It is absolutely crucial that we are always working as a team to win business and delight the customer - the intent behind this blog is to ensure we understand not just what the technical win is but also to understand why this is important.
We call out the solution being proposed to ensure we have at least met, if not surpassed all the customer expectations and the criteria and requirements needed as part of the Atlassian Solution (and to address as necessary any solution gaps) - this is the technical win.
In the realm of GTM, we encounter intricate solutions as well as complex organisations. The decision-making process involves individuals with varying technical proficiency. This adds to the complexity for any one person to effectively handle both the technical and sales aspects of a deal. As a result, sales teams typically consist of two roles: the AE and the Solutions Engineer (SE). The SE is responsible for managing all technical components of the solution while the AE handles non-technical points. Together, they complement each other's strengths and share responsibility for closing deals successfully.
In this technical sales world, an opportunity typically goes through 3 phases:
Qualification (does the customer have a real problem to solve?)
Solutioning (how can my product solve this problem?)
Closing (is my solution worth the money it costs?)
While closing is mostly the ESA’s responsibility, qualification is usually a team effort and the solutioning relies on the SE.
The qualification phase is the most important one. This is where you decide if you will invest time and resources in an opportunity.
The customer pain is captured by the AE, but three things are key from an SE standpoint:
Required Capabilities: based on the use case, what are the technical capabilities required to fulfil the customer needs?
Landscape: what is the landscape in which the solution will have to integrate (will it be on-prem, in the cloud, what Atlassian products need to come together and what other systems will have to connect to your solution)?
Timeline: what is the timing of the project? options are not the same if you have 6 months or 6 weeks
This first assessment will allow you to select projects where your solution makes sense and where, if managed properly, you should win.
The solutioning phase is where the SE has to work on the Solution Design that will address the customer's pain.
The solution has to be detailed, it has to match the Required Capabilities, integrate into the Landscape but also set you apart from the alternative solutions.
It means that you have to be aware of the Competition, and the Unique Differentiators you have over them, and make sure that you influence the Required Capabilities to include these Unique Differentiators.
The ultimate goal for the Sales Engineer is to get the Technical Win.
Getting the technical win means that your prospect agrees that your solution is the best one and that only it can provide what they need.
The deal is not won yet, but once you get the technical win, your overall win rate becomes very high.
In complex sales, multiple people are involved in the decision-making process, but the technical decision will usually be owned by a single person.
Understanding the technical decision process will allow you to identify what we call the Technical Champion.
This is the person that you need to convince that your Unique Differentiators have to be included in the Required Capabilities, and thus that your solution is the only one that can fulfil their needs.
The last element to identify is the “what could go wrong” piece.
This is what we group under the External Threats part. This can be part of the decision process (for example, in our SaaS business, it could be a security committee), or it can be a competitor champion that hasn’t been identified yet.
Here is CLUSTTER.
C - Competition - What are the alternative solutions the customer is considering?
L - Landscape - What is the customer's technical landscape? (Cloud appetite, on-prem, multi-cloud/DC, SM and Agile Maturity, …)
U - Unique Differentiators- Why is Atlassian (and only it) the best solution?
S - Solution Design - What is the proposed solution in the context of the customer?
T - Technical Champion - How is the technical decision made? Who is influencing this decision?
T - Timeline - What are the key milestones in the project? Are there compelling events?
E - External threats - Who can negatively impact/delay your deal? (teams or individuals, ie. compliance, security, competitor champion, ...)
R - Required Capabilities- Based on the Customer pain and use case, what are the mandatory features?