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Deepfuckingrevenue
Member
4
Enterprise AE
If a car salesman brought out an expert to sell me on a specific car, I wouldn’t buy from the dealership just because I don’t want that sales rep getting paid for not knowing his business 
fuzzy
Notable Contributor
2
CMO (Chief Meme Officer)
Sales Engineers aren't on to just run demos. They're there because if the Senior Software Engineer has questions on integrations with Kubernetes and platforming within Docker to run automated tests, they can answer it confidently. 
Deepfuckingrevenue
Member
2
Enterprise AE
My company brought on boatload of sales reps over the last 12 months who all have this “I don’t run demos” mindset. Unless very technical focused deep dive call, my position is that is not a good mindset for a sales rep. 
fuzzy
Notable Contributor
1
CMO (Chief Meme Officer)
That's not a good mindset to have at all. In fact, it's a major waste of time and resources and can actually prevent deals. There are zero reasons to discharge duties if they're able to be done by the AE/reps. If I'm a prospect wanting shit, I do not want a bunch of meetings. 

One compromise that has worked well is the Win Team model. SDR + AE + SE working together to drive home success. 
BDM322
1
Senior AE
This is a double edged sword.. I think if you have extremely tight alignment with your SE as an AE, and the demo prep is done well, there's no problem having an SE run 1 (or more) demos for the prospect.  

On the flip side, I do believe that the AE likely has a better grasp of the prospect's goals and business from prior conversations, and should be able to at least run 1 high-level demo that shows how to address the general issues that have been discussed. Then, you can loop in an SE to provide a deeper dive / more technical demo for a broader buying committee when necessary.  This protects everyones' time, and should lead to more trust between both sides. 
CadenceCombat
Tycoon
0
Account Executive
I largely agree with @BDM322 
sebs
Politicker
0
BDR
At the end of the day, a demo is a demo - you don't need to dive into the minutia, just gotta show what the product does and how it resolves their pain.

Yes, you should be able to field high level questions and understand the technical concepts of your product/service, but having a bland unpersonalized presentation from an SE is rarely helpful.
SDMHGWarrior
Tycoon
0
CEO
no - i don't want to run my own demos
Bama
Valued Contributor
0
Senior Account Executive
Learning the product/solution and use cases well enough to deliver your own demo has increased my overall success rate. Don’t leave in the hands of SEs, etc. 

Try to only bring in extra resources for more specialized conversations - integrations, security, legal, etc. or reserve those resources til closer to the end of sale so you know their commitment to purchase 
DingersAllDay
Executive
0
Sr. Principal Enterprise Account Executive
I agree with that approach of leveraging SEs later in the sales process after discovery and an advanced demo with value prop has created buy-in and created a champion. If involving an SE earlier is the route preferred then maybe there's expertise they can lend to progress the deal forward that the AE/salesperson cannot do on their own. It also might be be telling if SEs are introduced too early there's a selling confidence issue where the SE is being used as a crutch. Experienced SEs can have a SME role and aid in answering questions to get the deal closed. It doesn't hurt to ask your champion if involving an SE will help the pitch to leadership or other stakeholders that need to approve it as well.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
0
🦊
Ok so it's like this.

I can demo. However, I prefer to have an expert lead the way so they can answer all of the intricate IT shit that I don't know instead of me writing the question down and getting back to them later. I like to keep things moving.

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