During a software demonstration.
So here I was, fully immersed in a job no one really understands, but everyone has high expectations of:
Are you a sales guy? -No.
Ah, so you are a consultant? -No.
Are you marketing? -No.
So what exactly do you do?
Well, somehow all of that. The role was established when software sales got so complicated consultants needed to help sell it before implementing it. Hence, they were Presales consultants. However, the role evolved; nowadays, it is called either Solution Engineer, Solution Advisor, or simply Presales. Most probably there are many other role descriptions out there as well.
What is it I actually ended up doing? I worked at a large enterprise software company that basically had a foot in the door, i.e. at least some products and hence, a relationship with most of the large corporations in my market unit, namely Austria. This fact is also true globally. Just to name one example:
99 of the 100 largest companies in the world are customers.Hence, sales are mainly driven by existing customer relationships. An account manager keeps the relationship, finds out current challenges, and brings in the right solution and accompanying experts, one of which was me. I usually would be in either discovery calls or sales pitches including solution demonstrations to figure out what the customer was dealing with and how our solution portfolio could help solve the problem from a business process and technical standpoint.
This is how I promoted myself as a webinar host or Anchorman on LinkedIn.
So far so good? Good. Additionally, I organized and or attended events, developed and hosted webinars and created campaigns from a business development standpoint. Should a customer end up wanting or needing proof before deciding, I also helped with and sometimes even ran proofs-of-concept. Overall, I was in a revenue-enabling role and developed into a solution expert for Business Intelligence and Financial Planning software (as-a-service).
As I wrote in Part I, I was trained to fulfill this job from two points of view. First, I got the necessary education and training to understand and know the software. Secondly, I was trained in storytelling and becoming a memorable presenter by being challenged to be as creative as possible. This was the most fun for me in my job and I tried to add it to every customer interaction I had. I would use limbic openings at the beginning of presentations to surprise and capture my audience by talking about something completely different than expected and tying it back into the presentation a few times. I would add handouts, games & quizzes, or create terribly homemade videos to promote our events. One thing I have to say about it is, no matter how weird you feel, it works.
People will remember you and usually appreciate the creative effort or the fact that you are not taking yourself too seriously. One time I got to present our company’s overall strategy. Since I worked at a technology company, our slides were the pinnacle of a buzzword jungle. I set myself two goals for this presentation:
I want to dumb it down so my audience actually knows where we -as a company- want to go.
I want to keep their attention for the full 30 minutes.
I spent quite a while preparing and ended up with one of my favorite openings and a buzzword (i.e. bullshit) bingo game. My bosses were skeptical and scared while I handed out the game sheets. However, I gave the first three winners actual prices and in the end, the feedback I received was overwhelmingly positive.
My strategy presentation including the Buzzword Bingo game sheet.
Additionally, I became an expert in financial planning software. Globally, the most used tool for planning is Microsoft Excel. I developed a story about hares (i.e. rabbits) and how they are capable of explosive population growth, just like versions of shared Excel files. I tied this comparison into my presentation and software demonstration multiple times. Not only my colleagues but also my customers gave me the feedback that first of all this story worked, as it intrigued them into what the hell I was talking about, and second of all, they remembered it and hence, also me and what we showed them, which was basically 90% of my goal as I was not (yet) responsible for closing the deal.
Another promotion post for a webinar about financial planning software.
Stay excited for Part III — My start in sales
Comments