One of the big differences in presales engineering is that the SE knows a wide range of concepts/topics but not always in a deep way. The post-sales technical people get down in the weeds building production deployments that are stable, fast and safe. The SEs know it can be done, but it isn’t something they get to do regularly. They are talking the art of the possible.

Quality SEs also tend to be conservative. Just because they read or heard a certain powerful/differentiated feature works a certain way, they won’t commit to it unless they’ve done it or seen it themselves. “My understanding is . . . so I’ll research . . . you’ll hear back from my by . . . ”

This is why I caution Account Executives to not introduce your SEs as an “expert” and “one of the best” etc.. It makes it hard for the SE to later say “I’m not sure, but I think I see a great way to solve your problem. Let me research this and get back to you.” Especially if they’ve already had to say they don’t have answers to other questions that they’ll be researching

The SE doesn’t always know the exact details, but they know who inside the company does and can quickly get the answers and put a Demo, POC, or MPV together.