PreSales Podcast by PreSales Collective

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James are joined by Steve Bullington, Global Public Sector Sales Onboarding and Strategic Programs Lead at Salesforce, to explore the seismic shifts reshaping presales. Steve draws powerful parallels between today's transformation and the move from perpetual licenses to SaaS, arguing that we're experiencing an equally fundamental change as the industry shifts to consumption-based pricing models.

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Steve Bullington: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevebullington/

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack * Sol/Con 2026 (Chicago, August 2026): https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026

Key Topics Covered 1. The Evolution of Presales: From Technical Expert to Business Value Architect 2. Consumption-Based Pricing Models and the Death of Shelfware 3. The Critical Importance of Accurate Consumption Forecasting 4. Forward-Deployed Engineers: The 10x Growth of a New Role 5. AI's Impact on Demo Capabilities and Presales Productivity 6. The Current Maturity Level of AI (Comparable to SaaS in 2000) 7. Which Sales Roles Face AI Replacement and Future Career Pathways 8. The Need to Accelerate Professional Development Beyond 1% Daily

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James sit down with Adam Bauman, Staff Solutions Engineer at Kong, to challenge the myth of the "traditional" path into presales. Adam shares his journey from nearly 20 years in software engineering and management into solutions engineering, exploring why technical backgrounds can be powerful entry points into presales.

The conversation also tackles practical advice for both sides of the hiring equation: how candidates without presales experience can demonstrate their value in interviews, and how hiring managers can look beyond traditional backgrounds to find great talent.

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Adam Bauman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamjbauman/

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack * Sol/Con 2026 (Chicago, August 2026): https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026 * Presales Collective Unscripted: https://luma.com/pscunscripted

Key Topics Covered 1. What Defines a "Traditional" Path to Presales and Why Most Paths Are Non-Traditional 2. Adam's 20-Year Engineering Career and What Drew Him to Presales 3. The Learning Curve: Demos, Confidence, and Learning Not to Know Everything 4. Scoping Engagements and Understanding Buying Journeys Beyond Technical Validation 5. Staying Involved Through Security, Procurement, and Legal Reviews 6. Understanding Business Value and ROI from an Engineering Mindset 7. Using AI Tools Like Claude for Personal and Professional Efficiency 8. How to Interview for Presales Without Traditional Experience 9. Changes Needed in Recruiting: Using Rubrics and Formalized Evaluation

Timestamps 00:00 Start

03:36 Welcome Adam Bauman

06:58 Building confidence without all the answers

10:25 Drawing from an engineering background

13:55 Timeline for feeling confident in the role

22:07 Communicating value without presales experience

24:34 Changes needed in recruiting and hiring

27:23 Final Thoughts

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James sit down with Lisa Jameson, a seasoned solutions professional, to explore how she built strategic influence and became a trusted advisor to sales leadership without moving into management.

Lisa provides a practical framework for assessing your current level of trust with sales leadership, finding creative solutions beyond product limitations, and ultimately structuring a custom role that maximizes your impact while staying on the individual contributor track.

Follow Us * Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ * Connect with Mathew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/ * Connect with Lisa Jameson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisajamesondb/

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack * Sol/Con 2026 (Chicago, August 2026): https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026

Key Topics Covered 1. Building Initial Trust Through Proactive Learning and Debrief Calls 2. The Deal Review as Critical Trust Builder for Won and Lost Deals 3. Strategic Use of Closed Lost Deals to Increase Credibility 4. The "If We're Working It, We're Working It" Philosophy 5. Recognizing When Sales Teams Trust Your Strategic Input 6. Developing Deep Expertise in a Niche Area 7. Creating Custom IC Roles Through Proven Value 8. Moving Beyond Product Limitations with Partners and Creative Solutions 9. The Long Game of Career Development and Building Credibility 10. Structuring Compensation and Proving ROI for Strategic Roles

View Details

Rob Fallon, Director, Americas SE Strategy & Associate Program at Nutanix, has built presales academy programs at both Dell EMC and Nutanix, joins the show to discuss the strategic importance of creating structured training programs for presales professionals. Rob shares his experience transforming Dell's 12-week boot camp into a comprehensive academy and building Nutanix's current 18-month-old program from the ground up. The conversation tackles the "inverted pyramid" problem that plagues many SE organizations—being too heavy with expensive senior talent and lacking junior pipeline—and why most companies struggle to fix it.

The discussion covers the business case for academies, how to secure executive sponsorship and funding, the structure of successful two-year programs, and why hiring for technical curiosity and grit matters more than existing technical knowledge.

Follow Us * Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ * Connect with Rob Fallon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robfallon/

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack * Sol/Con 2026 (Chicago, August 2026): https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026 * Contact Rob: rob.fallon@nutanix.com

Key Topics Covered 1. The Inverted Pyramid Problem: Why SE Organizations Over-Hire Senior Talent 2. Executive Sponsorship and Funding: Getting Buy-In for Long-Term Investment 3. The Two-Year Academy Program Structure at Nutanix 4. Hiring for Technical Curiosity, Communication, and Grit Over Knowledge 5. Why Field Integration and Manager Engagement Are Critical to Success 6. How Academy Associates Become Productive Within 12 Months 7. Academy Programs as Diversity and Fresh Thinking Enablers 8. Success Metrics: When Field Leaders Want Academy Grads on Their Teams

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran sits down with Yasmeen Hyder, an enterprise solutions consulting leader from Atlanta, to explore a game-changing approach to working with AI: speaking to it instead of typing. Yasmeen shares how she uses voice-based AI interactions as a thought companion and coaching tool to enhance decision-making, reduce mental load, and work more efficiently in her presales leadership role.

Follow Us * Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ * Connect with Yasmeen Hyder: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasmeenhyder/

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack * Sol/Con 2026 (Chicago, August 2026): https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026 * Presales Collective Podcast: https://www.presalescollective.com/podcast

Key Topics Covered 1. Voice AI vs. Typing: Why Speaking Creates Higher Bandwidth Communication 2. AI as Thought Companion Rather Than Answer Engine 3. Yasmeen's Career Journey: Healthcare to Pharma to Tech Presales 4. Overcoming the Behavioral Change of Talking to Your Computer 5. Stress Testing Leadership Decisions with Voice AI 6. Using AI as a Coach: Asking for Questions Instead of Answers 7. Time Compression Benefits: 60-90 Minutes Down to 15-20 Minutes 8. Addressing Zoom Fatigue: Voice AI as Reset and Grounding Tool 9. Negative Prompting Technique for Better Outputs 10. Personal and Professional Applications Beyond Work

Timestamps 00:00 Introduction

02:45 Welcome Yas

05:45 Why talking to AI

08:02 Setup and behavioral change

10:57 Writing vs. speaking

15:27 Rubber ducky but better

16:28 Stress testing leadership decisions

20:46 Using AI as a coach

22:36 Addressing Zoom fatigue

26:00 Personal life applications

30:19 Closing and contact information

View Details

Jack Cochran and Matthew James welcome Kintan Brahmbhatt, CEO and co-founder of Olto, to discuss how AI agents are fundamentally reshaping the presales workflow and buyer experience. Drawing from over 12 years at Amazon building personalized experiences for Alexa, Amazon Music, and Prime Video, Kintan explores why B2B buyers receive generic "Acme Corp" demos while B2C consumers get highly personalized recommendations, and how product-trained agents can finally close this gap economically. The conversation goes beyond productivity gains to examine how buyers, products, and SE roles have evolved rapidly while metrics, compensation plans, and tooling have remained static.

Follow Us * Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ * Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/ * Connect with Kintan Brahmbhatt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kintan/

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack * Sol/Con 2026 (Chicago, August 2026): https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026 * Olto: https://olto.com/psc (3 months free promotional offer mentioned)

Key Topics Covered 1. Why AI Timing Is Better Now: Moving Beyond Productivity to Workflow Transformation 2. The Personalization Gap Between B2C and B2B Buyer Experiences 3. What Olto Is: Product-Trained AI Agents Across the Revenue Journey 4. Kintan's Amazon Background: Building Personalized Experiences at Scale 5. SE Capacity Economics and the Unspoken Rule About Qualified Deals 6. How Product-Trained Agents Differ from Generic AI 7. The New SE Workflow: Agents Handle Discovery, SEs Focus on Sense-Making 8. Evolution of SE Metrics, Compensation, and Tooling for the AI Era 9. Implementation Challenges and Change Management 10. The Future of the Presales Profession

Timestamps 00:00 Welcome

04:04 Now vs a year ago

05:40 What is Olto

07:52 B2C vs B2B personalization disconnect

11:15 Agent capabilities and limitations

21:35 Future of the solutions roles

28:26 Key takeaways from solutions leaders

View Details

Presales teams are being asked more and more to do post-sales work. This isn't a fad or something we're doing in the short term. This is a significant change for the broader profession of presales and solutions consulting. What was once occasional support for implementations or customer renewals is now becoming formal job responsibilities for solutions consultants across the industry.

In this episode, Jack Cochran sits down with Shamil Turner, Global Technical Solutions Leader at Figma and Presales Collective advisory board member, to explore why this shift is happening and what it means for the future of presales.

Shamil brings a unique perspective to this conversation: he was the first SE hired at Figma, built their entire solutions engineering organization from the ground up, and has now transitioned into a post-sales technical leadership role. Together they discuss the strengths that SEs bring to the table that has a profound impact on a company-customer relationships AFTER the sale has happened, and how this plays out in a new role that has been emerging over the past year, the Forward Deployed Engineer.

Whether you're a leader making organizational decisions or an IC just getting started, this conversation will help you understand how the world of solutions is evolving.

Thank you to Saleo for sponsoring this episode!

Follow Us * Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ * Connect with Shamil Turner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamil-turner/

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack * Sol/Con 2026 (Chicago, August 2026): https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026 * Presales Collective Podcast: https://www.presalescollective.com/podcast * Saleo: https://saleo.io

Key Topics Covered 1. The Growing Trend of Presales Teams Doing Post-Sales Work 2. Historical Context: How SEs Have Always Supported Post-Sales 3. Forward Deployed Engineer Roles in Consumption-Based Models 4. Why Presales Skills Are Valuable for Customer Onboarding 5. Shamil's Journey from First SE at Figma to Global Technical Solutions Leader 6. The Convergence of Pre and Post-Sales Functions 7. Career Implications for Presales Professionals at All Levels 8. What This Means for the Future of Solutions Organizations

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran sits down with Darlene Volas, a senior solutions engineering executive, to explore what it truly means to be an AI-enabled SE in 2025 and beyond. The conversation moves well past basic ChatGPT usage to examine sophisticated operational workflows, custom automation tools, and practical implementation strategies that enhance both efficiency and quality of work.

This episode was recorded during Presales Collective's 2026 AI-Powered Presales Summit on March 19th, 2026. Pro and Pro+ members can view all of the recorded sessions on-demand in the PSC Knowledge Hub: https://www.presalescollective.com/knowledgehub

Follow Us * Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ * Connect with Matthe James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/ * Connect with Darlene Volas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darlenevolas/

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack * Sol/Con 2026 (Chicago, August 2026): https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026 * Presales Collective Podcast: https://www.presalescollective.com/podcast * Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/ * Claude by Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/claude * Cursor AI coding tool: https://cursor.sh/ * GitHub Copilot: https://github.com/features/copilot * Gong conversation intelligence: https://www.gong.io/ * ChatGPT Enterprise: https://openai.com/enterprise * Obsidian note-taking: https://obsidian.md/ * Firebolt database: https://www.firebolt.io/

Key Topics Covered 1. Personal AI Usage Evolution: Moving Beyond Google Replacement to Creative Applications 2. Three Buckets of AI for SE Leaders: Operations, Team Workflows, and Technical Implementation 3. Daily Meeting Preparation Automation and Custom-Built AI Applications 4. Operationalizing SE Teams with Repeatable AI Workflows 5. Quality vs. Efficiency Trade-off: Better Preparation Rather Than Less Time 6. Building Technical Credibility Through Hands-On AI Coding 7. The "One More Thing" Problem and Where Human Expertise Remains Essential 8. Data Security, Governance, and Vendor Considerations for AI Tools 9. Why AI Won't Replace SEs: The Irreplaceable Human Element 10. Hiring AI-Native SEs: What to Look For Beyond Basic Tool Awareness

Timestamps 00:00 Welcome

02:41 How AI conversations have evolved

06:30 Three buckets of AI usage

12:40 Efficiency versus quality improvements

18:40 Building credibility through AI coding

21:07 The one more thing problem

30:59 Why AI won't replace SEs

36:45 Q&A session

39:20 Closing remarks

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran welcomes back Manisha Raisinghani, Founder and CEO of SiftHub, exactly one year after her first appearance on the show. Together they explore the dramatic shift in how AI is being used by solutions engineers. Manisha shares what it means for SEs to become Forward Deployed Engineers, how vibe coding is changing live customer interactions, and what enterprise leaders are getting wrong about AI adoption. She also offers concrete first steps for SEs and SE leaders who feel like they're behind.

Thank you to SiftHub for sponsoring this episode! Visit sifthub.io to learn more.

Follow Us * Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ * Connect with Manisha Raisinghani: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manisha-raisinghani/

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack * SiftHub: https://sifthub.io/ * Sol/Con (PSC Annual Conference, Chicago): https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026 * Paytm (referenced in board discussion): https://paytm.com

Key Topics Covered 1. How AI Shifted from Co-Pilot to Workflow Orchestrator 2. Vibe Coding and the Forward Deployed Engineer 3. Democratizing Institutional Knowledge 4. AI Transformation at Enterprise Scale 5. Making SE Value Visible with Data 6. Where to Start if You Feel Behind

Timestamps 00:00 Welcome & Intro 03:58 One year later: the headline shift in AI and SE workflows 07:20 Vibe coding — what it is and why SEs should care 10:23 The rise of the Forward Deployed Engineer 14:01 How SiftHub has evolved: from retrieval to reasoning 20:23 Lessons from the Paytm board on enterprise AI adoption 24:43 Sales: the most blamed, least understood function 28:40 First steps for SEs and SE leaders who feel behind

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James continue their conversation with Micah Joel, diving deep into the metrics that matter when building and justifying a demo engineering team. Micah shares practical approaches to measuring the value of demo engineering, from simple time-saving calculations to sophisticated surveys that capture SE satisfaction and retention indicators. The conversation explores how to frame these metrics in terms that senior management cares about, moving beyond technical accomplishments to demonstrate real business impact.

Micah emphasizes the importance of thinking "top down" when building a demo engineering organization, focusing on what leadership values most: productivity, cost savings, and revenue growth. He shares real-world examples from his time at Salesforce's Q Branch, including how to measure the value of demo environments, how to identify unexpected patterns in the data (like deals where demo engineers get involved), and how cultivating relationships with SEs creates goodwill that extends beyond the numbers. The discussion also covers how demo engineering impacts go-to-market speed for new products and how to position the team as mission-critical support for field teams rather than just a technical function.

Follow Us * Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ * Connect with Matthew James https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/ * Connect with Micah Joel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/micahjoel/

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack * Sol/Con 2026 (Chicago, August 2026): https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026 * Presales Collective Podcast: https://www.presalescollective.com/podcast

Key Topics Covered 1. Establishing baseline metrics for demo engineering through time-saving calculations 2. Using SE surveys to measure demo environment value and satisfaction 3. Identifying retention indicators at 3-year and 7-year tenure marks 4. Reducing technical barriers to hiring SEs through better demo tooling 5. Thinking "top down" to align metrics with senior management priorities 6. Measuring go-to-market speed and time-to-revenue for new products 7. Building goodwill and political capital with SE teams 8. Branding your demo engineering team with effective metaphors 9. Course-correcting when metrics don't align with expectations 10. Positioning demo engineering within the organization structure

Timestamps 00:00 Welcome

02:55 Measuring time saved with tooling

09:20 Reducing technical hiring barriers

13:50 Building the overall business case

18:30 When metrics don't line up

21:20 Product-to-Market (P2M)

27:40 Final thoughts on top-down thinking

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James sit down with Micah Joel, GTM leader and demo engineering pioneer, to explore what it means to build a dedicated demo engineering function from scratch. Micah shares his journey from theater kid to SE to leading Salesforce's legendary Q Branch, and unpacks why demo engineering might be the most underutilized lever in presales today. They cover the difference between deal-focused and infrastructure-focused demo engineers, how to structure the team, why blended teams fail, and how a mature demo engineering org can swim upstream into product strategy to reduce time-to-revenue. This is part one of two. Part two will focus on measuring and proving the value of a demo engineering team.

