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I have been contacted about being a pre-sales engineer for a software tool I am semi well known on the internet for being an expert with.
I am wondering if anyone here has this role?
I broke up with my girlfriend and the idea of traveling 50% of the time seems appealing to me at this point, rather than just being alone at home. The position is for EMEA region so the destinations are pretty good rather than having to go to Topeka or Cedar Rapids or whatever.
Mainly I am wondering what the comp is like. Do you get commissions like the sales people or are you just salaried like everyone else?
I'm not one, but have worked with several in years past at smaller firms. Part of their comp scheme is usually tied to deals closed. The specifics are based on multiple variables, like any sales-related job. Yeah, no one can drive home the benefits of the tools or systems like the expert (or people who invented it). If such people have sufficient people skills to actually close deals, so much the better!
In fact I worked pretty closely with a sharp young guy who helped close a deal with some particularly difficult/notorious technical customers, about five years ago. He was just that good both sales and tech-side. Yep, he worked for a product marketing director and had targets and goals for driving sales. He's moved on since, I'm assuming the shelf life of such roles is a couple years at-most. Could be incorrect, but usually such guys and gals are drivers (ambitious) and stick around about as long as they have good leads in the pipeline for the next X months or a year at-most. And, all I've known are (as you say) experts at tools, services, etc. and push to get answers for clients.
Sometimes they make promises engineering can't keep, to close deals. That's the trap.
? It's sales. Get in, figure out if you have a talent for closing deals, keep an eye on the health of the firm you work for, pay attention to industry megatrends, and get the hell out of there if you're not making numbers. Depending on the market, should be plenty of other opportunities at firms deploying the tech or selling it as a strategic advantage.
Some of the successful guys I knew in grad school were experts at Business Objects, Tableau, Microsoft's SQL BI stack, Oracle, or similar. They didn't work for companies so much as floated between firms who decided to hitch their post to a particular type of tech. Their niche, that is to say.
Reminding me I owe the sharp young go-getter I mentioned earlier an email, looked him on on LinkedIn again: the only thing he has there is his sales numbers, various buckets, for the different firms he's worked for. He's not been at any one firm more than 2-3 years, and why would he: he's a walking set of skills (selling/closing), as am I in another technical discipline (engagement management). We are no better or worse than our current portfolio, and need to be able/willing to walk away on an hour's notice if 1) we no longer serve the company's interest 2) the inverse.
I am one, here in Silicon Valley. The compensation is a mix of base + commission. Usually what they call a 70/30 or 80/20 split (70 or 80% base and 30/20 percent commission). It's a great and valued role, if you join the right company. Most pure sales people have no technical skills and most engineers have no sales or people skills. So, a pre-sales engineer (SE) is a hybrid role that combines both skills.
Once people leave engineering and go into sales, they never go back into engineering. Pure sales or marketing is probably the next role. The difference in compensation is just too significant.
I was a sales engineer for a software company for about 3 years. Some of the best experience I ever had working in IT. Got to see the business side of things and how the $$ is made. I had a base salary + commission, telecommuted full-time, but did have to travel at least once every couple weeks. If you don't mind the travel, it's a good gig with a lot of earnings potential. Try to start out with a base salary that is comfortable enough that you don't rely on commissions. If I remember right, I had about a 2.5% commission rate as an SE.
Yes, for a smaller company, there is usually the travel aspect, as much a 50% (two weeks away from home) in some cases. In larger companies, where you have a lot of territory coverage (lots of staff), you would likely still have "local travel" (within your territory) which can be 25% or more.
In my current role, I am 35-50% travel and the rest of the time, work out of my home office, making phone calls and doing initial WebEx presentations to clients.
I worked mainly at consumer startups that didn't have a typical sales team like you would find at a place like Oracle or Tableau. They just either got popular or didn't. Then I made a few games for the iPhone which supported me for two years but have stopped selling.
The position is for a 3D software package for a company based in Germany. I used the package to do the technical art in my games and the company is now promoting it as a general purpose tool for data viz, entertainment graphics, games, installations, etc.
I have a blog where I post interesting techniques for the tool and the company has asked me if I want to join them as a pre sales engineer. I don't really have anything better to do right now so I thought I'd check it out but am not sure what to expect or ask for.
Glassdoor reviews are mostly positive but comments about the sales team have some complaints about being pitted against each other. I don't know if that is typical or how it would affect the pre-sales engineer guy on the team.
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