Upcoming PSLC Member Events

About PSLC

This event is open to all PreSales Leaders (manager-level and above).

Join us on the second Tuesday of each month to discuss our first book of 2021 

"The Sales Engineering Manager's Handbook"

We will break the book down into 4 sections:

Manage Yourself (Chapters 1 - 6) - January 12th

Develop and Serve Your People (Chapters 10 - 18) - February 9th

 Run PreSales as a Business (Chapters 20 - 24) - March 9th

 Serve Your Customers (Chapters 30 - 34) - April 13th

Upon completion of the book, we will have a Q&A with the authors (May 11th).

All sessions are led by our PSLC Book Club Lead, 

David Maloof, GVP Solutions Engineering @ Salesforce.

https://www.masteringtechnicalsales.com/sembook?id=psc4

PreSales Leadership Collective Book Club

A high employee engagement rate is a critical metric for PreSales teams because it’s seen as an indicator of other positive behaviors, such as retention and productivity levels. In the workplace, there are three factors that tend to have the biggest impact when it comes to employee engagement:

Of all three factors, employee recognition is the lowest-hanging fruit and most controlled by PreSales leadership. So nailing the way you recognize and reward your PreSales team members can have a significant impact on employee engagement and, ultimately, your desired business outcomes.

Each roundtable event is hosted by one of our PSLC members. Thank you to 

, Vice President of PreSales @ Vivun, for hosting this event!

 (emailed to attendees 48 hours prior to the event)

 Send an email to leaders@presalescollective.com

Note: This group is designed for PreSales Directors and above who have the ability to make an impact in their organization and are looking for events that are exclusive and intimate. To allow for discussion and active participation there is a 18 member limit for this virtual roundtable event (with 3 breakout rooms of 6). We will maintain a waitlist.​

*Your contact information, including email, may be shared with the sponsors of this event for the purpose of following up on your interests.

PSLC Roundtable: Recognizing and Rewarding PreSales

Welcome to PreSales Leadership Collective!

We highly encourage you to join one of the bi-weekly Member Welcome Calls to learn how to get the most out of your PSLC membership.

Member Welcome Call

The average tenure of your PreSales team is usually higher than your AE counterparts. That experience gap usually means your SE's are helping ramp and enable newer AE's on product and positioning, but also on the sales process too. Sales leaders expect, and sometimes even demand, that PreSales takes some level of ownership of AE enablement.

Steve Klein, Global VP of PreSales at FinancialForce

Vivun has created the world's first software platform for Presales, helping B2B technology companies transform their go-to-market. Hero by Vivun unlocks the strategic potential of Presales by keeping product and sales teams aligned, improving product-market fit, accelerating deals in flight and capturing dormant sources of revenue. Make Presales your company's most strategic asset with Vivun.

The Role of PreSales in AE Enablement

Fireside Friday's are regularly hosted small-group conversations with prominent PreSales executives, investors, founders, and industry experts for small group discussions and Q&A.

Senior Vice President, Global Solution Consulting at ServiceNow

Fireside Friday's: Your PreSales Org as a Destination w/ Jeff Margolese

, Senior Manager, Observability Sales Engineering @ Splunk, for hosting this event!

(times are Pacific - Pacific Time March 1st)

Note: This group is designed for PreSales Directors and above who have the ability to make an impact in their organization and are looking for events that are exclusive and intimate.

I am a believer of "Starting with Why". My Why is to inspire and uplift others to shatter boundaries so that they become impactful contributors of society

Professionally it starts with all of the brilliant team members in my organization, I get up every day to ensure my team is inspired and motivated to continue doing what they do with passion and technical expertise. I am a Business Technology Leader with 15 years experience managing and growing software sales, consulting businesses, service solution design and customer service excellence by leveraging technology solutions to resolve business problems. I lead Strategy and Planning for our Solution Engineering team. Our goal as an organization is to help our customers realize the potential of the solutions they acquire.