Follow Us * Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ * Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/ * Connect with Micah Joel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/micahjoel/

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack * SoulCon 2026 (Chicago, August 2026): https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026 * Presales Collective Podcast: https://www.presalescollective.com/podcast

Key Topics Covered 1. Micah's Background: From Theater to SE to Demo Engineering 2. What Is Demo Engineering and How Is It Different from Being an SE? 3. When Does an Organization Need a Demo Engineering Team? 4. The Two Sides of Demo Engineering: Deal Support vs. Infrastructure/Scale 5. How to Hire and Structure the Team 6. Demo Engineering as a Talent Pipeline and Retention Strategy 7. Swimming Upstream: Demo Engineering's Role in Go-to-Market Strategy 8. Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Timestamps 00:00 Welcome

02:48 Intro Micah Joel

05:42 Demo engineering definition

08:33 When do you need a DE team?

11:13 Deal side vs. infrastructure/scale side

15:48 Demo engineering as SE retention

23:55 Swimming upstream

27:11 Final advice

View Details

The Future of AI in Presales: Beyond Demo Automation In this episode, Jack Cochran is joined by Nalin Senthamil, Founder and CEO of Storylane, to discuss the evolution of AI in presales beyond simple demo automation. They explore the hidden costs of demos, how the buyer themselves are becoming AI-powered, and the emergence of AI tools for sellers, much like Storylane has developed with RepEx

Thank you to Storylane for sponsoring this episode! Visit Storylane.io to learn more.

Follow Us * Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ * Connect with Nalin Senthamil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nalinpradeep/

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack * RepEx (AI buyer engagement platform): Available at https://www.storylane.io/

Key Topics Covered 1. Nalin's Journey from Amazon AI Engineer to Demo Automation Founder 2. The Hidden Cost Per Demo 3. AI at the Infrastructure Level 4. RepEx: The Next Generation of Buyer Engagement 5. The Context Handoff Problem 6. Presales as Strategic Advisors in 2026

Timestamps 00:00 Welcome

03:15 Nalin's Background: From Amazon AI Engineer to Storylane Founder

05:54 The Cost Per Demo Problem and Demo Automation Impact

13:24 What are we leaving behind with AI, and what remains human?

20:00 RepEx Launch: Beyond Traditional Chatbots

26:25 The Importance of Context in the Buyer Journey

28:54 How Presales Teams Can Prepare for AI Integration

30:15 Final Advice: Building Long-Term AI Capabilities in Presales

View Details

In this episode recorded at the Presales Collective Leadership Next Summit in November of 2025, Jack Cochran sits down with Gretchen Fitzgibbons, Senior Manager of Strategic Solutions Consulting at Airtable, to discuss what it means to be a courageous leader in presales. They explore how to make difficult decisions under pressure, navigate organizational politics with integrity, and build the support systems that enable consistent leadership. Gretchen shares powerful stories from her two decades of experience advising Fortune 500 customers and leading presales teams, including standing up for a team member being unfairly assessed and creating win-win solutions in challenging situations.

Follow Us * Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ * Connect with Gretchen Fitzgibbons: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gretchenfitzgibbons/

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack * Sol/Con 2026: https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026 * Book mentioned: Think Again by Adam Grant: https://adamgrant.net/book/think-again/ * Book mentioned: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11468377-thinking-fast-and-slow

Key Topics Covered 1. Redefining Courage and Leadership 2. Making Tough Calls: Standing Up for Team Members 3. Focusing on Your Team rather than on Yourself 4. How to Prepare for a Leadership Role 5. It's OK to be Wrong 6. Developing Your Leadership Skills 7. Grounding Principles for Leadership

Timestamps 00:00 Welcome and Introduction

02:14 Defining Courage and Leadership in Presales

05:15 Making Tough Calls: A Story of Standing Up for What's Right

11:20 Focusing on Your Team rather than on Yourself

22:07 How to Prepare for a Leadership Role

27:40 It's OK to be Wrong

30:30 Developing Leadership Skills

37:42 Final Takeaways and Grounding Principles

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran is joined by Jon Billett, Founder and CEO of StoryQuadrant, to discuss why storytelling in presales needs to be treated as an industrial skill rather than a soft skill. They explore Jon's framework for the four types of stories every SE should master, the danger of "Mad Libs" style customer stories, and why the most important story is the one told after you leave the room. Jon shares insights from his 15 years in presales and his unique background as a member of the Magic Circle, revealing how structure, rather than content, creates memorable presentations that drive deals forward.

Follow Us * Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ * Connect with Jon Billett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbillett/

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack * StoryQuadrant: https://storyquadrant.com/

Key Topics Covered 1. Why Storytelling is an Industrial Skill, Not a Soft Skill 2. The Story Quadrant Framework: Four Essential Story Types 3. The Mad Libs Problem in Presales 4. Discovery as Stepping Into Your Prospect's Story 5. The Power of Contrast in Creating Memory 6. What Makes Stories Retellable

Timestamps 00:00 Welcome

03:16 Jon's Journey to Storytelling

06:31 Storytelling as an Industrial Skill

09:23 Overcoming the Belief: "I'm Not a Good Storyteller"

12:24 The Success Story Trap

15:59 The Mad Libs Formula Problem

18:13 Discovery Stories: Stepping Into Their World

21:20 Maximizing Your 5% of Face Time

23:10 Your Story: The Four-Minute Trust Window

26:51 Positioning Stories: Nobody Cares About Your Offices

27:40 The Story They Tell

30:30 One Technique to Implement Tomorrow: The Power of Contrast

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James are joined by Nikhil Sarma, Founder of GTM Solutions Consulting, to explore why customer indecision has become one of the biggest challenges in enterprise sales. They discuss the factors driving buyer hesitation, how to diagnose value clarity vs. organizational issues, and practical strategies for helping customers build the confidence to move forward. Nikhil shares frameworks for understanding stakeholder dynamics, the importance of financial fluency for SEs, and why de-risking the implementation is often more important than the technology itself.

Thank you to Storylane for sponsoring this episode. Get more information at https://www.storylane.io/

Follow Us * Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ * Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/ * Connect with Nikhil Sarma: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilsarma/

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack * GTM Solutions Consulting: https://www.gtmsolutions.co/ * The Jolt Effect Book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61418641-the-jolt-effect * The Challenger Sale Book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11910902-the-challenger-sale * Gartner Research on Buying Team Conflict

Key Topics Covered 1. The Factors Driving Customer Indecision in 2025 2. Value Clarity vs. Organizational Issues 3. Understanding Stakeholder Levels (Operational, Manager, Executive) 4. Discovery as a Two-Way Learning Process 5. Diagnosing and Building Consensus Across Buying Teams 6. De-risking Implementation as a Differentiator 7. Financial Fluency for Presales Professionals

Timestamps 00:00 Welcome 04:45 What's Changed about Customer Buying Behavior 09:50 The Jolt Effect and Challenger Sale Frameworks 13:56 Value Clarity Problems vs. Organizational Issues 20:03 Collaborative Whiteboarding for Discovery 25:17 De-risking Implementation Wins Deals 28:50 How to Connect with Nikhil

View Details

The State of Presales and Demo Technologies, and What's Coming in 2026 In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James are joined by Justin McDonald, Co-founder and CEO of Saleo, to discuss how demo automation technology is transforming the presales landscape. They explore the evolution of presales over the past 20 years, the hidden costs of demo preparation (the "demo tax"), and how AI is revolutionizing how solutions engineers create and personalize demonstrations. Justin shares insights on building relational capital, the importance of in-person meetings, and why the future of presales lies in leveraging technology to spend more quality time with buyers.

Thank you to Saleo for sponsoring this episode! Visit Saleo.io to learn more.

Follow Us * Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ * Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/ * Connect with Justin McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcdonald-21a3aa6/

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack * Saleo: https://saleo.io/ * Mockaroo (dummy data generator): https://mockaroo.com/

Timestamps 00:00 Welcome

04:24 How has presales evolved over 20 years

09:20 Demo tax

13:37 The importance of in-person meetings

15:55 Breaking down the demo tax components

24:47 AI and Demo Data Agents

26:42 Trends reshaping presales in 2026

Key Topics Covered 1. The Evolution of Presales Technology

* From manual data creation with tools like Mockaroo to automated demo environments
* The rise of presales as a respected profession with executive leadership
* Shift from multi-week prep and constant travel to efficient Zoom-based demos

The Demo Prep Tax
- Multiple departments impacted: DevOps, product, engineering, and SEs
- Hard dollar costs: hosting demo tenants can cost millions at scale
- Demo data degradation: perfectly prepared demos degrade over time
- SE time is expensive, and hours spent on manual data preparation adds up
- Building Relational Capital
- Only 17% of sales time is spent with buyers (even less for presales)
- In-person interactions unlock opportunities that Zoom calls cannot
- EQ and relationship-building will separate good from great in the age of AI
- AI-Powered Demo Automation
- Demo Data Agent: generates personalized demo data with a single prompt
- Token-based customization for industry, vertical, and use case adaptation
- Data injection technology allows real-time demo personalization
- The Future of Presales
- AI will expand automation across the entire sales cycle
- Agentic and asynchronous AI tools will support SEs 24/7
- SEs won't be replaced, their time will be used differently
- The demo data is the story: great storytelling requires great demo data

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James are joined by Hannah Bloking, and Allison Macalik, co-founders of 4Under3. They discuss the universal challenge of imposter syndrome in the pre-sales profession, exploring how it manifests, why it affects nearly everyone, and practical strategies to address it. Hannah and Allison share insights from their workshops, including powerful techniques like the "lighthouse speaker" mindset and the importance of naming your imposter to take control of those negative thoughts.

Thank you to Storylane for sponsoring this episode.

Follow the Hosts and Guests

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Hannah Bloking: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahcfrisch/
Connect with Allison Macalik: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonmacalik/

Links and Resources Mentioned

Storylane: https://storylane.io
Join Presales Collective: https://www.presalescollective.com/community-overview
4Under3: https://4under3.io/
Email: info@4under3.io
Follow 4Under3 on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/4under3/

Timestamps

00:00 Opening

03:36 Why Focus on Impostor Syndrome

11:57 The Definition of Impostor Syndrome

14:45 Redefinining as a Phenomenon

20:15 Soft Skills is Important

24:50 The Lighthouse Speaker Mindset

27:15 Zip it, Todd!

Key Topics Covered

Understanding Imposter Syndrome
- The textbook definition: "The persistent inability to believe that one's success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one's own efforts or skills"
- Why it's being reframed as "imposter phenomenon" rather than syndrome
- How it manifests differently for everyone
- The discovery that it affects people of all genders, levels, and backgrounds
- The Presales Connection
- Why imposter syndrome is particularly prevalent in pre-sales roles
- The challenge of being asked to be an expert when you're still learning
- Why internal demos to your own team are the hardest presentations to give
- The adrenaline rush of presenting and how it relates to imposter feelings
- Breaking the Silence
- Why people suffer in silence with imposter syndrome
- The power of creating space for vulnerability before major initiatives
- How company culture needs to embrace these conversations
- The importance of repeat workshops and ongoing dialogue
- Practical Techniques
- The Lighthouse Speaker vs. Spotlight Speaker: Thinking of yourself as lighting the way for others rather than being under scrutiny
- Naming Your Imposter: Giving your negative self-talk a name (like "Todd") to externalize and control it
- Reframing: Documenting what happens to realize most failures aren't actually about you
- Finding Your Person: Identifying someone who can hold you accountable when your imposter is talking
- The Workshop Impact
- Why companies become repeat customers
- How addressing imposter syndrome improves productivity and retention
- The connection between soft skills training and embracing new frameworks
- Creating internal communities (like AWS's "The Nest") for ongoing support
- Looking Forward
- The personal nature of addressing imposter syndrome
- The importance of daily practice and repetition
- How workshops facilitate conversations but individuals must do the work
- The evolving nature of imposter syndrome as AI and change management accelerate

View Details

Episode 181: Charting Your Presales Career Path with Miriam Graf In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James welcome Miriam Graf, a presales veteran with 20 years as an individual contributor and 10 years in leadership roles. Miriam shares invaluable insights on navigating career growth in presales, from speaking up about your aspirations to recognizing when leadership is and isn't the right path for you. She discusses the evolution from being "the hero" to becoming a leader who helps others shine, and explores the diverse career opportunities available beyond traditional management roles.

This episode is sponsored by Elvance. Find out more about them at https://elvance.io/

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Miriam Graf: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miriamgraf/ or email migraf3@gmail.com

Links and Resources Mentioned

Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
Presales Podcast: https://www.presalescollective.com/podcast

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome

06:53 Lessons to learn earlier

10:38 IC vs leadership

16:42 Expensive experience lessons

22:46 Variety of expertise is good

28:27 Focus on your industry and keep learning

Key Topics Covered

Speaking Up About Your Career
- Why waiting for someone to notice doesn't work
- How expressing interest puts you on the radar for future opportunities
- The importance of taking initiative on projects you're passionate about
- The Transition from Hero to Leader
- Why being the top SE doesn't automatically translate to leadership
- The emotional shift from personal accolades to team success
- Understanding if management is actually the right path for you
- Alternative Career Paths Beyond Management
- National expert or technical specialist roles
- Product management and product marketing opportunities
- Customer success, implementation, and demo engineering
- How presales skills translate across multiple disciplines
- Essential Skills for Career Advancement
- Soft skills: passion, communication, empathy, and listening
- Business acumen: understanding the "so what?" for your audience
- Technical skills: continuous learning and adaptability
- Learning Through Experience
- The value of trying roles outside presales
- How diverse experience makes you a better SE
- Why failures and tough feedback lead to growth
- Industry Expertise
- How to quickly learn an industry's key challenges
- The value of becoming a vertical expert
- Building credibility without years of industry experience

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James are joined by Rob Bruce, a presales leader at Syndigo with 20 years of experience, to discuss an innovative approach to presales operations: the Pursuit Desk. Rob shares how Syndigo has built a dedicated "concierge team" that handles RFPs, security questionnaires, reference coordination, and other time-consuming tasks, freeing solutions engineers to focus on discovery, solutioning, and building customer relationships. The conversation explores how to operate at the "top of your license," the role of AI in scaling pursuit operations, and practical advice for championing similar initiatives at your organization.

Thank you to Elvance for sponsoring this episode: https://elvance.io

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Rob Bruce: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbruce/

Links and Resources Mentioned

Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
Book: "Selling is Hard, Buying is Harder" by Garen Hess

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome

04:29 What is a Presales Concierge

11:18 Presales culture

14:00 Working at the top of your diploma

17:10 How do you justify this

21:38 As focused as an F1 team

23:32 AI and the Pursuit Desk

Key Topics Covered

The Pursuit Desk Concept
- Functions as a presales concierge handling non-customer-facing tasks
- Manages RFPs, InfoSec documents, NDAs, reference coordination
- Creates centralized control over messaging and responses
- Operates on a global scale with cultural sensitivity
- Operating at the Top of Your License
- Focus on discovery, creative thinking, empathetic listening, and presenting solutions
- Eliminate time spent on administrative tasks that don't require SE expertise
- Reduce context switching and multitasking to maintain flow
- Maximize value delivery to customers and the organization
- Building the Business Case
- Find an executive sponsor to champion the initiative
- Measure impact through deal win rates and velocity
- Consider creative budget reallocation (travel budgets, etc.)
- Calculate ROI based on SE productivity and reduced burnout
- The Role of AI in Pursuit Operations
- AI handles first-pass RFP responses (80% completion)
- Pursuit desk personalizes and adds empathy (final 20%)
- Machine learning analyzes past deals for pattern recognition
- Go/no-go scorecards based on historical data
- Enables scaling without proportional headcount increases
- Presales Culture and Values
- Building trust through technical expertise and genuine personality
- Being a "chameleon" who adapts to different buyer needs
- Creating an environment where people feel welcomed and valued
- Mentorship and knowledge sharing across teams
- Preventing Burnout
- Eliminating nights and weekends spent on RFPs
- Reducing stress through better task distribution
- Enabling SEs to focus on work they're passionate about
- Creating sustainable workloads that retain top talent
- Measuring Success
- Tracking time spent on each RFP or pursuit activity
- Correlating effort to win-loss rates
- Building audit trails for continuous improvement
- Creating dashboards for data-driven decision making

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James are joined by Art Fromm, author of "Making Seamless Sales" and sales enablement expert, to discuss how presales and sales teams can work together more effectively. Art shares insights from his 25+ years in sales enablement, exploring the common disconnects between SEs and AEs, and provides practical strategies for building stronger partnerships that drive better outcomes.

The conversation covers the evolution from tribal knowledge to systematic collaboration, the importance of discovery before demos, and how to create value perception rather than just showing features. Art emphasizes that when teams work together properly versus teams that don't, there's a 37% difference in sales outcomes - a substantial opportunity sitting on the table.

