I’ve been a Solution Engineer long enough to recognize a familiar sales-cycle pattern: Sales says, “We’re up against Vendor X.” The demo gets tailored. Everyone feels good. Two weeks later, the deal stalls. And then the realization hits. The real competitor was never Vendor X. It was the status quo. An internal build. A procurement requirement to evaluate three vendors. Or a cheaper tool that “does enough.” Most SEs can add a few more examples to that list from their own scar