Presales Podcast by Presales Collective

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.

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.

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      

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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.