An experienced Solutions Engineering resource can
Improve every step of the customer lifecycle
From having properly qualified prospects fully engaged to demo or try your product, to smooth onboarding and regular touchbases, a Solutions Engineer can reduce cycle times and deepen customer relationships – leading to more revenue and quicker closes.
Acquire customers faster
- Bad-fit customers are identified earlier, allowing sales efforts to focus on best-fit
- Customer Discoveries are active probing sessions, not merely fill-in-the-blank exercises
- Demos are customer-focused and best-next-steps are identified immediately
Establish deeper relationships
- POCs and Trials are managed and intentional
- Customer environments are learned and targeted
- Quotes are accurate
- Onboarding is smooth and transparent
- Support is responsive
Grow accounts larger
- Regular touchbases allow probing opportunities
- New feature sets can be introduced
- Deep customer feedback can inform product enhancements
- Issues are surfaced quickly reducing retention problems
The What, Why, and How
What is a Solution Engineer?
A Solution Engineer, or SE, is the foot-soldier of Customer Success – the modern business approach placing the customer and their success as the driving motivation for everything a company does.
The SE, as a technical expert with the product or service, is a knowledgable customer advocate, and shepherds the sales and support processes for the benefit of both the company and the customer.
Why should I care?
The advent of Software-As-A-Service and subscription business models has created new realities in revenue generation. No longer is a single sale enough to sustain the customer’s value to the organization – that customer’s loyalty and renewal must be earned every minute of every day. If that loyalty is lost – they have choices – and will move on.
The services of an experienced SE, executing the tasks within the Customer Success Framework, will ensure happy (and retained) customers for years to come.
How does it work?
FractionalSE has experienced resources with broad skills required to perform the day-to-day tasks in a Customer Success program.
In addition, they are skilled at playing a more strategic role, doing assessments of the current state, and recommending incremental (or wholesale) changes in order to make real improvements.
How those skills are applied within an organization are the result of careful assessment, and generally take the form of a short- to medium-term contract for a prescribed # of hours per week and specific deliverables.