AE/SA relationship
How do you all set up the relationship between AEs and SAs? I have some AEs that view me as 50/50 to them, and even if some calls involve me less, it becomes my choice not to join. However, I have a new AE that said they value us building different champions, and essentially said they’d leave me off of calls with our main customers so that they can’t possibly get distracted by technical conversations. This feels odd to me, but want outside perspective. I understand the importance of staying focused, and I agree not to go off-topic, but it’s valuable to me to also be on the calls with non-technical customers, even if I’m quiet. What do you think?
AE and SA should be together on most calls with the customer. If SA is not needed, they should put SA optional so SA knows what’s going on. If your AE is not keeping you engaged then something is messed up. AE and SA relationship is very delicate. You need a lot of trust.
Unless it’s a commercial negotiation I can’t imagine why an AE and SA should not be on every call together because every discussion for a product like DB is going to be technical. Unless your AE is quite savvy on the tech aspects of the platform and can have those conversations without SA support.
If it’s strictly business no need for SA
There a lot of dynamics at play. Sometimes it’s a bad look for your org to show up with more people than seems necessary for the number of attendees on the customer end. Makes your company look a little desperate for the business. One of the major strengths of a good solutionist is being able to communicate technical concepts to audiences of varying technicality, but sometimes there will be situations where maybe you shouldn’t even be there as a fly on the wall if the conversation is purely deal related or political. Time will tell if your AE is being savvy about these things or just an idiot. Let us know how it turns out.