Sales Engineers: Key Links in the eDiscovery Chain

In the highly competitive eDiscovery market, there is no shortage of salespeople who will tell you almost anything they think you want to hear. Price compression has created a fairly level economic playing field among vendors, but the nature of the business defies apples-to-apples comparisons among suppliers. While many of the services that are offered may be uniform, there are differences in pricing structure, terminology, capacity and applications that can be difficult to navigate from vendor to vendor.

Good eDiscovery salespeople have sufficient technical knowledge to speak intelligently about products and services, but salespeople are first and foremost skilled at selling - at making potential clients comfortable with the products and services they offer, at building connections and relationships, and at presenting high level options with polish and persuasion.

Even the best salespeople won't get too deeply mired in technical details, which are most effectively handled by others. The worst salespeople will promise you the moon (and the stars, and the sun) without much regard to whether it can actually be delivered. Of course, this creates some awkward moments when the project is handed off to the operations team, who are then left to figure out how to meet those expectations.

The best eDiscovery vendors strive to bridge (or eliminate) that sales-operations gap, and this is where the sales engineer becomes vital. The role of the sales engineer is to become involved early in the sales cycle to manage the technical aspects of the sales process. The sales engineer works with the traditional salespeople to provide technical advice, to facilitate smart product choices, and to ensure that what has been sold can, in fact, be delivered.

The sales engineer bridges the gap between business and technical requirements to provide a seamless hand-off to operations. The sales engineer will identify technical issues in advance of project commencement, will advise on potential solutions to expected technical or operational hurdles, and will ensure that the operations team understands the requirements and expectations prior to project execution.

Without the involvement of a sales engineer (or comparable, technically-equipped consultant) there is a significant risk of a project being oversold or, worse, mismatched with the technology and capacity of the vendor. This can result in delays, budget overruns, frustration and, worst of all, an inability to ultimately execute projects as expected or required.

Informed, savvy eDiscovery consumers can and should ask for a sales engineer's involvement early in the sales process. The presence of a technical resource who can speak effectively to capacity and product features, who can effectively identify potential unexpected costs, and who can facilitate development of customized solutions where they are needed will reduce risk and contribute greatly to satisfactory project execution and results.