By Contributor Serenity Gibbons
Small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) constantly look for ways to differentiate themselves. After all, they can鈥檛 compete with each other or with larger, enterprise-level organizations unless they stand out. And one way to make waves is by adding personnel with unique core competences into their workforces. Indeed, having a range of professionals can benefit both internal employees as well as external clientele.
Here鈥檚 an example of this practice from a few years back: When PepsiCo wanted to improve the communications between its employees, the company leaned into the expertise of a psychologist who was on staff.
Unconventional? Perhaps. Beneficial? Definitely. Given that PepsiCo has enjoyed a fairly consistent surge in market worth in the last decade, bringing in a fresh perspective seems to have worked.
PepsiCo relied on its full-time clinical psychologist to prompt strong engagement and creative brainstorming between individuals and teams. In essence, he used his unique training to move the giant company forward. And the organization鈥檚 move paid off, leading to greater cohesion between units.
Of course, you might be wondering what types of experts to bring into your SMB, particularly if you don鈥檛 have a PepsiCo budget. If your company is built around a service-heavy model, you could consider hiring engineers.
Why engineers? You鈥檒l get the benefits of having staff members with an engineering 鈥渕indset鈥. Engineers are trained in many key abilities and topics, like problem-solving, practicality, and project management. This focused training makes them valuable resources for all of your insider and outsider stakeholders.
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How exactly can engineers become a value-added component of your operation (and your secret for success)? Consider these three possibilities.
Small business team discussing strategy and reviewing infographics
1. Engineers can 鈥渃onnect the dots鈥 and educate your end users.
Your salespeople no doubt have stellar training. Your customer service agents, too. That鈥檚 wonderful, but you need engineers because they can speak the same language as like-minded decision-makers.
For instance, at some point in the sales cycle, clients will start to ask questions that require highly precise answers. At that point, engineers can step into the mix and advance the conversation by helping clients see the logic in purchasing services from your SMB. Similarly, when your salespeople are constructing proposals and contracts, engineers can serve in a go-between capacity, ensuring that your services are optimized for a true win-win arrangement.
This is a formula for success, as evidenced by Nexus Power. The power solutions provider complements its technical sales team with more than 20 in-house engineers whose job is twofold: First, understand the needs of the Nexus Power ecosystem. Second, assist in guiding clients from speculation to commission. It鈥檚 a powerful technical engineering 鈥渇lex鈥 that is adding a strategic element to the sales relationship.
Could Nexus Power sell its services successfully without engineers? Probably. Yet being able to promote its unique sales-meets-engineering fulfillment setup gives the business more heft and impact. Examples like this highlight how engineers can help sales teams deliver results that go beyond standard client expectations, which naturally adds a competitive advantage for your business.
2. Engineers naturally bring different perspectives to the sales cycle.
Along the same sales line, engineers who aren鈥檛 formally trained as sales professionals can see sales from a novel view. Rather than seeing every interaction through a sales process lens, they have the objectivity to bring up concerns and opportunities that your sales team members may have overlooked.
If you鈥檙e selling to a company with engineers, having your own engineers can ensure you use the right language as well. Again, engineers are specialists. Therefore, they鈥檙e accustomed to using certain terms. Who knows? You might be losing sales because you鈥檙e not speaking to the engineers in your client audience.
For example, the notable software provider Salesforce has plenty to say about the seven stages of a successful sales cycle. Among those seven stages are several where engineers could be highly beneficial. For example, in the customer research stage, engineers can help you understand some of your prospects. And in the presentation, demo, proposal, negotiation, and fulfillment stages, engineers can walk alongside salespeople to provide exceptional outreach and develop stronger client connections.
It can be very challenging to win service contracts, especially when you need to earn the buy-in of people from many different parts of a company. Being able to tap into your engineers makes it easier for your company to take a pole position.
3. Engineers give added breadth to customer service and support
You probably have customer service agents who solve procurement and contract-related client concerns. Nevertheless, you could use engineers to provide superior support to your clients. Engineers should be able to rely on their expertise to troubleshoot client questions and issues, ultimately gaining serious loyalty points.
If you sell a technical product, you might even want to task your engineers with conducting onsite or online training workshops after a sale. That way, they鈥檒l serve as a thread between the end of the sales process and the beginning of future collaborations.
Of course, you may wonder if you鈥檒l really get a return on investment (ROI) if you make your engineer team an extension of your customer support offerings. In that case, just attach key performance indicators (KPIs) to their customer support responsibilities. For instance, you could track customer lifetime value data, sales cycle timelines, and conversion rates before and after hiring engineers. That way, you could see the monetary value of your engineers鈥 efforts.
Is it challenging to differentiate your company from others? Absolutely. But staffing engineers who can serve in multiple assistive capabilities can be a strategic way to distinguish your organization as the blue fish in a red sea.
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