I completely agree, and I am surprised your comment was the only that mentioned sales engineering. Like you, I took a sales engineering role for a technical product, and it was by far the best way for me to learn sales (coming from a software background).
Plus, while there is an abundance of sales materials out there, none of them will prepare you as well as actually doing the thing. I'm not scared of talking to customers, no matter what impressive titles they may bring to the table -- I've already spoken with dozens of other CTOs, CISOs, COOs, etc. from the deals I worked on. I'm acutely aware of the art of a pitch, and have a mental model for which techniques are crucial and which are to be avoided. After practicing the pitch/demo enough, I was able to start analyzing my choice of words, flow, etc. during the actual call (as opposed to after the fact). I also learned the art to managing deal cycles, and an immediate "no" is vastly preferable to a "no" after being strung along for a year. Perhaps most importantly, I learned how to be the trusted technical advisor to the customer -- the sales rep may want every deal to close, whether or not it's a good fit, but that's not the way to happy customers and good integrity in the sales process.
I only did the sales engineering role for a little under a year, but it provided me with incredible value.
Plus, while there is an abundance of sales materials out there, none of them will prepare you as well as actually doing the thing. I'm not scared of talking to customers, no matter what impressive titles they may bring to the table -- I've already spoken with dozens of other CTOs, CISOs, COOs, etc. from the deals I worked on. I'm acutely aware of the art of a pitch, and have a mental model for which techniques are crucial and which are to be avoided. After practicing the pitch/demo enough, I was able to start analyzing my choice of words, flow, etc. during the actual call (as opposed to after the fact). I also learned the art to managing deal cycles, and an immediate "no" is vastly preferable to a "no" after being strung along for a year. Perhaps most importantly, I learned how to be the trusted technical advisor to the customer -- the sales rep may want every deal to close, whether or not it's a good fit, but that's not the way to happy customers and good integrity in the sales process.
I only did the sales engineering role for a little under a year, but it provided me with incredible value.