Conducting and Acting on Team Surveys

Employee surveys are an effective way to understand how your company's teams are really doing, and Sales Engineering is no exception. While these surveys are often initiated by HR, they’re a huge opportunity for SE team leaders to take a closer look at engagement, spot what’s working (or not), and show people that their feedback actually matters.

When employees feel heard and supported, they don’t just perform better. They stick around. A well-run survey can surface problems you might not hear about otherwise, giving you a chance to fix things before they start affecting performance or turnover.

When you follow through on survey results, it shows your team you’re listening. That kind of trust goes a long way toward building a stronger, more motivated team.

Key Survey Topics and Questions to Ask

A good survey asks the right questions across all the major areas that shape your team’s satisfaction and performance. In most cases, surveys should touch on things like leadership, communication, career growth, recognition, work-life balance, and overall engagement. As a Sales Engineering leader, make sure these topics are included and think about highlighting areas especially relevant to pre-sales work, such as cross-functional collaboration or enablement.

Here are some common survey themes, along with examples:

Career Growth & Development: Do team members feel they have opportunities to grow? For example: “I am given ample growth and career development opportunities.” This gauges whether Sales Engineers see a future path and skill development in their role, which is crucial for retention.
Recognition & Feedback: Are their contributions valued and acknowledged? A sample item: "If I contribute to the organization’s success, I know I will be recognized." When Sales Engineers feel appreciated (whether through shout-outs, incentives, or equal perks to their sales counterparts), they are more likely to stay engaged. Lack of equal recognition and incentives compared to sales reps is a major source of SE dissatisfaction.
Leadership & Communication: Do they trust leadership and understand company decisions? For example: "When leadership makes decisions, I understand why." This item checks if higher-ups (whether in engineering, sales, or executive leadership) communicate the rationale behind changes. For a Sales Engineering team that sits between departments, transparent communication is key to prevent feeling "in the dark."
Enablement & Resources: Do they have what they need to do their jobs effectively? For example: "I am given the resources I need to succeed." Sales Engineers often juggle demos, proofs of concept, and technical support. Lacking proper tools, training, or manpower can be a serious hindrance. This question helps identify if resource constraints are an issue.
Work-Life Balance: Are workloads reasonable? A sample statement: "I am able to balance my work and personal life." Burnout is a real risk in Sales Engineering due to the fast-paced sales cycle. If many respondents disagree here, it flags that the team might be overextended or understaffed.
Engagement & Retention: Would they recommend or stay at the company? For instance: "I would recommend this company to a friend." and "I plan on working here a year from now." These questions give a pulse on overall loyalty and satisfaction. Sales Engineers are in high demand, so if your team’s intent to stay is low, it’s a red flag for potential turnover.

In addition to scaled agree/disagree statements like the above, include a few open-ended questions to capture nuanced feedback. For example, ask “If given the opportunity, what changes would you make in the team or process?” or “What’s one thing that would make your job easier?” Open responses let Sales Engineers voice specific suggestions or concerns that a multiple-choice question might not surface. Often, you’ll get insightful comments about process bottlenecks, interdepartmental issues, or ideas for improvement. Mixing quantitative questions with qualitative ones provides both measurable data and rich context.

Survey Methodology and Avoiding Bias

Designing and administering the survey properly is just as important as the questions themselves. Methodology matters. It affects how honest and useful the responses will be. Here are some best practices to ensure data quality and fairness:

