Projecting Intelligence

Almost all B2B sales are lost and won because of people.  That's why the best sales organizations hire and retain the best even at a premium.  To be the best sales engineers you not only have to be knowledgeable in your customer's business but also have enough social etiquette so that your prospects actually like you as a person.
While, we can treat our LinkedIn profile like a dating profile and list all the reasons why a person should trust us, that initial meeting and its human interaction will determine whether there is a professional fit.  I stumbled across this article on "How to Look Smarter" on WSJ which should give almost everyone an "intellectual" edge in that first meeting.

As sales engineers (or any profession), don't do the stuff on the left, try to do the things on the right, but tackle the low hanging fruit in the middle.  While projecting intellect is a good starting point; some prospects fear intellect.  Here are my suggestions for recognizing those social queues:

• Start the conversation with good posture, but mirror your prospect's actions.  If he becomes more engaged, hone in on that and be just as enthusiastic.  If he leans back and becomes more relaxed, relax a bit.  Mirror your actions to become more relate-able.
• Start the conversation in a steady, but not monotonous, stream.  It shouldn't be too fast or too slow.  You're trying to minimize your control words -- the "ums," and "right?" and "you know, like..." -- and you want to enunciate.  After you've spoken, take a pause, ask the prospect to speak.  You're trying to pick out how fast or how slow they like to speak.  I've had demos in the south where you have to speak exceptionally slow.  I've also had demos in the Northeast where it was bang bang bang, move on!  Adjust your speech, but make sure that the entire room understands.  Always start in neutral and adjust accordingly.  If you're about to run out of time, recognize it early and don't rush it.  The rush at the end and how fast you spoke will be what the prospect remembers.
• Lastly, demos and initial meetings have gone primarily remote.  Turn on that webcam so they can see your glasses.  They can also see that your apartment is not featured in an episode of hoarders and you are who you say you are on LinkedIn!

I would also strongly suggest you watch partners demo or sit in on a demo of another product.  This forces you to notice things that you like and what you don't like so you can improve your own art of the demo.