Sales Engineers go to Club too!

It must be that time of year for many of you. It certainly is very exciting for those that get selected to go off to join the Sales team elite at President's Club.  For those of you who haven't heard about it yet, President's clubs are a company trip for the elite of the sales organisation (and sometimes extended to other top performers in the company) and good Sales Engineers should get to go too.  Companies have all sorts of budgets for these trips ranging from $0 (shame on you) to $10,000s per person. They might send you to one of these places: Top 10 President’s Club Destinations.

In the Mastering Technical Sales blog article Pre Sales Engineers And Presidents Club, John Care discusses 1. Should SE’s be able to qualify for club? 2. What are the qualification criteria?
If the SEs are part of the high performing sales team, then they need to be represented. Otherwise it segregates and  creates an US vs THEM environment, which isn't good for any team.  It also rewards and drives all SEs to want to be the ones to go.
The qualification criteria is the tricky bit, and can be hard for companies to balance.  Ideally, if the top 20% of sales reps go, then the top 20% of SEs should go.  How you choose them depends on how their overall performance is measured, but ideally you get the SEs who bring in the big revenue along for the trip.  If your performance is tied to particular Sales reps, and they qualify, then the SE should qualify too.

This article at Salesopedia Everyone Makes President's Club is about what your Sales Manager (and SE Manager too) should have as a Mantra. Their success lies in the success of their team, and successful SEs should go to club. To get everyone to go - the manager need to be that driving force standing behind team members driving them along.  While it is a lofty goal, every member of the team should have a chance to go, and be driven to go. To have an all star team, everyone need to give it their best shot.