The third element of the framework is simply the execution of sales strategy and the movement of opportunities through the pipeline to closure. It builds on the previous elements by taking the customer’s business needs, how the solution meets those needs, and the provocative ideas to establish the activities needed to help the customer acquire the solution. The bulk of the sales organization’s time is spent here, as this is where the actual blocking and tackling required to drive new revenue occurs.

The sales engineer must determine what it will take to achieve the “technical win” in the eyes of the customer. They must then work with the rest of the sales team and the customer to establish a plan to achieve it. Depending on the level of effort required by the customer, progressing opportunities may require some, many, or all of the following:

• Understanding of the customer’s budgeting and purchasing process
• Relationships with the customer’s decision makers, influencers, implementers, and anyone else who needs to bless or approve the solution
• Knowledge of the customer’s decision timeline and timeline for solution implementation
• Solution demonstrations
• Delivery of technical artifacts to set the vision for how the solution will fit in the customer’s existing environment
• Proofs of concept or pilot projects to test the solution in the customer’s environment (properly scoped with success criteria, execution milestones, and dates)
• References from other customers and examples of how the technology has been used to run their business
• Sample project plans to help the customer understand the level of effort required for implementation
• Services and education proposals to help the customer jumpstart their implementation
• Anything else required to positively differentiate the solution from the competition (and the customer “doing nothing” should always be considered a competitive threat)

There are many methods to track deals through sales stages, forecast revenue, and manage an opportunity pipeline. Every sales organization has their own process established by finance, CRM tooling, etc., so I will not spend any time discussing that here. I will only mention that the completion of the aforementioned activities are critical gates that typically have to be passed in order for opportunities to move from one sales stage to the next. It is the sales engineer’s responsibility to ensure that they are included in any opportunity pursuit plans and to lead the execution of these activities.