What makes hiring more art than science?

Recently, while searching for a sales engineer to join my team I was working with my recruiting team. A topic that came up was: "What am I looking for?"

So - what am I looking for? For me, I’m looking for a solid foundation in TECHNOLOGY. In this complex and complicated world, there are so many technical things to know.  So you should decide early whether you need a GENERALIST, or a SPECIALIST.

Generalist - Someone who knows a lot of things to a great extent, but isn’t the Product Specialist. They can design,present, configure many products and solutions but would need the help of Product Management or a Business Unit to take the conversation very deep.

Product Specialist - This is someone who spends a majority of their time with one (possibly two) products or solutions. As the term states - they are a specialist in the product/solution and knows/understands every aspect of it.  To make an analogy, this is the“closer” (pitcher) on a baseball team that may come on the field with the game on the line.

I look for (3) pillars of understanding and ability.

A Strong Technical Foundation

There must be a solid foundation on which to build. Technology moves fast so this is extremely important. Does this candidate have experience in many aspects of building infrastructure or the cloud for example? Do they understand Security/Cloud Security? Do they understand Application Development and how Apps are written/put into production? Questions like these are paramount in being the Trusted Advisor to your customers.

Strategic Focus

This pillar sits atop the technical foundation and is divided into two sections: Learning & Applying Your Technology, and Owning Your Franchise. You need to be able to know your products/solutions extremely well. Do you need that knowledge on Day 1? Absolutely not.  And that’s why a Technical Foundation is most important. Many of your candidates come from different backgrounds and have different experiences. Having a strong foundation allows them to learn new solutions, the business case and value, the use cases where your products solve problems. What’s also important is a personality that lends itself to “Owning The Room”. Can your candidate lead a presentation, handle customer objections, and influence your buyer(s).

The second part of the Strategic Focus is “Owning Your Franchise''.  The Sales Engineering  role is a business partner with the Sales Rep..  They BOTH ‘run the business’. The SE is not simply a tool in a toolbox that is brought in to fix a problem.  They are an active seller and owner. Using another analogy, the Enterprise Account Manager and the SE own a McDonald’s franchise (or two to three).  It’s their responsibility to cook the food, clean the tables, floors, and windows, and greet their customers with a smile. McDonald’s Corp is responsible for finding the best meat, potatoes,and making deals for the best pricing. They are responsible for finding the right location and real estate.  They create the ‘Process”.  The Franchisee “Runs The Business''.

Engagement - People still buy from people. They also DO NOT buy from people. The sole reason anyone will buy something is that it solves a material problem they have. That really is the only reason. No exceptions.

But there's more. When you interact with a prospect in any manner, if they do not clearly understand what problem you solve right away, they will remember nothing you say. Not your name, not your company name, not youror your awesome tech. That's because humans mentally organize information based on problems.Not technology, or vendor, or or the awards you’ve won.

Everyone in the company must align on the problem; sales, marketing, customer enablement, support, customer success, management... everyone.

Sales people and Sales Engineers, especially when prospecting (pipeline generation), are taught to ask a lot of questions - much of it is focused on qualification. Prospects hate that (and yes, you must do it anyway). Ask questions that validate that they have the problem and that they want that problem gone. Then you can focus on their budget, org, insertion, etc.

Marketing people try to create a sense of buzz around a company. That's great if you do it by harping on how horrible the problem you solve is, and express joy in helping customers throughit. Anything else is abou.  It’snot personal but the customer doesn’t care about your process.

What you're looking for in a Sales Engineering candidate is the ability to do all that.  We're not looking for an “implementer” or someone who can “code”. We're looking for someone that understands technology and can impart the value of what someone can do with that technology.  I like to say, "Technology isn’t an end in itself,it is a MEANS TO AN END”. Do they need to be a hands-on user of your technology?  Although that would be a “nice to have”, it certainly IS NOT a requirement.  They don’t work for you (yet). Which brings us back to the Technical Foundation part. If the candidate has a solid one, then there will not be a problem learning your technology and applying it correctly. You should be looking for "GREAT PEOPLE". I don't care that their last job was two-years ago and now they want to get back into the workforce.

Here's what I care about:
‍
- You want to learn.
- You put in the effort to learn.
- Your growth is more important to you than your ego.
- You crave constructive feedback.
- You give constructive feedback.
- You understand the context of the problems the company is trying to solve.
- You understand the roles and challenges of other people on the team.
- You deeply care about our clients. And their customers.
- You deeply care about people, and our impact on their lives.
- You feel personally fulfilled by helping others succeed.
- You are curious about finding new ways to solve problems.
- You thrive on goals & outcomes and can't just go through the motions.
- You’re authentic, and don’t have the DNA to “fake it”.

Types of Questions to ask ( in no particular order)

- Tell me about how you would go about finding the customer’s problem? Some call this the Discovery Stage. 
- What types of information are you trying to gather at this stage? Using a 13-week quarter, and a 26-week half; what percentage of time would you say should be spent in Discovery? Should this be the longest stage of the sales cycle, or should     something else (like the POC stage) be the longest stage?
- If a customer is looking for a feature or functionality that the company does not support, how would you go about getting that feature into our product(s)?
- Tell me about an account (or two) where you are viewed as the “Technical Advisor”. Which teams/people do you have direct accountability for?
- Your EAM (or SE Director) is on PTO this week. What are you doing while they’re out?
- Is a part of your process in helping the customer understand the value of your solution a Demo, Workshop, or POC?  When would you use each?
- Do you always go for a POC? Or, should you try to avoid a POC at all costs?
- What is the purpose of the First Meeting?
- What is the purpose of working with the Practitioner(s) at your customer?
- How do you get the introduction to their leadership, or the budget owner?
- Using an example of a company like Disney (or JP Morgan). Would you consider that ONE customer? If yes, why? If no, why not?
- When does the “second sale” begin?
- When you hear the term “post sales”? What does that mean to you? Is that the same as the term “post sale”?
- How often do you talk with your EAM during the week?

As you can see from these examples, not one relates to “how do you configure a VPC in a public cloud?” We are in Sales. Yes, if during the course of selling we’re asked to answer a technical question, that’s our job. But no one should be confused on what roles we play: We are in Sales. 

Lastly - Is the person you’re speaking with Dynamic? Fun? Exciting?

MAJOR RULE: No Jerks Allowed (or add your own nouns/adjectives here).