1. SE Operations Quarterly Review
By Eli Neumann
To lead an efficient, highly productive and tenured team of Sales Engineers, it is necessary to track, measure and trend the Key Performance Indicators of the team. This approach ensures that each individual is relevant to the overall team performance and Corporate Revenue goals.

2. Our SE Model – “We Clear the Road”
Platform Technology Foundation
Presentation/Articulation Skills
Unique Business Value “Mechanics”
Business Technologists
Customer Satisfaction
Technology Leadership
Operational Excellence
Vertical Industry Leaders
Customer Life Cycle
This “Growth Ladder” represents the path we follow in SE skill development. We have been following this path over the past 8 years in our efforts to raise the bar.
Step 1 – Each SE gains the technical knowledge of the entire platform, Manager and Workflow (Mainframe reserved for a select group). This includes Demo, Presentation, installation, POV capability, etc.
Step 2 – Development of Presentation Skills. Speaking, body language, usage of media, handling objections, controlling the audience, proper demo etiquette, etc
Step 3 – Unique Business Value (UBV). Understand the Solution in terms of Product, People, Process and Partners (the 4 P’s). This solution defines a set of capabilities and differentiators. Our Customers and Prospects have a Business Profile which dictates a set of Business Drivers and Business Initiatives. Mapping our Differentiators to their Business Drivers produces UBV.
Step 4 – Learn to use the 10K and 10Q, to derive the Biz Drivers, risk factors and financial situation of our prospects, map these to our capabilities (People, Process, Product and Partners) and differentiators to produce UBV for that specific Customer/Prospect.
Step 5 – Maintaining a continuous focus on the customer relationship, trusted advisor capacity, reference growth, and wrapping all of the other steps up into a package that produces, not simply SEs, but SEs that are Business Technologists.
All of this is done to project, with complete confidence, the fact that we are Technology Leaders. All steps are also done with a focus on our Business Drivers of Customer Satisfaction, Technology Leadership and Operational Excellence. We measure and manage to these Drivers, to ultimately produce the best Systems Engineering Organization in the Integration space, if not in the Software Industry as a whole.
Accomplishment of these levels results in a lower cost of sale, since the knowledge and skill sets allow the SEs to work in small teams or even independently with our Customers and Prospects.
The goal is to take each Sales Engineer and move them up the pyramid of skills to ultimately become Business Technologists with a Vertical focus relevant to their sales region.
As the skills of the overall regional team combined move up, we see improved efficiencies.

3. Total Earnings to Date To track the risk of attrition we track YTD earnings against OTE (SE Managers in green)

4. Activity Distribution by Type The goal is to have the top 5 activity type be customer facing to increase revenue productivity

5. SE Utilization Who are the most utilized SEs
SE Utilization Who are the most utilized SEs? What are they doing different than the others? Do they have higher rev production?

6. Activity by Region Normalized by the SE headcount in each region and typically mapped to the YTD revenue by region

7. SE Time by Tier Are we spending time on the most profitable accounts?

8. Personal Rev Attainment Which SEs are producing the most revenue and therefore capture their best practices?

9. POC/Custom Demos What is the efficiency of the POC qualification against average deal sizes? POC = Higher Cost of Sales
Custom Demo
POC
Avg Deal Size
Canada 5
$378,000
Government 3
$870,000
North 4
$370,000
Central 2 6
$315,000
East
$1,260,000
South
$490,000
West 8
$535,000

10. Count of POC/Demo YTD Which regions are doing more POCs & Custom Demos?

11. Year-Over-Year POC/Pilot/Custom Demo Generally, more POCs produce more revenue…

12. POV Techwin/Close Rates The goal is to maintain a 75-80% Techwin rate and a 65% Deal Close rate when a POC is performed
“Close rate” – Where we did a POV and have a closed contract
Techwin denotes that one of two things happened:
We performed a POV with no competition and completed all of the stated objectives in the SOW
We competed and were told by the customer that we executed better than all of the competitors from a technical perspective on the POV
Note that this Techwin is different than the CRM deal probability of 50% “Techwin”.
NOTE: Typically 2 quarters
to get Techwin notifications
and stabilize result

13. POC Count (with Rev Trend) Typically an increase in POC count will result in higher revenues 1-2 quarters out. This is a strong KPI.

14. Days from POC completion to Deal Win “Proof-to-Close” If the POCs are well qualified and used as a closing tool, a contract should happen in no more than 90 days
Goal: 90

15. SE’s POC Count Performance Tracking which SEs are more skilled to perform POCs and which SEs require additional hands-on training.

16. Attrition Q1 Q2 Q3 Canada 1 Central Government Partner Group North
South
West
YTD Total 6

17. Competitive POC statistics
90 POCs w/Competitive Data
330 POCs in the past 4½ years
"During the POC, the SE was able to complete 100% of their objectives with 50% fewer resources. During the same exercise, the competition was only able to complete 20% of the task list.“
John Berry Director of IT
ACME
We have combined the # of SEs and the # of days to chart out “Man Days”.
Another proof point in regards to delivering the shortest time to ROI can be found in the metrics associated with what we like to call “Proof of Value” efforts with prospects and customers. Our system engineers in the field track these numbers carefully as they directly reflect our ability to align our products with the needs of our customers, and then deliver the technical proof points that represent our ability to meet those needs. The graphs represent over 90 POV’s conducted over the past 4 years. The graph on the left represents the # of person days (number of people X the number of days) needed to complete the POV. The graph on the right represents the percent to which the customers list of requirements and functions were delivered during the POV’s. As you can see, we outperformed the competition against both metrics.
In fact we like to encourage prospects to request a POV from the integration vendors they are considering. Because we are very confident that we will be able to not only deliver, but clearly differentiate ourselves in the process.

18. Travel Expense – Actual vs. Budget