Top 5 most valuable skills for security pre-sales engineers

Are you thinking of changing careers to security sales engineering? Need some advice on what skills are most needed? Well, here are my top 5.
My security team has recently been hiring on some new members to our west coast team. As a result I’ve been interviewing candidates. So I thought it would be a good idea to blog about what I think are the top skills that a pre-sales security engineer should possess. Remember this is for a sales engineering role, not an ops engineering role. I note this because the skill sets between the two are significantly different. I’ve worked each type role during my career and have enjoyed both. Ops engineering focuses more on hands-on configuration and troubleshooting ability whereas sales engineering focuses more on design and technical selling. I’ve focused this article specifically on the skills needed to be a solid security sales engineer. I chose to focus on security mostly because that is top of mind for me right now and also because their isn’t much information on it published. The job market for this type of role is pretty small when compared to the generic security engineer job market or the IT market as a whole. That can create instances where there is a lot of competition for the few jobs that are available.

So here are the top 5 skills that will land you a security pre-sales engineering job.

Skill: Presentation, written, and verbal skills - Basically you gotta be able to communicate with people in a way that would make them want to talk to you again. I’m being tongue and cheek here but it’s basically true. Have you ever sat through a presentation where the presenter was awful? Well, you don’t want to be that guy to your customers. The secret to a good sales engineer is your ability to build trusted advisor status with your customers. Trusted advisor status is unquestionably something that you have to earn from people. You can’t be too cocky or it will turn them off but you also can’t be unsure of yourself or they won’t trust you. You should be able to answer most of their questions “Johnny on the spot” but also be prepared to tell customers when you don’t know the answer and refrain from making answers up to maintain the perception you know what you’re talking about. If you obtain a reputation of dishing out wrong information your credibility is toast and so is your career.

One of the main ways you build credibility is by being able to communicate your knowledge effectively and efficiently to a technical or non-technical audience. You also have to be successful at doing this regardless of the delivery mechanism chosen by the customer. Delivery mechanisms vary from small group PowerPoint presentations, live product demos, online webex meetings, webinars, email, conference calls, and larger group lecture presentations. (This means you’ll have to conquer any stage fright fears you may have. :) The two key skills of the group would be PowerPoint presentation skills and verbal skills.

Skill: Security architecture and design experience - Of course you will need to be proficient in security design. A good sales engineer is constantly balancing risk mitigation with usability in their designs. The trick is to make security as transparent as possible to the business and where it can’t be made transparent you need to be able to justify to the customer why it still makes sense. Ideally, this means you posses the knowledge to produce an end-to-end, defense in depth, security architecture. Broad security skill sets are what is being looked for in a pre-sales security consulting gig. For most companies this will include a solid base understanding of routing and switching. Gone are the days where security consultants don’t need to understand R&S. A strong R&S skill set can make you stand out in the security job market. The other hot skill set right now is compliance knowledge. Knowledge of how to tackle PCI, HIPAA, and privacy laws is in high demand.

Skill: Knowledge of the security solutions landscape and industry trends
To be successful in a security sales engineering role you have to be aware of what types of solutions are out there. You don’t have to possess a deep knowledge of each just an awareness. Perhaps more importantly you need to be able to spot how businesses are absorbing these security solutions. Are they emerging, stale, core, or dying. When these solutions are used by businesses what are the results, how hard was it to implement, does it work, what issues are common with it, what are its strengths. This type of knowledge will help you become a trusted advisor to your customers. Also, don’t forget to keep current on the latest laws and compliance regulations that will affect your customers and the security landscape.

Skill: In depth knowledge of the products that you will be selling
This skill is core to the job. And most likely the one that will be scrutinized the most in the interview process. Bottom line is you need to know your stuff, with as much depth as possible. If you can wow them with your knowledge of their backplane and CPU design do it. If you have experience in getting multiple devices to either collaborate together or just work in the same environment tout that knowledge. You’ll be asked everything from datasheet type product knowledge to configuration questions. Keep in mind that most interviews are designed to take you deeper and deeper into the technology until your knowledge base runs out. Don't get stressed because of it, it is expected that at some point you will stop being able to answer the questions they are asking. Whatever you do, don't start making answer up. If they are asking the questions then they know the right answers, you wont be able to fool them. I harp on this because I see it time and time again with candidates during interviews.

Skill: Personal Integrity and strong ethics
The glue that binds the other four skills together and really differentiates a good engineer from a great one is personal integrity and strong ethics. It is imperative that a sales engineer always put the customers long term success first, even above the company that you are selling for. If you try to over sell your products and solutions I guarantee you that the customer will find out what you have done. At that point you can kiss any trusted advisor status you used to hold with them goodbye. And most likely they will tell all of their peers in the area, creating a snowball effect working against you. Your personal integrity and ethics is something that, when nurtured over time, pays back huge dividends. Both personally and monetarily. It has always been the case that people like to work with people that they trust and respect. When you move jobs, most likely those people will continue to want to work with you. This loyal account base is extremely valuable to potential employers. Many employers will present candidates with scenarios that are designed to determine a person’s values, integrity, and so forth. For the most part if you always keep the customers best interests in mind when answer you’ll be on the right track.

So, these are the tops 5 sales engineer skills as I see it. Let me know what you think of them and if you think other skills are just as important.

The opinions and information presented here are my personal views and not those of my employer.