NOW is the Time to Create Your SE Success Plan for 2027
Labor Day is well behind us!
Pumpkin Spice fills the air, Halloween stores are open, and the faint jingle of holiday music is nearing.
If you’re a Solution Engineer, you’re likely gearing up for the Q4 sprint and working to land a coveted Club trip spot or be in the running for SE of the year.
News flash: most of those decisions have been made with Q3 wrapping, and you should have a good sense of where you stand in the rankings.
Good SEs use Q4 to help sales reps close the year strong.
Great SEs are doing that and already planning for 2027.
There are several tasks you can start now to secure yourself a top-performance SE ranking in 2027.
It all starts with understanding your company’s business cadence and budget planning cycle.
In most sales organizations, Q4 performance is already modeled by finance, and leadership’s minds are on next year.
Budget season is starting now.
SO, if you want to get promoted, make Sales Club, be the SE of the Year, dive in!
Here are your action items to get ahead of the curve 👇
- Perform a thorough YTD self-review. This includes your key SE performance metrics and additional data that will help support your upward trajectory. Assess which rep partnerships worked well this year, as well as which solutions and verticals you thrived in.
- If you don’t have a partner in sales operations, get one immediately. Team up with sales operations to gather information critical to your planning. Key product metrics include YTD sales, average sales cycle time, sales by division, average time to revenue, performance to budget, and distribution of net new and expansion. This information is gold because it will provide insights on where the GTM motion in 2026 was successful and what to anticipate in 2027.
- Watch for clues in Q4 staffing and growth. It may be difficult to get direct insight into 2027 budgets, but there are clues you can gather during Q4. Keep an eye on where the company is staffing and growing positions. If there are openings on the SE team, ask your manager in 1:1s why the team is growing and how you can be a part of it.
- Volunteer to work on the 2027 SKO planning committee if the opportunity presents itself. This is a gold mine of GTM information that can help you vault your way to the top in 2027.
- Attend as many continuous business reviews as reasonable. These will typically be run in early October, with teams focusing on year-end performance. However, you should be able to pick up signals around 2027 from sales leaders. Listen closely to where teams are being asked to lean in and where they are being asked to pull back. Foster strong connections with sales directors, especially around GTM direction and adjustments.
- Partner with your most productive reps now to craft a plan for 2027. There is an adage in selling: “In order to succeed, sales reps need 3 SEs, and SEs need 6 reps.” While the actual ratios aren’t important, it is critical that you have a cohort of sales reps you sell well with. When you partner with reps to create an action plan for 2027, you’re invested in each other and in the prospects and clients you are working with.
- Use a success framework to map your SE direction for 2027. Solution Engineers should be actively engaged with their sales and product leaders to map which investments in knowledge will result in higher utilization & success. These are educated selections of products and solutions that will have high revenue impact while differentiating yourself from fellow SEs. This balances the most popular or highest-budgeted solutions with a mix of less popular, possibly niche, solutions or markets. The right combination will help you stay productive and position yourself for success. This is not a zero-sum game. SEs can differentiate and succeed if there is a balance in the GTM motion and capacity planning.
Crafting your SE success plan for 2027 should be mindful and calculated. Use the information you gather to create a framework for success.
Work with your leader to collaborate on assignments for the coming year.
Initiate conversations with product, marketing, and sales ops to gather insights on the direction of the company.
Enjoy that final sip of your pumpkin spiced latte and get moving now!
P.S.
Thinking about your next promotion? Join us for our upcoming Promotion Workshop with Sidney Gomez on Oct 22nd. Sign up here!
2nd Connections Coach, former SVP of Sales & Solutions Engineering at RealPage