Pre-Sales Pathways

What if you could turn a side project you love into your full-time role? Hee Jin’s done it not once, but twice, most recently as an SE at OpenAI.It all started with a holiday in Korea, where she offered to meet local customers. That led to helping US colleagues with their Korean accounts and, eventually, a formal rotation.Since then, Hee Jin's helped OpenAI launch in Korea, Australia, India and Brazil, in a role that has kept her customer-facing throughout.In our conversation, we get into:How to avoid ending up with two jobs, by being honest with your manager about what needs to come off your plateWhy you can't be precious about your work when building something new, as much of it will end up being thrown awayAnd last, but not least, why demos matter more than ever at AI-native companies, where so many of the use cases are still being definedIf you've got a side project you'd love to turn into your day job, this one's for you.

The move from pre-sales to sales doesn’t have to be a one-way door, and Eric’s career path is a great example of that.He got his start in go-to-market as a Solutions Architect, after being headhunted by the vendor of a product he'd implemented internally.Since then, he's moved back and forth between the two sides. He tried his hand as an AE, returned to pre-sales at Slack, then led the SE team at Coda before becoming its Head of Sales.What surprised Eric about carrying a quota, and why having his leader's backing mattered when he moved into salesHow Sierra's outcome-based pricing changes the way customers evaluate the product, and why a great demo still mattersAnd last, but not least, how Sierra's SEs work with its Agent Software Engineers, effectively FDEs, and why that team adds to the SE role rather than replacing itIf you're an SE weighing up a move into sales, this one's for you.

Deciding how much to specialise, and when, is one of the biggest choices in an SE's career. I think Richard Barrett’s approach is spot on.Richard has spent almost 17 years working with Microsoft's productivity and collaboration technologies, so you might think he's the archetypal specialist.And yet, alongside that consistency, he's done a real range of roles, from implementation to sales to pre-sales, across very different companies: a boutique SI, a global SI, and now a hyperscaler.In our conversation, we get into:Why it’s important to try different things out, particularly early on in your careerWhat carrying a number taught Richard and why he’d recommend it to other SEsHow a specialist SE role is different to being the only SE on an accountIf you're weighing up how deep to go versus how broad to stay, this one's for you.

After almost 12 years at Salesforce, Gavin Guinane felt disconnected from the tech, so he left leadership to become an IC again at Glean.Since then, he’s worked on some of the company’s largest and most complex deals, and has built out a local SE team which he now leads.In our conversation, we get into:Why prospects are increasingly demanding production-grade solutions in pre-salesWhat that means demoing, and the type of SE that Glean now hires forHow the whole account team is “shifting to the right” on technical skills and AI fluencyIf you’re looking to make the move from an established SaaS company to an AI-native start-up or scale-up, this one’s for you.

Few people know pre-sales better than Chris. He’s been an IC, a leader, the GM of PreSales Collective and is now Head of Community at Iris.Chris's current role combines evangelism, partnerships, voice of the customer and more. It’s not one you’ll find advertised, Chris crafted it himself.His advice to others looking to do the same? Focus on a problem to solve rather than a specific company or title.In our conversation, we get into:Why ICs can have more power to change things than managers doWhy buyers now arrive as prepared as you are (and what that means for demos)Why relationships and in-person matter more than everIf you like the sound of crafting a role based on a problem space that interests you, you'll want to hear how Chris has done it.