r/salesengineers

Ok, so three years ago my company released a big, new feature which integrates two of our internal products. It solves an issue we've had for years cutting manual double entry for clients and gives us a whole bunch of new features at no dev cost (rather than us building the same features in two products which can overlap).

So far so good, right?

I've just had a discussion today with the head of consulting who has told me that in three years they haven't successfully got a single client working on this feature. None. Nada. Zip. Nobody.

As part of the product offering I demo this and showcase the benefits every client meeting. 50% of clients prefer to stick to the older, tried and tested manual way of doing things but 50% want to use the new integration.

I knew there were bugs and issues (very rare in the software world, of course) and I knew the consultants would moan about anything new... but I didn't realise it was this bad.

Looking at what they are telling me a bunch of their reasons why "it doesn't work for anyone" are bullshit and a bunch of them... sound reasonable but are mostly edge cases.

We lose a lot of clients to competitors and all our competitors have this kind of modern integration in fact for some of them it's the only way to do it - there is no manual option.

When I listen to gong calls about the feature the consultants aren't mentioning the upsides of it but are spending a lot of time explaining why "other companies just stick with the old method."

When I look at their documentation they have documented the old school approach but there is nothing around the new, modern integrated approach.

I get there are bugs, I get that it's not right for every client... but it also seems clear to me that we are doing a very, very bad job of rolling it out.

So what the hell would you do as the sales engineer here?

Back off including this in demos?

Scream and holler in the hope that we can start actually implementing this properly (maybe that requires changes in the product, maybe that requires changes in how we implement)?

Just keep quiet and don't rock the boat (it's not the kind of thing that would actually change my bonus and getting involved more would hopefully end up with clients getting a better set up product but I'd have to fight through some pretty nasty internal politics)?

Hey team,

Had an issue at work with some toxic sales managers. Processes keep changing and then managers get frustrated which causes them to complain about us.

The bad part is our manager does not have our back: very toxic, talking down to us, not a nice person in conversation etc. (even though she is the one who is changing the workflow)

Wondering what you all would do? We’re debating going to HR or do we just be boring and look for new jobs?

If it helps, in the last year 5 people have quit.

A thing I keep noticing is that a lot of outbound treats every prospect like they are equally ready for a conversation.

They are not.

Someone who matches the job title is one thing.
Someone actively trying to solve the problem right now is something else entirely.

That gap matters a lot more now. Buyers are getting flooded, automation is everywhere, and generic outreach gets ignored fast.

The best conversations usually start when the pain already exists and the timing is real.

That is a big part of why I built Leadline.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to get some thoughts from the group.

I’m currently an SE at a smaller company making $180k OTE in a MCOL area. This is my first SE role, and I’ve been in it for about a year. I really enjoy the company and the people I work with.

I recently received an offer from Microsoft for a CSA role, which would be fully post-sales. The comp would be $210k OTE plus about $20k per year in stock.

Part of what makes it appealing is the opportunity to have Microsoft on my resume and potentially use the CSA role as a stepping stone into a TSP (Microsoft's pre-sales role) later on. At the same time, I’m a little nervous about stability given the broader big tech layoff environment.

Do you think the Microsoft name and extra $30k per year make the move worth it or should I stick with my current role and continue to grow as an SE? I’d really appreciate any insight or advice from people who’ve been in a similar position.

Thanks!

I’ve looked at Glassdoor and AI etc. I see usually it’s the final round with a manager from a different team. How will a System Engineer manager ascertain my sales acumen?

He will know security really well.

What sort of questions can I expect?

Thank you. Sorry if it’s a dumb question

if you were part of a panel and at the end of the interview the responses from the panel were "wow", or you were the presenter to a panel and at the end of the interview you said to yourself, it was legendary, I have a question to you.

Similar threads (on panel interview) are often seen in this sub.

Most of the replies will include points like:

• Be a storyteller
• Tell - Show - Tell
• Ask questions
• Listen/discovery
• Pick a topic you know
• Pick a product you know
• Avoid the company product
• Record yourself

Now to the question.