Ensure Anonymity and Confidentiality: Team members must feel safe to answer truthfully without fear of repercussion. Since Sales Engineering teams are sometimes small, emphasize that results will be aggregated and no individual responses will be identifiable. Many companies use anonymity thresholds (e.g. not displaying scores for groups smaller than 5 respondents) to protect identities.
Communicate the Purpose and Process: Before the survey, let the team know what the survey is for, why it’s being done, how their data will be used, and when results will be shared. Explain that it’s part of a company-wide effort to improve and that leadership is committed to acting on the findings. Encourage participation by perhaps highlighting prior positive changes (if any) that came from surveys. Stress that this is a chance to “get all the voices” on the team heard equally, not just the loudest opinions in the room
Keep Surveys Manageable in Length: Busy Sales Engineers don’t have endless time, so respect their time by keeping the survey to a reasonable length. Research suggests a survey taking no more than about 10 minutes hits the sweet spot. If it’s too long or too frequent, people may rush through or skip questions, hurting data quality. Focus on the questions that matter most. It’s better to have a concise survey that people answer thoughtfully than an exhaustive one that they half- complete. (Tip: If the company survey is very long and generic, as a team leader you might not control that, but you can still highlight to your team which sections are most crucial and encourage them to spend time there. You can also supplement with a shorter pulse survey of your own later if needed.)
Strive for a strong response rate by reminding the team to participate and making it as easy as possible.

Interpreting the Results and Identifying Opportunities

When your team’s survey results come in, resist the urge to react impulsively. Instead, approach the data analytically and with an open mind. Here’s how to interpret the results effectively and pinpoint “areas of opportunity” to improve:

Look at Overall Patterns and Variances: Start with the big picture. How did your Sales Engineering team score across different dimensions (e.g., engagement index, leadership, enablement, etc.)? Identify the highest-scoring areas (strengths to maintain) and lowest-scoring areas (potential weaknesses). Pay attention to the distribution of responses as well. Is the team mostly aligned in their views, or are there mixed feelings? For example, if one question has half the team rating it very positively and half very negatively, that signals a divide worth exploring deeper.
Segment the Data for Insights: Averages can mask important differences. Break down results by relevant segments if the data allows, for instance, by tenure, region, sub-team, or experience level. As an example, you might find that overall the team is moderately satisfied with career opportunities, but when segmented, junior Sales Engineers are dissatisfied while seniors are content. This kind of insight is crucial. If your team is spread across different product lines or territories, see if one group is notably less engaged, perhaps indicating a leadership issue or resource gap in that specific group. By segmenting, you ensure you’re not overlooking minority viewpoints or assuming the whole team feels a certain way when only a subset does.
Identify Key Drivers (Don’t Overfixate on Single Data Points): It’s easy to hone in on one particularly low-scoring question and feel compelled to tackle it immediately. However, context matters. Try to determine which issues are most impactful. Often, employee survey analyses use driver analysis or correlations to see what factors most influence overall engagement. Even without fancy tools, you can make some reasoned judgments. For example, if “I feel burnt out at work” (work-life balance) is low and those who answered negatively also gave low overall engagement scores, burnout might be a primary driver dragging down morale. Contrast that with a question like “The office environment is comfortable,” it might have gotten low scores, but perhaps it’s less critical to core engagement. Prioritize the areas that will make the biggest positive difference if improved. A good approach is to pick the top one to three improvement areas rather than tackling everything at once. Trying to fix a laundry list of eight different things will spread you thin and dilute your efforts. Focus on a few key themes that emerged as concerns, the ones that are affecting your team’s success or likelihood to stay. These will become your “areas of opportunity.”
