[bleakenthusiasm]

I've worked with a few sales engineers by now because I'm the person they try to sell to. I always saw sales engineers as the result of companies realizing that by now they often have to deliver sales pitches to engineers and not just manages managers and procurement folks.

In my case, that's exactly what they need. Sales people creep me out and make me want to hide under my weighted blanket. Sales engineers are the blessing that makes sales calls informative and bearable. I don't know how companies find and recruit them, but they make it happen and I'm very happy they do.