Connect with Us

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Art Fromm: https://www.linkedin.com/in/artfromm/

Links and Resources Mentioned

Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
Art's Website: https://teamsalesdevelopment.com
Team Sales Development: https://www.teamsalesdevelopment.com
"Making Seamless Sales" by Art Fromm: https://teamsalesdevelopment.com/making-seamless-sales-book/

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome

03:55 Sol/Con East 2025

05:26 Making SEAMless Sales

11:27 Our Solutions Have No Value

24:02 You Only Get One Shot

29:42 Aren't We All Presales

Key Topics Covered

The SEAM Framework
- SE (Solutions Engineers) and AM (Account Managers) working together
- Breaking down organizational silos between presales and sales
- Creating systematic approaches rather than leaving collaboration to chance
- Moving Beyond the Demo Rush
- Why "we need to do a demo" often leads to failure
- The importance of proper qualification and discovery first
- How luck can reinforce bad habits in sales processes
- Creating Value Perception
- Understanding that solutions have no inherent value
- The Venn diagram of customer needs overlapping with solutions
- Turning "sell" into "buy" and "push" into "pull"
- The Trust Dynamic
- Presales comes with trust that can be lost
- Sales lacks trust that needs to be gained
- How proper discovery helps both teams build credibility
- Organizational Alignment
- Top-down (business focused) vs bottom-up (technical focused) approach
- Creating healthy overlap between sales and presales responsibilities
- The pyramid model of customer engagement levels
- Training and Enablement
- Moving beyond feature-function training to client success thinking
- Understanding the complete buyer journey from hello to consumption
- The concept of "solution enablement" as a continuous process

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James are joined by Wendy McHenry, Chair of WISE (Women in Solutions Excellence) at Presales Collective and Former Head of Global Solutions Engineering at CDATA, to discuss the critical need for supporting women in presales careers. They explore the challenges women face in a field where only 18% of solutions professionals are women, discuss unconscious bias in hiring and workplace environments, and highlight how WISE is creating support networks and career development opportunities to advance equity in the solutions field.

To join the show live, follow the Presales Collective's LinkedIn page or join the PSC Slack community for updates.

This episode is sponsored by Elvance. More information at https://elvance.io/

On the Show Today

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Wendy McHenry: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendymac98/

Links and Resources Mentioned

Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
WISE Chapter Information: https://www.presalescollective.com/wise
Presales Collective LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/presalescollective

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome

04:51 Why WISE?

09:12 Being a woman in sales today

12:57 You’re not technical enough

16:16 Women leaving the profession

20:33 How is WISE helping?

27:55 What’s happening next?

Key Topics Covered

The Current State of Women in Presales
- Only 18% of solutions professionals globally are women
- Many women are the only woman on their SE team
- Higher attrition rates during layoffs disproportionately impact women
- Unconscious Bias and Workplace Challenges
- "Not technical enough" bias applied differently to women
- Interview panels dominated by men
- Social environments that may exclude women
- The importance of calling out bias when witnessed
- WISE Mission and Structure
- Started as an ERG at Salesforce, now part of Presales Collective
- Open to anyone who cares about supporting women in solutions careers
- Regional chapters like Women in Solutions Consulting Australia/New Zealand
- Company-specific chapters at organizations like Salesforce and Pegasystems
- Creating Change and Allyship
- How to be an effective ally in supporting women's careers
- Starting WISE chapters at your company (or expanding to broader sales/tech groups)
- The importance of diverse account teams and client representation
- Free career coaching and mentorship available through WISE council

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James are joined by Akash Ganapathi, CEO of Opine, to discuss how AI strategies differ between startups and enterprises in the presales space. They explore the myth of AI replacing SEs, the importance of specialization vs. generalization, and how AI can help presales teams manage more revenue per team member while focusing on strategic, relationship-building activities.

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Akash Ganapathi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akash-ganapathi/

Links and Resources Mentioned

Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
Opine: https://tryopine.com/
Contact Akash directly: akash@tryopine.com

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome

04:35 Why AI strategy differs for startups vs enterprises

09:27 Debunking the myth of AI replacing SEs

18:35 The human element in buying and selling

24:35 How enterprises can leverage existing knowledge bases

28:12 The paradox of considering AI for every task

32:14 Future predictions for 2026-2027

Key Topics Covered

Startup vs Enterprise AI Strategy
- Startups benefit from generalist approaches and bottom-up experimentation
- Enterprises need specialized, top-down AI strategies to avoid redundancy
- The role of specialization vs wearing multiple hats
- The AI Replacement Myth
- Why the "AI SE" that replaces human SEs doesn't work
- SEs do much more than just answer technical questions
- The importance of relationship building and strategic thinking
- Current AI Limitations
- Context window constraints (around 1 million tokens currently)
- Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) accuracy at ~75%
- Why breakthrough improvements are needed for true automation
- The Future of Presales with AI
- More revenue managed per team member
- Shift toward hiring less experienced SEs with AI enablement
- Focus on strategic consulting rather than administrative tasks
- Practical AI Implementation
- Draft-and-approve workflows for deliverables
- Automating account research, meeting prep, and RFP responses
- Using AI for onboarding and knowledge enablement
- Mid-Market Recommendations
- Lean toward enterprise-style, forward-looking strategies
- Enable not just current team but future hires
- Focus on cross-organizational enablement (AEs, product, marketing)

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James are joined by Ben Hills, Founder and CEO of Iris, to discuss how to scale presales teams effectively while avoiding burnout. They explore the difference between healthy high performance and unsustainable overwork, the role of AI in streamlining repetitive tasks like RFPs, and practical strategies for building scalable processes that enhance rather than replace human expertise.

To join the show live, follow the Presales Collective's LinkedIn page or join the PSC Slack community for updates. The show is bi-weekly on Tuesdays, 8AM PT/11AM ET/4PM GMT.

Follow the Hosts

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Ben Hills: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminhills/

Links and Resources Mentioned

Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
Iris: https://heyiris.ai/

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome

04:04 Iris

05:14 Ben's background

14:29 Healthy high performance vs burnout

21:55 Common scaling mistakes and the headcount trap

29:14 Effective AI tools for presales teams

35:04 The future of AI-to-AI RFP processes

37:46 Final advice on embracing AI

Key Topics Covered

Understanding Burnout vs. High Performance
- Why burnout isn't just about hours worked
- The importance of connecting work to larger purpose and outcomes
- Creating time-bound periods of intense work with clear endpoints
- Scaling Without Adding Headcount
- The "mythical man month" problem in presales
- Building playbooks and processes before hiring
- Separating "in the business" vs "on the business" work
- The Rocks, Pebbles, Sand Framework
- Planning for big quarterly tasks (rocks)
- Managing predictable weekly activities (pebbles)
- Handling unexpected fire drills (sand)
- AI Tools That Actually Work
- RFP automation and response generation
- Call transcript analysis for product feedback
- Demo automation with synthetic data
- Why AI SDRs haven't lived up to the hype
- The Future of RFPs and AI
- Model Control Protocol (MCP) for AI-to-AI communication
- Maintaining personalization in automated processes
- The buyer's perspective on RFP proliferation

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James are joined by Ben Pearce, founder of Elevated You, to discuss how technical professionals can effectively communicate with senior executives. They explore the critical differences between speaking to technical stakeholders versus C-suite leaders, covering everything from preparation strategies to delivery techniques. Ben shares practical frameworks for being relevant rather than just expert, emphasizing the importance of focusing on "what" and "why" instead of "how" when presenting to senior leaders.

Thank you to Storylane for sponsoring this episode. Find out more about Storylane and how to build killer demos in 2 minutes at https://storylane.io

To join the show live, follow the Presales Collective's LinkedIn page or join the PSC Slack community for updates. The show is bi-weekly on Tuesdays, 8AM PT/11AM ET/4PM GMT.

Follow the Hosts

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Ben Pearce:https://www.linkedin.com/in/benpthoughts/

Links and Resources Mentioned

Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
Elevated You: https://www.elevatedyou.live/psc
Tech World Human Skills Podcast: https://www.elevatedyou.live/twhs

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome

05:18 Why speaking to senior leaders is different

12:49 Being relevant vs. being an expert

16:19 Mastering delivery under pressure

25:04 Reading the room and course-correcting

32:53 De-risking and the human element

Key Topics Covered

The Technical Expert's Dilemma
- How technical expertise can become a curse when speaking to executives
- Moving from demonstrating knowledge to demonstrating relevance
- The Three-Part Framework for Executive Communication
- Relevance: Understanding what matters to your specific audience
- Compelling Content: Creating materials that speak to their priorities
- Excellent Delivery: Performing under pressure with confidence
- Preparation Strategies
- Mapping out personas and industries for reusable content
- The importance of team collaboration in content creation
- Practice vs. preparation: Why both are essential
- Reading the Room
- Starting with curiosity and mini-discovery
- Mirroring language and adapting on the fly
- Course-correcting based on real-time feedback
- The Punchline Problem
- Why building up to a big reveal doesn't work with executives
- Leading with impact: "Hitting them between the eyes"
- Getting to value within the first 90 seconds
- Risk Management and Trust Building
- Understanding that you represent organizational risk
- The "never get fired for buying IBM" mentality
- How human skills differentiate in an AI-driven world
- Building confidence through listening and problem-solving

View Details

In this episode, Matthew James and Timmy Hendrickson are joined by Nalin Senthamil, Founder and CEO of Storylane, to discuss the future of pre-sales and AI driving influence beyond pipeline. They explore how demo automation is transforming the self-serve buyer experience, the changing role of solutions engineers, and how AI can create 10X impact in pre-sales workflows. Nalin shares insights on leveraging AI for demo personalization, managing complex product integrations, and why the traditional discovery call may be dying.

To join the show live, follow the Presales Collective's LinkedIn page or join the PSC Slack community for updates. The show is bi-weekly on Tuesdays, 8AM PT/11AM ET/4PM GMT.

Follow the Hosts

Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Timmy Hendrickson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmyhendrickson/
Connect with Nalin Senthamil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nalinpradeep/

Links and Resources Mentioned

Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
Storylane: https://www.storylane.io/

Timestamps

00:04 Welcome

01:08 Nalin's background and founding Storylane

03:08 What does a self-serve buyer experience look like?

08:18 How AI has changed presales

13:40 Training AI agents to answer technical questions

17:02 AI testing customer scenario

19:28 Overlooked use cases for demo automation

26:30 One workflow where AI can create 10X impact today

Key Topics Covered

The Death of Discovery Calls
- Why buyers are coming to conversations already educated
- How self-serve experiences span the entire buying journey
- The role of AI sales agents in initial discovery
- The Four Categories of SE Work
- Relationship building and strategic solutioning
- Demo delivery and POC management
- Administrative tasks and CRM updates
- Knowledge sharing and product insights
- AI as an SE Sidekick
- Demo preparation and tailoring automation
- Administrative task reduction
- Strategic thinking enhancement rather than replacement
- Demo Automation Use Cases
- Supporting different AE to SE ratios
- Managing complex product integrations
- Upsell and expansion opportunities
- Micro-demos for specific features
- Training AI for Technical Questions
- Leveraging tribal knowledge from Slack, Google Drive, and call recordings
- Importance of data quality and curation
- Automatic ingestion of organizational knowledge
- The Future of Pre-Sales
- AI enabling faster iteration and personalization
- Strategic partnership between CS and pre-sales for upsells
- The evolution from technical support to strategic advisory roles

View Details

In this second part of our conversation with Raphael Joseph, former SE turned recruiter and founder of Brando Tech, Jack Cochran and Matthew James dive deep into why traditional job hunting methods no longer work in today's market. Raphael shares strategic insights on how SEs should approach job searching in 2025, treating themselves as products and leveraging their natural skills to navigate the competitive landscape.

IMPORTANT: This is Part 2 of a two-part series. Make sure to listen to Part 1 first for the complete discussion on personal branding and LinkedIn optimization.

To join the show live, follow the Presales Collective's LinkedIn page or join the PSC Slack community for updates. The show is bi-weekly on Tuesdays, 8AM PT/11AM ET/4PM GMT.

Follow the Hosts

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Raphael Joseph: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphael-joseph-23044150/

Links and Resources Mentioned

Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
Episode Sponsor: Opine - https://tryopine.com

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome

04:42 What is "classic job hunting" and why it's dead

11:52 How to get on recruiters' radar

13:33 Starting your job search the right way

21:04 Treating job hunting like account management

27:23 Interview process changes and AI requirements

30:30 Why it's not a numbers game anymore

Key Topics Covered

The Death of Classic Job Hunting
- Why sending CVs to job postings no longer works
- How companies receive hundreds of applications they can't process
- The cycle of posting jobs, failing to hire, then using recruiters
- Why your application often goes unread
- The New Digital Job Hunting Approach
- Treating yourself as a product you're selling
- Building warm leads with hiring managers
- Using SE skills for job hunting: research, discovery, and value proposition
- The importance of targeted, high-touch approaches over spray-and-pray
- Working with Recruiters Effectively
- Why good recruiters provide 1-in-3 odds vs 1-in-300 direct applications
- How recruiters can prep you with insider knowledge
- The value of having internal champions in the hiring process
- Market Dynamics in 2025
- Why it's now an employer's market
- The shift from growth-at-all-costs to profitability focus
- How COVID overhiring led to current oversupply of candidates
- AI's impact on hiring decisions and productivity expectations
- Interview Strategy in the Current Market
- Companies' increased specificity in requirements
- Why "must-haves" are truly must-haves now
- The importance of AI literacy and demonstrable skills
- How to address gaps in your experience strategically
- Leveraging SE Skills for Job Hunting
- Using research abilities to identify opportunities
- Applying discovery skills to understand company needs
- Creating value propositions for yourself as a candidate
- Avoiding the same mistakes SEs coach AEs to avoid

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James are joined by Raphael Joseph to discuss the critical importance of building a strong LinkedIn profile for PreSales professionals. They explore how the platform has evolved as a powerful career tool, especially in today's competitive job market. Raphael shares practical tips on crafting a professional presence that highlights your unique value proposition, explains the impact of consistent engagement, and offers advice on creating authentic content that resonates with hiring managers.

To join the show live, follow the Presales Collective's LinkedIn page or join the PSC Slack community for updates. The show is bi-weekly on Tuesdays, 8AM PT/11AM ET/4PM GMT.

Follow the Hosts

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Raphael Joseph: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphael-joseph-23044150/

Links and Resources Mentioned

Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
Sponsor: Opine - https://tryopine.com

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome and introduction to LinkedIn's evolution

01:50 Sponsor: Opine

03:06 Raphael's background and career journey

10:46 Why you should build your LinkedIn profile before you need it

21:11 Focusing on your ideal customer profile (ICP)

25:21 Engagement strategies: connecting, commenting, and posting

33:49 Overcoming nervousness about posting

Key Topics Covered

LinkedIn Profile Optimization
- Using your banner as prime real estate to showcase your unique value
- Crafting a clear headline that highlights your specialization
- Writing descriptions that focus on the value you provide
- The importance of professional photos and consistent branding
- Strategic Profile Positioning
- Reverse-engineering your profile based on your target roles
- Focusing on 3-4 key specializations rather than listing everything
- Using industry-standard job titles even if your company uses different terminology
- Making it easy for recruiters to find you through targeted keywords
- Building Meaningful Connections
- Connecting with 100-200 potential hiring managers weekly
- Engaging with their content through thoughtful comments and questions
- Creating a network before you need it for job searching
- Leveraging connections for opportunities when transitions occur
- Content Creation Strategy
- Starting with comments before moving to creating original posts
- Sharing authentic experiences from customer interactions
- Finding your niche audience within the PreSales community
- Focusing on consistency rather than viral metrics
- The Changing Job Market
- How market conditions have shifted from candidate-focused to employer-focused
- Why specificity now trumps broadness in skills presentation
- Standing out in a competitive environment through specialization
- Using LinkedIn as your primary job search tool rather than traditional resumes

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James are joined by Karthik Krishna, Manager of Solutions Engineering at Freshworks and Presales Collective's Regional Community Leader for Chennai. They explore how Solutions Engineers can gain strategic influence in deal cycles beyond just giving demos and answering technical questions.

Episode Highlights * Karthik shares his journey from developer to pre-sales professional * The evolution from "demo-giver" to strategic partner in deal cycles * How SEs can co-own opportunities with Account Executives * Navigating tough conversations when deals aren't a good technical fit * Building credibility to increase your strategic influence * Leveraging customer success and implementation teams for deal strategy

About Our Guest Karthik Krishna is a Manager of Solutions Engineering at Freshworks, where he has built and coached distributed teams of SEs across companies of all sizes. He also serves as the Presales Collective Regional Community Leader for Chennai, recently hosting an event with over 60 SEs in attendance.

Follow the Hosts and Guest * Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ * Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/ * Connect with Karthik Krishna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karthikkrishna-s/

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack * Presales Collective: https://www.presalescollective.com

Timestamps 00:00 - Welcome and introduction

02:46 - Karthik's background and journey to presales

05:28 - What it means to "be in the room" for deal strategy

11:27 - Handling deals that aren't a good technical fit

16:30 - Building AE-SE relationships and trust

20:02 - Leveraging past customer experiences

27:14 - Growing strategic influence as an SE

32:30 - First experience in pipeline meetings and QBRs

Key Topics Covered 1. The Evolution of the SE Role

* From technical demonstrator to strategic partner
* Building relationships alongside technical expertise
* Flying "under the radar" while still influencing deals

Co-Ownership vs. Support
- Understanding sales' responsibilities and pressures
- Taking appropriate accountability for deal outcomes
- Building a partnership model with Account Executives
- Strategic Influence Tactics
- Speaking up consistently, even when not initially heard
- Framing technical concerns alongside potential solutions
- Leveraging past experiences and customer success stories
- Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Involving product, implementation, and customer success teams
- Using collective wisdom to validate concerns
- Creating a "common voice" across departments
- Building Credibility
- Trust your instincts and speak up
- Demonstrate value through accurate deal insights
- Help teammates at critical junctures

Bottom Line Solutions Engineers possess unique insights that can make or break deals, but gaining the opportunity to share those insights strategically requires building credibility, relationships, and influence over time. The most successful SEs find ways to contribute to deal strategy while respecting the unique pressures faced by their sales counterparts.

