Ten Rules for Solution Engineers

The scenario happens frequently. an account manager meets with a customer. The customer starts asking questions that the account manager cannot answer alone. So, the sales person asks a technical colleague to help.  Sometimes technical people are fantastic with customers, other times, unfortunately, they are disasters. They can save the day and help close deals, or sadly they can destroy all opportunities of doing so. Technical competence alone is not good enough, there is a lot more to the craft of solution engineering.

Whenever any technical professional interacts with a customer, either before the customer buys, or after, they are performing solution engineering. They are influencing the thoughts and actions of the customer by virtue of their technical competence. Few activities are more valuable to companies, or to customers, than effective solution engineering. We need more solution engineers, and we need better solution engineers, far better.

This course gets us started toward that objective, more and better solution engineers. In this course we hit on the first ten things technical professionals should know before they meet with customers. Whether you are a recent college grad who just joined your company, an experienced technician, or even a technical leader, these are the ten things you should know before meeting a customer. I guarantee your sales colleagues will appreciate it if you and your technical coworkers master these items.

In this course we talk about:

• Closing the deal
• Questions and answers
• An SE’s true objectives
• Finding agreement with the customer
• Using proper language
• Using truth as an instrument
• Avoiding problems
• Targeting risk
• Maintaining and conveying a humble mindset
• Securing appropriate training

Any technical person who meets with customers, or who may ever meet with customers, should take this course as a minimum. The top ten rules for solution engineers.