Check Your Interpretation Biases: As you review the data, be aware of your own biases. It’s natural to have hypotheses about your team (e.g., “I suspect workload is an issue” or “I think they love our training program”). Confirmation bias might lead you to cherry-pick data that confirms what you already believed and overlook data that challenges it. To combat this, consciously look for evidence that might surprise you or disprove assumptions. If you expected a problem in one area but the survey says that area is fine, trust the data – don’t force a narrative. Likewise, recency bias can occur: maybe something happened last week (e.g., a big crunch before quarter-end) and you assume any negative feedback is due to that, when in reality the survey reflects longer-term sentiments. Try to take a step back and view the results objectively over the broader timeframe. Involving a third party (like an HR partner or another manager) in reviewing the results can help provide a fresh perspective and catch biases. Using visuals like heatmaps or trend charts can also illuminate patterns without emotional interpretation. And remember, one loud comment doesn’t tell the whole story. Consider the weight of all feedback, not just the most extreme comment or score.
Don’t Get Defensive About Negative Feedback: It can sting to see less-than-stellar feedback, especially if you as the leader are implicitly being critiqued (e.g., low scores on “management effectiveness”). This is where emotional intelligence is crucial. Recognize any negativity bias in yourself. Our brains tend to fixate on negative comments more than positive ones. You might have twenty positive remarks and one harsh criticism, and find yourself dwelling on the latter. While it’s important to address negative feedback, try not to take it personally or dismiss it as just “complaining.” Avoid the temptation to identify “who said what” – remember, the goal is to improve the team, not to blame anyone for expressing their opinion. If a particular feedback point triggers an emotional reaction, give yourself a little time before responding or deciding on it. As one source recommends, “let the results simmer for a day or two” if you find yourself reacting strongly, so you can approach it more calmly and objectively. Often, within negative feedback lies an opportunity. For example, an anonymous comment like “We get no support from engineering” may sound accusatory, but it highlights a genuine pain point you can fix by facilitating better cross-functional collaboration. Embrace critical feedback as a chance to grow as a leader and to help your team.
Benchmark and Contextualize: It helps to know how your team compares to others. If HR provides company-wide results or benchmark data (industry norms, etc.), use that for context. For instance, if your Sales Engineering team’s engagement score is 75% and the company average is 65%, you’re actually doing well relatively. Conversely, if the company average on “I have the tools to do my job” is 90% but your team is at 70%, that’s a flag that the SE team specifically is under-supported. External benchmarks (like industry surveys) can also tell you if what you’re seeing is common. Maybe many tech organizations find that Sales Engineers rate work-life balance lower than other departments. That insight can help you frame the issue and find solutions others have used. Just be cautious: benchmarks are reference points, not absolute goals. Focus on improving your team’s scores over time (internal benchmarks) even more so than hitting some external number.

