If you find this article useful please repost, tag, or share with like minded folks. You can also subscribe to updates on the right ----> Warning - this is a long article. Its purpose is to create an “oral history" and rationale for a different approach to Customer Success. I considered posting it in chapters … Continue reading Customer Success – An Argument Against the LAER Model
One controversial topic when building an organization is how to handle job titles. In my first leadership role my Director always used a very simple email signature, “- Name”. I asked him why he didn’t have a formal signature and he shrugged “if people are contacting me it is because they already know who I … Continue reading Job Titles – the dangers of the “Senior Principal XYZ”
You can subscribe to email updates on the right. If you find this post valuable please share to your social networks. Knowing people are finding value is a driver to continue posting content. Apologies to the readers (the 3 or 4 of you out there)… it has been a year without consistent articles. To be honest, … Continue reading Why I Chose to do Customer Success
A Wedding This past Friday I joined 50 of my fellow co-workers at Zscaler to ring the opening bell at Nasdaq and observe our shares being traded on the public stock market for the first time. The president of Nasdaq described the events of the day as similar to a wedding along with photographers, people … Continue reading What is it like to ring the opening bell at Nasdaq and IPO?
You can subscribe to email updates on the right. If you find this post valuable please share to your social networks. Knowing people are finding value is a driver to continue posting content. Every few weeks a team member or colleague asks how to become an SE Leader. The most direct approach would be to answer … Continue reading So… you want to be an SE Leader?
You can subscribe to email updates on the right. If you find this post valuable please share to your social networks. Knowing people are finding value is a driver to continue posting content. My next post is in process and will focus on whether or not an individual contributor should move into SE Leadership. In the … Continue reading How You Know You Are in the Right Role
You can subscribe to email updates on the right. If you find this post valuable please share to your social networks. Knowing people are finding value is a driver to continue posting content. Q4 can really put a damper being able to takie a step back to reflect and write. At least that is my excuse … Continue reading How to Create an SE Leader Business Plan
You can subscribe to email updates on the right. If you find this post valuable please share to your social networks. Knowing people are finding value is a driver to continue posting content. When you are hiring at a rapid pace you find yourself having similar conversations over and over. A key tenet of my hiring philosophy "Is … Continue reading How do you know when it is time to leave your job as an SE?
You can subscribe to email updates on the right —> If you find this post valuable please share to your social networks. Knowing people are finding value is one of the reasons I continue to share. A major part of growing a business is finding the right people and talent to continue to grow it with … Continue reading SE Leaders – We Are Falling Behind
Reminder: you can subscribe to updates on the right. If you find these updates please share/repost. One of the major sources of motivation to invest in writing is knowing that people find it interesting enough to read and then think "this guy is full of sh*t" or "hmm, that could be useful" or both —> … Continue reading Change your mind. Change their mind.
Reminder: you can subscribe to updates on the right ---> Apologies on the delay in posting. It is amazing how much time passes when you are having fun and there is nothing more fun then watching your new team start to come together and perform. I have been in my new role/company for about six … Continue reading Measuring & Tracking SE Teams – Solved?
If you like this post please feel free to subscribe to email updates or post/retweet to your network. Ask any people leader what his top responsibilities are and “Finding and Retaining Top Talent” is likely to be at the top of the list. So why is it that 10% of people leaders excel at this … Continue reading My Favorite Interview Questions – SE & SE Leaders
You can subscribe to email updates on the right —- > Apologies on the delay in getting this post out. It requires constant vigilance to not get sucked into the day to day operations of being a leader and remember to take a step back and reflect. It has been 90 days since I began my … Continue reading Give – Get: Executing a 90 Day Plan
You can subscribe to email updates on the right —- > Ever have a rough day at the office as an SE? One of those days where you are sitting with a customer, your sales rep, and your sales executive and no matter how you try to help the customer the demands and requirements are … Continue reading What is an SE – What is a Sales Team?
You can subscribe to email updates on the right ---- > During the third week on the job I was flying around the country meeting team members and someone was kind enough to mention: Him: "I almost forgot, in 3 weeks you need to host an SE Summit with about 40 people in person for 2 days of … Continue reading SE Soft Skills and Culture Building
I recently asked a wine maker friend of mine "What is it that makes a great wine? After all isn't is all pretty formulaic?" His response was "It is 1,000 small decisions at the right time that add up to an amazing wine". I realized that that can also apply to demonstrations. (...and wine, … Continue reading The “Golden Rules” for a “Golden Demo” (Virtual)
Today we are going to throw a curveball - our first Guest Post! I figure you are probably sick of my pontification and soap box by now. Jon Michaels is a fellow Leader in the Bay Area covering a global SE team for EnerNOC. He also knows how to fly a helicopter. A real helicopter. Not … Continue reading Evolution of a Sales Engineering Organization
A big thank you to everyone who has subscribed (via email) on the right or commented via LinkedIn or to this post (above or below). Building great Sales Engineering (SE) / Pre Sales Engineering (for those of you in EMEA 🙂 ) teams is definitely an underserved topic and one we can help each other with. … Continue reading Sales Enablement for SE (and Sales!)
It is now my second day on the job and I was thinking this morning about how to begin setting expectations with the SE Leaders on my team. It is always a careful balance as you are the new guy and you are joining a team and group that they have spent a considerable amount … Continue reading Setting Expectations
One of the dirty phrases in SE Management is the topic of time or activity tracking. How does an SE leader or a Sales organization gain insight into the operations and success of the SE organization. The SE role is a large investment for a company and measuring their success is more challenging than that of … Continue reading Measuring & Tracking Sales Engineering
It has been great to see the interest in the SE Topic. I have been collating thoughts on my next post which I hope to write over the weekend (and ideally be a bit shorter). I am debating whether to post on Sales Enablement Framework or Metrics - Measuring the Success of the SE team. … Continue reading Visitors & Interest
If you were to chart the activities of an SE, the Proof of Concepts (POC) or Proof of Value (POV) would be at the top of the list (or the big piece of the pie in a pie chart for those of you who are visual). It is a high effort and high reward activity … Continue reading Proof of Concepts – Good or Bad?
Back in 2006 I was a new manager at Cisco Systems and I had the opportunity to attend an Emerging Leadership Program training class in the UK. One of the first questions they asked the class was, "How many of you are able to take 60 minutes a week and jot down your thoughts and reflections?". Only a few … Continue reading Welcome to SE Thoughts
Originally posted to LInkedin at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/leadership-philosophy-lessons-learned-bill-lapp/ In 2008 I was finishing up my Babson MBA and undertook an independent study class. Sort of. I was actually taking a required leadership class at Cisco and I figured I could get double credit. As an output of that class I had to write a paper explaining my leadership philosophy. … Continue reading Leadership Philosophy
Originally posted to linkedin at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leadership-lessons-learned-goodbye-email-bill-lapp About a week before I left Cisco I was on a 3 hour plane flight without WiFi. To keep busy I decided to write down all of the lessons learned I had from my time there. People have recently asked for a copy of the list so I am sharing … Continue reading Leadership Lessons Learned – Cisco Goodbye Email
SE Thoughts 