Preface

We are excited that you have chosen to use this book, Mastering the Art of Sales Engineering, as a tool to further your career! Whether you are a senior engineer looking to tighten your skills and best practices or you are looking to become a Sales Engineer (SE) one day and would like to better understand all the details behind this amazing career field, this book will help you achieve these goals.

In Part 1, we will define the various organizations that typically employ SEs as well as the various types of SE roles you can fill. We will help you explore what is a good fit for you based on your individual career goals as well as your personality distinctions and other personal attributes. We will then round that out by reviewing all the different people you will work with as an SE and the different roles they perform in relation to the larger organization and its mission.

Part 2 will dig into the core functions of an SE, and you will truly learn the key best practices and skills from our collective years of experience as field SEs. This will include not just general soft skills but also a very detailed follow-up on client-facing soft skills which will give you the framework to always advance your skill set forward towards being a world-class SE. We then close out Part 2 with an in-depth discussion of professional development topics so that you can grow strategically across your career journey.

Finally, in Part 3, we will dig into topics such as traveling best practices, and administrative and legal realities specifically for the SE. This section will truly help round out your SE experience and give you the tools you need to be successful. We will then conclude this book journey with a glimpse into the horizon as we discuss what promotion to an SE manager role might look like for you.