Taking Action: From Survey Results to Improvement Plans

Data without action is useless. The true value of conducting a survey comes from what you do with the results. As a sales engineering leader, it’s your job to translate survey insights into concrete improvements for your team. Here’s how to go about it:

Prioritize and Select Focus Areas: By now, you should have identified one or a few key areas of opportunity from the survey (for example, hypothetically say the top issues are “lack of career growth,” “insufficient communication,” and “workload burnout”). Resist the urge to tackle everything at once. Prioritize the issues that are most critical to employee engagement and team performance. It’s better to make real progress on one or two fronts than to make token gestures on ten fronts. Consider impact and feasibility: which issue, if addressed, will most improve the team’s morale or effectiveness? And which ones are within your power to change? Some issues might require broader organizational input (e.g., compensation policy) while others you can address locally (e.g., scheduling regular team training). Pick a few that you can commit to improving. Research supports this targeted approach – focusing on high-impact areas yields better results than spreading yourself thin across many initiatives .
Develop an Action Plan: For each priority area, create a specific plan of attack. Define what actions you will take, who will be responsible, and a rough timeline. For example, if “career development” came out weak, your plan could be: Implement a mentorship program and outline clear skill progression for SEs within 3 months. Or if “team communication” was an issue, maybe: Hold bi-weekly update meetings with the sales and product teams to ensure SEs are informed of decisions and can voice concerns. The plan should include short-term wins and longer-term strategies. Short-term wins are quick, visible improvements that show the team you heard them – for instance, if people felt undervalued, a quick win might be starting a peer-recognition shoutout in each team meeting or giving spot bonuses for exceptional work. Long-term actions address the root cause more deeply. In this example, you might work with HR to create a structured rewards and recognition program or adjust the bonus structure for SEs. Balancing quick fixes with systemic changes is important: quick wins boost morale and credibility, while long-term solutions ensure lasting improvement. Involve your team in brainstorming solutions where possible. You might hold a roundtable (post-survey feedback session) to discuss ideas. Not only can your team generate great ideas, but involving them also increases buy-in. They’ll feel like partners in the solution, not just subjects of it.
Communicate the Plan and Follow Up: One of the worst things you can do is go silent after survey results come out. Transparency is key. Share the survey findings with your team – both the positives and the areas for improvement. At a minimum, provide a summary of what the team scores were and what themes you’re prioritizing. This can be done in a team meeting or via email, but live discussion is often best so people can ask questions. You don’t need to disclose every raw detail (especially if sensitive), but do acknowledge the main points: e.g., “Our team showed strong scores in alignment with company vision, but we scored lower in work-life balance and cross-department communication. I hear that, and it’s something we need to address.” Then, crucially, present your action plan for those focus areas. Outline what steps will be taken and invite feedback. According to best practices, communicating survey results and next steps across all levels (company, department, and team) significantly boosts trust and engagement. It shows you’re not brushing anything under the rug. Also, as you implement changes, keep the team updated on progress. For example: “We said we’d start a mentorship program – here’s the update: we’ve matched pairs and the program will kick off next month.” Regular updates prevent the perception that the survey results were forgotten. Proactive communication is especially important to combat the cynicism that “nothing will ever change.” Remember, employees become disengaged with surveys when they see no action. By closing the loop – survey -> results -> plan -> action – you reinforce a culture of continuous improvement.
Partner with Leadership and Other Departments: Some actions will extend beyond your immediate team. If the survey revealed issues that involve other parts of the company (say, “Engineering doesn’t fix product bugs that sales engineers encounter” or “We don’t get enough marketing support”), you as the SE leader should advocate for your team. Bring those issues to cross-functional meetings or to your higher management, armed with the survey data as evidence. For instance, if many SEs said product quality issues hamper their work, you could share that feedback with the Engineering leader and propose a joint initiative (like a regular bug bash or an engineering rotation to shadow sales calls). Similarly, if your team feels out of sync with Sales, work with the Sales leadership to improve that alignment – perhaps set up a monthly sync or clarify roles in the sales cycle. Having survey data gives you a credible foundation to request support or changes from others, since it’s not just your opinion – it’s backed by collective team feedback. Many HR teams also ask managers to report on their action plans post-survey; demonstrating that you have a plan and are collaborating across the organization will reflect well on you as a leader.
Implement Changes and Monitor Progress: Once you start rolling out changes, treat it like any project: execute, and then measure. It could be as simple as keeping an eye on team morale and performance metrics, or as formal as tracking specific KPIs. For example, if you instituted new training sessions (to address a lack of development), are you seeing improvements in confidence or demo performance? If you adjusted workloads or hired an additional SE to address burnout, do people report better work-life balance anecdotally? It may take time for changes to bear fruit, but keep checking in. Metrics to watch might include retention rates (is turnover decreasing?), productivity measures, or even mini follow-up surveys (pulse surveys) to gauge if there’s improvement. Many organizations will run another engagement survey the next year or do a short pulse in a few months – when that happens, compare the results to see if your focus areas moved in the right direction. For instance, if “communication from leadership” was 60% favorable and after your actions it’s 75% in the next survey, that’s a great sign. If there’s little or no movement, it might mean the actions need more time or weren’t the right approach – consider tweaking them or trying something different. Don’t be afraid to solicit informal feedback along the way too: ask your team in one-on-ones if they feel progress on the issue that was identified. This continuous feedback loop helps you adjust course as needed.
Celebrate and Reinforce Improvements: When you do make progress, acknowledge it. Share wins with the team... “Hey, last survey you all wanted more clarity in career paths. Now, everyone has an individualized development plan and two people got promotions in the last six months. Great job and thank you for pushing for that change!” This not only boosts confidence, but it also reinforces the value of giving feedback. It shows that when the team voices concerns, leadership listens and positive change happens. This will encourage even more honest input in the future, creating a healthy cycle of feedback and improvement.

Acting on survey results is about turning feedback into tangible changes. Identify the critical issues, make a focused plan, involve and inform your team, execute the changes, and track the outcomes. When your team sees consistent follow-through, it builds a culture of trust and continuous improvement. Over time, this will significantly elevate your team’s engagement and performance, which is exactly the goal of the entire process.

