and change, is a winner and irreplaceable.
Finally, remember that this all needs to fit into your longer-term plans. Along the way you need to be acquiring skills, experience and a network of colleagues to help you reach those career (and life) goals.
The first ever HTML edition of the MTS Edge newsletter went out today - and thanks for all the positive feedback on the format and content.
This month's Talking Point is "Protecting Your Job In A Recession", and looks at the current state of economic affairs in Sales Engineer-land and offers some tips to make yourself more visible and invaluable. The second section suggests what you can do if you know you are going to need a new job soon. (I can always point you towards a few good recruiters too!).
The SE Question of the Month deals with "How To Eliminate Filler Words". Every presentation class, article and workshop tells you it is a good idea to eradicate the ums, ers, ahs and basicallys from your speech. So how do you do that? Read on for some practical and proven advice.