What have you done or seen that made you say: "WOW, I'm going use this next time I'm presenting to a panel"?

Hello,

I’m a sophomore at a non target uni in the US, and major is CS and AI. I’m also an international.

For context, I interviewed for SWE and MLE roles at big places but couldn’t convert, and luckily idk how I got this interview and eventually got the offer, and Precisely (company) also sponsors. To be honest, I had 0 clue what sales eng is, and I kinda looked down upon it, but as im researching more and reading this reddit, it seems like a great role but most ppl say you need to be an engineer urself to be a better sales engineer.

For me, since this is the only offer, I have signed it and my manager said she’ll expose me to Cloud & AI teams too so im excited, and its fully remote. I feel this role would help me in PM/TPM/Solutions roles next cycle but not core SWE/ML or it could if I play around on resume.

I wanted to know if this is a good step, or anything you have to share since I’m still a sophomore. I don’t know what are the new grad prospects as sales engineers/solutions roles. Additionally, any ideas how sales could help me in swe/ml recruiting. Please share anything you could since I’m looking for all views

I saw a job posting on LinkedIn for a role at a small-medium sized company, but their careers site didn't have it posted.

The hiring manager's LI pfp shows they're stilling hiring.

I'm not in a rush to leave my current job, so I'm leaning towards keeping an eye out for future postings.

Hey all,

I'm debating whether to join **Stripe** as a **Technical Account Manager** on the Platforms team and would love to hear from anyone who's been in that role or is currently there.

A few things I'm most curious about:

1. How's the WLB really like?

2. Which XFN teams does the Platforms TAM work most closely with, and how is that collaboration in practice?

3. How's TC looking these days for this role/level?

Any candid takes appreciated — DMs welcome too. Thanks in advance!

#TAM #Stripe

Some companies are merging Presales and CSM into one unified role (Customer Success Engineering at IBM would be an example): same technical person owns the customer journey from POC to adoption and expansion.

The arguments for it sound reasonable to me:

• No handoff complications, customer keeps one technical face
• SE already knows the architecture, why re-explain it to a CSM?
• Post-sale expansion is just another sales cycle anyway

Now I know that in this subreddit post-sales is less popular and many of are happier in pre-sales. My post is more about the value for the customers (or vendor).

Do any of you have experiences here?
Have you seen this work in practice, or does post/pre-sale get neglected?

For those forced into this hybrid model, did it broaden your skillset or burn you out?

Seeing a theme at my work. I am a people leader but also was a sales engineer. I am seeing themes beyond just my team where the ratios of SEs to AEs are lowering and the volume of work is increasing due to that. I work at a company that isn’t doing much hiring or even backfilling for the SE role.

I am personally putting in 3 nights of extra effort a week. Late. So I can talk to product in India. Up to 3-4am finish.

Right now I am working this weekend. Have to build an end to end demo for a Monday dry run. Meanwhile some of my team is doing the same.

Are you all seeing this theme too where you work? As a people leader I am doing the typical things: take time off later to balance, expense your food this weekend, and in some cases I’m taking the work because I can.

I will say one thing about my company. SEs are second class citizens. And we are at the mercy of the simple sales people and leadership. There’s no such thing as No.

Hey everyone — I’m trying to move into Sales Engineering and would love some honest guidance.

Background: CS degree. Current: IT Support (Supporting a school district) ~1.5 years.

Prior: Product Development intern (~3 months) — helped build/test an internal iOS app, wrote bugs/tickets. Tested releases of software.

What are some pathways I can take from here?

Would an Implementations Role, professional services, consulting be a good steeping stone for me?

Background:

Did about 3 years as an SRE before jumping into Sales Engineering. The SE role clicked for me. I loved the customer-facing technical work, demos, translating engineering concepts for buyers. Role got cut roughly 5 months in. Not performance, but 5 months on the resume looks rough no matter how you frame it.

