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The Definitive Guide to Measure If Your SE Leader Is Exceptional.

Is your sales engineering leader doing a good job (for you)?

How would you answer that question, and with which indicators would you measure it? Could you put it more precisely than “yeah, good” or “it’s ok”?

Let’s discuss leadership traits you should look out for because they will make you as an individual contributor more successful and happier.

You know the situations when you have a problem with the account executive. You explain the complex dependencies, adding layers to prove that it’s not the obvious solution you are looking for. And actually, all you want to do is talk about it.

But the other side is quick to offer a solution. And the answer feels wrong because it’s autobiographical and not contextualized to you.

A great leader doesn’t provide feedback or sprays out knowledge like a history nerd. Instead, they guide you to look for the right solution within you. The idea that you will ignite is far more potent than some external plan. A great leader will ask questions that are a mold for the correct answer.

So stick with your sales engineering leader if you speak more than them during your one-on-ones.

Many obstacles want to prevent you from doing tasks that produce value. For example, the internal process to apply for the external certification, the need to justify every bit of travel, the need to get buy-in from company leadership, or a green light from product management.
Processes need to be adjusted, or your marketing department is required to approve you being on stage at the next industry event.

Your leader knows that you are most valuable when working on deals or building your brand. So she will maximize your time for sales calls or preparation.

Those obstacles could lead to implementing a new method for discovery calls, demos, or proof of concepts.

So stick with your sales engineering leader if you leave a discussion feeling supported and lighter because some of your problems are taken care of.

When you join a young company, you might hope for them to have found the holy grail of selling their product. So you just need to talk to some clients, and things might magically sell.

Some Startups appear to be that way from the outside. But once you join, you realize their product is not that different from the existing market competitors. Still, their differentiation is.

Sales engineering leaders inspire with their vision of the results you will be able to achieve. Their understanding of the market and product will help you see the path forward even though the competitor seems impossible to beat.

So stick with your sales engineering leader if she lets you understand the art of the possible and your potential impact.

It would be easy to take most of the credit for a sales engineering leader who manages a successful team. After all, she brought you there.

But great leaders would pin down that you established the Discovery FAQ that increased the number of successful demos and proposals and thus the win rate. She would mention your colleague who automated those use-case-specific demos sent out by the SDR team with colossal success.

So stick with your sales engineering leader if she gets you the award for your effort or the spot for the executive club.

Especially for individual contributors who turned leaders, this can be challenging to establish because it’s not a typical task of the SE profile.

But it’s paramount to understand that the executive connection is the lifeblood of the deal and her career. As a result of her management title, she will be perceived as sitting higher in the food chain than the individual contributor.

A nice benefit is that the prospect will feel acknowledged when your manager joins, and the connection will help with potential escalations.

So stick with your sales engineering leader if she joins your calls building executive connections.

You want your sales engineering leader to join your calls to observe you and build executive connections, but you don’t want your sales engineering leader to also work in the field.

So stick with your sales engineering leader if she observes you on calls to coach afterward but doesn’t take the IC role herself.

Do you sometimes struggle to explain why you can’t make a particular meeting? Would you rather lie about the real reason?
Most of the team knows about your family issue, but every time you try to speak with your leader about it, the situation feels tense. She seems to try to avoid the topic.

Your sales engineering leader shouldn’t be your friend (although some work relationships can evolve into a friendship), but she needs to be caring about you holistically. This includes your private, religious, family, … life.

So stick with your sales engineering leader if she makes you feel safe to speak about personal issues.

Implicitly your role as a sales engineer is fixed. There are expectations towards you on what you have to deliver to justify your salary.

But you are more than just the role definition. Your experiences in other fields, creativity, and background may lead you to a different interpretation. Maybe you discovered that PoCs are harmful to the deal cycle–which they often are–and that you successfully removed them from step five of the sales process.

So stick with your sales engineering leader if she inspires you to grow your role and responsibilities and encourages you to take ownership.

