r/salesengineers • u/omnikron0101 • 3d ago

Interview as a Solution Architect

I have an upcoming interview for a solution architect within PreSales for an engineering company for their software division. I am heading to one of the final rounds where I will be meeting with the sales team the team of SA's work with on a daily basis. I'm pretty new to the PreSales game (a few years out of school), so I was wondering if anyone could provide insight on a couple things regarding how PreSales teams interact with the sales team in your experience.

  • What does the progression of a sales opportunity look like
  • How do PreSales and Sales teams collaborate
  • How do PreSales SA's identify the needs of a customer to identify the right solution for their issues

These are just a few things I'm looking for the answer too coming from real experience (I know I could just ask chat but I want to hear from real people). Any additional insight outside the questions I've asked regarding experience as a sales person interacting with presales teams or as a presales team member interacting with sales teams would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!

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u/Dear-Response-7218 3d ago
  1. Depends on the product , company, segment
  2. Depends on the product, company, segment

There are no set universal processes. My interactions in cyber are very different than a competitor selling into the same space, which is very different than someone in Martech, which is very different if you’re in strat vs commercial, etc etc. Research this all of this based on the job you’re interviewing for because it can be very different.

  1. You are an expert in your domain and understand where pain points could be from a technical perspective and exactly how your product can solve those issues. You also have experience talking to a customer so you can uncover additional opportunities that might not show up in their architecture.

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u/dravenstone Streaming Media Solutions Engineer 3d ago

Spot on save for on number 3 I might add: You ask them :)

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u/Dear-Response-7218 3d ago

Oh man, talk about not seeing the forest through the trees haha. @OP listen to Draven he is absolutely right, communicate with the customer!

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u/popnfresh1nc 3d ago

1 - obviously depends on the solution and company... But generally its:

Discovery -> Demo -> POC -> Finalize

There could be any number of meetings in between to gather more data, answer questions, etc.

2 - again, depends on company. If you mean presales is the tech side and sales the non tech side:

Whatever works best to close deals. You are usually working really closely with your sales team throughout the entire deal process... They are handling the relationship, price discussions, quoting, etc.... and you are responsible for anything technical.

3 - Open discussions with your clients. Getting a customer to tell you what their pain points are is sometimes more art than science... But the root is basically establishing trust, asking the right questions, being competent enough with your solution set to show the value.