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Sales engineering has become a critical function in modern businesses, bridging the gap between technical product knowledge and the sales team’s ability to close deals. However, the role of sales engineers (SEs) extends far beyond pre-sales support; they play an essential role in driving revenue growth, supporting the sales process with technical expertise, and ensuring smooth handovers from sales to customer success teams. In a fast-paced business environment, the collaboration between sales engineers and sales teams must be both efficient and measurable.
Here are three key strategies for improving efficiency and driving revenue through the collaboration of sales engineering and sales teams, focusing on communication, performance tracking, and better system integration.
One of the most significant challenges between sales and sales engineering teams is a lack of real-time communication. Sales engineers are often pulled into deals at the last minute or overloaded with multiple, high-priority tasks. As a result, they may miss critical details or fail to provide timely support to sales teams. Open and streamlined communication is essential to avoid these bottlenecks.
To establish open communication channels, shared inboxes and chat tools are no longer sufficient. Sales engineers need structured, clear communication that can be tracked and managed across multiple engagements. Instead of relying on ad-hoc tools like shared inboxes or informal Slack channels, businesses should adopt a centralized system that provides complete visibility into all sales engineering activities. This allows the sales team to easily request support, monitor progress, and receive timely updates on critical tasks.
A best practice for sales teams is to set up dedicated systems where sales engineers can collaborate more seamlessly on technical issues, proposals, and demos. Sales engineering supporting sales teams in this way ensures all technical questions and issues are handled efficiently without lag time. This not only streamlines communication but also helps ensure that all necessary documentation and project details are available in a single place, accessible by both teams.
Key Takeaway: Open communication ensures that sales engineers can provide timely technical support, leading to more effective sales outcomes. A structured system will ensure there are no gaps in communication or performance.
Sales engineering plays a significant role in winning new business, yet many organizations fail to implement meaningful ways to measure performance. Measuring the performance of sales engineers isn’t just about tracking how many deals they help close; it also involves understanding their contributions to the overall sales process, their efficiency in supporting sales teams, and their ability to solve complex technical challenges.
To improve operational efficiency in shared services, businesses need to establish clear metrics that measure sales engineering performance. These metrics could include:
Implementing a performance tracking system provides transparency, helping organizations identify areas where sales engineers excel and where improvements may be needed. For example, if response time is slow, it may indicate that sales engineers are overburdened, and adjustments in resource allocation are needed.
The ability to measure performance of sales engineers in real time also benefits sales managers by providing insights into how well the sales team is supported. Tracking these metrics helps align sales engineering efforts with the overall business strategy, ultimately improving sales and revenue growth through sales engineering support.
Key Takeaway: Measuring performance is crucial to ensuring sales engineers are working efficiently and effectively. Performance metrics should be tracked and regularly reviewed to drive improvements in both sales and engineering support functions.
Sales teams often operate in a high-pressure environment, moving quickly from one deal to the next. While informal communication tools like emails or chats might seem convenient, they often lead to inefficiencies. Shared inboxes are especially problematic because they lack accountability and transparency, making it difficult to track who is working on what, how tasks are progressing, or whether any issues remain unresolved.
Relying on informal systems introduces delays, miscommunication, and the risk of losing critical information. Instead, businesses should adopt a workflow management system that provides clear accountability, assigns ownership of tasks, and tracks progress from start to finish. Such systems are essential for shared services supporting sales teams because they provide a single source of truth for everyone involved, ensuring that sales engineers and sales teams are aligned on priorities and deadlines.
An effective system enables sales teams to submit requests for support, track the status of those requests, and receive automated updates when tasks are completed or issues are resolved. The system should also allow sales engineers to manage their workload efficiently, prioritize tasks, and communicate effectively with the sales team. The goal is to create an operational structure that supports both sales and sales engineering teams, driving revenue growth through seamless collaboration.
Incorporating a workflow management system into your sales operations can also help identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies. For example, if sales engineers consistently struggle with the same technical issues or product questions, the system can highlight these patterns, enabling the organization to address these pain points and streamline future processes.
Key Takeaway: A well-designed system helps eliminate inefficiencies, reduces response times, and improves collaboration between sales engineers and sales teams, ultimately leading to better sales outcomes.
To ensure the seamless collaboration of sales engineers and sales teams, adopting the right tools and systems is critical. Implementing StartingPoint as a workflow management and automation platform can help shared services teams gain the efficiency and transparency they need to support sales effectively. StartingPoint allows teams to manage requests, track performance, and automate routine tasks, freeing up time for sales engineers to focus on high-priority issues.
By centralizing communication and providing clear visibility into task ownership and status updates, StartingPoint enhances operational efficiency in shared services, ensuring that sales engineering supporting sales becomes a well-oiled machine. The result is improved sales and revenue growth through better technical support, faster response times, and a more collaborative environment for both sales engineers and sales teams.
In today’s competitive business landscape, investing in systems that drive efficiency and accountability is crucial for maximizing revenue growth. Sales engineering, when supported by the right tools, plays a vital role in empowering sales teams to close deals faster and provide customers with the technical expertise they need to make informed purchasing decisions.
By focusing on open communication, measuring performance, and using systems to streamline workflows, companies can enhance the collaboration between sales engineers and sales teams. With platforms like StartingPoint, businesses can optimize their shared services teams, improving operational efficiency and driving sustainable revenue growth.
