In this episode of Altar of the Demo Gods, hosts Keith Wilson and John Morton welcome Ahmed Usmani, a Senior Sales Engineer with over a decade of experience in both technical support and sales engineering. The conversation covers Ahmed's unique career journey and insights into the role of a sales engineer, from his beginnings in platinum-level support to becoming a cloud success coordinator and ultimately a senior sales engineer.

The episode provides valuable lessons for both aspiring and seasoned sales engineers, especially about transitioning from technical roles into sales. Ahmed shares his experiences with learning the sales cycle, navigating sales processes, and the importance of being a fixer—someone who can bridge gaps between teams, solve technical problems, and still maintain excellent relationships with customers.

Some key topics include:

• Transitioning from Support to Sales Engineering: Ahmed explains how his technical background in security and cloud infrastructure laid a solid foundation for his sales career.
• Learning Business Acumen and Sales Cycles: Ahmed highlights how working with sales leaders and mentors helped him gain the business knowledge needed for success.
• The Importance of Relationships and Teamwork: Ahmed emphasizes that internal collaboration and shared knowledge are key to winning deals and creating successful outcomes.
• Navigating Sales as a Fixer: The importance of being both technical and people-oriented, with the ability to handle tough customer situations.
• Sets and Reps in Sales: Ahmed talks about the need for repetition to hone skills in both technical support and sales, stressing that ongoing learning and practice are essential.

In this episode of Altar of the Demo Gods, hosts Keith Wilson and John Morton sit down with Jose Barajas, VP of Worldwide Sales Engineering at AttackIQ. The conversation dives into Jose’s career progression, from his early days as a security researcher to transitioning into sales engineering, and eventually moving into leadership as the VP of Sales Engineering.

Jose shares valuable insights on how his technical background in malware analysis and reverse engineering helped him develop a deep understanding of the products he now helps sell. He discusses the evolution from technical work to sales and leadership, and how learning soft skills, such as public speaking through Toastmasters, prepared him for success in the world of sales.

The discussion also covers key aspects of his transition into a leadership role, where he highlights the importance of building relationships, learning the sales process, and adapting to challenges like hiring and managing teams. Jose offers actionable advice for those in technical roles looking to transition into sales or leadership, such as developing a strong partnership with account executives and honing communication skills to better connect with customers.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Transitioning from security research to sales engineering.
• The importance of relationship building and networking in career growth.
• Challenges and solutions in technical sales, including POC development and using cyber ranges to accelerate the sales process.
• Learning to adapt to formalized sales processes as a company grows.
• How to develop soft skills, like public speaking, through Toastmasters and other opportunities.
• The complexities of hiring and managing teams, including the principle of “hire slow, fire fast.”
• Moving into leadership and the importance of effective communication in technical sales.

In this episode of Altar of the Demo Gods, hosts Keith Wilson and John Morton welcome special guest Evgeniy Kharam, author of the book Architecting Success: The Art of Soft Skills in Technical Sales. They dive deep into the world of soft skills, especially in the context of sales engineering, discussing how these often-overlooked abilities can make or break success in technical sales roles.

Evgeniy highlights the importance of adapting communication styles to your audience, understanding when to go deep into technical details, and when to keep it high-level. He also explains how critical it is to engage with customers based on what they want to learn, rather than simply showing off demos and presentations.

Throughout the conversation, the hosts and Evgeniy cover key themes from his book, including how to ask the right questions, overcome the fear of public speaking, and build rapport with customers and teammates. Evgeniy also introduces the concept of a Soft Skills Development Plan (SSDP), offering practical steps for professionals to improve their soft skills over 30, 60, 90, and 120 days.

Pickup "Architecting Success: The Art of Soft Skills in Technical Sales" from Amazon and other major book retailers.

Learn more about Evgeniy and the book here: https://www.softskillstech.ca/