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Where will you be in five years? Wouldn’t it be great to know how your career will evolve so you can set yourself up for success? Particularly in technology, where change is constant and fast?
If you’re a sales engineer (SE) and wondering what the future holds, you’re in luck. On May 28 at 1 p.m. ET, CloudShare is hosting a free webinar titled “The 2024 Sales Engineer,” featuring the profession’s top authority, John Care.
In such fast-moving times, predictions and advice are best left to the experts. When it comes to the SE role, Care is unmatched. He literally wrote the book on the topic, “Master Technical Sales: The Sales Engineer’s Handbook,” the No. 1 bestseller for presales engineers and solutions consultants, now in its third edition. Care gained his knowledge first-hand, building world-class SE organizations for such household tech giants such as Oracle, Sybase and HP.
Care will discuss the advancement of automation – already a major part of the sales process – and a question we hear often from customers and partners alike: Will today’s SEs have a job in 2024?
According to Care, SEs will definitely have a vital role to play. After all, SEs possess a unique blend of technology expertise and business acumen, a combination customers appreciate. In fact, according to Care, “The CIO, CSO and CTO often find greater value in the SE than the salesperson – they build trust faster.”
Still, don’t think sales automation won’t have an impact – sales engineering teams and the SE position itself will differ significantly from today. Care feels more software and hardware will be trialed and evaluated with no human interaction at all. If customers are 60% of the way through the sales cycle before they even initiate contact with an SE now, that figure is going to climb to 75% or higher over the next six years.
That said, technical sales professionals who’d rather work with tech than interact with people should think twice before letting those interpersonal and business skills slip – they’re going to be more necessary than ever. As Care further points out, companies are going to increasingly invest in “knowing the customer,” and that emphasis on personalization will become a differentiator in commodity sales situations.
Care has more to say on how the SE position will transform. During the webinar, he’ll share with you how lower-end aspects of the job will become automated and the resulting domino effect; RFI/RFPs being a recent example that will soon require changes in out-of-the-box demos and greater customization. As for the sales demos and POC environments of the future, Care will detail how they’ll become more experiential, and through virtual reality linked to AI, can incorporate customer senses so customers can see, feel and hear your products in their own environments.
Are you an SE who wants to see the future so you can make yours even brighter? Register today for our “The 2024 Sales Engineer” webinar and learn what moves and skills to develop to ensure your success.
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