Month: August 2009

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Sales Engineering Selling Books

Often most Sales Engineers do a great job learning their product/solution, and can articulate the importance of a feature from a benefit perspective, and most attempt to lay down some competitive traps…But why is it that some SEs are not looking to work on improving their raw sales skillsets. For instance, Sales Engineers need to know multiple techniques to handle functionality objections in a non-defensive manner… Remember, the word sales comes before engineering in Sales Engineer :)

So for those of you looking to sharpen your sales skills, I would like to recommend a good read, SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham offers techniques to probe by asking additional questions around the situation, problems, implications and needs. It is a great reference book for any newer SE or a seasoned veteran SE…Enjoy


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Free Phone Service to/from Your Laptop (…and with free cell minutes)

A Sales Engineer is always on the road, and always has her/his laptop. We often need to make calls that aren’t company calls that we don;t want showing up on the company’s bill. We also find ourselves needing to call work discretely in areas where there is Internet (client site) but no cell phone coverage.

And what about those of us that receive calls from all kinds of people throughout the peak hours of our cell carrier, yet don’t want those minutes taken off our allowance?

What is an enterprising Sales Engineer to do?

I was always frustrated at how Skype was too bulky (kills your battery), and was open to government inspection of content. I don’t use it. Like Gizmo, they get paid for “Skype Out” at a hefty fee. There had to be a better way. Other services I have, like GTalk, don’t even allow for calling land lines. Well, there is a way. Continue reading “Free Phone Service to/from Your Laptop (…and with free cell minutes)”