Tailoring Your Approach by Team Size, Maturity, and Structure

Not all sales engineering teams are alike. A strategy that works in a 1000+ person global organization team will not be the same as a 10 person startup. It’s important to calibrate your survey approach and action plans to the size and maturity of your company and team. Here are considerations for small, mid-sized, and large environments, as well as different team situations:

Small Teams / Startups: In a small company or a startup, a Sales Engineering team might be just a handful of people (or even a “team of one”). Consider whether you even need a formal survey process. Surveys in such settings can be tricky since anonymity is harder and even aggregated results might effectively reveal who said what.
To handle this, emphasize confidentiality and perhaps use an external tool or HR person to collect responses. You might even opt for a more conversational feedback approach, such as regular skip-level meetings or anonymous suggestion boxes, to supplement formal surveys.
The advantage of a small team is agility. You can implement changes quickly without heavy bureaucracy. If an issue comes up (say, “we need better product training”), you can likely address it next week.
However, be mindful that survey scores in a tiny team can swing wildly with each individual’s sentiment. One person’s discontent could drop a score by 20 percentage points if you only have 5 people. So, look at individual context too. You may need to have one-on-one follow-ups to truly understand the story behind the numbers.
At a startup, company maturity is low. Perhaps it’s the first time doing a survey. Expect skepticism (“Will this really be anonymous? Does leadership actually care?”) and work doubly hard to communicate the purpose and show quick actions on feedback.
Also, in a small setting, avoid overly formal processes. If the company’s HR survey is insufficient for your needs, consider running a lightweight team-specific survey or retrospective. For example, some small teams do quarterly “health checks” with just a few questions. The key is to embed feedback into the culture early on.
And structurally, if your Sales Engineers report directly into Sales or Engineering in a small org, make sure to interpret results in context. For example, if they report into Sales, maybe compare their feedback with the Account Executives’ feedback. Small teams can differ from the broader company norm, so treat the data thoughtfully.
Mid-Sized Companies / Growing Teams: In a mid-sized organization (say hundreds of employees, with perhaps a dedicated Sales Engineering department or a few regional SE teams), you likely have a more formal survey process (annual engagement surveys, semi-annual pulses, etc.) and a moderate number of responses to analyze.
At this stage, consistency and communication are key. Ensure that you have a process to cascade the overall company survey results down to the team level. For example, HR might give you a dashboard of how your team scored. Take advantage of that data. Compare your team to the company and to other departments.
In a mid-sized company, different departments can have very different cultures even under the same survey. If your Sales Engineering team’s score on, say, “I feel I receive enough training” is lower than the Engineering department’s score on the equivalent question, that might indicate your team feels under-supported in technical training relative to R&D engineers.
Those insights help you advocate for what your team needs. Maturity in a growing company also means you might have some historical data. Use it. How does this survey compare to last year’s for your team? Any trend (up or down) should be noted and discussed with the team.
As the team grows, don’t lose the personal touch. Continue to hold open forums or discussions in addition to the survey report. Medium-sized teams can also pilot solutions more easily. For example, if feedback indicates a problem, you can try an initiative with one region or sub-team and see if it improves things, then roll it out wider.
