The Most Important Relationship in Sales - AEs and SAs
Great SAs are indispensable to top GTM organizations.
I had a former VP who used to have a great set of rhetorical questions on the value of SAs (Solution Architects, aka SEs - Sales Engineers) in selling a technical product.
If you have the best SA and the best AE in the world, they’re going to sell a ton - I think everyone would agree with that.
What would happen if you had the best SA and your worst AE working together? They would still have some success because the SA would win over the customer with the value that they brought to the table, all in spite of the AE.
Now what if you had the best AE and the worst SA? They probably wouldn’t sell anything because no matter how good the AE was, if the SA isn’t showing the value of the solution, the prospect can’t buy.
The Right Ratio of AE to SA Input
The best sellers I have seen have had a partnership with an SE (or multiple SEs). They treat them not just as someone who can answer the technical questions that they can’t but as a partner who they can strategize on every part of the deal - even non-technical components. They realize that most SAs are not just knowledgable about their product area but an intelligent person who could come up with ideas or solutions to help progress the deal forward.
That same leader who talked about how critical an SA is to winning opportunities has this to say about the AE to SA partnership.
The partnership on an opportunity should be a democracy. They should both have equal input to what needs to be done to move a deal forward. It’s not 80% on the AEs and 20% on the SAs. It’s pretty much 51/49. And the only reason it’s not 50/50 is that AEs are more accountable than SAs - their job often depends on their success or lack there-of.
How to Get the AE/SA Partnership Right
Put just as much emphasis on SA as AE hiring from the start.
Founders don’t typically see the importance of good SAs early on. That’s because they are doing the selling and know the product better than most SAs would or they have someone from the Engineering team on prospect calls, who are usually very good on calls but that just isn’t scalable long term.
So they just look for less expensive (usually more junior) folks who have some technical background. They might get lucky with the first one or they can cover for that person but it’s going to catch up with them over time.
Make them equal participant in all things Sales
When doing account or opportunity plans, invite the SAs as well as the AEs to the calls. They have a unique perspective and their input will be just as valuable as the AEs. Remember that you are one step removed while the SA has a front row seat.
They shouldn’t be asked to attend calls just to sit there for the whole time - they won’t want to join. You should ask them questions just as much as the AEs.
Don’t let AEs treat them as a resource just there to support them
Some AEs who might not have had to sell a very technical product, or one without much technical differentiation, or just don’t have the experience may see the SAs on their team as a commodity - someone who has enough technical skills to answer the prospect’s questions. They schedule a meeting with the prospect and then try to find someone to fit it into their calendar as opposed to centering the meeting around this person.
This is one of the most frustrating aspects of the job for SAs, and the quickest way to lose good ones, is to let them feel like they are subservient to the AEs. Like I said above, they should be seen as pretty much equal partners.
One of the clearest signs that this is happening is that meetings get put on their calendar with no agenda and no discussion ahead of time. I used to tell SAs, both when I led them, and as a Sales Leader, that you can decline meetings if you were not given any agenda or context on what the meeting is about.
Look for more technical SAs early on
There are all different types of SAs - someone who are engineers converted to SAs, consultants turned to SAs, or career SAs across different industries and companies. They each bring different things to the organization.
The career SAs will bring some of those key soft skills that really help selling like building great demos, tying technical pain points to business value, managing a successful POC, competitive positioning, etc.
Diversity is good and you will eventually want this but early on, look for more technical SAs. The product is likely to be missing features or be a bit more buggy or hard to use than more mature products and the more technical SAs will do a better job of keeping this all stitched together.
Hire SAs with Initiative
The first SAs you hire (or ones starting at Player/Coach) should have initiative. There is so much value that they can bring to the table as you’re growing your company and you want someone who will take this initiative on their own and not just wait to be told what to do.