Personally - I have been in the tech industry for 15 years and I can count in both hands the number of female leaders, role models and supporters that I have had as I went through the journey that is my career. The days of a woman climbing up the ladder and not taking the rest of us along for the ride are long gone in my opinion. But there is a problem, the number of female role models and mentors are limited. By being an outspoken leader in the world of empowering women I hope to empower women both in leadership and technology.

At a previous organization, I co-led our women empowerment initiatives. I've led Chapters that were comprised of women and men who volunteer their time and talent to work at helping to increase the number of women in leadership, sales and technical roles, and to build an environment that is inclusive and supportive of all team members in achieving their career goals.

Fireside Friday's: Managing Poor Performance in a Pandemic w/ Majorie Abdelkrime

Fireside Chats are regularly hosted small-group conversations with prominent PreSales executives, investors, founders, and industry experts for small group discussions and Q&A.

In Dr. Johnson's new Harper Collins book, Inclusify: Harnessing the power of uniqueness and belonging to build innovative teams, shares the surprising ways the leaders undermine inclusion and provides actionable ways that leaders can pivot to build more inclusive teams. Today's discussion will explore how we need to build an inclusive PreSales team to better serve our clients and our companies.

Dr. Stefanie K. Johnson is an author, professor, and keynote speaker who studies the intersection of leadership and diversity, focusing on (1) how unconscious bias affects the evaluation of leaders and (2) strategies that leaders can use to mitigate bias.

As an associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, Dr. Johnson teaches undergraduate and graduate students focused on leadership and inclusion. She holds the Andrea and Michael Leeds Research Fellowship, is the Director of CU Boulder’s Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative at Leeds, and is a 2020 CU Boulder RIO Fellow. She is a fellow in the Society of Industrial Organizational Psychologists (SIOP) and the American Psychological Society (APS). She is also passionate about disseminating her work more broadly and has taught two LinkedIn Learning courses on how to increase diversity and inclusion in corporations.

Dr. Johnson is also a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and an in-demand keynote speaker. She has presented her work at over 170 meetings around the world including at the White House for a 2016 summit on diversity in corporate America on National Equal Pay Day.

As a Sr. Manager of Solution Engineering Talent Development, Steve Bullington has helped nearly 200 recent college grads launch their careers with Salesforce. These early-career professionals include Solution Engineers, Business Value Analysts, Designers, and Customer Success professionals by participating in the 12-month Salesforce Scout Academy. Prior to joining Salesforce, Steve created a Sales University program for the contact center company, Interactive Intelligence where 80% of his graduates remain with the company 5 years later.

Before making the transition to Training and Development, Steve spent over 30 years in Sales and Sales Management with a variety of technology companies including AT&T, BellSouth and FedEx. Steve holds a Master's degree in Information and Communications Sciences from Ball State University where he also serves on their Alumni Advisory Board. Steve and his wife Jan live in Zionsville, Indiana, an Indianapolis suburb.

Fireside Chat: Building Inclusive PreSales Teams w/Dr. Stefanie K. Johnson & Steve Bullington

Many technology companies are aggressively hiring for PreSales roles - aside from a lull during the pandemic - the hiring trajectory continues to accelerate with demand (open roles) often outpacing supply (qualified candidates). As hiring managers, the burden of identifying 'ideal candidate profiles' and sourcing candidates often falls on us, and we know that SE experience is far from one-size fits-all, making it especially hard to find and attract talent.

Join our leader roundtable discussion to learn how you can improve the effectiveness of your recruiting and hiring practices.

Zach Lawryk, Senior Director of Solutions Engineering @ Slack

Note: This group is designed for PreSales leaders who have the ability to make an impact in their organization and are looking for events that are exclusive and intimate.

PSLC Roundtable: Effective PreSales Recruiting and Hiring

 joins us for Fireside Friday to share his experience scaling teams through high growth at Salesforce, and more recently Procore. As an early employee (~200) at Salesforce he helped build the company culture and scale the business through leading the applied innovation program, business value, and demo engineering programs. Josh in now in charge of scaling the PreSales org at Procore, in a very different industry than Salesforce, but he's applying the same focus on people, culture, and process.

