"Hey, do you have 30 minutes for a quick discovery call on Thursday?"

The Account Executive is leaning over the Sales Engineer’s desk—or more likely, pinging them on Slack for the fourth time today.

The SE sighs. "Is it a deep dive or just a first touch?"

"Just a first touch," the AE says. "But they’re pretty technical. I don't want to get stuck if they ask about the API architecture or the SOC2 implementation."

The SE checks a calendar that looks like a game of Tetris played by someone who is losing. "I can do next Tuesday. Maybe."

And just like that, a deal that was hot on Monday is sitting in the freezer for eight days because your AE is afraid to walk into a room without a technical shadow.

The Hidden Cost of the "SE Crutch"

As a Head of Sales, you know the math. You hire AEs to close and SEs to engineer solutions. But somewhere along the way, the lines got blurred. Your SEs have become glorified discovery assistants, and your AEs have become high-priced appointment setters who wait for "the technical person" to arrive before the real conversation starts.

This isn't just a scheduling headache; it's a fundamental revenue leak. When an AE can’t handle a discovery call alone, three things happen:

1. Deal Velocity Collapses: You are no longer selling at the speed of the customer; you are selling at the speed of your SE’s calendar.

2. SE Burnout is Inevitable: Your most expensive technical talent is spending 60% of their week on "introductory" calls answering the same four questions about data encryption.

3. AE Growth Stagnates: If a rep knows they have a safety net, they never learn to walk the tightrope. They lose the "technical authority" required to lead a $100K+ ACV deal.

Why Your Reps Are Afraid of Discovery

It isn’t that your reps are lazy. It’s that the "Technical Trap" is real. In 2024, buyers come to the table having already done 70% of their research. They don't want a "feature-function" pitch; they want to know if your product will break their existing stack.

When a prospect asks, "How does your web-hook retry logic handle 504 errors?" and the AE says, "Great question, let me bring in my SE for that," the discovery is effectively over. The AE has just signaled they aren't an expert. The prospect stops sharing their real pain points and starts waiting for the person with the answers.

Breaking the Dependency: The 3 Stages of AE Autonomy

To scale a GTM team, you need AEs who can handle the "Opener" and the "Deep Discovery" with 90% autonomy. Here is how we move the needle from dependency to authority.

1. Real-Time Confidence, Not Post-Call Research

Most sales tools are "passive." They record the call, and then three hours later, they tell the AE what they missed. That doesn't help the rep when they are sweating in front of a CTO.

Commit acts as a proactive pilot. Instead of the AE saying "I'll get back to you," the AI detects the technical query in real-time and whispers the exact answer—contextualized to that specific prospect’s industry—directly onto their screen. The AE stays in control. The SE stays off the invite.

2. Mastering the "Technical Opener"

Discovery is about uncovering pain, but in B2B SaaS, that pain is often technical. AEs need to be able to ask:

• "How are you currently managing your $L1$ and $L2$ support triggers?"

• "What’s the biggest bottleneck in your current CI/CD pipeline?"

If the AE understands the answer provided by the AI in real-time, they can ask the next discovery question immediately. This keeps the momentum in the first call, rather than deferring it to a second or third "technical" session.

3. The Shift from "Answering" to "Leading"

When AEs have real-time technical support, their behavior changes. They stop being defensive (praying the prospect doesn't ask a hard question) and start being offensive. They lead the conversation because they know they can't be "tripped up."

The Do's and Don'ts of Sales Engineering Scalability

Do:

• Set a "No-SE" threshold: SEs should only be pulled into deals once they hit a certain stage (e.g., Proof of Concept or Scoping) or a certain complexity level.

• Audit your "Ghost" Discovery calls: Look at how many calls your SEs attended last month where they spoke for less than 10 minutes. That is your "waste" metric.

• Empower AEs with Proactive AI: Give them a tool that makes them feel like the smartest person in the room, even when the SE isn't there.

Don't:

• Use SEs as a reward for AEs: "If you book the meeting, I'll give you an SE to run it." This reinforces the crutch.

• Rely on static Wikis: No AE is going to search a Notion page in the middle of a live discovery call. If the information isn't proactive, it doesn't exist.

• Mistake "Technical Knowledge" for "Sales Engineering": An AE doesn't need to be able to build the integration; they just need to be able to explain its value and basic mechanics.

The Impact of a Solo-Capable AE

When we look at the data from teams using Commit, the results go beyond just "closing faster." It’s about the health of the organization.

• Lower CAC: You’re getting more out of every AE head without needing to hire an SE for every two reps.

• Higher SE Retention: Your engineers are actually doing engineering. They are solving complex architecture problems, which is why they joined your company in the first place.

• Increased Win Rates: Deals don't "go cold" during the 10-day gap between the discovery call and the technical follow-up.

The Bottom Line

The bottleneck in your sales process isn't a lack of SEs; it’s a lack of AE confidence. By using proactive AI to handle the technical heavy lifting during discovery, you turn every rep into a top-tier closer who can lead a deal from the first "hello" without needing a technical shadow to hold their hand.