Presales LIVE airs every other Tuesday. Join the Presales Collective Slack community to stay updated on future episodes, and follow the PSC LinkedIn page for upcoming shows.

View Details

Today’s episode was recorded during Presales Collective’s AI-Powered Presales Summit on March 26th, 2025. In this episode, Jack Cochran (General Manager, Presales Collective) and co-host Matthew James discuss the ethics and trust issues surrounding AI in sales environments with guest Diana Capello, Director of Solutions Consulting for US and Demo Engineering at Eightfold. The discussion explores how AI is transforming the presales landscape, from creating demo environments to navigating AI buying committees and addressing hiring practices in tech. Diana shares insights from her 20-year journey in AI, offering valuable perspectives on maintaining customer trust while leveraging AI tools.

To join the show live, follow the Presales Collective's LinkedIn page or join the PSC Slack community for updates. The show is bi-weekly on Tuesdays, 8AM PT / 11AM ET / 4PM GMT.

Connect with Us

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Diana Capello: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianacappello/

Links and Resources Mentioned

Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
Presales Collective newsletter: https://www.presalescollective.com/newsletter
Book Recommendation, "AI Superpowers" by Kai-Fu Lee: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38242135-ai-superpowers
Presales Collective's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/PreSalesCollective
Presales AI Summit recordings, available on the PSC YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@presalescollective7795

Timestamps

00:00 - Introduction

01:27 - Welcome Diana Cappello

04:10 - Maintaining customer trust while using AI

06:50 - Explaining how AI works to customers

11:45 - Navigating AI councils in enterprise sales

20:34 - AI in hiring processes

27:43 - Book recommendation

31:10 - Q&A

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran (General Manager, Presales Collective) and guest co-host Allison Macalik dive into the topic of "Presales People in Disguise" with Alex Nation. They explore the journey into presales roles, the importance of effective discovery techniques, the power of silence in customer interactions, and the unique relationship between presales professionals and sales teams. Alex shares valuable insights from her career transition from retail to tech, highlighting key skills that have made her successful in the presales world.

To join the show live, follow the Presales Collective's LinkedIn page or join the PSC Slack community for updates. The show is bi-weekly on Tuesdays, 8AM PT/11AM ET/4PM GMT.

Find us:

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Allison Macalik: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonmacalik/
Connect with Alex Nation: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandranation/

Links and Resources Mentioned

Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
Presales Collective newsletter: https://www.presalescollective.com/newsletter

Timestamps

00:00 - Introduction

02:48 - Alex's background and journey into presales

08:59 - The importance of being a presenter pain point gatherer

10:40 - The power of effective discovery

14:24 - The art of silence in customer interactions

20:26 - Presales vs. Sales

26:20 - Advice to younger self

29:25 - How to find Alex

Key Topics Covered

Career Transitions into Presales
- Alex's journey from Nordstrom to tech
- Finding your strength as a "presenter pain point gatherer"
- The accidental path many take into presales roles
Effective Discovery Techniques
- The importance of listening more than speaking
- How good discovery differentiates vendors
- Building trust with customers through purposeful questions
The Power of Silence
- Using silence as a negotiation technique
- Training yourself to be comfortable with pauses
- Demonstrating confidence through patience
Presales and Sales Dynamics
- Developing empathy for sales counterparts
- Understanding the complete customer lifecycle
- Working together for customer success
Career Development
- The unique pressures and rewards of presales
- Developing flexibility and resilience
- Creating paths for women in presales

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James are joined by Manisha Raisinghani, Founder and CEO of SiftHub, to discuss how AI is transforming the Presales landscape. They explore how SiftHub's AI sales engineer helps solutions teams consolidate tribal knowledge, automate repetitive tasks, and increase productivity. Manisha shares insights on leveraging AI for RFPs, POCs, and competitive intelligence, while emphasizing that AI serves as a sidekick to enhance SEs' strategic value rather than replace them.

To join the show live, follow the Presales Collective's LinkedIn page or join the PSC Slack community for updates. The show is bi-weekly on Tuesdays, 8AM PT/11AM ET/4PM GMT.

Follow the Hosts

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Manisha Raisinghani: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manisharaisinghani/

Links and Resources Mentioned

Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
SiftHub: https://www.sifthub.io/

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome

03:34 Manisha's journey to founding SiftHub

08:12 SE to AE ratios in different organizations

13:10 The changing role of SEs in relationship building

15:06 Three main buckets of SE work and how AI can help

16:30 The evolution of tribal knowledge

20:40 SaaS proliferation and knowledge fragmentation

26:51 How SEs can leverage AI effectively

31:02 Using AI to analyze POCs and RFPs

Key Topics Covered

The Evolution of Tribal Knowledge
- From undocumented information to knowledge scattered across platforms
- How AI can consolidate knowledge from Slack, Salesforce, call recordings, and more
- Leveraging recorded conversations to preserve context and insights
SE Challenges and AI Solutions
- Managing repetitive questions from sales teams and product managers
- Handling documentation tasks and RFP responses
- Creating custom solutions across different industries and regions
The Changing SE Role
- Shift from technical support to relationship building
- Evolving buyer journeys requiring deeper technical engagement
- Balancing solutioning, question-answering, and demo responsibilities
Measuring AI Impact
- Time savings on RFP responses and repetitive questions
- Using freed-up time for strategic activities and better customer engagement
- Supporting more deals simultaneously with AI assistance
AI as a Teammate
- Using AI to enhance rather than replace SE capabilities
- How AI can work 24/7 across global teams
- The future of visual and diagram-based AI assistance

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James talk with Kalyan Ramkumar about his journey from novice to expert in the presales field. Kalyan shares his experience starting as an SDR at RSA Security with no technical background and how he worked his way up to become a skilled solutions engineer. He discusses the importance of domain knowledge in security, his framework for effective demos, and strategies for managing POCs and building your internal brand.

To join the show live, follow the Presales Collective's LinkedIn page or join the PSC Slack community for updates. The show is bi-weekly on Tuesdays, 8AM PT/11AM ET/4PM GMT.

Follow the Hosts

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Kalyan Ramkumar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kalyan-ramkumar-679927151/

Links and Resources Mentioned

Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
Presales Collective Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/presalescollective
Presales Collective newsletter: https://www.presalescollective.com/newsletter
CompTIA Security+ Certification: https://www.comptia.org/certifications/security
CompTIA Network+ Certification: https://www.comptia.org/certifications/network

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction

03:15 Kal’s Background

10:12 First Ever Demo

14:10 When did you know you’re an SC

19:40 The Four Do's of Demos

23:35 Challenging the challenger

27:02 Building your personal brand

29:35 POC strategies

Key Topics Covered

Breaking into Presales
- Starting as an SDR and transitioning to SE
- Getting hired without technical background
- Importance of work ethic and eagerness to learn
Building Domain Expertise
- Value of security certifications (Security+ and Network+)
- Moving from scripted to fluid demos
- Building trust with technical customers
Demo Framework: The Four Do's
- Conducting your own discovery
- Framing every click and feature
- Evaluating specific customer KPIs
- Challenging difficult stakeholders
POC and Success Strategies
- Customizing POC length to customer needs
- Collaborating with account executives
- Building internal relationships
- Creating workshop sequences for implementation

View Details

In today's episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James sit down with David Yockelson, Distinguished VP and Gartner Fellow, to discuss the evolution of value realization in tech sales. They explore how buyer behaviors have changed, the importance of understanding customer needs before leading with technology, and practical approaches for pre-sales professionals to shift towards value-based selling.

To join the show live, follow the PreSales Collective's LinkedIn page or join the PSC Slack community for updates. The show is bi-weekly on Tuesdays, 8AM PT/11AM ET/4PM GMT.

Follow the Hosts and Guest

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with David Yockelson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-yockelson-452324/

Links and Resources Mentioned

Join PreSales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
PreSales Collective newsletter: https://www.presalescollective.com/newsletter

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction

03:33 The current issues in tech

10:48 How to stop talking about your tech to focus on value

23:04 Understanding your customer’s business

27:55 The place of demos on the website

31:15 Practical approaches to shifting to value

Key Topics Covered

Changes in B2B Tech Buying
- Diversification of buying teams
- Shift from technical to business-focused decisions
- Evolution of the buying process
- Increased financial scrutiny on deals
- Value-Based Selling Approaches
- Understanding buyer personas and value drivers
- Moving beyond technical features
- Building and defending business cases
- Articulating value to different stakeholders
- Pre-Sales and Marketing Collaboration
- Alignment between product marketing and SEs
- Value modeling and demonstration strategies
- Website demo effectiveness
- Data collection and buyer insights
- Interactive Demonstrations
- Role of self-service demos
- Converting website visitors
- Collecting valuable user interaction data
- Creating warmer sales conversations
- Practical Implementation
- Leveraging SE expertise across the sales cycle
- Demonstrating impact on revenue
- Supporting customer success and adoption
- Documenting value contribution

View Details

Show Notes In today's episode, Dean Shu (CEO & Co-founder, Arphie) joins Jack Cochran and Matthew James to discuss AI agents in PreSales and the evolution of the industry. They explore the changing landscape of PreSales leadership, practical applications of AI, and strategies for evaluating AI solutions.

Thank you to Arphie for sponsoring this episode. Arphie is the leading AI-powered platform for automating RFPs and security questionnaires. Arphie empowers teams — from the Fortune 500 to high-growth startups — to save time, improve accuracy, and deliver results faster than ever by combining your prior responses and company context with the latest AI agent capabilities.

To join the show live, follow the PreSales Collective's LinkedIn page. PreSales LIVE airs bi-weekly on Tuesdays, 8AM PT/11AM ET/4PM GMT.

Links and Resources Mentioned * Join the Presales Collective Slack:https://presalescollective.com/slack * Contact Dean Shu: dean@arphie.ai https://www.linkedin.com/in/dean-shu/ * LE SSERAFIM, Crazy EP: https://open.spotify.com/album/538vEfAgLJ6g2I8ubuOlap?si=so9xz_qMQBatFqHMDTp5sw * Hidden Brain podcast episode with Brian Klass - https://open.spotify.com/episode/5MowfIBQdmQEIMYdDL3MYK?si=fff1b1731daa48ff

Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction

03:13 - What are you listening to

06:30 - Dean's background

09:20 - What's top of mind for presales leaders?

11:57 - How to make a presales tech purchase

20:13 - What are AI agents?

26:40 - How do you properly explore AI?

32:25 - Is AI going to replace people?

35:41 - Outro

Key Topics Covered 1. PreSales Leadership Evolution * Elevating the sales engineering role * Building stronger cross-functional partnerships * Gaining executive-level presence 2. Understanding AI in PreSales * Different types of AI models and their applications * AI agents vs. traditional AI tools * Real-world implementation strategies 3. Evaluating AI Solutions * Key criteria for vendor selection * Security considerations * Proof of concept best practices

View Details

In this episode, Jack Cochran (General Manager, PreSales Collective) and Matthew James discuss the human qualities of presales leadership with special guest Ron Whitson. Ron shares insights from his 30-year career in the industry, discusses his book "A Friendly Human in Presales," and explores how leaders can effectively transition from being top individual contributors to successful team leaders.

To join the show live, follow the PreSales Collective's LinkedIn page. PreSales LIVE airs bi-weekly on Tuesdays, 8AM PT/11AM ET/4PM GMT.

Links

Follow the Hosts & Guest

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Ron Whitson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronwhitsonse/

Links and Resources Mentioned

PreSales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
Ron's Book "A Friendly Human in Presales": https://a.co/d/gJIwWE7
She Means Biz Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/3zx8BmZ9PrURuASJbAemDu?si=26772c8356854348
Talking Too Loud with Chris Savage Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/21btwSaqoaF8SDxmwcLMIQ?si=37aa691ee80b4a0f

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome and Introductions

03:54 What are you Listening to?

07:23 Ron's Journey to PreSales Leadership

13:56 Transitioning from IC to Leader

16:12 Coaching vs. Telling

19:11 One Plus One is More than Two

21:17 Importance of One-To-Ones

26:02 Coaching your Team to be Different than You

31:15 Practice Humility

Key Topics Covered

Leadership Transition
Moving from individual contributor to leader
Common challenges and mindset shifts
IBM's leadership training program insights
Essential Leadership Qualities
Empathy and humility in leadership
Balancing directness with support
Creating space for team growth
Regular one-on-one communications
Effective Team Development
Coaching approaches vs. direct instruction
Building trust and relationships
Removing roadblocks for team success
Understanding personality types
Practicing Humility as a Leader
Provide room for your team to take the spotlight
Be open to different ways of doing things
Listen more and speak less

View Details

In today’s episode, Jack Cochran (General Manager, PreSales Collective) and new co-host Matthew James discuss the evolution of PreSales Collective and key industry trends for 2025. They announce the expansion of local PSC chapters, tease upcoming leadership conferences, and explore controversial topics like AI in pre-sales and team structure debates. The episode offers insights into career development opportunities beyond traditional paths and emphasizes the importance of community involvement in shaping the future of pre-sales.

To join the show live, follow the PreSales Collective’s LinkedIn page or join the PSC Slack community for updates. The show is bi-weekly on Tuesdays, 8AM PT/11AM ET/4PM GMT.

Follow the Hosts

Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/

Links and Resources Mentioned

Follow the PreSales Collective's LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/presalescollective
Join PreSales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
PreSales Collective newsletter: https://www.presalescollective.com/newsletter
Simon Sinek's "A Bit of Optimism" podcast episode with Trevor Noah: https://simonsinek.com/podcast/episodes/trevor-noah-makes-my-brain-hurt/
Jack's YouTube video on microphone quality: https://youtu.be/B6nl64Sv7pw?si=wtOud1fS27ryqavI

Timestamps

00:00 - Welcome

01:26 - PSC Unlimited

02:34 - Show Kickoff

05:20 - Regional Community Leader Launch

12:24 - In-Person Leadership Conference Teaser

16:12 - Changes to PreSales LIVE & PreSales Podcast

18:02 - What Have You Been Listening To?

22:03 - Topics for 2025

28:16 - How to Get Involved in the PSC

Key Topics Covered

PreSales Collective Updates
Launch of PreSales Live show
New regional community leader program
Upcoming leadership conferences (announcement pending)
Slack community surpasses 16,000 members
Industry Trends for 2025
Presales influence within organizations
Career paths and organizational changes
Moving beyond demo-centric roles
AI and automation in presales
Team structure debates (pre/postsales integration)
Getting Involved
Regional Community Leader opportunities
Content creation and speaking opportunities
Local chapter participation
Blog writing and podcast guest appearances

View Details

As 2025 approaches, the PreSales Podcast has some exciting changes coming! First and foremost, Matthew James is joining Jack Cochran as co-host of the podcast.

Also, starting in January, the show will be recorded live on LinkedIn via the new show PreSales LIVE! Join Matthew and Jack as they talk to guests and answer a live Q&A at the end of each episode.

View Details

Today on the PreSales Podcast we have an exciting announcement, we have the pleasure and opportunity to announce the next General Manager at PreSales Collective, Jack Cochran.

We talk about this exciting new chapter for PreSales Collective, how we are expanding with a new PreSales Collective board of directors, the excitement of hitting the milestone of 50,000 members, and the community's future.

What I love most about Jack is that he is deeply rooted in this thing, he has experience running communities, content creation, like his podcasts, and a passion to drive the collective forward.

We discussed Chris' proudest moments here, lessons learned over the past 17 months, and his transition into the board of directors. Chris will still be extremely active in the community at large.

This is a story between two humans, discussing our love and appreciation for this profession. I am thrilled to see this organization continue to help people worldwide, so let’s jump right in with Jack.

Thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed as much as I did.

View Details

Welcome to the Pre-Sales Podcast! Today we have a fantastic guest joining us—Todd Janzen.

Todd brings a wealth of experience from his impressive career in pre-sales, including his time at Salesforce and now as SVP of Customer Success and Buyer Enablement, Consensus

In our conversation, we dive into the presales craft, influence in GTM, and more. One of the standout points was Todd's focus on the statistic that 83% of B2B buyers engage in self-discovery before ever speaking to a sales representative.

