How S.M.E Came About
Sales & Marketing Engineers was built on a simple observation: sales and marketing are treated as separate departments in most companies, yet they share the same goal—revenue growth.
This disconnect creates inefficiency. Sales teams chase leads without proper nurturing. Marketing generates activity without sales alignment. The result? Unpredictable pipelines, wasted budget, and growth that stalls.
We saw this pattern across technical SMEs—brilliant at delivery, but struggling with disjointed sales and marketing. They needed a joined-up system, not more random tactics.
That's why we built SME: to engineer revenue systems that connect strategy, sales, and marketing into one predictable engine.
“It has been great working with Sales and Marketing Engineers. Their knowledge and professionalism across the whole process has simplified everything for us. We are in good hands”
- Steve Lampkin, Owner of Olivers Contracts
Consulting + Mentoring + Fractional Support + AI
Sales and marketing for engineering companies is not about random creative gambles — it’s about systematic processes and measurable results.
Our approach ensures your sales pipeline flows as smoothly as a well-engineered production line.
Our Approach
Consulting
We diagnose your revenue system, stress-test weak points, and design a blueprint for predictable growth.
Mentoring
We upskill your team, training them to run systems effectively and understand what drives results.
Fractional Support
We act as your outsourced sales and marketing team, delivering campaigns, managing pipelines, and refining processes monthly.
AI Assistance
We integrate AI tools to automate tasks, analyse data, and scale your efforts without adding headcount.
Stefan's career has been a "squiggly" path through engineering, management, and marketing—each role building the foundation for what SME does today.
Stefan Buss — Founder, SME
Engineering Foundation
Stefan was always interested in maths and science and had a love of quantum mechanics and sub atomic particles. His heroes - Einstein and Tesla. He then studied Industrial Engineering, focusing on automation, robotics, production systems, and Six Sigma methodologies. This technical training shaped his approach to building reliable, efficient systems.
After finding the degree "a bit too technical and not creative enough" he took time to travel—started in UK, backpacking through America, working in Tuscany, and spending months in Germany learning the language and his father's immigration story.
From Environmental to Management Consulting
Stefan started his career in environmental consulting and health and safety auditing before transitioning into management consulting.
He worked across several of his father's businesses, conducting management reviews and learning how operations, finance, and strategy connect.
The Exhibition Industry: A Sales & Marketing MBA
Stefan's pivotal experience came managing a 30-person company in the exhibition building industry for seven years. Exhibitions are, fundamentally, marketing and sales tools—yet Stefan observed that companies selling stands often failed to implement effective sales and marketing for themselves.
This contradiction became his "massive MBA course." He learned production, stock control, finance, sales, and design—often through mistakes. He also pioneered digital engagement pieces for stands, using gamification to engage everyone from CFOs to line managers.
Move to the UK & Recognising the Gap
After relocating to London with his family, Stefan spent seven years working for others, continuing to sell to marketing teams but wanting to go deeper into strategy.
That's when the realisation hit: sales and marketing share the same goal but operate in silos.
This gap, this disconnect, was stalling growth for technical SMEs who couldn't afford both a sales director and a marketing director.
Founding Sales & Marketing Engineers
Stefan founded SME with one mission: integrate sales and marketing into a single, engineered system.
Drawing on his engineering mindset, management experience, and years selling and building marketing systems, he created a methodology that treats revenue generation like any other production line—designed, tested, calibrated, and maintained.
Today, Stefan also champions the
SME Padel Networking, an innovative approach to face-to-face connection, and plans to franchise the SME model for other technically minded professionals.
The SME Crew — Specialists When You Need Them
You don't need to be an expert in everything. Neither do we.
That's why SME operates with a fractional team of specialists, experienced freelancers who are masters in their fields. When your project needs SEO, PPC, copywriting, web development, or CRM implementation, we bring in the right expert.
Why This Works Better
No overhead: You're not paying for full-time salaries or benefits for skills you only need occasionally.
Best-in-class talent: Each specialist focuses on their core expertise—designers design, developers code, strategists strategise.
Scalability: Need more resource? We scale up. Project finished? We scale down. No wasted capacity.
Coordinated delivery: We manage the crew, ensuring every component connects to your revenue system. You get one point of contact, one strategy, one joined-up outcome.
Ready to Engineer Predictable Growth?
Let's build a revenue system that works as reliably as the rest of your operations.
“It's rare that you come across someone like Stefan, as clued-up about sales strategies as he is about branding and marketing, you don't come across people who are experts in both these areas very often.”
-Clare Farthing, Marketing Professional
Values
We believe strongly that shared values in business relationships are vital. The values we founded the company on;
- Authenticity
- Simplicity
- Education
- Collaboration
- Experimentation
- Results
- Fun
- Learning
- Structured approach