Josh's passion and enthusiasm for PreSales is inspiring - combined that with his tremendous experience and we're in for a treat on Friday. See you there!

Josh Aranoff leads Solution Engineering at Procore, whose goal is to connect everyone who builds to everything they need. If you’re in the construction business, then Procore was designed to help your team.

Previously he headed up Salesforce’s applied innovation program, business value, and demo engineering programs which guides customers in discovering how to create and deliver change to their business and customers. A lifelong tinkerer, Josh brings more than 15 years of experience working with disruptive technologies.

As one of the first 200 employees, Josh’s Salesforce career has spanned many roles, but always with a constant focus on innovation. Josh was one of the founding Ignite team members - delivering the first iteration of the program framework and strategies to Fortune 500 companies. Prior to that, he spent over 10 years in various roles driving transformational programs, tools, and events, including: business development, consulting, product management, product marketing, and sales enablement. Josh began his career at Fort Point Partners as a consultant where he executed sales, marketing, and CRM strategies.

Josh holds a B.A. in Information Systems from University of Colorado Boulder. When he is not sparking innovation across the globe, Josh enjoys spending time with his family, building mobile apps, and participating in the Bay Area CrossFit community.

Fireside Chat: Scaling PreSales with Culture and Process w/ Josh Aranoff

Building and Managing Global PreSales Teams

With company growth inevitability comes global expansion. With that growth, comes the challenge of building and managing teams across multiple countries/regions with a swath of considerations beyond what is faced with teams from a single country.

This roundtable discussion will cover practical insights and best practices on how PreSales leaders can build and manage global teams effectively. We'll dive into how PreSales leaders go about:

Adriana Jimenez, AVP of Solution Consulting @ Medallia

PSLC Roundtable: Building and Managing Global PreSales Teams

, Regional Vice President of PreSales at Apptio, and Member of the PreSales Leadership Council,

What is this elusive concept that we call personal branding? Why is it important to PreSales professionals? How do you coach your team members to build their brands? If you are wondering about these things - or have a point of view - then join us for this conversation. We will talk about what branding is, why it’s important to us specifically and ways to support your teams in building brand.

Alicia Cruz, Senior Manager, Solution Engineering @ Salesforce

PSLC Roundtable: Personal Branding for PreSales

Each roundtable event is hosted by PSLC members. Your hosts:

Regional Vice President of PreSales at Apptio, and Member of the PreSales Leadership Council

, Sales Engineers Director, France & BeLux @ Micro Focus

EMEA PSLC Members, did you catch the PreSales Leadership Symposium?

In this session, Greg Holmes will lead a RoundTable discussion around the Two-Day Symposium learnings and talk about how the takeaways apply to EMEA specifically.

Are the trends the same in EMEA as they are in North America?

EMEA Symposium Review

​In this highly interactive session, you’ll receive unprecedented access to Vivun’s AI-powered software platform and learn how to maximize its use.

Vivun Co-Founder and CEO Matt Darrow will kick off the discussion by sharing why he created the software platform and the benefits it provides for PreSales teams.

​For the remainder of the event, PSLC members will showcase the Vivun platform and demonstrate how they’ve implemented it within their organizations.

In this first-of-its-kind session, we urge you to bring your curiosity and come prepared with your toughest questions. Absolutely NO question is too simple or complex! 

- Following Matt Darrow’s 30-minute discussion, he will exit the session to ensure a candid conversation among PSLC members

- This event will not be recorded and notes will not be provided

NOTE: Specifically for this event type (Solution Showcase) - your contact information, including email, may be shared with the sponsors of this event for the purpose of following up on your interests. 

NEW EVENT: Solution Showcase - Vivun

Join us each month to make new connections with your PreSales leader peers! You just might meet your next hire, your next boss, or a new best friend. 