We also explore Todd's unique journey into pre-sales, starting from his early days in consulting to becoming a solution engineer at Salesforce. He shared insights on how he developed innovative approaches to enhance demo environments and improve the overall buyer experience, emphasizing the need for solution engineers to unlock their full potential throughout the customer journey.

So, grab a seat and get ready, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

View Details

Sarah Idriss is a PreSales + Product dream state, blending customer feedback with product roadmap in innovative ways, and It's my pleasure to have her on the PreSales Podcast.

Episode Takeaways:

Relationship of Product + PreSales (and beyond).
The vital role PreSales plays in shaping product development and ensuring alignment with customer needs.
What makes a good product...and what makes a great product?
What differentiates good products from great ones: integrating PreSales feedback into product innovation.
Feedback loop - how to fine-tune product features.
Using PreSales insights to fine-tune product features, leading to more market-ready and successful launches.
Customer-centric product and presales focus, how to build something that matters

Product & PreSales are each other's best weapons to get great outcomes, but their primary drivers are often different. Sarah talks about her drive to build the best product to give the most value to as many people as possible at scale. Embracing the different drivers of PreSales and Product teams helps her forge more effective relationships between both departments to get the ultimate win.

Sarah can be best reached at Sarah@reprise.com

Thank you for tuning in!

View Details

Hello and welcome to the PreSales podcast, is your host and PreSales Collective general manager Chris Mabry.

Today I’m speaking with Julia Lustig, SE Leader at Seismic and Co-Host of the Revenue Circus Podcast.

We explore how to create content on Linkedin, the future of solution consulting examining how this role is evolving in response to new challenges and technologies. We also discuss the importance of collaboration across departments and how AI is reshaping the pre-sales landscape.

You can find Julia Lustig on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-lustig/

Remember, these insights are not just theoretical; they are actionable strategies you can implement in your own work.

Thanks for tuning in, at PreSales Collective we are all about connecting and learning and growing together. we look forward to seeing you next time!

View Details

Episode Title: The Power of Technical Mastery in PreSales with Dan Hellerman

Host: Chris Mabry, General Manager of PreSales Collective Guest: Dan Hellerman, Technology Enthusiast and Co-Founder of Saleo

Episode Summary: In this episode, Chris Mabry sits down with Dan Hellerman to discuss the essential role of technical mastery for PreSales professionals. Dan shares his deep passion for technology and explains how a thorough understanding of the technical aspects of a product can be a game-changer in demo environments. From managing the complexities of SaaS environments to the critical role AI plays in shaping more effective demos, Dan dives into the nitty-gritty details that can make or break a PreSales experience.

Key Topics Covered:

The Balance Between Technical Depth and Sales Focus: Dan highlights the differing expectations between buyers, sellers, and solution engineers when it comes to technical details. While sellers often prioritize closing deals and driving revenue, buyers and SEs may be more focused on understanding the product's technical intricacies. Dan shares why it’s important for PreSales professionals to bridge this gap and provide both perspectives.
Why Technical Mastery is a "Superpower" for PreSales Professionals: Dan believes that those who take the time to deeply understand the products they are demoing—and even build demo environments from scratch—have a distinct advantage. This technical fluency allows them to address complex questions and instill confidence in buyers.
Dan's Journey in Software Development and Entrepreneurship: With a background in designing and developing software, Dan reflects on his career leading up to co-founding Saleo. His hands-on experience gives him a unique perspective on how to approach technical demos and product storytelling.
Navigating Buyer Skepticism in Demos: Drawing from his own experiences as a buyer, Dan explains how technical curiosity and detailed questioning often lead to skepticism in demo environments. He shares strategies on how to manage this and build trust with technically savvy buyers.
The Role of AI in Optimizing Demo Environments: Dan also touches on how AI is transforming demo environments and helping PreSales teams streamline their processes, making demos more interactive, personalized, and effective.

Quotes to Highlight:

"Technical mastery is the superpower that sets PreSales apart—it’s about telling the product's story in a way that resonates with both sellers and buyers."
"In my experience, the most compelling demos are the ones where you can really get into the technical weeds and show not just what a product does, but how it does it."

Guest Bio: Dan Hellerman is a co-founder of Saleo and a passionate technology enthusiast with a rich background in software development. He has a keen interest in solving complex technical problems and leveraging technology to drive business value.

Links:

Connect with Dan Hellerman on LinkedIn: Dan Hellerman LinkedIn

View Details

This episode delves into Ron Whitson's career journey as a presales professional, highlighting essential lessons learned along the way. While his technical skills initially secured my role, it was mastering human skills that truly accelerated his success.

Episode Takeaways * Imposter syndrome never really goes away * To excel as a presales professional, focus on human skills * There’s always something new to learn if you look for it * Guidance on growing into leadership as a presales professional

Closing Advice One of the best pieces of advice I received was from an IBM executive: “Run to the problem.” In presales, identifying issues and devising solutions proactively can set you apart.

Connect with Ron: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronwhitsonse/

Timeless Behaviors Book: https://timelessbehaviors.com/

View Details

Liz Anderson directs the PreSales Collective Enablement programming, from PreSales Academy through leadership training, channeling her PreSales experience through to world-class programming and facilitation.

Liz has well over a decade of experience and PreSales from organizations, large and small, from Slack to startups.

Episode Takeaways * Presales enablement is essential to prioritize and needs a balance between technical and soft skills. * Learning is best done with others both for practice and for accountability. * You are responsible for your own growth; create a plan that includes improving on things you’re already good at.

You can connect with Liz Anderson here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizandersonpresales/

PreSales Enablement Programming: https://www.presalescollective.com/programs/live-courses

For team training - please reach out!!

Thank you for tuning in.

View Details

Join Chris Mabry and Daniel Kish as they explore Daniel's unique career journey from chemical engineering to product marketing, with experience across military consulting, Salesforce, Gong, and Conveyor. He shares insights on the value of understanding technical details and balancing cost, performance, and time—lessons learned from his Special Forces tenure.

Daniel emphasizes that effective product marketing requires collaboration beyond the marketing department, particularly with presales teams. He advocates for proactive outreach and communication councils to align messaging and strategy.

The episode also delves into Conveyor's AI-driven tool for automating security reviews, reducing the administrative burden on sales engineers, and linking AI tools to CRMs for deeper insights and impact on revenue.

Daniel encourages a curious, adaptable approach to career growth in product marketing and presales. Connect with him at daniel@conveyor.com or on LinkedIn to keep the conversation going.

View Details

Today, I’m speaking with Patty Hager, Vice President of SMB Solution Engineering at Salesforce,

Patty and I discuss AI in Go To Market and presales, we dive into her insight on forecasting the future job of an SE, and much more.

Patty is passionate about inclusion in PreSales with her work as a council member of Women in Solutions Excellence PSC and director of WISE at Salesforce, and a previous PSC Ambassador.

I also share insight into my experience in this area.

You can connect with Patty here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattyhager/

Patty Hager shared her upcoming volunteer experience with Bridge to Rwanda through Salesforce's unique 1-1-1 philanthropic model. This initiative dedicates 1% of the company's equity, products, and employees' time to global community support.

You can find the organization here: https://www.bridge2rwanda.org/

Conclusion: Looking Ahead The integration of AI, continuous learning, and meaningful community involvement are crucial for the modern presales professional. By forecasting future job roles and staying ahead of industry trends, professionals can ensure their indispensable value to their organizations and clients.

Best Ways to Get Involved and Stay Connected For more insights and to connect with Patty Hager, follow her on LinkedIn. Stay tuned for updates on her volunteer trip to Rwanda and join the PreSales Collective community for further engagement and learning opportunities.

View Details

Today I spoke with Matthew Young James, Senior Solutions Engineer at Codat, a 2024 PSC Ambassador, and the NYC PreSales guy.

Cross-departmental relationships are not a choice in our profession, they are a part of everyday life - and I’d argue that they are one of the main reasons we exist

We dive into his experience facing challenging relationships and let him share what he would have done differently.

I also shared insight into my experience in this area - it was a fun conversation!

Nobody wants to take work home with them but sometimes it’s less of a choice - Matthew and I talk about how to do this better.

Matthew's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/

If you tuned in, please share your favorite takeaway with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pscgm/

View Details

Today, I’m speaking with Evan Powell, Co-Founder of Reprise. We discuss market trends, where PreSales and Solutions folks can take advantage of the need in GTM today, and he shares his insights from designing enterprise solutions with what he refers to as a Demo Program.

I love talking with Evan because he gets it. From D&D to his journey in Sales, he understands the challenges we face here in PreSales and loves the community.

The title for todays episode is Founder Stories: Demo Programs meet buyers where they are w/Evan Powell

We talk about:

Buying in 2024 is different - we need to meet the prospect where they are
Selling is a team sport - a Demo Program is necessary to enable your entire GTM team and help your buyer
Trends in AI and Demo Automation

One of my biggest takeaways is this: Now is the time to expand your influence. Executives are hungry for the information you have and the unique skills you bring to the table. Don’t squander the chance.

There are so many golden nuggets here - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and thank you for tuning in.

Thank you for joining me today on this epic adventure with Evan Powell

You can find Evan on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanwapowell/

Evan's email evan@reprise.com,

And Reprise.com

Thank you for tuning in. At PSC we are about learning, connecting, and growing. I believe investing in these three pillars will greatly increase your success and happiness at work and in life.

View Details

Today, I’m speaking with Diana Cappello, Director of Solutions Consulting at Eightfold and Founder of Templates for SCs. Diana is a true leader in Solutions, driving professional growth and the conversation in our community around diversity, leadership, and more. Diana has presented at multiple industry conferences and founded her new venture - templates for SEs.

The title for today's episode is Hiring: How to Build an Inclusive Bench

We will dive into the important and sometimes sticky subject of building inclusive teams on purpose, focused on sourcing goals and Diana’s unique approach to building incredibly successful teams.

We talk about:

Where to find great talent
How to build teams for performance
Where a little change can make a massive difference

One of my biggest takeaways is to build a sourcing goal instead of a hiring one. Simply finding the right sources is key - and great talent is most likely already employed. You have to go the extra mile as a hiring manager to make it happen.

You can find Diana on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianacappello/

Templates 4 SCs: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Templates4SCs

Thank you for tuning in. At PSC we are about learning, connecting, and growing. I believe investing in these three pillars will greatly increase your success and happiness at work and in life.

View Details

Welcome to the PreSales Podcast. It’s your host and PSC GM, Chris Mabry.

Today, I have the privilege of speaking with David Duffett, a Telecom presales engineer who has transitioned into an award-winning speaker and coach. David is the mastermind behind “Let the Geek Speak” and has delivered numerous impactful keynotes to technical sales organizations. You might recall his engaging session at our Elevate and Engage summit, where he was the esteemed Keynote for the day.

The title for today's episode is Techie Turbo: Accelerating Personal Achievement through Comms Skills.

Today, we delve into David’s 7 Power Presenting Protocols, a treasure trove of practical tips and strategies. His passion lies in helping us technical professionals create effective structures and frameworks for our presentations, enabling us to make a real impact.

We talk about:

Why Technical people are not always the best communicators
How our ability to connect and engage affects our perceived value
Where a little change can make a massive difference.

David Duffett's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidduffett/

PreSales Collective Elevate and Engage Summit Keynote w/David Duffett: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0JTDnNMG9Y

There are so many golden nuggets here - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and thank you for tuning in.

View Details

Welcome to the Presales Podcast. I'm Chris Mabry, your host and PreSales Collective general manager. Today, I spoke with Akash Bensall, founder and COO of Storylane.

The title for today's episode is Founder Stories Buyer Enablement with Demo Automation

We dive into Akash's journey from his move to America, his experience as a solution engineer, and the adventure of entrepreneurship. We talk about product-led growth, the new mantra of buyer enablement, how buyers are changing, and how companies need to adapt to this trend.

Akasha's story and his journey is incredible.

One of my biggest takeaways is how we can show up every day to do consistent work, even boring work, with compassion for ourselves and everyone around us and have a little fun while we're doing it.

You can find Akash here on LinkedIn.

And, of course, on the Storylane website.

Thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

View Details

Welcome to the PreSales Podcast! Your host and PSC GM, Chris Mabry, speaks with Ross Rotherham, Leadership Coach, PreSales Leader, holistic medicine practitioner, and much more.

The title for today's episode is Coaching for PreSales Leaders.

We will dive into Ross’s journey from holistic medicine to coaching, defining and differentiating mentoring and coaching. We unpack the different styles and uses of coaching and provide tips for Leaders to enhance their coaching using the concepts of Curious Communication: Conscious Listening, Effective Questioning, and Intentional Presence

We barely scratch the surface on Ross’s journey and how his craft can give us an incredible advantage in our business conversations and in life. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and thank you for tuning in.

You can reach Ross here on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ross-rotherham-coach/

View Details

In this episode of the PreSales Podcast, Chris Mabry speaks with Kai Tillman - Army Veteran, 5x published author, educator, and Senior Solutions Engineer at Atlassian.

One of the biggest takeaways is this:

Veterans have a unique blend of skills and experiences that equip them to tackle complex challenges easily. They have GRIT and stay steady while faced with huge change, making them a perfect fit for the dynamic world of presales.

We discuss Kai’s unique journey, the significant challenges veterans face while transitioning into civilian work, and go deep into Kai’s philosophy and experience.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, and thank you for tuning in.

View Details

In this episode of the PreSales Podcast, Chris Mabry and Justin McDonald discuss Justin’s journey from individual contributor to Founder and CEO. We discuss struggles, lessons learned along the way, and tools he developed as an SE that he still uses today as a CEO.

Explore the rising significance of live demos in SaaS sales world
Discuss how a demo isn’t just a “presentation” but a methodology/process you must go through to unpack and discover what the client needs.
Explore strategies for maximum impact and best practices for engaging your audience.
Highlight the advantages that live demos have for Sales Engineers (SEs) to enhance customer engagement and conversion rates but also offer SEs to have a unique competitive and professional edge.

Thank you for tuning in!

PSC

View Details

In this Letter to the Community, I introduce myself to the PreSales community as the new General Manager, giving insight into my backstory as a Solution Consultant and the journey to leading and managing teams.

I unpack what I love most about my career and the PreSales Collective: People. The human story of growth, friendship, and potential is what drives me.

At PreSales Collective, we believe the investment in three pillars leads to

Personal and Professional Development.
Thought Leadership Content.
Meaningful Connections.

If you are investing in professional and personal development, consuming high-quality/thought leadership content in your space, and making meaningful connections - You are operating at a higher potential than if you are not.

Period.

Tune-in and Connect!

143 Letter to the Community w/Chris Mabry

View Details

This six-part series is designed to help Solutions Consultants of all experience levels perfect their craft and be the best in their field. Through interviews and case studies with experienced professionals, we’ll unpack real-life stories and get actionable insights into what you can do right now to become a world-class SC.

Tune in and discover strategies for:

Continuous learning and improvement
Taking ownership of the customer experience
Developing and maintaining relationships with stakeholders
And much more!

This ‘Becoming a World Class Solutions Professional’ framework was developed by Yuji Higashi as part of the PreSales Foundations program.

Becoming a World-Class SC: Mentoring and Coaching Others (Part 6 of 6) w/Sidney Gomez Host: Mattie Stremic, Head of Academy, PreSales Academy

View Details

This six-part series is designed to help Solutions Consultants of all experience levels perfect their craft and be the best in their field. Through interviews and case studies with experienced professionals, we’ll unpack real-life stories and get actionable insights into what you can do right now to become a world-class SC.

Tune in and discover strategies for:

Continuous learning and improvement
Taking ownership of the customer experience
Developing and maintaining relationships with stakeholders
And much more!

This ‘Becoming a World Class Solutions Professional’ framework was developed by Yuji Higashi as part of the PreSales Foundations program.

Becoming a World-Class SC: Developing your External Network (Part 5 of 6) w/Ron Whitson Host: Mattie Stremic, Head of Academy, PreSales Academy

View Details

This six-part series is designed to help Solutions Consultants of all experience levels perfect their craft and be the best in their field. Through interviews and case studies with experienced professionals, we’ll unpack real-life stories and get actionable insights into what you can do right now to become a world-class SC.

Tune in and discover strategies for:

Continuous learning and improvement
Taking ownership of the customer experience
Developing and maintaining relationships with stakeholders
And much more!

This ‘Becoming a World Class Solutions Professional’ framework was developed by Yuji Higashi as part of the PreSales Foundations program.

Becoming a World-Class SC: Maintaining a Learning Mindset (Part 4 of 6) w/Adam Lazzara Host: Mattie Stremic, Head of Academy, PreSales Academy

View Details

This six-part series is designed to help Solutions Consultants of all experience levels perfect their craft and be the best in their field. Through interviews and case studies with experienced professionals, we’ll unpack real-life stories and get actionable insights into what you can do right now to become a world-class SC.

Tune in and discover strategies for:

Continuous learning and improvement
Taking ownership of the customer experience
Developing and maintaining relationships with stakeholders
And much more!

