Diversity Challenges in Security and Pre-sales

In this episode of Great Leaders UK, we are joined by Julia Weimer, Director of Solution Engineering UKI at Wiz, to discuss the critical, often underutilized role of pre-sales in driving elite sales execution.

Julia shares her unique journey from Security Analyst in a SOC to leading a high-performing SE team , emphasizing why Sales Engineers must be viewed as equal business partners to Account Executives, not just technical support. She walks us through the importance of symbiotic relationships , leveraging structure like MEDDIC , and the power of empowering SEs to build technical champions.

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🏹 Key Topics Covered

02:40 - SE/AE Relationships that Lead to Failure

05:27 - The Ideal SE Profile

07:40 - SEs as Deal Realists

11:50 - Driving Cross-Functional Alignment

16:15 - Nurturing Talent: Teaching Sales Methodology

23:45 - From SOC to SE: The Biggest Career Risk

27:57 - Diversity in Tech

39:17 - Recruiting Priorities

41:23 - The Motherhood/Career Balance

42:18 - Hiring for Entrepreneurial Mindset in SEs

🙌 Thanks for listening! This episode was hosted by Simon Kouttis and Ollie Kuehne, founders of Hunters & Unicorns, and post-produced by the team at videoforce.pro. If you enjoyed this episode, please drop a like/share and subscribe to our channel!

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💥 3 Biggest Lessons:

The SE Superpower is Reality: The sales engineer's superpower is the ability to look into the reality of an opportunity and be a realist about its progression. This means SEs must be empowered to act as the credible technical person and trusted advisor in the room.

Structure the Sales Instincts: For many technically inclined SEs, the sales aspect is not natural. Leaders must provide structure (like teaching MEDDIC) and enablement to help SEs embrace sales methodology as a new skill set.

Symbiosis Drives Success: Amazing things happen when sales and pre-sales embrace a symbiotic relationship and work together. This partnership ensures accountability where neither the AE nor the SE is left with an uneven workload, helping to avoid deals from falling "out of whack".

💬 Notable Quotes "Sales engineering should always be treated as an equal partner to sales." "It was probably the biggest career risk that I've ever taken." "The balance is what I seek, and if you can find people that are really great with their people's skills and relatable... and also really like to solve problems. It's a perfect blend of both." "If you give us that type of platform and that type of respect in an opportunity, then the world is our oyster." "I really find that the sales engineering role is this gem of a role for those of us who are a little bit introverted, we really like tech and our skill sets are with the tech."

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