Debunking the Traditional Path to Presales with Adam Bauman

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. Follow Us 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 What Defines a "Traditional" Path to Presales and Why Most Paths Are Non-Traditional Adam's 20-Year Engineering Career and What Drew Him to Presales The Learning Curve: Demos, Confidence, and Learning Not to Know Everything Scoping Engagements and Understanding Buying Journeys Beyond Technical Validation Staying Involved Through Security, Procurement, and Legal Reviews Understanding Business Value and ROI from an Engineering Mindset Using AI Tools Like Claude for Personal and Professional Efficiency How to Interview for Presales Without Traditional Experience 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

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

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

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

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

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

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 Personal AI Usage Evolution: Moving Beyond Google Replacement to Creative Applications Three Buckets of AI for SE Leaders: Operations, Team Workflows, and Technical Implementation Daily Meeting Preparation Automation and Custom-Built AI Applications Operationalizing SE Teams with Repeatable AI Workflows Quality vs. Efficiency Trade-off: Better Preparation Rather Than Less Time Building Technical Credibility Through Hands-On AI Coding The "One More Thing" Problem and Where Human Expertise Remains Essential Data Security, Governance, and Vendor Considerations for AI Tools Why AI Won't Replace SEs: The Irreplaceable Human Element 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

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 How AI Shifted from Co-Pilot to Workflow Orchestrator Vibe Coding and the Forward Deployed Engineer Democratizing Institutional Knowledge AI Transformation at Enterprise Scale Making SE Value Visible with Data 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  

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

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 Micah's Background: From Theater to SE to Demo Engineering What Is Demo Engineering and How Is It Different from Being an SE? When Does an Organization Need a Demo Engineering Team? The Two Sides of Demo Engineering: Deal Support vs. Infrastructure/Scale How to Hire and Structure the Team Demo Engineering as a Talent Pipeline and Retention Strategy Swimming Upstream: Demo Engineering's Role in Go-to-Market Strategy 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