This ‘Becoming a World Class Solutions Professional’ framework was developed by Yuji Higashi as part of the PreSales Foundations program.

Episode 139. Becoming a World-Class SC: Gaining Visibility & Broadening Your Impact (Part 3 of 6) w/Maria Lat Host: Mattie Stremic, Head of Academy, PreSales Academy

View Details

This six-part series is designed to help Solutions Consultants of all experience levels perfect their craft and be the best in their field. Through interviews and case studies with experienced professionals, we’ll unpack real-life stories and get actionable insights into what you can do right now to become a world-class SC.

Tune in and discover strategies for:

Continuous learning and improvement
Taking ownership of the customer experience
Developing and maintaining relationships with stakeholders
And much more!

This ‘Becoming a World Class Solutions Professional’ framework was developed by Yuji Higashi as part of the PreSales Foundations program.

Episode 138: Building Meaningful Relationships (Part 2 of 6) w/ Brandi Anderson. Host: Mattie Stremic, Head of Academy, PreSales Academy

View Details

This six-part series is designed to help Solutions Consultants of all experience levels perfect their craft and be the best in their field. Through interviews and case studies with experienced professionals, we’ll unpack real-life stories and get actionable insights into what you can do right now to become a world-class SC.

Tune in and discover strategies for:

Continuous learning and improvement
Taking ownership of the customer experience
Developing and maintaining relationships with stakeholders
And much more!

This ‘Becoming a World Class Solutions Professional’ framework was developed by Yuji Higashi as part of the PreSales Foundations program.

Episode 137: Becoming a World-Class SC: Pursuing Excellence (Part 1 of 6) w/ Munir Hussein. Host: Mattie Stremic, Head of Academy, PreSales Academy

View Details

This week on the PreSales Podcast, James spends a few minutes recapping 2022 and discussing PreSales Collective's strategy for 2023! Don't worry, the PSC Podcast isn't going anywhere, but it is changing to bi-weekly and has some exciting format changes! The data tells us that people listen to every single episode every week so please use this chance to catch up on the episodes you've missed.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Dini Mehta connect on "CROs Perspective: Unlocking the Solutions Consultant." Dini, Former Chief Revenue Officer at Lattice and Part Time Operator at Operator Collective, discusses how and why she believes Solutions Consulting is a strategic component of the Go-To-Market organization. Dini shares her strategy to scale Solutions and use the role as a conduit to other parts of the organization.

View Details

In 2021, the PreSales Collective released a State of Diversity report for the entire PreSales

community. This report, with research supported by the Sales Talent Agency, benchmarked diversity metrics in our industry so that we could more fully understand the gender and ethnic makeup of the profession. We committed to putting out a report every year so that we could use the data over time to track trends and most importantly, focus on engagement with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) efforts field-wide. So, where is this year’s report? Join Cindy Goodwin-Sak, VP of Global Sales Engineering at Anomoli and Shawna James, Sr. Manager of Community at PreSales Collective, to discuss their plans to work on a much larger, more comprehensive survey with PhD researchers and PreSales executives who are focused on the qualified advancement of DE&I programs and initiatives across our industry.

Want to be a part of a history making report? Fill out the State of Diversity survey here:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/G6WTZ65

All answers are completely anonymous and data is held privately.

This report will help us play our part and we are grateful for your participation.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, Mattie and Emmanuel Fadajutimi connect on "Lessons From My First Year in PreSales" Emmanuel, Solutions Engineer at Hubspot, talks about the realities of what’s like to be an early-career SC, lessons he’s learned over the past year, and what it means to have a learner mindset regardless of where you are in your career.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, Mattie Stremic connects with Allison Macalik and Gizelle Panton to discuss why “Mentorship Matters." Allison Macalik, Lead Solutions Engineer and Team Lead at Salesforce, and Gizelle Panton, Solutions Engineer at LinkedIn, share about their mentorship relationship, how to successfully mentor, and the importance of mentorship in career development. Gizelle and Allison were paired when Gizelle enrolled in the PreSales Foundations enablement course and have stayed connected ever since. Learn more about how to approach mentorship and why it makes all the difference in your personal and professional growth.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, Mattie Stremic connects with Allison Macalik and Gizelle Panton to discuss why “Mentorship Matters." Allison Macalik, Lead Solutions Engineer and Team Lead at Salesforce, and Gizelle Panton, Solutions Engineer at LinkedIn, share about their mentorship relationship, how to successfully mentor, and the importance of mentorship in career development. Gizelle and Allison were paired when Gizelle enrolled in the PreSales Foundations enablement course and have stayed connected ever since. Learn more about how to approach mentorship and why it makes all the difference in your personal and professional growth.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Jeff Stewart connect on "PreSales Performance – Metrics That Matter." Jeff, Field CTO and Vice President, Global Solutions Engineering at SolarWinds, talks about what the PreSales Metrics are that truly highlight the impact of Solutions on the business. Jeff highlights how he looks at Team and Individual Performance as well as Sales Performance, Productivity and Efficiency, and Business Impact with Data. Additionally, James and Jeff have a philosophical conversation regarding the future of measuring Solutions Data.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Meghan Noel connect on "Running PreSales like a Business." Meghan, Global Vice President of PreSales at Amplitude, talks about the critical business drivers to ensure your Solutions team is elevated within your organization. Meghan shares why ensuring our profession is viewed as true revenue drivers is more important than ever.

Referenced Presentation: https://goconsensus.com/demofest-video/scaling-your-presales-organization/

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Meghan Noel connect on "Running PreSales like a Business." Meghan, Global Vice President of PreSales at Amplitude, talks about the critical business drivers to ensure your Solutions team is elevated within your organization. Meghan shares why ensuring our profession is viewed as true revenue drivers is more important than ever.

Referenced Presentation: https://goconsensus.com/demofest-video/scaling-your-presales-organization/

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, Mattie Stremic and Akanksha Sehgal connect on "Building a Solutions Academy." Akanksha, Director of Global Solution Engineering at VMware, discusses the importance of entry-level or academy programs and provides tactical advice on how to build an academy program.

Learn More about PreSales Academy: www.presalesacademy.com

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, Mattie Stremic and Akanksha Sehgal connect on "Building a Solutions Academy." Akanksha, Director of Global Solution Engineering at VMware, discusses the importance of entry-level or academy programs and provides tactical advice on how to build an academy program.

Learn More about PreSales Academy: www.presalesacademy.com

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Jamel Reimer connect on "Closing Eight-Figure Deals." Jamal, Author of Mega Deal Secrets and Founder of the Enterprise Sellers Community, talks about his experience closing multiple $50,000,000+ deals. Jamal, a former Account Executive and Sales Leader turned Community Leader, has the unique expertise in closing deals that a tiny percentage of sellers have ever closed. Jamal shares best practices for navigating big organizations' complexities and how it takes entire teams to close the biggest deals.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Paul Harris connect on "The Intriguing Similarities between Professional Athletes and Solutions Professionals." Paul, Principal Solution Architect at Loftware & PreSales Collective Ambassador, talks about how PreSales onboarding and development should be treated like top athletes. Paul discusses that development is a two-way street between player and coach, with a focus on continuous development and seeking the extra margin.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, Mattie Stremic hosts Winny Delcin and Nina Berger on the topic of “Meet the PreSales Academy Team.” Winny, Training Program Manager, and Nina, Career Services Manager, are two of the newest members of the PreSales Collective team and are heavily involved in the day-to-day of PreSales Academy. In this episode, we learn more about Winny and Nina, their backgrounds, why they love PSA, and how to get more involved in helping the next generation of Solutions professionals.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, Mattie Stremic connects with James Kaikis to discuss “Two Years & 125 Episodes Later”. The podcast has experienced incredible success over the last several years with almost 167,000 listens, an immense amount of topics, and guests from all around the world. For this episode, Mattie asked James to discuss the history of this podcast, how elevated voices to the profession, and the lessons he’s learned over the years.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Garin Hess connect on "How a Buyer Enablement Approach to Deal Review Improves Forecasting." Garin, Author of Selling Is Hard. Buying Is Harder: How Buyer Enablement Drives Digital Sales and Shortens the Sales Cycle and CEO/Founder of Consensus, discusses how sales teams need to make buying easier by equipping champions to sell within their organization. Garin also provides stories and very tactical advice to deal review that will better forecasting within an organization.

View Details

Research shows that what buyers want most from vendors are product demos. But what type of demo should we deliver at each stage of the buyer journey?

‍Many PreSales professionals categorize demos into two types: the standard demo and the technical demo.

‍In reality, there are six critical types of demos that most stakeholders in the buying group must go through to reach a decision.

Knowing what the buyer is thinking and the problems they are trying to solve at each stage of the buying process is key to understanding what type of demo to deliver. In this webinar, we discuss the six essential types of demos, their recommended content, recommended length, and who should be leading them.

We'll also discuss the role demo automation can play--where it is useful and where you should avoid it. J

Hear from Garin Hess, author of "Selling is Hard. Buying is Harder." and Founder of Consensus on leveraging each of the demo types to make your PreSales team more effective.

Sign up or sign in at www.presalescollective.com

View Details

* Early Release * This week the PreSales Podcast is utilizing VIDEO!

Research shows that what buyers want most from vendors are product demos. But what type of demo should we deliver at each stage of the buyer journey?

‍Many PreSales professionals categorize demos into two types: the standard demo and the technical demo.

‍In reality, there are six critical types of demos that most stakeholders in the buying group must go through to reach a decision.

Knowing what the buyer is thinking and the problems they are trying to solve at each stage of the buying process is key to understanding what type of demo to deliver. In this webinar, we discuss the six essential types of demos, their recommended content, recommended length, and who should be leading them.

We'll also discuss the role demo automation can play--where it is useful and where you should avoid it. J

Hear from Garin Hess, author of "Selling is Hard. Buying is Harder." and Founder of Consensus on leveraging each of the demo types to make your PreSales team more effective.

Sign up or sign in at www.presalescollective.com

View Details

* Early Release * This week the PreSales Podcast is utilizing VIDEO!

Research shows that what buyers want most from vendors are product demos. But what type of demo should we deliver at each stage of the buyer journey?

‍Many PreSales professionals categorize demos into two types: the standard demo and the technical demo.

‍In reality, there are six critical types of demos that most stakeholders in the buying group must go through to reach a decision.

Knowing what the buyer is thinking and the problems they are trying to solve at each stage of the buying process is key to understanding what type of demo to deliver. In this webinar, we discuss the six essential types of demos, their recommended content, recommended length, and who should be leading them.

We'll also discuss the role demo automation can play--where it is useful and where you should avoid it. J

Hear from Garin Hess, author of "Selling is Hard. Buying is Harder." and Founder of Consensus on leveraging each of the demo types to make your PreSales team more effective.

Sign up or sign in at www.presalescollective.com

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Andrew Birnbaum connect on "PreSales Role in Champion Building." Andrew, Vice President of Solutions Engineering at Celonis, talks about how Solutions teams can play a bigger role in the sales cycle by building Champions. Champion building is no longer just the responsibility of sales executives exclusively as buyers, enterprises, and products are more sophisticated than ever. The Solutions Consultant, serving as a trusted advisor, can help cultivate champions to accelerate deal velocity and drive ACV (Annual Contract Value).

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Andrew Birnbaum connect on "PreSales Role in Champion Building." Andrew, Vice President of Solutions Engineering at Celonis, talks about how Solutions teams can play a bigger role in the sales cycle by building Champions. Champion building is no longer just the responsibility of sales executives exclusively as buyers, enterprises, and products are more sophisticated than ever. The Solutions Consultant, serving as a trusted advisor, can help cultivate champions to accelerate deal velocity and drive ACV (Annual Contract Value).

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Achint Sehgal connect on "Democratizing Trust in Solutions Leadership." Achint, Director of Solutions Engineering at OneTrust, talks about the importance of Trust in Sales and, especially, Solutions Consulting. Achint provides very tactical ways for leaders and organizations to make trust more than just a buzzword and a concrete part of your team's DNA.

Watch Achint’s presentation on this topic at the 2021 PreSales Leadership Collective Executive Summit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_aRj0hyjuo

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Achint Sehgal connect on "Democratizing Trust in Solutions Leadership." Achint, Director of Solutions Engineering at OneTrust, talks about the importance of Trust in Sales and, especially, Solutions Consulting. Achint provides very tactical ways for leaders and organizations to make trust more than just a buzzword and a concrete part of your team's DNA.

Watch Achint’s presentation on this topic at the 2021 PreSales Leadership Collective Executive Summit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_aRj0hyjuo

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Mattie Stremic connect with Curtis Barber and Jess Ashwood to discuss "Untapped Talent: The Education Exodus."

Curtis, Associate Solutions Engineer at SOCi, and Jess, Solution Expert at UKG, share their journey's from Teachers to Solutions Consulting. Curtis and Jess graduated from the PreSales Academy and have immediately made an impact in their current roles. Learn more about how and why Teachers make amazing SCs.

Learn more about how you Change Your Career Trajectory at www.presalesacademy.com

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Mattie Stremic connect with Curtis Barber and Jess Ashwood to discuss "Untapped Talent: The Education Exodus."

Curtis, Associate Solutions Engineer at SOCi, and Jess, Solution Expert at UKG, share their journey's from Teachers to Solutions Consulting. Curtis and Jess graduated from the PreSales Academy and have immediately made an impact in their current roles. Learn more about how and why Teachers make amazing SCs.

Learn more about how you Change Your Career Trajectory at www.presalesacademy.com

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Paloma Garcia connect on "Solutions Role in Pipeline Generation". Paloma, Director of Solutions Consulting at ServiceNow, discusses her perspective on becoming a true partner to your customers and sales team by engaging in pipeline generation. Paloma believes that the best Solutions Consultants aid in sales by strategizing and executing different types of engagements in the sales process.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Tom Banton connect on "Investing in Future Solutions Leaders." Tom, Head of Leadership Enablement at PreSales Collective, discusses why the profession needs to be defining what GREAT Solutions Leadership looks like.

For more information on Leader Elevate and all PreSales Collective Enablement programs, visit www.presalescollective.com/enablement.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Chris Craft connect on "Stay Ready So You Don't Have To Get Ready." Chris, Technology Leader at Docusign, discusses his perspective on being ready for change. Technology is always changing and it is easy to become complacent so Chris provides guidance on how to stay curious and engaged so that you are always ahead of the technology curve to better support your customers.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Shawna James connect on "Building Community." Shawna, Community & Events Manager at PreSales Collective, talks about the importance of building belonging. Shawna hit the ground running when she joined the PreSales Collective in January 2021. After years of experience in Community Building, Shawna focused on building stronger ties through our various programs and the impact has been palpable. Shawna shares her story and why community matters to her. More importantly, she discusses how PSC will continue to aim to emphasize a sense of belonging while building out a world-class community.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Elena Hutchison connect on "SC Impact on Marketing." Elena, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Product Marketing at Medallia, talks about her career journey up from non-traditional PreSales talent to Solutions Consulting Leader and now Strategy and Product Marketing. During her time at Medallia, Elena and the SC’s were introduced as a secret weapon to Analyst Relations and other Marketing functions. Listen to Elena discuss how your SC team can be at the center of influence both internally and externally.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Shamil Turner connect on "Balancing Pre & Post Sales in the World of Start-Ups." Shamil, Manager of Enterprise Solutions Architects at Figma, talks about the reality of early-stage SCs that support both Pre & Post Sale. The reality is that one role is Pitching, and the other role is Painting. In organizations still looking for product-market fit, PreSales teams need to be audible ready and be that trusted advisor throughout the customer life cycle.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Rich Kline connect on the topic "The 5 R’s of Leadership". Rich, Vice President of Solutions Engineering at OwnBackup, talks about the 5 R’s of Leadership: Revenue, Recruiting, Retain, Ramp, and Relationship. The 5 R’s are a way to think about what’s most important and how PreSales Leaders see the bigger picture. For scaling PreSales organizations, having a framework helps with great alignment.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Woody Evans connect on the topic “Business Discovery University.” Woody, Vice President, Global Presales at Delphix, discusses teaching and scaling business discovery within a PreSales Organization. Business Discovery University, or BDU, is a program Woody created to help Solutions Consultants improve the behavior that’s hardest to learn, most valuable, and that needs the most practice: meta-cognition.

