Leaders who want to make informed decisions for their teams to outperform the competition and avoid unwanted internal issues need current and actionable data. That’s why having access to resources like the 2024 Sales Engineering Compensation and Workload Report is so valuable to your team’s success.
This report gathers and analyzes over 1,000 responses from individual contributors (ICs) and leaders across the presales industry. If you’re looking to learn about this year’s latest SE trends and insights, the 2024 SE Report has the information you need to stay at the top of your game. But before diving into the full report, here’s a sneak peek to help you and your team prepare to navigate the latest in presales.
Compensation Is Complicated
According to on-target earnings (OTE) data from sales engineering respondents, individual contributor and leader compensation alike have become much more complicated than just looking at years of experience and the sales engineer career path. Factors such as stock options and personal quota now have more influence than ever over how much additional compensation ICs may receive this year.
Data also suggests a new trend of ICs with less experience at their current company making more than their counterparts within the same organization who have more experience. In fact, the highest average OTE was made by those with the least experience.
This means ICs are likely getting higher offers when moving from one company to another than they may receive by sticking with their current company for the long haul. This trend could be connected to employee turnover and signal a need for a shift in current sales engineering compensation structures.
Live Intro Demos Are Not Paying Off
As the pattern of unqualified demos continues into 2024, ICs seem to view live intro demos as the main culprit. Based on responses from ICs, intro demos are the second-most time-consuming activity in the presales workflow. However, they are only 10th in terms of perceived impact, indicating delivering these kinds of demos is misallocated time.
This makes intro demos a top choice for automation. By automating demos, brands eliminate low-value, repetitive work from the sales engineering workflow and give customers access to demos that fit their schedules, possibly shortening sales cycles.
Not only does automating demos take this work off of ICs’ plates, but it also potentially boosts the value of demos themselves by allowing customers to self-qualify. In fact, according to responses, those who have chosen to automate demos have seen a slight decrease of 3% in unqualified demos, while the rest saw a slight increase.
Come see how easy buying can be.
Sales Engineers Across the Board Are Looking for More
While salary is still a top consideration for presales team members, the SE report reveals ICs and leaders alike are looking for more benefits beyond financial ones to remain happy in their current sales engineering positions.
In addition to higher compensation, individual contributors seek three main benefits:
- The perks and incentives offered to sales
- Reduction in repetitive work
- An increase in recognition from their managers
Leaders value similar benefits but place a higher emphasis on the need for minimizing repetitive work than their IC counterparts.
ICs also believe they are not spending enough time gaining product knowledge. To them, learning more about their product is an impactful way to make a difference in their organization, but too much of their time is instead being spent elsewhere (like on potentially unqualified intro demos).
Burnout Is the Result of More Than Just Long Hours
While some managers may believe the only contributor to sales engineering burnout is work-life imbalance, the truth is it’s the use — or rather, the misuse — of IC time that’s burning out employees rather than an excessive amount of work.
For example, as mentioned previously, ICs feel as though they are spending too much time on intro demos and RFPs (request for proposals). Although these processes are important, this excess time could be better spent on more high-value tasks like discovery and product knowledge.
This misallocation of time has gotten even worse when compared to 2023. Primarily driven by more time spent demoing, RFPs, and discovery, presales teams currently face a lack of prioritization and efficiency in their workflows.
These inefficacies are worse when organizations have higher amounts of unqualified demos. Unqualified demos have a similar effect on burnout as long hours do, with a 10% increase in unqualified demos producing a similar level of burnout as two additional crunch weeks.
Automation Is Essential to Improving the Value of Your Team’s Time
With such a clear emphasis on spending time on the right tasks in 2024, automation has become a top asset for brands looking to cut down on their misallocated presales time. By effectively integrating automation into their workflows, brands can see a 15% reduction in unqualified demos. This allows teams more time to improve their product knowledge, perform high-value tasks, and feel more productive during their work week.
Discover More Insights in the 2024 SE Report
Don’t wait until it’s too late to discover what your team needs; learn from your peers and make changes to improve your workflow. For leaders looking to better connect with their presales teams or for individual contributors looking to gain insight from their peers, the 2024 Sales Engineering Compensation and Workload Report is full of valuable, industry-leading data.
