A big part of my Sales Engineering experience is classical Systems Engineering. Frequently, when seeking a solution for a customer’s business case, a Sales Engineer needs to go beyond the company’s product portfolio and draw on third party products.
It turns out that the skills we use to pull off a major group motorcycle trip draw on our experience in Systems and Sales Engineering (and vice versa). Let me explain.
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Miner’s Castle Rock, Michigan
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Trip planning is always a delicate exercise employing the judicious use of advanced interpersonal skills as we negotiate where we should stay and what we should see. In this I utilized my Sales Engineering experience to ensure that top must-see destinations were strategically incorporated as way-points in our GPS units.
We stayed in lakeside cabins and these quaint quarters had us jostling for space to spread out our huge assortment of motorcycle paraphernalia. You need to understand what irritates a particular person and work around that to avoid conflict. I won’t lie—not all conflict was avoided but we all came out of it happy. Conflict resolution is a science and an art.
And so the trip progressed with long days of riding and short stops for quick sight-seeing.
When you do this…
with characters like these…
and you do it right…
you end up at cool places like this:
In Systems Engineering, you need to know the ins and outs of each piece of equipment in the solution you’re designing in order for it to be viable. You also need to listen, know when to step up and when to back down. So too with group motorcycle trips—understanding your companion colleagues and what makes them tick is key. Only then will you be able to pull off an amazingly successful and super fun career—and maybe even the occasional epic trip.
DECOMPRESSION STOP 