Organizational structure might evolve at this stage. You might have layers of managers within the Sales Engineering function. Make sure those frontline managers are involved in both interpreting their sub-team’s results and implementing actions. It can’t all be top-down. Mid-level leadership should take ownership too (with your guidance).
In a phrase: scale the feedback culture as you scale the team, keeping communication loops tight even as headcount increases.
Large Enterprises / Distributed Teams: In a large company (thousands of employees) with a sizable Sales Engineering organization, you’re operating within a well-oiled HR process. Surveys might be run by a corporate engagement platform, and you’ll get a detailed breakdown (often with hundreds of data points).
Here, the challenge is not lack of data but possibly an overload of data and layers of bureaucracy. Focus on extracting the signal from the noise. Identify the 2–3 themes for your function globally. It’s helpful to collaborate with HR business partners who can help crunch numbers or do significance testing if needed.
You should also pay attention to regional or business unit differences. For example, your EMEA Sales Engineering team might report higher satisfaction than the Americas team. Why might that be? Perhaps management styles differ, or one region has more resources.
Large organizations also allow benchmarking internally. How does the Sales Engineering team’s engagement compare to the Sales team’s or Customer Success’s? If you notice, for instance, that Sales Engineering has the lowest engagement in the company, that’s a serious concern to address and possibly escalate to senior leadership with a request for support. Conversely, if your team is far above average, you might share your best practices with others.
Company maturity at this scale likely means surveys are an annual routine. One risk is that employees become jaded if they’ve seen years of surveys with little follow-up. Combat this by very visibly championing action within your scope.
Large org changes can be slow. For issues that require big policy shifts (say, improving equity in bonus structure or career laddering), partner with upper management and HR and set expectations with your team that you are advocating for them but it may take time.
Meanwhile, find what you can change locally. Even in a big company, a team-level manager can implement things like monthly team skill-shares or improved onboarding for new hires, which address survey complaints in the interim.
Structure-wise, large companies might have Sales Engineers embedded in different divisions. Make sure to glean insights at the appropriate granularity. If the company shares only high-level results, ask for a breakdown specific to your team. Often, HR will provide a dashboard where you can filter by department, tenure, etc. Use those tools to get the full picture.
And with larger teams, communication of results might require more formality. You could send an email summary to the team, hold a town-hall style meeting, and even provide an FAQ or follow-up document. Consistency and repetition help ensure everyone hears the message (since you can’t talk to everyone one-on-one in a huge team).
New Teams or Changing Structures: Aside from size, consider your team’s stage. If the Sales Engineering function is new in your org (maybe the first time the company has SEs), then benchmark data might not exist. You’ll rely heavily on this survey as a baseline.
Explain to the team that this first survey is setting the benchmark and that improvement will be measured from here forward. If your team or company is undergoing reorganization or rapid growth, acknowledge that context when interpreting results. Reorgs often cause dips in engagement short-term due to uncertainty. Parse out whether a low score is a one-time reaction to recent changes or a long-term issue.
Also, if the survey happened during an unusually tough quarter (say, a massive product launch), factor that in. Document the context around the survey period when you plan actions so that later you remember why some scores were what they were.