PSLC Speed Networking (Americas + EMEA) (30 min)

At PreSales Leadership Symposium, you learned the value of creating an Intentional Brand. Leverage the worksheet 

 to develop your brand statement. Join Naz and Marjorie and your peers to discuss tips and ideas on making your brand one that is memorable and impactful. If you have your brand statement ready, you can trial your brand statement and get peer feedback too! 

PSLC Symposium Follow Up: Building Your Brand

The PreSales Leadership Collective has partnered with the leading PreSales professional coaching and training provider 

 to host two interactive, webinar-style training events. PSLC members will learn the strategies and techniques necessary to gain influence with internal and external executives, lead teams to deliver winning presentations that align with executive priorities, and leverage relationships to gain the funding and support they need to close deals. Each webinar runs 60-75 minutes and is followed by a 15-Minute Q&A session.

In this webinar participants will learn how to gain an understanding of executive priorities, how to use storytelling to connect to these priorities, and how to stand and deliver to an executive audience with confidence. This webinar will cover:

Webinar 2: Leading Everyday Executive Negotiations

Whether working with internal or external executives, leaders must address everyday negotiations. In this webinar, participants will learn a proven framework for using active listening skills to lead these conversations to a successful close.

PreSales Leader Enablement Series w/ 2Win! (2xSessions)

As a follow up from the PreSales Leadership Symposium “The War for Talent”, presenters David Maloof and Wendy McHenry will lead a discussion around creating diverse candidate pipeline.

In this session, David and Wendy will discuss hiring untraditional talent, ensuring job descriptions are inclusive, and offering a diverse interview experience.

This session will be a 60 minute Round Table.

Consensus is intelligent demo automation software that scales PreSales with interactive video demos.

Building a Robust and Diverse Candidate Pipeline

Developing PreSales Competency: Storytelling

As leaders, we’re constantly coaching our SE’s against selling features and giving generic product tours. We aim for our team members to be brilliant storytellers who articulate business value at all levels. Of course, WAY easier said than done. On this roundtable Chris Tucker will give us his take on the research, tools, and coaching required to inspire sales engineers to confidently convey the outcomes delivered by your company’s solutions. We’ll then dive into roundtable discussion on:

Director of Business Development and Technology @ Nokia, for hosting this event!

Roundtable: Developing PreSales Competency - Storytelling

Building a PreSales Enablement Program in Hyper-Growth

Enabling PreSales teams can be challenging under the best of circumstances. PreSales teams need enablement on Sales process, core competencies (e.g., demoing and consulting), and they also need a great deal of product enablement. Unfortunately, PreSales teams are often overlooked when it comes to receiving dedicated enablement partners and resources, and are usually expected to enable themselves. All of these challenges are compounded when you’re in hyper growth mode – a phase when many of your team members may be new. So, how do you effectively develop and evolve a PreSales enablement program that provides the team with the knowledge and skills they need? On this leader roundtable, we’ll cover:

Senior Director, Globals Segment, Solutions Engineering @ HashiCorp, for hosting this event!

Roundtable: Building a PreSales Enablement Program in Hyper-Growth

With numerous sales/SE alignment models, how can we ensure deals are supported with the best chance to win while trying to ensure both sales and your SEs remain happy and productive?

In this session, Michael Townsend will discuss his model at Egnyte and where they have found the most success in alignments and assignments.

 has worked in Sales orgs with triple-digit SE counts, small pools, direct alignments and now a large pooled model.

​Consensus is intelligent demo automation software that scales PreSales with interactive video demos.

Roundtable: Sales Engineering Alignment and Assignments

PSLC Speed Networking (Americas + APJ) (30 min)

In today's climate of doing more with less while also balancing the demands of fast growth, PreSales leaders are acutely aware of the need to have a strong handle on capacity planning to support these competing objectives. In this roundtable, we'll discuss best practices and common approaches to capacity planning to balance the needs of the business with the needs of your team.

 Senior Director of Solutions Consulting at Dynamic Signal

* Original event scheduled from 8.31 to 9.22* 

PSLC Roundtable: The Art & Science of Capacity Planning

Change Management is an important component of our job but many times it does not receive the attention it deserves in a high-growth organization. 

