Organization Health’o’meter – When Engineering feels like Sales Engineering

Disclaimer: The views presented in all the blog articles are solely my own and do not reflect that of any individual or entity or present or past employers. These are based on my experience and are meant to drive a change.

Having worked in Greenfield, Brownfield projects over the years, I have come to realize how important it is for an Engineering leader to be a good “Salesman”. Have you ever been in a situation where being an Engineering leader of the Business Unit or a sizable Domain ownership within Engineering organization, you felt you had to be a damn good salesman to survive? If you answered yes, in my opinion it is rather unfortunate, but you are not alone.

Typically these issues tend to crop up in larger organizations. I attribute them to two main reasons.

One… when the roles and responsibilities are not very clear. Unclear or fuzzy Roles and Responsibilities can also be a case in small to mid size companies but it is not so much of an issue since the dynamics and situation is completely different there. Roles and responsibilities is extremely important topic and deserves its own separate topic, I will cover that in more details separately

Two… lack of willingness of the Upper Management to communicate a clear top down mandate. To a great extent one can roll this up as part of Roles and Responsibilities but I put it separately as more of a communication issue. Clear communication is also a key in driving large engineering organizations.

So what’s really the issue? Is it really a bad thing? I think so.

Sales Engineering has a place in your organization but that should be limited to the engineering teams which are customer facing, trying to sell the products and services to the outside customers, *not* inside engineering organizations.

Being a Sales(wo)man isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. The muscle that not many hard core Engineering leaders typically possess or even have an interest and inclination to develop. If as a leader, you want a culture where progressive improvements are encouraged, not paying attention to this will cause genuine technical leaders to get frustrated and leave. You are left with yay’sayers who agree with everything you have to say. This may not necessarily be a bad thing for certain types of leaders and cultures but in my book, this is an issue.

Pitching new ideas for change, progressive improvements should not feel like Sales Engineering in fact this should be part of autonomy and empowerment given to your leaders. If needed, approval process should be handled in smaller behind the doors, limited to smaller, relevant group of individuals. As a leader of an Engineering Organization, I highly encourage you to spot these types of patterns and intervene.

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