In essence, fit your approach to your environment. Small teams need intimacy and trust. Large teams need structure and clear communication. Less mature organizations need to build a feedback culture from scratch, while mature ones need to overcome complacency or bureaucracy. By tailoring your strategy, you ensure the survey is effective and credible regardless of your team’s size or structure.

Common Issues Revealed by Surveys and How to Address Them

Through surveys and subsequent conversations, Sales Engineering leaders often encounter a set of recurring issues. These are pain points that many pre-sales teams face, but the good news is there are known strategies to tackle them. Here are some common issues that might emerge from your team’s survey (or are common in the Sales Engineering field), along with suggestions for how to resolve them:

Workload and Burnout: Sales Engineers frequently report being overworked, with too many demos, customer calls, and internal tasks leading to long hours and stress. Your survey might show low scores on work-life balance or comments about being “spread too thin.” Burnout is a real threat. If unaddressed, it results in disengagement and eventually attrition.
Solution: First, verify if the issue is headcount or efficiency. If your SE-to-sales rep ratio is too low (meaning each SE supports an excessive number of sales reps or opportunities), make the case to hire more SEs or adjust the coverage model. Data from industry reports can help. Share such findings with upper management to support hiring or process changes.
In parallel, look for efficiency gains. Could some demos be automated or handled by a self-service demo platform? Are SEs doing work that could be offloaded to a solutions architect or post-sales team? In some cases, Sales Engineers are asked to handle everything from pre-sales to post-sales support, leading to constant context-switching and exhaustion.
You may need to work with Sales ops to streamline roles. For instance, introduce a dedicated implementation specialist to take over after the sale closes, letting SEs focus on pre-sales. Encourage your team to prioritize and push back when work is truly unmanageable. As their leader, have their back if they say “no” to non-critical tasks.
Also, promote healthy norms. Make sure your team knows it’s okay to take time off or not answer emails at night. If necessary, model it yourself. Burnout often accumulates silently, so keep an eye on hours worked and stress levels. Regular one-on-ones can help surface concerns early. By balancing the workload and adding support where needed, you’ll not only improve survey scores on work-life balance but also sustain your team’s performance in the long run.
Lack of Recognition or Unequal Rewards: It’s not uncommon to find that Sales Engineers feel underappreciated, especially in comparison to their counterparts in Sales (Account Executives). The survey may reveal discontent with statements about recognition or fairness, such as low scores on “I feel valued” or “I am rewarded fairly for my work.”
A specific industry gripe is that SEs sometimes don’t get the same level of perks, incentives, or public recognition that the sales reps do, even though they contribute heavily to winning deals. This can breed resentment.
Solution: Shine a spotlight on Sales Engineering accomplishments. Internally, make it a practice to celebrate SE wins just as loudly as sales wins. If an SE was critical to closing a big deal, ensure that story is told at the sales meeting or in a company newsletter.
Externally (within the company), advocate for parity in incentive programs. For instance, if the sales team has a Presidents Club trip for top performers, push for SEs to be included or have their own equivalent reward.
Share insights with your sales leadership and HR, and frame it as a retention issue (because it is). On a day-to-day level, incorporate more feedback and appreciation. Encourage account executives and managers to directly acknowledge SEs in emails or meetings when clients praise something or a big demo goes well.
Sometimes, lack of recognition is simply because others aren’t aware of the SE’s behind-the-scenes contributions. Educate your peer leaders about what your team does and how to credit them.
You can also establish peer recognition within the SE team, such as a monthly shoutout or an “SE of the Quarter” award, as long as it doesn’t foster unhealthy competition. The goal is for Sales Engineers to feel just as seen and valued as any other revenue-generating role. When people feel recognized for their hard work, their engagement soars.
Career Growth and Advancement: A common theme in many surveys is uncertainty or dissatisfaction with career progression. Sales Engineering is a unique career that often doesn’t have a clear ladder in some organizations (beyond maybe senior SE or moving into management). Your team might voice concerns like “I’m not sure what’s next for me here” or low confidence in opportunities for advancement.
Solution: Work on defining and communicating a career path for Sales Engineers. If your company doesn’t already have multiple levels or a progression framework, you can develop one in collaboration with HR. This might include creating tiers (SE I, SE II, Senior SE, Principal SE, etc.) with defined expectations and compensation bands, or mapping pathways into other roles (like product management, sales leadership, solutions architecture, etc.).
It’s also important to discuss career aspirations in one-on-ones. Some SEs might want to become an expert individual contributor, others might aspire to management or a different department eventually. Once you know their goals, you can help them make plans (such as specific skill training, mentorship, or stretch projects to prepare them).
A creative approach one leader shared: treat the pre-sales role a bit like an SDR role where there is an expected progression after a couple of years. In other words, acknowledge that constantly doing demos and travel can burn people out if there’s no change. Set expectations that high-performing SEs will have chances to move up or move on to desirable roles.