Teresa Bell is here to explain why creating a Change Management role within your PreSales organization is extremely important and can have a massive impact on your team.

Fireside Chat: Change Management in PreSales w/ Teresa Bell

More organizations are using the Technical Win to measure PreSales success and as a stage of their sales cycles to align PreSales and Sales teams on opportunities. 

Join us for a roundtable discussion where we will explore the idea of securing the Technical Win and ways to use it to drive accountability and raise the profile of PreSales teams.

, Group Vice President APAC Sales Engineering, @ Splunk, for hosting this event!

PSLC Roundtable - The Technical Win: The Key Measure of PreSales Contributions?

​Does your PreSales organization have a voice in the Sales forecast? In this event, the Procore team will join PSLC to discuss how they've become an integral part of the forecasting process.

​By providing a perspective, the Procore team has continued to elevate the function of PreSales in their organization.

Each roundtable event is hosted by one of our PSLC members. Thank you to ﻿the Procore Leadership team of 

Roundtable: Elevating the Role of PreSales in Sales Forecasting

Since January 2021, PreSales related technologies have received $100M+ in funding. 

, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, joins the PreSales Leadership Collective Fireside Friday series to talk about their recent investment in Demostack. ​

In this conversation, Adam will talk about why Product-Led Growth companies are hot right now, how the PreSales role is becoming known within the investment community, and why Bessemer Venture Partners invested in Demostack. 

Adam Fisher is widely regarded as one of the top investors in Israel with experience investing across the technology stack, from cutting edge hardware to consumer Internet. Always focused on product-oriented companies, among his many areas of interest is SMB focused SaaS, applications and marketplaces (e.g. Yotpo, Melio, Hibob, Choco). 

Managing Bessemer’s Israel office since 2007, Adam has invested in more than 30 Israeli startups and several European startups, a third of which were pre-product at the time of his initial investment. With more than 14 M&A and IPO exits over his career he has also been recognized as one of the top investors. 

Adam’s life experiences–like his investments–are uniquely global. Born in South Africa, Adam was raised and educated in the US, where he studied at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Before joining Bessemer, he spent nine years at Jerusalem Venture Partners, where he was a partner in their New York, Jerusalem, and Beijing offices. 

Bessemer Venture Partners was born from innovations in steel that literally forged modern building and manufacturing. Today, we work with people who want to create revolutions of their own. 

Our partners help founders lay enduring foundations to create companies that matter, starting with seed and Series A investments and sticking with our companies at every stage of their growth. 

We've been part of over 120 IPOs in the last 50 years, including Shopify, Yelp, LinkedIn, Skype, LifeLock, Twilio, SendGrid, DocuSign, Wix, and MindBody, and we're not stopping anytime soon. 

Bessemer's 16 investing partners operate from offices in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Israel, and India.

Fireside Friday: PreSales Tech Investing - The Space is Heating Up

As PreSales leaders, the ability to augment our team's technical evaluation strategy with quantitive data is critical. 

Activity tracking, at its core, is about identifying repeatable patterns that efficiently move opportunities through technical evaluation. Furthermore, it provides insight into operational data - such as capacity planning, key technical enablement areas, and account planning.

This workshop aims to outline the different strategies for: 

Director of Solutions Architecture @ GitLab, for hosting this event!

Roundtable: Activity Tracking in PreSales

The Benefits of Embracing a Coaching Culture

As leaders we want our SEs to constantly develop capabilities and maximize their impact. A coaching culture motivates individuals to strive to be the best version of themselves, lead from their strengths, and encourages exceptional execution every time. Moving from advisor to coach can have powerful impacts, but is often easier said than done. We’ll dive into round table discussions on:

Each roundtable event is hosted by one of our PSLC members. Thank you to

Leadership Coach, for hosting this event!

Roundtable: The Benefits of Embracing a Coaching Culture

PreSales Leadership Collective Presents the Second Annual Executive Summit. The Exclusive Event for PreSales Leaders. 

