Chris White - The Six Habits of Highly Effective Sales Engineers

The Six Habits

of Highly Effective

Sales Engineers

The Six Habits

of Highly Effective

Sales Engineers

Chris White

The Six Habits of Highly Effective Sales Engineers

Copyright 2019 Chris White

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form of by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the authors.

ISBN-13: 978-0-578-52190-9

Kindle/PDF: 978-0-578-52190-9

Cover design by Luisito C. Pangilinan

SGTG, Inc. DBA DemoDoctor.com

Leesburg, VA 20176

USA

www.DemoDoctor.com

If youre a Sales Engineer, The Six Habits of Sales Engineers is a must read. It is comprehensive, covering pre-demo discovery, demonstration planning, delivering technical demos, and as Chris calls it the demo aftermath. Yet, it is simple to remember and apply as it is sectioned into Partner, Probe, Prepare, Practice, Perform, and Perfect. Since Chris has spent his career as a Sales Engineer, the book is real world. Chris has lived in the trenches, so he tells it like it is, with relatable stories about working with counterparts, prospects, and customers. The principles in this book will enable any Sales Engineer, new to the field or tenured, to deliver winning demonstrations.

Brian Geery

Author, How to Demonstrate Software So People Buy It

With relatively little content available to help sales engineers perfect their craft, The Six Habits is a welcome and much needed addition to the SE toolkit. Chris goes beneath the surface level to examine some of the underlying challenges that place a drag on an SE's effectiveness, and offers actionable tactics to address them.

Rob Falcone

Author, Just F*ing Demo!

Creative engineers, product designers, pioneering scientists and entrepreneurial high-tech mavericks all face a difficult challenge: How do I get the world to not only grasp my newfangled idea, but embrace it? When it comes to persuading others to buy in, the mastery and brilliance that brought the idea into being is the very thing that gets in the way. With just the right mix of art and science, Chris White brings a rare blend of natural talents and boatloads of experience to reverse engineer, reveal, and playfully communicate the inner works of a mysterious process that stumps the best of us.

Anthony Spadafore

Founder, Pathfinders | Career Design Consulting

Every sales engineer should read this book! These behaviors don't come naturally to the technically minded, but Chris does a great job of laying out the essentials. I guarantee you will close more deals if you make this required reading for your technical team.

Craig A.

Senior Account Executive

Fortune 100 Software Company

As a management consultant, I am often subjected to demos by product companies. An over-keen techie tries to show us all the bells and whistles of the product he/she is proud of. The looks of boredom and bemusement on the faces of the attendees do not deter the demonstrator from the task. In fact, there seems to be no communication whatsoever between demonstrator and demonstratee! By the end the poor product salesman has no idea if the attendees are more likely to buy, because no one asked them what questions they wanted to have answered in the first place.

I had the privilege to see Chris first workshop presenting his six principles. I just wished all the sales engineers (SE) I had been subjected to in the past had been introduced to these simple and practical principles. I recently attended a demo and was surprised when the SE asked me beforehand what I wanted to get out of the demo. During the demo he proceeded to meet my stated needs in a simple but engaging manner. By the end the salesman felt confident a sale was highly likely. When I congratulated the SE, he told me he had learned from the best Chris White!

Chris Collins

Chairman, i-Realise Ltd

The Six Habits is fantastic. I just wish this was available to me at age 24 when I started in this industry.

Jim D.

Director Solution Architect

Fortune 100 Software Company

About the Author

Chris White , is a recognized expert in software technical presales. He has given and observed literally hundreds, if not thousands of enterprise software demonstrations during a career that has spanned nearly three decades. He is known for his ability to deliver insightful, engaging, and highly compelling sales demos. His style and approach are both appreciated by customers and esteemed by colleagues.

The Six Habits emerged as a result of a need to develop training for a team of presales consultants that he was responsible for years ago. Through personal trial and error, observing some of the best sales engineers in the business, and experiencing both victory and defeat, Chris packaged his methods and approach into a framework of teachable, learnable, repeatable best practices, tips and techniques. Now, after years of presenting, teaching, curating and refining his message, and coaching countless others to achieve extraordinary success, he unveils this wealth of knowledge to the industry in the form of The Six Habits of Highly Effective Sales Engineers .

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my father, Bernard F. White, Jr, who passed on 7 December 2017, Pearl Harbor Day.

Work hard and play hard, Chris!

Thanks Dad. I think youd be proud.

To my four great kids, Bradley, Greg, Anna, and Holly, and my infinitely inquisitive stepdaughter Alexandra.

I hope this inspires all of you to think big and reach for the stars.

To my wife Chawn, who has supported me from day one, through long days, late nights and grumpy mornings.

Thanks for everything dear. Youre the best. I love you.

Chris White

Table of Contents

Introduction

Who is this book for?

Introducing the Six Habits

How this book is organized?

You Are In Sales

What is the goal of Technical Presales?

What are our goals personally?

What gets in the way?

What mistakes do we make?

You Are in Sales!

Sales is a Courtship

Habit #1 - Partner

The Profile of an Effective Partnership

These Partnerships can be Difficult

What Mistakes Do WE Make?

Whats the Solution?

Habit #1 Action Plan and Take-aways

Habit #2 - Probe

The Technical Discovery Call

Our Biggest Mistake

Sample Questions

Leading the Witness

Whos going to be in the room?

Selling a concept vs. a product

Selling TO vs. Selling WITH

Habit #2 Action Plan and Take-aways

Habit #3 - Prepare

Common Mistakes

Solution

Preparing Demo Content

Preparing the Demo Story

Habit #3 Action Plan and Take-aways

Habit #4 - Practice

The ONE Thing We Dont Want After a Click

Click Every Click

The Check Down System

Confidence

Habit #4 Action Plan and Take-aways

Habit #5 Perform (Part 1)

Pre-Demo Setup

Get Agreement Up Front

Know the Players

Be Set Up and Ready to Go

The Delivery

Begin with the End

Explain but Dont Over-Explain

Dont Think Aloud

Dont Assume They Understand Your Terminology

Please Slow Down

A Confused Mind Always Says NO

Know Your Ah-Ha Moments

Be Yourself

Habit #5 Perform (part 2)

Getting the Technical Win

How to Answer Questions

All Questions Are Not Created Equally

Crafting Your Responses

The Power of Saying NO

Seek Feedback Along the Way

The Mini-Close

Habit #5 Action Plan and Take-aways

Habit #6 - Perfect

The Three Outcomes of a Sales Opportunity

The Continuous Feedback Loop

The Six Habits of Highly Effective Sales Engineers