I once attended a meeting with ten highly capable technology professionals. On one side of the table were five representatives from a medium-sized technology vendor. They included an account manager, a sales director, a sales vice president, and two SMEs. On the other side of the table was the chief technology officer (CTO) of a major telecommunications (telco) company and members of his staff .

It was a textbook solution-selling scenario. The vendor sent five of its best and brightest people across the country to woo the telco representatives and convince them to buy the vendor’s services. The vendor team was well prepared for their one chance to make a good impression on the telco executives.

At the beginning of the meeting, the account manager tried to give a carefully crafted PowerPoint presentation, but the telco executives would have no part of it. Instead, the CTO began bombarding the vendor’s representatives with questions. At first, the questions were high level. They focused on organizational fit and market opportunities. Quickly, however, the focus shifted from high-level strategy to low-level technology. The entire telco team quizzed the vendor team, looking for holes in the solution. Eventually, the sales representatives from the vendor were left out of the conversation. The meeting became a conversation between the telco CTO and the two vendor SMEs. It was a classic high-stakes technology joust.

The SMEs served their company well. They answered questions about architecture, scaling, high availability, integration, intellectual property, code management, and more. The SMEs responded to questions with confidence and candor. They asked for clarifications when the CTO was vague, and they tactfully cleared up misunderstandings. As an observer, I was impressed with the SMEs’ performance.

Eventually, the CTO started grilling the SMEs about security. The CTO did not waste time with easy questions he knew the SMEs could answer. He assumed they would take care of the basics. Instead, the CTO jumped right to the newest and most speculative vulnerabilities. He asked something like, “What are you doing to protect against quantum?”

The SMEs could not do anything to protect against quantum vulnerabilities because the entire concept was academic; it was theoretical. The very idea of quantum vulnerability was new and speculative. The CTO knew this vendor could not solve for quantum, and the CTO also knew that there were no legitimate security threats from quantum computing. But what the CTO did not know, and what he was seeking to learn, was the erudition of the SMEs. Were they informed about the current scholarship within their industry? Could he trust the SMEs to stay ahead of the industry trends? If quantum or other vulnerabilities should arise, would they be prepared?

When the CTO asked the question, I watched as both SMEs subtly but discernably dropped their heads. They did not have an answer for the CTO’s question, and they knew it. With a primal instinct, they lowered their heads in submission to the dominant CTO who asked the question. They stammered for a moment, talked briefly about internal security policies, and quickly transitioned to another subject. There was almost an audible “gotcha” in the room. The meeting ended and the vendor did not secure the business of the telecommunications company, primarily because of that moment when the SMEs showed a lack of confidence.

Great SMEs don’t drop their head. They keep eye contact, even when it’s hard to do. They keep their head up and answer questions with confidence. If they must say, “I don’t know,” then they do it with their chin up and their shoulders back. Remember, great SMEs are confident, and confidence is never conveyed while staring at the floor.