One thing I’ve learned across multiple teams and multiple companies is this: the partnership between Sales and Solutions Engineering can be a competitive advantage—or an underutilized asset. Rarely anything in between.
When the relationship is aligned, intentional, and structured, deals move faster, customers feel supported, technical risks get surfaced early, and the team shows up as a unified front. When it’s not aligned, you get confusion, gaps in communication, last-minute scrambles, mismatched expectations, and frustration on both sides.
Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time helping my teams understand when and how to pull their SEs into deals. The SE role is incredibly powerful, but only if you use it deliberately—and not as a last-minute rescue button.
Here are five real, practical ways sales teams can get the most out of their SE partners (and ultimately win more deals with less friction).
1. Bring Your SE in Early—Not Just When Things Get Technical
This is the #1 mistake I see. Sellers assume “I’ll bring in my SE when the customer needs to see a demo.” That’s too late.
A great SE can:
- Help shape early discovery
- Identify technical implications of business pain
- Spot risks before they explode
- Help you ask better questions
Action: Invite your SE to planning sessions for any deal that might become meaningful. A 10-minute async brief early on is better than a 2-hour emergency call later.
2. Send Context Before Every Call—Not After
Your SE shouldn’t have to guess why a meeting exists. They also shouldn’t have to chase you for information.
At minimum, send this before every customer call:
- Objective of the meeting
- What you want the SE to own or observe
- Who is attending (titles + decision roles if known)
- What you already know technically
- What you don’t know yet
Don’t write a novel. Two clean paragraphs or a bullet list is more than enough.
This single habit improves call quality immediately.
3. Use Your SE to Validate Pain—Not Just Validate Tech
Most teams underutilize their SEs in discovery. Technical sellers hear things differently, notice different friction points, and can often uncover insights the AE wouldn’t hear alone.
Examples:
- “What’s slowing down your current workflow?”
- “Where does data break or bottleneck today?”
- “How reliable does this process need to be for the business impact to be real?”
Action: Let your SE run part of discovery—even 5–7 minutes—to pull out the technical pain that deepens the business problem.
4. Co-Create the Demo Strategy—Don’t Dump It on the SE
A demo is not a presentation. It’s a narrative that proves value.
Your SE shouldn’t be learning the storyline on the call. A well-run demo happens when the AE and SE sit down and decide:
- What value messages to reinforce
- Which capabilities matter and which do not
- Where to pause for customer confirmation
- What objections might come up and who covers what
Action: For important demos, schedule a 20–30 minute prep session. It will save you hours in the long run.
5. Treat Your SE Like a Strategic Partner—Not a Task Rabbit
If your SE only hears:
“Can you build this?”
“Can you show this?”
“Can you handle this part?”
…you’re missing their biggest value.
SEs are often closest to:
- Emerging customer patterns
- Product limitations
- Product strengths
- Competitive gaps
- Common objections
- Real implementation pitfalls
Lean on that. Ask:
- “What do you see happening across deals?”
- “Where do you see technical risk here?”
- “What would you challenge me on in this opportunity?”
SEs typically have more pattern recognition than anyone else on the team. Use it!
Sales and SEs win together when both sides operate with purpose. When you plan together, debrief together, and show up as a unified team, customers feel it—and it changes deals.
If you’re a seller, you don’t need to be deeply technical. But you do need to know how to use your technical teammates.
Do these five things consistently, and your partnership with your SE stops being transactional—it becomes a differentiator your competitors can’t match.
