In this episode, my very good friend, Mark Green, Director of Presales and Buyer Enablement at Consensus, joins us to discuss how exactly PreSales fits into the world of Buyer Enablement.

We discuss:

1. In the world of Buyer Enablement, the Future of PreSales is much broader than just working on mid-funnel sales deals.

2. How PreSales Leaders need to rethink how they're measured and avoid just focussing on AE:SE ratio discussions

3. How creating content, especially video content, to support the sales cycle also creates content to support Marketing, Business Development and Customer Success.

4. How PreSales teams can measure themselves in the future: maybe reduction in cost per Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) and contribution to Net Recurring Revenue (NRR)

Mark is on LinkedIn at... https://www.linkedin.com/in/marktechnology/

In the podcast, Mark mentions the PreSales glossary he's written. You can find it here... https://goconsensus.com/presales-glossary/

Make sure you follow and subscribe and watch out for the next episode in the 'Future of PreSales' podcast series.

In this episode, Art Fromm, President and Founder of Team Sales Development Inc, joins us.

We discuss:

1. Clients trust PreSales. Clients don't trust Sales, but some Sales don't trust PreSales

2. The more Salespeople can use PreSales, the more successful they'll be. It's all about teamwork.

3. The problem with the classic waterfall sales process: Marketing to Business Development to Sales to PreSales to Customer Success

4. Why Client Success, churn rates, retention, and expansion are the only things we should focus on.

Contact Art at... https://www.linkedin.com/in/artfromm/

We talked about findings in the 2023 Consensus SE Compensation and Workload Report, which can be found here... https://goconsensus.com/infographic/2023-sales-engineering-compensation-workload-report/

We also talk about the idea of the Unified Commercial Engine; you can find out more here... https://hbr.org/2022/02/traditional-b2b-sales-and-marketing-are-becoming-obsolete

Within the podcast, we continually swap between the job title PreSales and Sales Engineer (SE); for us it's the same skill set and the same role.

Make sure you follow and subscribe and watch out for the next episode in the 'Future of PreSales' podcast series.

In this episode, we're joined by Andy Ryan, Director of Solutions at CalypsoAI.

Andy is a 'Passionate Generativitist'; he explains what one of those is in the episode.

Andy is also an accomplished photographer; you should check out https://www.andyryan.io/

One of the challenges all SaaS companies need to overcome is handling the demands of supporting both new business sales AND renewals/expansion where the client demands access to the same 'Technical/Business Authority' skill set. We've come from a world where PreSales and Customer Success have traditionally reported to very different hierarchies in a Tech business for what were, very valid reasons.

In this episode, we cover: 

• Moving from Customer Success to Customer Experience
• From PreSales and Customer Success to the 'Solutions' team
• How to compensate both new business AND renewals

Here's Andy's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyr/

Make sure you follow and subscribe and watch out for the next episode in the 'Future of PreSales' podcast series.

In this episode, we're joined by Greg Posner, Director of Solution Engineering at Helpshift, part of Keywords Studios.

Greg has been in Sales Engineering for about 12 years in different verticals but now specialises in gaming.

You might find it surprising, but video gaming is way bigger than the combined global movie and music business. It's estimated that gaming will be worth £242 billion by the end of 2023. It's projected to grow at least 13% until 2030, with 3.22 Billion gamers globally.

To pick a specific example, Avatar, the highest-grossing movie of all time, made $2.8 Billion, but Grand Theft Auto 5 made $6 Billion.

In this episode, we cover: 

• How big the gaming industry is
• Where we are with gaming and virtual universes
• Should Tech companies try to meet Buyers inside games
• How gaming is embracing AI and why you should too

Here's Greg's LinkedIn profile, where you can also get in contact with Greg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregposner/

Greg's podcast is 'Player: Engage' at https://playerengage.com/ and wherever you usually get your podcasts.

