Pre sales engineer, what is a typical day?

I have an interview tomorrow for a pre sales engineer role, mostly servers/storage by the sounds of it.

How much 'sales' is usually involved ?

The money is great, but I am really not a sales person.

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Freeguy

In my role, I do a lot of pre sales support / design for a security solution distributor. Generally, you are brought on sales calls as you have technical knowledge and the customer can trust you to design the best solution for them, not the best solution for your paycheck. So there is a lot of customer interaction, but not necessarily as sales. You are there to make sure everything that is being sold will integrate into their system without issue.

Often I find myself "selling" devices in that I have to tell them why the unit that I'm recommending is preferable (ie, Q: "Why should I pay extra for this feature?" A: "Because without that feature part Y won't properly communicate"), but I don't often get involved in the numbers game. I like to claim that they don't trust me with numbers, and I stay far away from pricing.

Also, look at it this way:

You are bringing the customer a new solution, rather than fixing what is broken. That alone makes it worth looking into in my opinion!

it_consultant

discount81 wrote: »

I have an interview tomorrow for a pre sales engineer role, mostly servers/storage by the sounds of it.

How much 'sales' is usually involved ?

The money is great, but I am really not a sales person.

Your main job will be to make sure that some jerk sales guy does not sell something that is impossible with the equipment the customer can afford.

Be honest about what is needed to make the deployment successful, even if it means the customer has to throw down more money. Be respectful of your customers and their current implementation of whatever technology they already have implemented. Do not bad mouth your competitors and be knowledgeable about competitive products and solutions. Let the sales guy smooze; it is your job to get it right technically.

malcybood

Gathering requirements (business and technical)
Putting together high level designs
Strategy documents
Bills of Materials
Liaising with vendors for tech / design validation
Presenting solutions (technical part only)

The sales guy will usually deal with the financial side of things.

You will also have to do things like recommend number of days for due diligence, installation/test, how much project management etc based on the solution that has been proposed.

Usually good to present a couple of options to a customer so they can do a cost vs benefit on which solution suits them best.

It's a fairly enjoyable job if you are a people person but you also will be put on the spot. There's no shame in saying you will come back with an answer on something. Better to get things right in this type of role as wrong information can damage not only your reputation but also the company's, not to mention the company revenue!

It's living life at the sharp end but if you know your stuff it won't feel like that.

Good luck with the interview.

pinkydapimp

Good luck. I have been doing pre-sales work for the last 8 years. Its definitely fun and there seems to be alot of opportunities in that field. As more and more technology products come out, the more they need a tech person there to answer those tech questions. This field seems to pay very well.

Here is a link to some tips for going on this type of interview. Sales Engineer Tips: Tips for a Sales Engineering Interview