Session & Speaker Details can be found on our website: 

https://www.presalescollective.com/executive-summit-2021

Attendees: You must be in a PreSales Leadership position to attend this event. Your registration will need 

 before you will be provided login details. Please allow 48 - 72 hours for approval.

Thank you to our partners for making this event happen!

For those in APJ, stay tuned for simulcast information as it will be added to your calendars (in mid-October) when you answer "APJ" in the region question during signup. 

* Are you wondering where to sign up for Day 2? PSLC Members will have the event automatically added to your calendars * 

This event hosted by PreSales Leadership Collective. For more information, please visit 

Any questions? Reach out to leaders@presalescollective.com. 

PreSales Leadership Collective's PreSales Executive Summit (Day 1 & Day 3)

(Registration is listed as closed as this is a private event for PSLC Members - this event will be automatically added to your calendars)

Are you wondering where to sign up for Day 2? PSLC Members will have the event automatically added to your calendars  

Day 2 for PSLC Members Only: 
PreSales Executive Summit

Join us for a discussion of the key themes from Executive Summit 2021. If you couldn't attend, this is a great chance to hear what PreSales leaders see coming over the next year. 

For everyone, it's a chance to hear from each other on what was presented and how you see it affecting your organization.

Fireside Friday's: Executive Summit Recap w/ James Kaikis

More organizations are using the Technical Win to measure PreSales success and as a stage of their sales cycles to align PreSales and Sales teams on opportunities.

​Each roundtable event is hosted by one of our PSLC members. Thank you to 

, Head of Americas Solutions Engineering at Cloudflare, for hosting this event!

 and open to all PreSales Leaders (Managers & Above).

To cater to our global audience, the main presentation will happen in English for 10-15 minutes then we will separate into breakout rooms based upon language.

Our goal is to offer sessions in English, German, Dutch, Spanish, French, & Italian if we have enough RSVP to provide a meaningful discussion

​Each roundtable event is hosted by one of our PSLC members. Thank you to

RVP of PreSales at Apptio, & PSLC Council member!

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) & Metrics are always a topic of conversation amongst PreSales leaders. Regardless of your time in the profession, how we justify our Sales Engineering teams continues to differ amongst leaders and organizations. 

PSLC Roundtable - PreSales KPIs & Metrics (International Edition)

Creating Models for Accurate Capacity Planning

Capacity planning for PreSales can be a daunting task.

Do I have enough headcount? Do I have too many? How do I know what new headcount to forecast for the next fiscal year? What is the maximum workload for my team?

These are questions that all PreSales leaders struggle with, but by using some simple metrics, leaders can narrow in on the answers for these questions and more.

This session will cover models that have been used to go from "I wonder what I need?" to "This is what I need!"

Manager, Solutions Consulting @ MasterControl, for hosting this event!

PSLC Roundtable: Creating Models for Accurate Capacity Planning

 on why mentorship is important, including why "reverse" mentorship can also benefit you as a mentor.

Fireside Friday's: The Benefits of Mentorship w/ Paul Baptist

What an amazing year! We are taking a break from live events but there is plenty of content to watch, read, or listen to: 

https://youtube.com/channel/UCygDsn1forWnLC-8UhmWonw

https://www.presalescollective.com/presales-professionals-blog

https://www.presalescollective.com/podcast

https://presales-collective.thinkific.com/

Be on the lookout for our content schedule release in early January 2022.

Enjoy a break from PreSales Collective content!

Managing your PreSales Team as a Business

To be a successful leader, it's not enough to have your team completing a lot of activities. You need to think about strategic initiatives, business value you're providing, and how to track the right metrics.

, Global VP, PreSales @ Blue Yonder and learn from her approach on how to manage your PreSales team like a business and how that can help you have a bigger impact within your company.

PSLC Roundtable: Managing your PreSales Team as a Business

Why You Need Value Consulting in PreSales

Many companies have heard of Value Consulting/Value Engineering functions, but struggle with understanding how this function is similar/different from the rest of the PreSales functions.