What is a Solutions Consultant? (JD Included)
Selling products, services, and solutions in SaaS and IT is getting more and more complex.
Because of this, positions like Solutions Consultant, Customer Success Manager, and Pre-sales engineer are in high demand.
But what exactly is a Solutions Consultant? What do they do?
Read on to find out all you need to know about being a Solution Consultant in the IT and SaaS industry.
At Wahl+Case we have helped dozens of people land jobs as Solutions Consultant. We even have a team that is focused on client facing technical jobs in Japan, Reach out to them if you want to work as a presales engineer or similar role.
I aksed them a few questions to explain what a Solutions Consultant does.
First Question:
WHAT IS A SOLUTIONS CONSULTANT?
As a Solutions Consultant, you are a product expert. You are a business-minded engineer that will consult with customers before and after they have purchased your product to clarify their needs and demonstrate the solutions your technology can offer.
You do this by communicating complex concepts and solutions in a way that both technical and non technical audiences can understand.
After the sale has been made, you will guide the customers through the implementation process, collect the needs and wants of your customers to report to the product team and influence the overall direction of the solutions.
You will be the first person that your customers call when an issue arises or a new feature launches and they will look to you to help them understand how to get the most from your product.
This is a Client Facing Engineer role, please see our guide here to learn what exactly that means: https://www.wahlandcase.com/blog/complete-client-facing-engineer-positions
Now let’s look at the actual responsibilities.
WHAT ARE SOLUTIONS CONSULTANT RESPONSIBILITIES?
As a Solutions Consultant, your primary responsibility is to deliver results to your clients. This will require you to have an in-depth product knowledge that your sales team can leverage during the sales process.
Typical duties:
Identify and present to customers how your solutions can improve current business processes
Provide technical guidance during the sales process to the sales team and potential customers to ensure that deals are closed consistently
Influence our product strategy by effectively communicating feedback from customers and prospects, as well as working with the product team to develop new product features
Meet with potential customers and current customers to ascertain their pain points
Lead the design and delivery of solutions for customers
Maintain customer relationships pre and post-sale through continuous technical support
Communicate the technology vision to business leaders
Create and lead workshops for customers to cultivate a deep understanding of the solution
Represent the company at industry events and panels
This level of client engagement can lead to some interesting opportunities, let’s go over them now.
WHAT OPPORTUNITIES DOES A SOLUTIONS CONSULTANT HAVE?
The SC role is a great next step if you are an engineer that is looking to get into the next salary band by developing a client-facing skillset.
Here is a quote from Keisuke Iwaya, a Solutions Consultant at Index Exchange here in Tokyo going over what he loves about the role:“We work through interesting problems every day with our projects, tool development, and collaboration with other teams.”
As you can tell being a Solution Consutlant give you some unique opportunities such as:
Having a direct impact on the success of not only your business but the business of your customers as well
Leveling up your soft skills by meeting, pitching, and collaborating with clients
Develop the laguage to communicate with both technical and business minded people.
Gaining the client-facing experience that can lead to leadership positions such as CTO, Director, etc.
Growing a lasting network of collaborators throughout the tech industry
Directly influencing the overall development of the product by responding to client needs
Strengthen your personal brand by representing the company at industry events and panels
If you have read this far you are probably interested in working as a Solution Consultant, so let’s go over the requirements for the role.
WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS TO BE A SOLUTIONS CONSULTANT?
SC is a client-facing role, but many of the essential skills will be technical.
Having said that, if you spend time learning the technical aspects, you can also make the move from a sales background to a Solution Consultant role.
These will vary from company to company, but can include:
Experience in a technical consulting, solutions, or engineering role
Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience
Willingness to learn
Advanced written and verbal communication skills
Strong strategic thinking and analytical skills
Degree in Computer Science, Engineering or equivalent field
Strong Business acumen
Understand technology and ability to work with technical people
Motivated by the success of your team and customers
If you are still unsure, here are some frequently asked questions that we get about the Solution Consultant Role.
FAQ
What is the difference between a Solutions Consultant and a Solutions Architect?
There are companies in which these titles will mean the same thing, here I am going to address the times when that is not the case.
As a Solution Consultant, you will be in charge of leveraging the existing technologies and productize the customer needs that lay outside of the current product offering.
The Solutions Architect will need to build advanced enterprise level systems.
As a Solutions Architect, you will be responsible for designing the systems that will be built by the dev teams.
Both roles will require you to be business-minded, customer-obsessed, and have a baseline ability to code, but as an SA you will be designing high-level systems rather than individual solutions.
And that’s it.
You can check out the Solution Consultant JD here
If it sounds like a job for you, get in touch with us and we will help you find a suitable position.
If not, read our Client-Facing Engineer Guide to learn more about other positions like Solutions Architects, Presales Engineers or Engagement Managers.