Read More: https://www.presalescollective.com/content/business-discovery-university-for-presales

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Piet Saegeman connect on the topic “Strategic Messaging”. Piet, Messaging Strategist at Yamazoni, talks about how good messaging optimizes the buying journey and drives business results. The reality is that every organization has a messaging strategy, but few manage it well. PreSales professionals are often the go-between for Marketing’s messaging approach and the reality of the messaging in the field by the Sales team.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Ash Davis connect on “Communicating Value Effectively.” Ash, Principal Practice Lead at Red Hat and PSC DEEI Council Member, talks about how Value is not about you or your product but the customer. To effectively communicate Value and establish trust, more listening than talking is required. Ash delivers so much Value around how Solutions Consultants can elevate how they deliver Value in their day-to-day.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis, Alex Navarrete, and Felix Navarrete connect on "Establishing Yourself as A New SE." Felix, Solutions Consultant at Gainsight and recent PreSales Academy graduate, and Alex, Sr. Sales Engineer at Slack, discuss Felix's recent transition to the PreSales profession. Making a career change can be daunting, so Felix provides his experience from his first few months in the role. Alex, a veteran in the profession, discusses how he has offered guidance to his brother but, more importantly, how SCs need to re-establish themselves year after year.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Diana Cappello connect on the topic "Building a Customer Growth Org". Diana, Director of Solutions Engineering at Eightfold, discusses her experience building out a Customer Growth team at Clari. In this role, Solutions Engineers support the growth of existing customers only. This model is both interesting and important to the future of PreSales organizational structures. Hear Diana offer tactical advice on what and why a customer growth team and how she is going to implement the same structure in her new role at eightfold.ai.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Ajay Jay connect on "The Disparity between Technical Win and Business Win Rates." Ajay, Co-Founder and CEO, talks about his experience with the highly debated Technical Win. Ajay also provides a valuable framework for understanding Technical Win and its impact on organizations related to Sales 3.0.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Dola Akinduro connect on the topic "Always Be Learning". Dola, Senior Manager of PreSales EMEA at Hubspot, talks about her perspective on the constant learning journey that all PreSales professionals are on. Dola provides tactical advice on change and both personal and professional growth.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Scott Blacker connect on the topic "Leveraging the Flywheel at Scale”. Scott, Global Head of Solutions Engineering at Atlassian, discusses Atlassian’s go-to-market strategy as it relates to the flywheel. With the topic of Product-Led Growth on the rise, Scott breaks down what the flywheel effect is and how it impacts the Solutions Engineers role within the organization.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Erin Baker connect on the topic "How To Get Promoted". Erin, Director of Solutions Consulting at AlayaCare and PreSales Collective Ambassador, talks about her promotion journey from Client Success Associate to Solutions Engineer and now Director of Solutions Engineering. Erin has been promoted 4 times during her 4.5 years at AlayaCare so she will share what has worked for her, how she has stood out, and what advice she has for those looking to make that leap.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Jonathan Friedman connect on "Connecting Product to Value with Better Storytelling." Jonathan, Co-Founder & CEO at Demostack, talks about how the changes in buyer behavior force organizations to take a new approach to selling. PreSales plays a crucial role in the revenue process in this new approach. Solutions Engineers need to connect product to value through storytelling early and often in the demo and sales process.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Katie Meloche connect on the topic "Career Confidence". Katie, Senior Strategic Value Advisor at Adobe, shares her personal experience and story of her career and how not to tie self-worth into career achievements. Katie is vulnerable and open as it relates to the impact of the demands of the PreSales professional. This is a great episode for anyone struggling with career confidence and finding their worth.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Rishi Kapoor connect on the topic "The Importance of Team Selling". Rishi is a Consulting Lead Sales Engineer at Alteryx, and a PSC Ambassador, discusses what team selling is, why it is essential, and how, if done right, it unlocks a better customer experience.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Courtney Flickwir connect on the topic "Rearchitecting the Experience". Courtney, Member Experience Manager at PreSales Collective, talks about how we are improving our current PreSales Collective Member Experience. There are many ways to be involved and engaged in PreSales Collective, which can have both benefits and cause confusion. Our new Member Hub and redesigned website are all about a frictionless experience.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Kevin Mefford connect on the topic "Spring World Tour”. Kevin, Head of Community at PreSales Collective, talks about why PreSales Collective is building community and belonging in the face to face setting. The Spring World Tour is a 17 city event schedule for PreSales professionals to connect and network with their peers.

Learn more about where we are going on our events schedule on www.presalescollective.com. Alternatively, all events are listed in our member hub or our https://lu.ma/psc/events

PSC Shop for World Tour T-Shirts: https://www.shop.presalescollective.com/

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Amin Ibrahim connect on the topic "Leveling Up the Demo". Amin, Senior Director of Value and Solutions at Hootsuite & PSLC Council Member, talks about elevating the demo experience. Expectations of our prospects are changing so how do Solutions Consultants alter our demos to meet customers where they are. In this episode, James and Amin reference Donald Miller’s “Creating a Story Brand” book and how things like emotional hoosk, heroes, and villians play a role in captivating audiences.

Read Amin’s article on the Pyramid of PreSales on the PreSales Collective blog: https://www.presalescollective.com/post/the-pyramid-of-presales

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Tom Banton connect on the topic "Back on the Road". Tom, Global Vice President of Solutions Engineering at eightfold.ai & PreSales Collective Ambassador, shares his experience in face to face customer meetings. As we leave the remote-only world, there are new rules of the game for in person sales meetings. Tom shares his learnings and offers advice for those just starting face to face meetings.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis, Ben Fleishman, and Jenna Jienzle connect on the topic "Forging a Foundation for Success". Ben, Director of Solutions Engineering at Showpad and Jenna, Solutions Engineer at Showpad, dicuss the creation and success of their Associate SE program. Listen to Jenna's story from BDR to ASE to SE! Spoiler alert - Jenna just won SE of the Year.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Bonnie Alexander connect on the topic "Increasing Your Visibility". Bonnie, PreSales Manager, talks about the importance of building your brand internally and external. As PSC continues to discuss elevating the role of PreSales, Bonnie provides guidance to PreSales professionals to get the recognition they deserve!

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Sheryl Stering connect on the topic "Transition to Director of Sales". Sheryl, Director of Sales and National Accounts at Omnigo, discusses her move from Systems Engineering into Sales. Sheryl's background in PreSales is allowing her to approach sales with a different perspective, which is making an impact on her organization!

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Neil McLean connect on the topic "State of Product Demos". Neil, Co-Founder and CEO at Navattic, reviews the results of the PreSales Collective & Navattic State of Product Demo survey. Buyer expectations are changing and standard sales led demos are still the most common way most prospects first engage with a product but prospects are looking for alternatives.

See the report here: State of Product Demo Report

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Thomas Bieser connect on the topic "A Story About Hyper-Growth". Thomas, VP of Global Solutions Consulting at Forter, talks about his experience as one of the first Solution Consultant at OKTA. Thomas shares his learning and perspective about Hyper-Growth as he saw OKTA grow from a 1 million to 1 billion dollar company.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Dr. Brian Glibkowski connect on the topic "Answer Intelligence". Dr. Glibkowski, Author of Raise your AQ, talks about how questions and answers are both important to PreSales. While we typically focus on questions, or objections, answers are just as important. To note, James is a co-author of the Sales AQ Chapter in Raise your AQ.

Link to PreSales Collective blog article: https://www.presalescollective.com/post/steve-jobs-had-high-aq-and-so-can-you

View Details

This week on the PreSales Podcast, Eli Neumann joins James Kaikis to discuss "Sharpen the Saw". Eli, Vice President Worldwide Sales Engineers at Tenable and PSLC Council Member, talks about an iterative peer group competition that he runs with his PreSales organization. Each event highlights different PreSales skills and, ultimately, sharpens the skills of his Sales Engineering organization.

View Details

This week on the PreSales Podcast, James makes a few bold predictions about the future of the PreSales profession. Also, PreSales Collective is focused on providing more opportunities to those who want to get more engaged: www.presalescollective.com/contribute

View Details

This week on the PreSales Podcast, James discusses how PreSales Academy is building the next generation of PreSales professionals. Too often companies want to hire Unicorns, Sales Engineers that are technical savvy, business savvy, AND have years of experience. In reality, this is near impossible to hire for, let alone someone in an entry level position. PreSales Academy is making PreSales more accessible for people who want to change their trajectory with a career in technology.

View Details

This week on the PreSales Podcast, James discusses fixing the diversity problems in PreSales. Sales Engineering is the best job that no one has ever heard of yet companies make it nearly impossible to break into the role. The profession will benefit immensely from increase diversity so we must all do our part to lead from the front.

Resources:

2021 State of Diversity in PreSales Report

PreSales Academy

PreSales Collective WISE Program

PreSales Collective DEEI Program

Why does DEEI Matter Video Series

Webinar: Why Inclusivity Matters for Closing Business

Webinar: Driving Better Business Results Through Diversity & Inclusion

View Details

This week on the PreSales Podcast, James highlights the shift in b2b sales and how the PreSales professional is more important than ever. According to LinkedIn's State of Sales in 2021 report, 65% of sellers always say that they put the buyers first but only 23% of buyers agree with that statement. Listen in on why James and PSC believe that PreSales Professionals are future of Sales.

View Details

This week on the PreSales Podcast, James reflects on PreSales Collective's accomplishments, the Power of Community, and the future of PreSales Collective, PreSales Leadership Collective, and PreSales Academy.

PSC is focused on architecting a better member experience in 2022. Learn more about how that will happen in this podcast!

Executive Summit Sessions referenced:
We've Arrived. The Year of the PreSales Professional by James Kaikis
The Power of Community by Naz Irani & David Maloof

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Wendy McHenry connect on the topic "Scaling the Right Way". Wendy, Senior Solutions Consulting Effectiveness Manager at Pegasystems and PSC WISE Council Member, talks about the core components of scaling a PreSales organization. As companies experience rapid growth, we sometimes experience frustration that the way we used to do things doesn’t work anymore. The foundational aspects of scale are people, process, and technology.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis, Kevin Mefford, and Mattie Stremic connect on the topic "Meet the PSC Team". Kevin and Mattie are the first two employees for PreSales Collective. Kevin joined the team in July 2021 as the Head of Community and Mattie joined as our Head of PreSales Academy Programming in November 2021. These two incredible people are doing a great job at moving the PreSales profession forward. In this episode, the community will have the opportunity to learn more about Kevin and Mattie!

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Julie Donaldson connect on the topic "Promoting Women in Solutions Excellence (WISE)". Julie, Director of Solution Engineering at Oracle and Chairwoman at PreSales Collective WISE Council, talks about her experience leading the PSC WISE council. Julie also discusses the council's favorite parts of 2021 and how they will use that momentum to elevate the program in 2022 and beyond.

Learn more about PreSales Collective's WISE program:
www.presalescollective.com/wise

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Rachel Tilghman connect on the topic "Giving Back to the Local Community". Rachel, Senior Solutions Consultant at Sprinklr, talks about her experience building Community. Rachel is actively involved in both PreSales & non-PreSales related groups in the Austin community. Learn how to make a meaningful impact within the local community!

www.presalescollective.com/contribute

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Brent Krempges connect on the topic "Hiring Non-Traditional Talent". Brent, Vice President of Solutions Consulting at Gainsight, talks about his process of hiring non-traditional talent. Brett and his organization have successfully hired a handful of non-PreSales professionals into their Solutions Consulting team. What is his secret? Tune in to find out!

Also, learn more about PreSales Academy: www.presalesacademy.com

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Greg Holmes connect on the topic "Global Expansion". Greg, Regional Vice President of PreSales at Apptio, talks about Sales Engineering's impact around the globe. Greg highlights some of the projects that he is working on to bring awareness to the PreSales role and better support the global audience.

Join PreSales Collective on Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/club/presales-collective

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Chris Browne connect on the topic "Maximizing Your Impact on Your Team". Chris, Director of Solutions Consulting at Lattice, talks about the role of a manager and how creating a coaching culture is a key ingredient to employee and team success.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Tobias Dawes connect on the topic "Journey from PreSales to Founder". Tobias, Founder and CEO of Avnio, talks about the journey of a founder and how a PreSales foundation has been key to its success.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Tony Francetic connect on the topic "The Great Resignation - Retaining PreSales Talent". Tony, Solutions Consultant Manager at Thomson Reuters, talks about the challenges PreSales leaders face in an employee market. PreSales jobs are all of the buzz right now. People are switching roles at an all time high as valuations are high and venture money is flowing. Tony provides a perspective to both hiring manager and Sales Engineers looking to make a career change.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Yuji Higashi connect on the topic "Why We Created PreSales Academy". Yuji, Co-Founder of PreSales Collective & PreSales Academy, talks about the genesis story of PreSales Academy and how the program is a Win-Win-Win for future Sales Engineers, Hiring Managers, and PreSales Collective. In this episode we will also discuss our curriculum and hiring partners.

Learn more about PreSales Academy at www.presalesacademy.com

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Todd Janzen connect on the topic "Cultivating Change in Your PreSales Org". Todd, Global Vice President Solution Engineering, Q Branch at Salesforce, talks about how PreSales Leaders need to start taking charge and implementing change. We can no longer stand around and wait for things to be handed to us. Because this role is looked at as a “do it all”, sometimes we lose sight of what really matters: revenue. We're too busy digging this trench with our hands to fix the spark plugs in the excavator.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Megan Lin Gibbons connect on the topic "PreSales Operations". Megan, Head of Operations, Sales Engineering, talks about what the PreSales Operations role is and how it makes a positive impact on the business. Megan provides specifics on what the functions responsibilities are as well as how to measure the impact of operations. To continue the discussion, join our PreSales Collective Slack Channel #role_operations

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Stephanie Kinser connect on the topic "The Importance of Executive Sponsorship". Stephanie, Executive Vice President, Enterprise Solutions at Salesforce, talks about her experience with the Salesforce Women in Solutions Excellence (WISE) program and how executive sponsorship makes a tangible difference in the successes of Employee Resource Groups (ERG). Stephanie highlights ways to ensure your Executive Sponsor is working for you but also provides advice on how to maximize impact as an Executive Sponsor.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Ricardo Lupo connect on the topic "Constructing an Effective PreSale Team”. Ricardo, Head of Solutions Engineering at LogDNA, talks what he believes are the core components of an effective PreSales team. Ultimately, establishing a culture of feedback is crucial while we are in this remote- first culture.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Susan St. Ledger connect on the topic "Unlocking a High Growth Mindset". Susan, President of Worldwide Field Operations at Okta, talks about why and how to embrace a growth mindset. Susan speaks to the influential leaders who helped her mold her mindset and why embracing change is a very important step in unlocking a high growth mindset.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Anurag Goel connect on the topic "World Class Value Organizations”. Anurag, Global Head of Value Consulting and Realization at Red Hat, talks about what a Value Consultant is and how it is similar yet different from a Sales Engineer. Anurag also provides specifics into what a World Class Value Organization looks like and how it plugs into the Sales Cycle / Customer Life Cycle.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Rob Johnson connect on the topic "Leadership Development". Rob, Vice President EMEA Solutions Engineering at Celonis, talks about showing up as our authentic self in Leadership and utilizing it to create a culture of trust. Rob uses a term inspiring uniqueness, which is about maximizing employees potential and impact.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Shannon Trainor Stark connect on the topic "Best Practices for Experimentation". Shannon, Managing Director, Solutions Consulting Google Marketing Platform, talks about how she has created a culture of experimentation throughout her career. Things such as creating a framework, highlighting successes and failures, and stressing the idea of innovation as part of a teams DNA is how you create a PreSales culture that is always improving and iterating.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Dominic Dinardo connect on the topic "Life After PreSales". Dominic, CEO and Co-Founder of Aforza, talks about how his roles in PreSales prepared him for roles in Sales, General Management, and now as a CEO. Dominic started writing code when he was 12 years old & eventually went on to study Computer Science before getting his first job with oil giant Shell as a Unix Systems Consultant. Now, many years later he leads an exciting Industry Cloud company, Aforza as their CEO.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Tristan Tao connect on the topic "Unconventional Path (to PreSales)". Tristan, VP of Solutions at Iterable, talks about his winding career path from Software Engineer to CTO to Entrepreneur to PreSales professional. One of the most interesting aspects of the episode is how Tristan discusses the parallels between entrepreneurship and PreSales.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Tia Hopkins connect on the topic "Establishing Trust". Tia, Title, Vice President of Cyber Risk Advisory and Solutions Architecture, talks about how and why establishing trust amongst internal and external stakeholders is critical for success.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Toby Penn connect on the topic "The Power of a Positive Team". Toby, VP of North American PreSales at Recorded Future, talks about the impact positivity has in the workplace. Positivity is a choice and can have have a real impact on a team's success.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Patty Hager connect on the topic "The Rise of Intelligent Devices". Patty, Senior Director of North American PreSales - Intelligent Device Group @ Lenovo, talks about her transition from Software to Hardware Sales Engineering. Hardware, or Intelligent Device, companies are starting to utilize a Solution Selling motion that mimics traditional software companies.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and David Ashworth connect on the topic "Customer Life Cycle: PreSales Impact". David, VP of Delivery, Customer Succes and Growth at Provarity, talks about what the PreSales professionals role should and shouldn't be during the post sale customer experience. David has spent years in Sales Engineering work but is now leading post sale, where he is using his PreSales skills to ensure SEs have quality rules of engagement in the customer experience.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Doug Landis connect on the topic "A Venture Capitlist's View of PreSales". Doug, Growth Partner at Emergence Capital, talks about his view regarding the importance of the PreSales professional in Go-To-Market Organizations. Sales Engineers are having their day in the sun and Doug explains why.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Karen Catlin connect on the topic "Level Up Your Ally Game". Karen, an Advocate for Inclusive Workplaces, talks about why she started a company to promote being a better ally and how we as PreSales professionals can be more inclusive in the workplace.