Searched hard for another SE role in my area. Didn't want to relocate, didn't want to bounce back to engineering. To bridge the gap, I picked up an AI evaluation 2 month contract. Here I was designing and running evals on model performance against real infrastructure data.

When the contract wrapped and SE roles still weren't landing, I took an SDR gig to keep momentum in sales rather than let the transition stall out. Hit 200% of quota during ramp. The technical background has actually been beneficial as I work heavily in Openclaw and Claude Code which translates to strategically grinding the pipeline.

My background skews heavily toward observability (SRE years) and voice AI (current focus). That combo feels like a decent wedge for SE roles at the right companies: observability vendors, CPaaS/voice AI platforms, anything where the buyer is a platform/DevOps/engineering leader and technical credibility actually moves deals.

Trying to figure out the realistic path and timeline back to SE from here. Anyone been through a similar SE → layoff → contract → SDR → SE loop? What worked?

TLDR:
After 3 years as an SRE in observability, I moved into Sales Engineering, was let go around the 5 month mark, worked an AI evaluation contract while searching, and eventually took an SDR role where I'm now at 200% of quota during ramp. My specialty is observability and voice AI, and I'm trying to figure out the realistic path and timeline back to SE from an SDR seat.

The last year I’ve built a library of demo videos that my team sends to existing customers to sell additional modules. With attention spans being shorter and a lot of younger customers who prefer text/email as a mode of communication - these videos surprisingly convert pretty well. And I’m getting pretty good with using the tools and leveraging AI to make them.

Has anyone ever done demos as a side gig? I keep hearing a lot about UGC and faceless social media accounts to sell. Isn’t that basically what we do as SE’s? Just thinking out loud that these sales and demo skills could maybe convert to a side hustle?

Wiz posten an SE role in my region(DACH) a few days back and I am in the process.

What is the sentiment after the acquisition and cultural changed down on the road? Will Dali and his crew will stay or will Wiz be part of GCP sales team? Any lay-off rumors?

Currently in the interview process for an L4 Senior Position and would love to hear more from someone who works there.

Current offer (not presented yet, HM talked about it): 170k base/51k commission

No info on RSUs were shared.

My question for the group is if this is a good offer or not for a Senior SE position, without knowing more about what I would receive in equity? Thanks all!

If you are presales, are you expected to also prospect? For a large chunk of my territory my pipeline is dry. I think I might need to.

For context, there is 1 AE to 5 SE’s and each SE we have different specialties. We are also a combo of pre-sales engineers and customer success managers.

Keen to hear from other SEs out there on how you keep up with all the changes in your field. I work in a very high-tech industry, and each time I blink, it feels like something new has just come out or changes have been made to products and services.

With all the other work I have on my plate, deals, KPIs to hit, customer meetings, customers' POCs and issues, etc., I feel like I am starting to get WAY behind in my knowledge and feel like I am slowly drowning.

Hello everyone!

I'm an SE at a tech SaaS company.

Just to give a bit of background, at my current company the culture has been going downhill for quite some time now so I've been looking elsewhere, things like just not being appreciated as an SE at all and just not being even seen as part of the sales team, anytime a deal closes we barely get mentioned, and the AE gets all the glory. I do love being an SE just don't like how I'm feeling unappreciated.

However, my current company recently offered me the position of going into an AE role which I am interested in eventually trying the AE role as I eventually want to be an RVP or maybe even a CRO one day.

At the same time another company which is adjacent to my current offered me an SE role there and their culture seems to be much much better.

Some numbers to compare, in Canadian dollars:

Current company, current role: 60/40 245k OTE

Current company, AE role: 50/50 320k OTE

Other company, SE role: 75/25, 270k OTE

My really torn on what to do just wondering what you all would do in this situation, I'm leaning more towards the other company and just starting fresh there. I could even go AE at that company eventually most likely.

Would love to know your opinions! Thanks!