How to Speak So Senior Leaders Listen with Ben Pearce
Presales Podcast by Presales Collective
Release Date: 07/28/2025
Adapting to the Changing World of Presales with Steve Bullington
Presales Podcast by Presales Collective
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. Follow Us Connect with Jack Cochran: Connect with Matthew James: Connect with Steve Bullington: Links and Resources...
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Debunking the Traditional Path to Presales with Adam Bauman
Presales Podcast by Presales Collective
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...
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Becoming Sales Leadership's Trusted Advisor with Lisa Jameson
Presales Podcast by Presales Collective
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: Connect with Mathew James:...
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The Value of a Presales Academy with Rob Fallon
Presales Podcast by Presales Collective
, 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...
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Using AI as your Voice Assistant with Yasmeen Hyder
Presales Podcast by Presales Collective
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: Connect with Yasmeen Hyder: Links and Resources Mentioned Join Presales Collective Slack: Sol/Con 2026 (Chicago, August...
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Product-Trained Agents, and the New SE Workflow with Kintan Brahmbhatt
Presales Podcast by Presales Collective
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...
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The Convergence of Presales and Post-Sales: A New Career Path with Shamil Turner
Presales Podcast by Presales Collective
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...
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What an AI-Enabled SE Looks Like in 2026 with Darlene Volas
Presales Podcast by Presales Collective
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...
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From Co-Pilot to Orchestrator: AI and the Evolving SE Role with Manisha Raisinghani
Presales Podcast by Presales Collective
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 to learn...
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Proving the Value of Demo Engineering: Metrics That Matter with Micah Joel
Presales Podcast by Presales Collective
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...
info_outlineIn 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
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Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
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Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
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Connect with Ben Pearce:https://www.linkedin.com/in/benpthoughts/
Links and Resources Mentioned
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Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
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Elevated You: https://www.elevatedyou.live/psc
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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
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The Technical Expert's Dilemma
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How technical expertise can become a curse when speaking to executives
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Moving from demonstrating knowledge to demonstrating relevance
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The Three-Part Framework for Executive Communication
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Relevance: Understanding what matters to your specific audience
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Compelling Content: Creating materials that speak to their priorities
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Excellent Delivery: Performing under pressure with confidence
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Preparation Strategies
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Mapping out personas and industries for reusable content
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The importance of team collaboration in content creation
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Practice vs. preparation: Why both are essential
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Reading the Room
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Starting with curiosity and mini-discovery
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Mirroring language and adapting on the fly
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Course-correcting based on real-time feedback
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The Punchline Problem
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Why building up to a big reveal doesn't work with executives
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Leading with impact: "Hitting them between the eyes"
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Getting to value within the first 90 seconds
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Risk Management and Trust Building
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Understanding that you represent organizational risk
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The "never get fired for buying IBM" mentality
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How human skills differentiate in an AI-driven world
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Building confidence through listening and problem-solving
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