Coffee with Sales Engineers Coffee with Sales Engineers - Shivani Sivashankar
May 20, 2025
Shivani Sivashankar, a sales engineer at Samsara with a background in software development, shares her intriguing transition from tech to sales engineering. She highlights the pivotal role of sales engineers as bridges between technical teams and customers. The discussion dives into the dynamic nature of the job and the fresh challenges it brings daily. Shivani also busts myths about sales roles, emphasizing empathy and collaboration. Plus, she reveals how AI is revolutionizing productivity in sales cycles.
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Becoming The Technical Interface
- Shivani discovered sales engineering at conferences where solutions architects translated technical ideas for diverse audiences.
- She realized SEs act as interfaces between engineers and customers, ensuring solutions solve real problems.
Apply Selectively To Supportive Employers
- Target employers that value employees and match your strengths when switching to sales engineering.
- Shivani recommends applying selectively to top employers to find collaborative environments.
Variety Beats Predictability
- Sales engineering stays engaging because every customer and problem is different, forcing constant context switching.
- Shivani prefers this variety over predictable software development sprints.