Even if upward positions are limited, consider lateral development. Could an SE take on a special project (like being a “product champion” or spearheading a new tool implementation) to grow new skills? Offering learning opportunities (budget for courses, time for professional development) also signals that the company is investing in them.
Finally, encourage and facilitate mentorship. Pair less experienced Sales Engineers with senior mentors either within the team or in adjacent teams (e.g., an SE with a Product Manager mentor if they’re interested in that path). Addressing career growth is not a one-time fix but an ongoing process. The effort pays off by increasing retention. When people see a future for themselves in the organization, they are far more likely to be engaged and give their best.
Cross-Department Collaboration Issues: Sales Engineers often sit at the crossroads of multiple departments. They work closely with Sales, interface with Product/Engineering for technical issues, and sometimes deal with Customer Success for post-sales handoffs. Surveys might reveal friction in these interfaces.
For example, feedback like “The communication between Sales and SE could be better” or “We get last-minute requests that disrupt our plans” could surface. Or SEs might feel that Engineering doesn’t listen to field feedback about the product.
Solution: Identify the specific pain points in collaboration and tackle them by opening channels and setting expectations. If the issue is with Sales (e.g., being brought in too late or being overruled in solution decisions), arrange a meeting with sales leadership to align on processes.
You might establish a clear workflow for sales engagements. For instance, require that SEs are involved from a certain stage in the sales process, or set a standard that sales reps must provide a minimum prep time before demos. Reinforce the concept that Sales and Sales Engineering are partners with a shared goal.
Joint trainings or kick-off meetings can foster understanding. Maybe have SEs present to the sales team about what “good engagement” looks like, and vice versa. If the friction is with Engineering/Product (e.g., buggy products or features promised that don’t exist), create a feedback loop. Set up regular sessions where SEs share field learnings and pain points with product managers.
One effective idea is to have engineers shadow Sales Engineers on customer calls occasionally. This builds empathy and often spurs engineers to fix issues once they directly see the impact on customers.
In cases where SEs feel they are doing the job of other teams (like covering for support or training customers post-sale), use this data to advocate for better resourcing or clarity in roles. Maybe it means hiring a dedicated trainer or revamping the post-sales handoff process so the SE can cleanly exit after a defined point.
Many such cross-team issues come down to communication and role clarity, which you as a leader can help negotiate. When these collaboration points improve, your team will feel less frustration and more support, which will show up positively in future surveys.
Tools and Processes: Sometimes the survey will reveal more tactical issues, like “our internal tools are hindering us” or “process X is too cumbersome.” Sales Engineers rely on a variety of tools (demo environments, knowledge bases, CRM systems for logging activities, etc.).
If they indicate dissatisfaction here, it shouldn’t be ignored as “small stuff.” Inefficient tools or processes can be daily aggravations that accumulate into disengagement.
Solution: Dive deeper to pinpoint which tools or processes are problematic. Is it the demo environment constantly breaking? Is it an overly complicated time-tracking or expense system that SEs have to use?
Once identified, see if you can either improve it or at least provide workarounds. For instance, if the demo environment is unreliable, that might require you to rally support from IT or Product to allocate resources to fix it. Use specific examples from the survey comments to illustrate the impact.
If the CRM requires excessive data entry that the team finds valueless, maybe you can streamline fields or automate some reporting. Or negotiate with sales ops to simplify the requirements for SEs.
Sales Engineers are highly technical and often good at finding scrappy solutions. Consider forming a small internal task force to suggest process improvements. Even symbolic acts like eliminating an obviously redundant report can show the team you’re responsive.
Moreover, leverage the team’s own creativity. Perhaps one SE has built a useful tool or script to automate part of their job. See if you can adopt it team-wide.
Improving the day-to-day experience by removing friction will not only boost efficiency but also show your team that you care about their work conditions.

Of course, every team is different, and you may encounter issues beyond the above. The key is: listen to what the survey is telling you, validate it with conversations, and then take targeted action. Also, don’t hesitate to seek out external resources or communities for ideas. There are active Sales Engineering leadership communities (e.g., forums, LinkedIn groups, the PreSales Collective) where peers discuss challenges like burnout or scaling training; you might find that a problem your team faces has been solved elsewhere with a clever approach. Bringing in those external perspectives can enrich your strategy. Addressing common issues head-on not only resolves the immediate pain points but also builds your credibility as a leader. Your team will see that you understand the realities of their job and are willing to fight for improvements. Over time, this reduces the frequency of such issues appearing in surveys, and more of the feedback will hopefully shift toward positive comments.