More information on Karen's newsletter and books can be found at betterallies.com

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Christine Ehrenberger Stegmeyer connect on the topic "Building Your Personal Brand". Christine, Vice President of Solutions Consulting Americas at ServiceNow, talks about how and why your personal brand is so important both internally and externally. Christine provides elements of a personal brand and a framework for Sales Engineers to do a Brand Audit.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Supriya Yerramilli connect on the topic "Six-Month Check in: Life as a SE". Supriya, Sales Engineer at IT Glue, talks about her experience breaking into PreSales, getting hired as a Solutions Engineer, and ramping into the role. Supriya has hit the ground running and even won "SE of the Quarter" in her first ramped quarter.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Lee Johnson connect on the topic "Leading from the Front". Lee, Solution Architecture & Sales Engineering Lead at Virtustream and Chairman of the PreSales Collective DEEI council, talks about Diversity Issues within PreSales.

With the creation of our PreSales Collective Diversity, Equity, Equality, and Inclusion program, Lee and team are making the PreSales world a better place.

Books referenced:

Robert Livingston - The Conversation
James Clear - Autonomic Habits
Grant Cardone - The 10X rule

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Pat McQueen connect on the topic "The Process". Pat, SVP of Operations and Sales Engineering at Copado, talks about his experience in hypergrowth as an early employee at Salesforce.com and Salesforce.org. Pat discusses how instituing frameworks allowed for increased speed and velocity within his PreSales teams.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Richard Armstrong connect on the topic "The Technical Win". Richard, Head of Americas Solutions Engineering at Cloudflare, talks about the highly debated Technical Win and how it allows organizations to be clearer on what Sales Engineers are accountable for. As PreSales professionals, We must be able to show the business quantifiable results, how and to what extent we are contributing.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Yugi Higashi connect on the topic "A Year in Review". Yuji, Co-Founder of the PreSales Collective, talks about the genesis of the PreSales Collective on our one year anniversary of the podcast. One year later, what started as an idea to bring PreSales professionals together, is an 11,000 member global community.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and David Maloof connect on the topic "A PreSales Journey". David, GVP of Solution Engineering, Strategic Advisory Services & Scout Academy at Salesforce, talks about his PreSales Journey. From Sales Rep to Product to PreSales, David has worked in a number of capacities that has shaped the way he approaches PreSales.

View Details

Episode Description: On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis is joined by PreSales Book Club Leaders Steve Bullington & David Ledger plus active book club members Carly Wennogle and Mike Pastore. The crew discusses the PSC Book Club and each guests pitches a different book to read this summer!

Steve - LifeScale by Brian Solis

David - Range by David Epstein

Carly - Radical Candor by Kim Scott

Mike - Speed of Trust by Steven M.R. Covey

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Peter Polizzi connect on the topic "Building a Complex GoToMarket (GTM) Organization. Peter, Senior Vice President of Market Strategies and Technical Sales, talks about his new role at Splunk and how it could be the future of PreSales. Peter’s new role unifies five different departments under one roof to have a unified go to market message.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Naz Irani connect on the topic "Empowering Your People". Naz Irani, Head of Enterprise and Strategic Solutions Architecture at Stripe and President of the PreSales Leadership Collective's Council, discusses her experiences with empowering people. In this episode, Naz will explain how empowerment is the key to building a culture of high performance, innovation, and driving career growth.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Ganesh Shankar connect on the topic "How Technology helps PreSales Professionals Close Deals Faster". Ganesh, Co-Founder and CEO of RFPIO, talks about why a former product manager decided to build a company dedicated to automating the RFP response process and equipping PreSales teams. Learn more about RFPIO

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Kathy Horan Lalama connect on the topic "Scaling New Logo PreSales Teams". Kathy, Director of Solutions Engineering, talks about Scaling New Logo PreSales teams. Some organizations approach selling to new logos the same way that they sell to the existing install base. In this episode, Kathy talks about why and how the motions are different.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Stephen Miller connect on the topic "The Edutainer". Stephen, Brand Ambassador and PreSales specialist, talks about the role of the Edutainer. More importantly, how educating and entertaining are two critical components in being a stellar Sales Engineer.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and James Dai connect on the topic "Industry Experience - Transition to PreSales". James, Strategic Lead Solution Engineer at Salesforce, talks about his transition from the Manufacturing industry into a Solutions Engineering role. James walks us through his journey to find a PreSales role, how he stood out in the interview process, and what he did to provide an immediate impact upon being hired.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Cindy Goodwin-Sak connect on the topic "A PreSales Journey". Cindy, Vice President of Global Security Sales Engineering Organization, talks about her PreSales career. Cindy made an early decision to commit to Cisco as her product of choice so she's been in the Cisco ecosystem for nearly 20 years. In her journey, she faced many challenges but has overcome them to have a wildly successful career.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Kiana McCormick connect on the topic "The Why of Value Engineering". Kiana, Senior Value Engineer at DocuSign, talks about what the Value Engineering role is and why it is an important aspect in the sales process. When paired with the selling team, the Value Engineering team can help bring the product or solution to life.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Chase Schults connect on the topic "Winning the Technical Sale with Architecture". Chase, Director of Architect & Cloud Specialists at Salesforce.org, talks about the Solutions Architect role and how it is similar but different than the Sales Engineer role. Solutions Architects can take on the technically intense aspects of a sale conversation.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Rob Falcone connect on "Let's Talk About Careers". Rob Falcone, Senior Director of Sales Engineering and Strategy at Guru, talks about his career journey and two recent conversations that he had with others relating to career advice. Societal pressures and a comparison culture force many to be in a constant state of evaluation when it comes to career progression.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Ryan Deemer connect on the topic "PreSales Career Paths - Going Upmarket". Ryan, Enterprise System Engineer at Veeam Software, talks about his progression from inside sales engineer to field sales engineer. In this episode, we also talk about the differences between smb and enterprise selling motions.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and David Marsh connect on the topic "Continuous Improvement". David Marsh, Vice President of Global Sales Engineering, talks about Testing Business Ideas to improve your craft and building a continuous learning theme. Creating a culture of learning will level up your Sales Engineering team.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis, Kelley Pidhirsky, and Emily Dunn connect on the topic "Part 2: Transition into Leadership”. Kelley, Manager of Solutions Engineering at DocuSign, & Emily, Manager of Sales Engineering at Pendo, talk about their recent promotions to Leadership. Kelley was previously on episode 11, so we learn what has changed for her and what advice she has for Emily, who is six weeks into her Leadership journey.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Jeff Margolese connect on the topic "A PreSales Journey". Jeff, Senior Vice President of Global Solutions Consulting at ServiceNow, talks about his journey through PreSales. Throughout this episode, we learn Jeff's perspective on what has changed in the industry, what leading a global team is like, and how to make your PreSales org a destination.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis, Tanner Drake, and Dalton Fite connect on the topic "Building the Next Generation of PreSales". Tanner, Solutions Engineer at VMWare, and Dalton, Technical Sales Intern at Trane, talk about how the National Society of Sales Engineers (NSSE) is building awareness to the PreSales profession at the university level.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis, Charlie Gerrior, and Joel Duffield connect on the topic "How to get Hired at a PSC Hiring Event." Charlie, Senior Solutions Engineer at Segment, and Joel, Solutions Consultant at Vidyard, talks about how Charlie put together an amazing PreSales job event and Joel was hired by Vidyard at that event. In this episode, we dig into what allowed Joel to stand out in the hiring process.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis, Stephanie Smith, and Annie Ramadan connect on the topic "How to become a Dynamic Duo”. Stephanie, Senior Solutions Engineer at Salesforce, and Annie, Account Executive at Salesforce, talk about their working relationship and how it leads to a successful partnership. Stephanie gives insights into how she ensures her and Annie are on the same page when solutioning for customers.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Paul Baptist connect on the topic "Why Giving Back Matters". Paul, Senior Director of Solutions Consulting at ServiceNow, is incredibly passionate about Giving Back and we are going to set 2021 off right by talking about the power of giving back.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Greg Peters connect on the topic "Justifying PreSales Headcount". Greg, Senior Vice President of PreSales & Customer Success at Alteryx, talks about the ways to quantify the impact of your PreSales organization in order to prove ROI to the business. One of the tougher topics for our profession, Greg provides actionable takeaways in order to build political capital with Finance.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Halyna Semenova connect on the topic "Raising Awareness of PreSales Internally”. Halyna, VP Engagement and Pre-Sales at SoftServe, talks about raising awareness to PreSales via an internal community and a week long event. PreSales Talks was a successful internal conference to highlight the amazing work of the PreSales team.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Richard Harris connect on the topic "Ideal Persona Profile, The Real ICP". Richard, Founder of The Harris Consulting Group, talks about how Ideal Customer Profiles are typically wrong and we should be changing our thinking in terms of the Ideal Persona Profile. Richard and I also talk about partnering successfully with our sales counterparts.

View Details

Description: On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Semir Jahic connect on the topic "PreSales, the Swiss Army Knife". Semir, Lead Solutions Engineer at Clari, talks about why the PreSales role is like a Swiss Army Knife. PreSales Professionals tend to wear a number of hats so we dive into those specifics on this episode.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Gokul Sridharan connect on the topic "Building Technical Enablement for the Community”. Gokul, Solution Engineering Leader at Microfocus, talks about how to effectively create technical content that supports the learning path for growing PreSales professionals.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Ashvin Vaidyanathan connect on the topic "Partnering with Customer Success". Ashvin, Chief Customer Officer at Gainsight, talks about how critical partnering with PreSales is for his Customer Success organization. When Customer Success and PreSales teams are tightly aligned, it results in a better customer experience.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Cortney Zamm connect on the topic "How to Advocate for Yourself as a Remote Employee". Cortney, Senior Manager of Solutions Engineering at Sprout Social, answers questions from our community on how to handle themselves in our remote-first world. Cortney offers advice on how to navigate the difficulties we all face in 2020.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Garin Hess connect on the topic "Scaling PreSales". Garin, Co-Founder and CEO of Consensus, talks about how to increase PreSales productivity, understanding gap analysis, and how demo automation can help scale our profession.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Bradley Herman connect on the topic "Power of Why". Brad, Director of Solutions Engineering at Salesforce, talks about the word “Why” and how it applies to PreSales. Understanding Why is critical for discovery, tailored presentations, and ensuring we are delivering customer expectations.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Marjorie Abdelkrime connect on the topic "Leading Transformational Projects". Marjorie, Sr Director, AMER Cloud Solution Engineering at VMWare, talks about how to Lead Transformational Projects both internally and externally. In this episode, we speak to the defining outcomes, staying on plan, and knowing when to pivot.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Pabel Martin connect on the topic "Post Sale to PreSales". Pabel, Senior Solutions Consultant of Global Strategic Accounts, talks about his transition to PreSales from the Post Sale side of the house. Pabel’s journey is starting to become more common as PreSale roles are hiring the skill sets of those who worked in delivery. Listen for more on how to take learnings from Post Sale and apply them to be the best PreSales Consultant that you can be.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Ramzi Marjaba connect on the topic "Dipping Your Toes in Sales". Ramzi, Sr. Sales Engineer at Keysight Technologies, talks about his experience becoming a hybrid Sales Engineer - Sales Person. Ramzi’s perspective on why PreSales professionals can make the transition is interesting. In this episode, we also talk about the future of the role and if Hybrid roles are going to become more popular.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Eric Rodwell connect on the topic "Detail are the Difference". Eric, Vice President of Sales Engineering, talks about why details matter in how you operate, how you communicate, and how it helps you win deals in Sales. This episode is a good refresher that not everyone is detail oriented but the details are the difference between good and great.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Bren Sapience connect on the topic "Working Across Cultures". Bren, Global Director of Sales Engineering at Automation Anywhere, talks about his experience working in multiple geographies and his learnings from those experiences. Understanding cultural differences can really go a long way in building trust and continuity with your employees and peers.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Freddy Magnum connect on the topic "Seat at the Executive Table”. Freddy, Venture Consultant at ForgePoint Capital, talks about PreSales having a Seat at the Executive Table. Freddy offers his insight as an executive on what the PreSales profession should be doing to elevate and how to do so.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Leah McTiernan connect on the topic "Elevating Women in PreSales". Leah, Vice President of Solutions Engineering at DocuSign, talks about her journey through PreSales and why she has leaned in to help create programs like Women in Solutions Engineering and the PreSales Collective’s Women in Solutions Excellence program.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Steve Klein connect on the topic "Stump the Chump”. Steve, Global VP of Solutions Engineering at FinancialForce, talks about how to handle a situation where someone is attempting to discredit our product demo or our presentation. The concept of Stump the Chump is as old as time and our episode highlights ways to handle this type of situation.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis connects with the Co-Founders of the Sales Excellence Podcast, Jan-Erik Jank, and Tim Bromme on the topic "Branching out to EMEA”. Jan-Erik, PreSales Leader at SAP, and Tim, Enterprise Solutions Consultant, speak to their experiences working with US based companies who are trying to build their presence in EMEA. Both Tim and Jan speak to the benefits and challenges of this experience plus provide actionable advice for working and managing those in EMEA.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Stephanie Daniel connect on the topic "Creating a Diverse Pipeline”. Stephanie, Director of Solutions Engineering at DocuSign, talks about how and why to create a diverse pipeline of candidates. This episode is action packed with Stephanie’s valuable perspectives on this critically important topic.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis, Travis Strickland, and Danny Mason connect on the topic "How to become a Dynamic Duo”. Travis, Senior Solutions Consultant at Adobe, and Danny, Account Executive at Adobe, talk about how to their working relationship and how they’ve been able to be successful in partnering in their sales cycle. It is really interesting to hear Danny’s perspective on what makes Travis stand out and be his true deal co-pilot.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Nidhi Shah connect on the topic of Creating a Culture of Feedback. Nidhi, Director of Solutions Engineering at LiveRamp, has really learned how to incorporate feedback into her team culture and her management style. This episode is applicable to everyone trying to both give and receive positive and constructive feedback.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Kelley Pidhirsky connect on the topic "Promotion to Leadership”. Kelley, Manager of Solutions Engineering at DocuSign, talks about her recent move to Leadership after years of being a high performing individual contributor. Kelley gives her perspective into what Leadership is really like!

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Peter Cohan connect on the topic "Analogies and Metaphors in PreSales”. Peter, founder and principal of The Second Derivative and the Great Demo methodology, talks about how using analogies and metaphors in your sales cycles can be extremely impactful and allow for customers to connect the dots more so than seeing your product.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Don Carmichael connect on the topic "PreSales Career Paths". Don, Founder of Winning Skills, talks about the role of PreSales and how it is a full-time career. Additionally, Don gives insights into what types of roles PreSales individuals can aspire for.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Kathy “KJ” Abbruzzetti connect on the topic "Defining Your Value". KJ, Director of America’s East and Public Sector Solution Architects at Ivanti, talks about how employees define their value in the interview process to top individual contributor status. In the episode, we really provide actionable insights for PreSales professionals to stand out.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Steph Barnett connect on the topic of "Virtual Ready SEs". Steph, Director of the Emerging Solutions Engineering APAC Program at Salesforce, talks about the transition from in-person to virtual for her entry level SE program. Additionally, Steph gives plenty of good advice for the current virtual times.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Nick Masters connect on the topic "Outside the Box: a Career Transition into PreSales". Nick, Enterprise Sales Engineering Manager at Box, talks about his journey from the AirForce into PreSales leadership. Without a doubt, Nick utilizes his transferable skills to get him to the position that he is in today.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and John Care connect on the topic "The 3+1 Rules of SE Leadership". John, Managing Director of Mastering Technical Sales, explains the philosophy and gives actionable advice to become a better leader.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Hannah Bloking connect on the topic "Customer Centricity". Hannah, Briefing Strategist in the Executive Briefing Center at Amazon Web Services, talks about what customer centricity is and isn’t plus gives her advice on how to be more customer centric in your approach.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Karl Lewis connect on the topic "Finding Your North Star". Karl, Lead Solutions Architect at Duo/Cisco, talks about his approach to goal setting and how it allows him to grow both personally and professionally.

View Details

On the PreSales Podcast, James Kaikis and Brian Mazzaferri connect on the topic "Depth to be Dangerous". Brian, a Senior Solutions Engineer at Slack, talks about his philosophy around Product Expertise and how deep a Sales Engineer really needs to go during a sales cycle.

View Details

We are thrilled to launch our PreSales Podcast by PreSale Collective.

On the PSC Pod you will hear from global PreSales Leaders, top individual contributors, industry experts, trainers, and even companies who have developed products for our profession.

Click follow and subscribe to hear more of the community!

PreSales Podcast by PreSales Collective: Recent Episodes

James Kaikis | Co-Founder PreSales Collective | PreSales Leadership |