I had the pleasure of speaking with Robert DeMarco who runs Solutions Consulting (aka sales engineering, product specialists, etc.) at Xactly who shared the following best practices
- Responsibilities: (as the team grows, you can further specialize into dedicated people for these roles)
- Deep demos (note: AEs should be certified to do overview demos so SCs do not become a bottleneck)
- RFPs (target approx 1/week)
- complex/custom deal support
- Requirements gathering (though this can be moved to implementation/professional services)
- DIstribute SCs geographically (for any given product)
- Stratify SCs so that senior SCs deal with strategic accounts and junior SCs deal with SMB. This provides a promotion path.
- SC:AE ratio varies by segment:
- SMB 1:8
- Mid-market: 1:6
- Enterprise: 1:4
- Compensation:
- Strive for 75%/25% base/variable
- Split variable into 3 equal components: individual ACV quota + team ACV quota + MBOs.
- MBO include everything non-ACV
- To promote teamwork, be able to have “splits” on SC ACV
- Make sure SCs get recognition for deals they helped close – ex: on deal notification emails.
- SCs should be eligible for Presidents’ Club.
- SCs should always be the good guy/gal; SC manager should be the “bad guy/gal” when needed
- When new AEs go through boot camp, SCs should have a 1hr session to to explain what they do and how best to work together