Make sure you follow and subscribe and watch out for the next episode in the 'Future of PreSales' podcast series.

Welcome to Series 2 of the 'Future of PreSales' podcast.

In this first episode, we're joined by Laura Pick, whose career spans SAP, Adobe, and Hootsuite; a real-life Unicorn and is currently EMEA Solutions Consulting Manager at Siteimprove.

In this wide-ranging episode, we cover four crucial topics for Laura:

• The PreSales move to Value Realisation
• Doing Customer Playbacks, not Demos
• How smaller Tech Vendors are more aligned to revenue and
• How knowing your Superpower relates to Diversity

You're really going to enjoy this conversation.

Here's Laura's LinkedIn profile, where you can also get in contact with Laura: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraemmapick/

Make sure you follow and subscribe and watch out for the next episode in the 'Future of PreSales' podcast series.

What's the relationship between PreSales and Customer Success?

Is Customer Success a good career destination for PreSales and vice-versa?

Let's chat with someone who definitely knows. Our guest for this episode is Aoife O'Brien, previously Head of Customer Success, EMEA at Delphix and now Strategic Account Director at Sama. I first met Aoife at SAP where she was a PreSales Manager.

It's really worth listening to Aoife's views, advice and hard-won experiences on where Customer Success is, where it's going, how it's measured, how to create success and where it can all go badly wrong.

Here's Aoife's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aoifeobrien/

I promised Aoife I'd also include a link to Nick Mehta (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickmehta/). Aoife recommends that you follow Nick if you're even just slightly interested in Customer Success.

Make sure you follow and subscribe and watch out for the next episode in the 'Future of PreSales' podcast series.

Lights, Camera, ACTION: Like it or not, everyone in PreSales is going to have to get comfortable creating videos.

B2B Buyers are bringing consumer behaviours into the business world and are starting to expect video over live demos and presentations; they want the flexibility of watching when they want and sharing internally.

As PreSales, we need to take our practised communication and presentation skills and scale them through video. Some of us have already mastered this new skill but some of us are reluctant at best or even in denial.

Our guest for this episode is Aaron J Jacobs, CEO of OMH Creative and Storied Coaching. Aaron comes from the Movie business and took his skills into the world of Enterprise Tech. I've known and admired Aaron's work for quite a few years.

We discuss getting started with video, cameras, microphones, lighting, backdrops, video editing tools and video platforms and realised we'd hardly got started. 

Check out https://storiedcoaching.com/free/ where Aaron is offering for free:

• an 8-minute Camera Engagement Video,
• a PDF guide with recommended camera, lighting and microphone choices and
• a free 1:1 coaching session

Aaron can also be found and messaged on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronjj/

Make sure you follow and subscribe and watch out for the next episode in the 'Future of PreSales' podcast series.

AI and specifically ChatGPT are super hot topics at the moment. It feels like all the Tech giants including Meta, Google, and Microsoft are in an arms race to incorporate Large Language Model (LLM) AI into everything.

ChatGPT now looks like it's going to have a major impact on the PreSales role so it's time we chatted with an expert. Host of the 'Future of PreSales' podcast, Don Carmichael, chats with Patrick Pissang, CEO, Founder and Lead SE Trainer at Sales Hero GmbH.

Patrick is a Sales Engineering Coach and the author of many books including, famously, 'The Social Sales Engineer'.

Patrick has been investigating how ChatGPT can transform Qualification, Discovery and Objection Handling and even whether it can improve our Demos. Patrick also believes we'll see the rise of a new PreSales role, the 'Prompt Engineer'.

Patrick's article on how AI can train you to be better at Questioning and Discovery is here

Patrick's PreSales ChatGPT guide, discussed in the podcast, 'The Sales Engineer's ChatGPT Companion' is here.

Patrick can be found and messaged on LinkedIn at... https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickpissang/

Make sure you follow and subscribe and watch out for the next episode in the 'Future of PreSales' podcast series.