Career
Solutions Engineering: The Coolest Job that Only a Few Know
Discover the dynamic role of Solution Engineers in driving innovation and solving customer challenges
If you, like me, have never heard of a career in Solutions Engineering, don’t worry, you’re not alone. I came across this term in 2017 right after transitioning my career to Computer Science, and I fell in love with the area.
In this article, I will explain what the career is, some terminologies, necessary skills, books, and resources, as well as the challenges and opportunities you will encounter working in one of the coolest professions in the market, but one that few know about.
Terminology
In the market, our profession has several names: Pre-Sales, Technical Sales, Solution Engineering, Sales Engineering, Solution Architect, and so on. All of these titles converge on the same meaning, albeit with some variations from company to company.
In the end, the premise of this profession is to be the right-hand of the Commercial or Sales area (Sales Representative, Account Executive, etc). When presenting the portfolio of the company you work for to your client and closing a sale, the Account Executive may not know all the technical functionalities of the product they are selling, and that is exactly where the fundamental role of the Solution Engineer comes in.
A Solutions Engineer is a person who:
- Understands the company’s portfolio and, while in conversations with clients, can identify how their products can solve the technological problems faced by the clients.
- Provides honest guidance to the client and bridges business needs with technical implementation.
- Helps address not only technical but also financial and operational challenges faced by the client (for example: how to automate tasks in a department and reduce maintenance costs by X%, bringing a gain of X thousands of reais to the company?).
- Builds the bond of trust between the client and the company (often Account Executives are seen as people who want to meet a target, and close the deal at any cost, without prioritizing the interests of the client).
As a Solution Engineer (or Solution Architect, Pre-Sales, or Customer Engineer), I also have quotas to meet, but my main concern is to make sure the solution I promised to the client will work to achieve the objectives and challenges they brought.
We are the trusted advisors. We understand our products, we understand different technologies in the industry, and we understand operational problems related to Technology on the client’s side.
We are there to analyze data brought by the client and put together one or multiple solutions. We are also called Solutions Architects.
We are the ones responsible for educating our Account Executives (this is one of my favorite parts of the job!). Being a source of knowledge, knowing our limitations, and knowing where to look for the information we don’t know are fundamental skills in a Solution Engineer.
Speaking of Skills…
Below, I will list some of the necessary skills that make a good Solutions Engineer:
Soft Skills
Active listening
Knowing how to actively listen to the customer and pay attention to their concerns. I always listen to everything my client says and take notes. Once they finish, I repeat it back to them in my own words to ensure that I understood what was said.
This also shows the customer that I am concerned about listening to them and that I have made notes to use in designing the solution.
Storytelling
When listening to and understanding the customer, it is important to know how to return to them with a story — whether about the product that the Solutions Engineer is selling or about another customer who has already used that solution.
Telling a story, making the customer feel a part of it, and trusting that the Solutions Engineer understands and knows how to solve their problem is a fundamental part of being a good professional.
Sales & Negotiation
One of the main skills of a Solutions Engineer is their ability to sell and negotiate. We need to understand the guidelines of the company we work for and understand which products we need to sell.
Using sales and negotiation strategies to tell the story to the customer and result in a closed deal.
Interpersonal and Communication Skills
Developing communication skills: how to position oneself in front of the customer (virtually or in person), how to articulate ideas, make pauses, and know how to listen (as mentioned above). Clarifying points, knowing how to break the ice at the beginning of the conversation, and “reading the room” (or reading the meeting room) are essential skills for anyone working in technical sales.
And also for anyone who is working or seeking to work with Technology.
Technical Skills
The technical skills of a Solutions Engineer vary. If you are interested in pursuing opportunities in the Sales Engineering field, I suggest you make a list of companies you would like to work for, search for job openings with the titles mentioned above, and check the required skills.
That way, if you need to obtain a programming language or certification, you can start preparing for it, as the required skills vary from company to company.
Below are some of the most requested technical skills for Solutions Engineers, ranging from software programming to required hardware.
Programming & Computing
Most SaaS (Software as a Service) companies require various technical skills and programming languages (a company like Salesforce may require a different programming language than a company like MongoDB; a company like Google Cloud Platform will likely require a different certification than a position at Dell, for example);
IT Infrastructure
Public cloud companies are very popular (such as Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS, among others). Many of them require technical infrastructure skills, such as data center concepts, databases, and backups, among others.
Sales Engineering Communities
Being part of communities has always helped me a lot. Below are some communities that I follow and participate in (and love!):
- Brazil: Brazilians in Tech
- Brazil: SysAdminas
- US: National Society of Sales Engineers
- US/Global: Presales Collective
If you know of others, feel free to comment on the post. I’d love to learn about others around the world!
Books and Resources
I also leave here some books and resources for those who want to research and study more deeply the Solutions Engineering field:
Books:
- Mastering Technical Sales: The Sales Engineer’s Handbook, by John Core
- The Challenger Customer, by Brent Adamson, Matthew Dixon, Pat Spenner, and Nick Toman
- The Challenger Sale, by Matthew Dixon, and Brent Adamson
- The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win, by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford
Podcast:
- Presales Collective
This article was written by me and originally published in Portuguese, here.
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