Reflections of a Black Male Sales Engineer

• a person qualified in a branch of engineering, especially as a professional.

The more apt description of what I’ve done the last 11 years is Sales Support.  The term Technical Account Manager has been applied as well.  But make no mistake a ‘Sales Engineer’ is a Sales Support specialist… a person responsible for articulating and demonstrating the value of a product (hardware or software) from a particular vendor to perspective customers.  Someone has already done the engineering in the production of that product or service… its your job to help sell it.  You are generally paired with an Account Executive (a sales person) or several to support them in translating complex technical aspects of the product or service you are providing into business nomenclature.

Information Technology in my observation is still one of the least diverse industries.  It is very pronounced in IT Sales.  With the exception of two individuals I supported (which were at one single company), all of my Account Executives have been white.  You could make the case that IT has become increasingly diverse in terms of development and engineering – sizable population of Asians (Indian and Pacific Rim), but sales remains largely the domain of whites – especially in management.  And in IT that is where the chance to make very large six-figure incomes reside.

Because of the lack of diversity, there are a number of cultural biases and stereotypes a Black Sales Engineer has to overcome.  And not just from the sales organization but oftentimes from customers.  I’ll never forget while setting up for a product demonstration to an audience, a gentleman asked me where was the catered lunch – looking completely past my business suit and assuming I worked for the restaurant delivering food for the session.  Within earshot, an Asian man who the customer assumed was the Sale Engineer, said that the food truck was parked just outside and that he was looking for the place to set up.

The bias was reflected in a pattern I noticed in each of my jobs.  The first six months after the period of what they call ‘on-boarding’ – product training, there was a hesitancy for some sales reps to bring me along on their sales call.  Or I would typically get assigned to cover the worst performing reps in the organization.  Questions would abound – I would generally hear this feedback via third-party about “is he technical enough”, “would the customer view him as a Subject Matter Expert”, or “I don’t know if I can trust putting him in front of my customer”.  There were times I felt I couldn’t prove myself because initially I wasn’t being afforded the opportunity.  I knew when given the chance, I had to be stellar in my performance.

I’ve dealt with sales reps who were shocked standing in the parking lot of the customer site after a meeting about how well the meeting went after I did a product demonstration or technical presentation (white-boarding session).  One guy couldn’t wait to call my manager to exclaim how good I was – with my manager to reply “that’s the reason we hired him”.  Others who would fail to communicate the context of the meeting and in some cases bring me into an opportunity that was not qualified and expect me to make the meeting successful.  They didn’t do their homework but the onus was on me to help them pass the test.  And invariably if the meeting went sideways, I was blamed.

This was common with low-performing reps I was assigned to – it always felt like the highly regarded white male Sales Engineers got assigned to the reps that went to Sales Club annually – the reps making close to seven figures, where I was assigned to one rep at a company, who I found out afterwards was already on a Performance Plan… essentially one mistake away from termination.  These individuals who are already in survival mode, can and will quickly throw you under the bus to save their job.  And it is relatively easy to paint you with broad strokes when you are a black male Sales Engineer.

My reflection in this post isn’t to absolve myself of mistakes I made – meetings I didn’t throughly prepare for, or at times not being proactive in establishing agendas for sessions or engaging the customer – I’ve hoped to have learned from those experiences to develop further, but as a justification for why I am embarking on a detour.  A reboot. Yes, I will be compensated several thousand dollars less than what I’m accustomed to, but I feel like I get to harness and control my career – most importantly my performance – perceived or otherwise.  The results for delivery being onsite with a customer in this new role will be clear.  I wish to become technically proficient in my new role as Data Scientist, and have the bonna fides to where if I ever decided to get back into the sales game, my experience and relationships with my customers can’t be questioned.