The Presales Leader’s Guide to Measuring SE Impact

Measuring SE impact is one of presales’ hardest problems. Solution engineers often carry go-to-market on their backs — yet when it’s time to tell that story to a CRO or CFO, if the data isn’t there then the narrative isn’t clear.

We recently brought together three presales leaders who’ve built and scaled SE organizations at some of the most recognizable SaaS companies: Jessica Broderick (Ashby), Shamil Turner (Figma), and Yuji Higashi (Better Career). Here’s what they said about measuring SE impact in a way that actually moves the business.

What Metrics Should SE Leaders Track?

All three panelists converged on the same core three: SE activity, ARR influence, and win rate. Activity shows when and how SEs engage across the deal cycle. ARR influence and win rate connect that activity to outcomes leadership cares about, though Shamil noted that ARR influence is only as good as your CRM hygiene. If SEs aren’t properly tied to opportunities in Salesforce, the data won’t be there when you need it.

Yuji’s third metric was the one most leaders skip: employee satisfaction and attrition. “If we’re quietly losing our best talent, that’s what I consider a delayed failure,” he said. Win rates can look great in Q2 while your strongest SEs are already updating their resumes. Satisfaction is the leading indicator; attrition is the lagging one.

How Do You Prove SE Impact vs. Just Being Adjacent to a Win?

Shamil’s answer: own the technical win. Documented requirements, confirmed capability fit, explicit stakeholder agreement, That’s the milestone SEs can claim clearly, separate from commercial factors. When technical fit is part of every forecast review, leadership gets an early warning system for churn before a contract is even signed.

Jessica’s tactic for proving impact to skeptical executives is deal buckets: segment win rates by deal size and compare AE-only performance to deals with SE involvement. “Find the tipping point,” she said. This is the threshold above which SE participation dramatically changes outcomes. It’s a precise, data-driven answer to when SEs should be deployed, and it removes the conversation from the realm of opinion.

What Are the Best Leading Indicators for SE Teams?

Yuji’s standout signal: POC starts with a Joint Execution Plan (JEP). A POC without a JEP is just activity. A POC with one means both sides are aligned on success criteria. “That combination gave us a very good indication we’d have a high probability of winning,” he said.

Shamil focused on customer-facing meetings, specifically discovery calls and demos. A team can look busy internally while under-engaging with customers in the ways that actually drive deals forward.

How Are SE Teams Using AI to Measure and Improve Performance?

AI is reshaping how the function operates from the inside. Jessica’s team uses Gong’s AI scorecards to deliver automated, criteria-based coaching feedback to SEs after every call — enabling them to scale what a manager could never do manually. Shamil’s team used AI to cross-reference hundreds of customer security questionnaires against product capabilities to surface a targeted prospect list for a new product launch. Yuji’s team at Better Career deploys AI bots for mock discovery calls, demo practice, and interview prep.

The common thread: AI is most valuable when it multiplies what great SEs already do, not when it tries to replace their judgment.

The Bottom Line

SE impact doesn’t have to be a mystery. The metrics exist and the story can be told, it just requires discipline in data collection and leaders willing to sell that story internally with the same conviction their teams bring to customers.

As Jessica put it: “Data tells the story that you want to tell. Dig deep.”

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the most important metrics for a presales or SE team? ARR influence, win rate, and SE activity are the core three. Employee satisfaction is a critical but often overlooked fourth — it’s the leading indicator of attrition and long-term team health.

How do you prove the ROI of a solution engineering team? Compare deal outcomes — size, win rate, and net dollar retention — between opportunities with and without SE involvement. Segmenting by deal size helps pinpoint exactly where SEs move the needle most.

What is a technical win and why does it matter? A technical win is formal confirmation from the customer’s technical stakeholders that the solution meets their requirements. It’s a milestone SEs can own clearly, and including it in forecast reviews helps surface churn risk before the deal even closes.

How can SE leaders use AI to improve team performance? The highest-leverage use cases are automated call coaching (tools like Gong), mining customer conversation data for product and market insights, and AI-powered bots for discovery call and demo practice. The best applications multiply SE skills rather than replace human judgment.

Should solution engineers carry individual sales quotas? It depends on team structure. Individual quotas work well in high-value, long-cycle deals with tight SE-to-AE ratios. Team-based models suit higher-velocity environments. Many teams blend both: team comp with spot bonuses for standout individual performance.

Missed the webinar? Catch the full recording here.