Not every employee fits into every company’s culture. Even the best people would underperform in an environment that doesn’t inspire them. The best solution for everybody involved in such a situation is to coach people up or out.

A great leader understands early on that underperformers need support, which she will provide––until an agreed-on result is achieved. If not, then the employee and company should follow different professional paths. And if yes, everybody is happy anyways.

So stick with your sales engineering leader if she pushes people to their next level or makes the tough decision to part ways.

As a sales engineer, you take on a lot of responsibilities: product expert, conference speaker, demo star, or industry expert––to mention a few.

Now, you are highly successful, and you feel confident speaking on stage. You think you cracked the speaking code. But then your leader opens up in your regular meeting: she didn’t feel your energy on stage. Maybe she compares you to another teammate and suggests you observe her. Don’t make the mistake of becoming angry now!

A great leader offers you––alongside the feedback––to book a public speaking course. So you can grow into the industry keynote speaker.

So stick with your sales engineering leader if she doesn’t hold back telling you the truth that nobody else dares to.

Your sales engineering leader is there to protect you.

From internal disputes to customer escalations, your leader will jump right in between you and the issue (if you want that) to rescue whatever is at stake––especially if these were inappropriate comments, company politics, or other events that you couldn’t control.

Of course, for your leader to be helpful, she has to come out under her covers. She becomes vulnerable by protecting you. And that’s fine. Building armor for those situations is part of her job.

So stick with your sales engineering leader if she steps up to protect you.

And then there are situations where you messed up. For example, maybe you haven’t filled the RFP correctly, couldn’t translate the business requirements into the demo fully, or were late to an important meeting.

Whatever it is, you are into trouble, and although your leader is there, she doesn’t step in immediately. As long as things are fair, she lets you fight your battle. You will go through the pain that enables you to grow.

That’s not meant to be unfair but allow you to experience your mistakes fully. It will motivate you to excel and not let this happen again.

So stick with your sales engineering leader that doesn’t cluck over you like a hen––or, well, rooster.

If you boil it down to its core, your job is to sell software. To convince clients that you are the trustworthy expert to buy from.

The sales engineering leader that understood that would focus on those three activities:

You and your team have no choice but to become better over time.

So stick with your sales engineering leader if she is obsessed with your results and skills.

A great leader spends time with every team member, but most time needs to be invested in those who outperform everybody else.

Losing those people is damaging for the team and the company, and they are nearly impossible to be replaced. Furthermore, they are the quickest to switch companies if they are unhappy.

If you are an outstanding contributor, your leader might get you a private session with your company’s leadership—one executive who takes time and hears what you have to say. You will indeed have feedback on some of the processes and the product.

It will be incredibly inspiring to learn about the company’s strategy firsthand. Additionally, you might be asked to offer your ideas and finally influence the company’s future.

So stick with your sales engineering leader if she pays for your efforts with exceptional opportunities.

Does your sales engineering leader transform how you work? Does she expose you to the world at conferences, television, webinars, or podcasts?

It’s a critical point because those media appointments require different skills than demoing. Also, they build your brand and make you attractive to other employers who might offer you a better salary.

A great leader will hunt opportunities for you to become visible and grow beyond your limits.

So stick with your sales engineering leader if she wants you to become so successful that you drown in recruiter requests.

Hopefully, you enjoy a psychologically safe working environment already. It’s present when you feel relaxed to express your opinion––or answer questions without assuming an agenda in a group or one-to-one meeting.

A great leader is a role model by how she answers questions. Always in a polite and supportive way, making sure whoever asks doesn’t have the feeling the question was dumb.

If your group never asks any questions during meetings, a great leader will see those as a signal and work to get psychological safety back.

So stick with your sales engineering leader if she creates a relaxed and safe working environment.

One which of the mentioned points does your leader score?

Thanks so much for reading! Please, join me by being intentionally more grateful for our life! Peace and happiness start with gratefulness.

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