Pre-Sales Unplugged: Leadership Playbook

Give us Feedback on this episode Most founders know how to build a product. Far fewer know how to build a company that can actually scale and eventually be acquired. On the next episode of PreSales Unplugged: The Leadership Playbook , I'm joined by Stan Markuze , CEO of Balance. Stan has built and successfully sold two technology companies, invested in real estate for over a decade, and is no...

Give us Feedback on this episode Most SaaS leaders are betting big on AI right now. But here's the uncomfortable truth: most of those bets won't pay off. Not because the technology isn't real. Because the fundamentals aren't there. I'm sitting down with Mark Nix, an executive with experience leading crossfunctionally across Solution Engineering, Product Strategy, Product M...

Give us Feedback on this episode Most revenue problems in SaaS are leadership problems and most leaders don't see it until it's too late. If your team isn't closing, your pipeline is unpredictable, or you're still the one saving every deal, something in your leadership motion is broken. I'm sitting down with Alice Heiman and one of the most respected voices in B2B sales st...

Give us Feedback on this episode Most pre-sales pros are incredible at the demo. But the demo isn't why deals die. This Tuesday I'm sitting down with Ron Whitson, an author, speaker, and one of the most experienced pre-sales leaders in the game. His book "A Friendly Human in Presales" breaks down the 7 timeless behaviors that separate good SEs from the ones who actually move th...

Give us Feedback on this episode Most SE leaders are not ready for what fast growth actually demands. You land the budget. You get the headcount approved, the team is crushing it and the company is growing. And then the real work starts. Hiring decisions that have to stick. Onboarding that actually produces reps who can perform. A culture that does not fall apart the moment 20 new people walk in t...

Give us Feedback on this episode Most leaders lose their best people and never get them back. The ones who do? They built something different: a culture where people don't just work for you, they want to work with you again. This week I'm sitting down with someone I've genuinely loved working with as a client, not just because he gets results, but because he's the kind of leade...

Give us Feedback on this episode Most SaaS teams blame the market, the tool, the AI craziness, but they are overlooking one VERY IMPORTANT factor about why their company might be plateuign: Mindset - of the founder AND the team. This Thursday, May 14th at 11AM ET, I'm going LIVE with Mike Simmons, consultant, operator, and someone who's helped companies from early-stage startups to enter...

Give us Feedback on this episode Most SaaS companies treat Customer Success as a post-sales cleanup crew. The handoff is messy, expectations are misaligned, and by the time CS gets involved.. the damage is already done. On our next episode, I'm bringing on Ivan Stefanovski,  a CS and Partner Success leader who's managed 50+ stakeholder enterprise accounts and built the kind of relationsh...

Give us Feedback on this episode Joseph Lee, founder of Supademo, joins me live to break down how the buying journey in SaaS is rapidly changing and why traditional demos are no longer enough. We dive into his founder journey, the realities of bootstrapping, and how he identified a major gap in how buyers evaluate products today.  Joseph shares how self-serve demos are reshaping pre-sales, speedin...

Give us Feedback on this episode 2026 is more competitive than ever… and it’s not slowing down. Everyone keeps saying “personalize your outreach.” But AI made that easy. Which ironically made most “personalization” feel even more generic. So now the real questions are: Is AI replacing SDRs and BDRs? What’s actually working in outbound right now? And how do you build a BD engine that actually perfo...

Give us Feedback on this episode Picture this: The company is growing, deals are coming in, revenue is moving… but behind the scenes, everything is duct-taped together. Google Sheets are breaking. Forecasting is guesswork. And leadership is flying blind. That’s usually the stage where things feel like they’re working… until they don’t. And that is the reality for a lot of companies that sit in tha...

Give us Feedback on this episode Competition in SaaS has gotten a lot tighter. Especially when it comes to running a strong POCs. A strong POC can be the difference between winning a deal… or losing it to a competitor. And most of the time, that falls on your Sales Engineers. Here’s the problem though… A lot of teams think they’re running a solid technical evaluation. In reality, they’re just runn...

Give us Feedback on this episode What does it actually look like to build a company in an AI-first world… instead of bolting AI on later? Most founders talk about AI as a feature. Ben Hills built  Iris AI with it at the core. And most B2B SaaS companies are still running the same old outbound, paid ads, and gated content playbook… hoping it works. Ben Hills is doing BOTH differently. He’s building...

Give us Feedback on this episode Should you be a leader or an individual contributor? In a perfect world, you’d choose one. But startups aren’t perfect... and that’s okay. Sometimes the player-coach model is the only way to scale without losing touch. The problem? Most do it wrong. They get stretched thin, reactive, and their teams feel it. So how do you actually make it work? Scott Jaworski, Dire...

Give us Feedback on this episode In this episode of Pre Sales Unplugged: The Leadership Playbook , Arvi Carkanji (Founder of Elite Talent ) sits down with Chris Mabry , Vice President of Solutions and Partnerships, to break down what actually separates a good Sales Engineer from an A Player Sales Engineer, and what modern pre sales leadership really looks like inside B2B SaaS. Chris Mabry shares h...

Give us Feedback on this episode Join me and Ramzi Marjaba, Consultant, Solution Engineer Coach for a live conversation focused on what it really takes to be a high-performing Sales Engineer. We’ll talk through:  → What helps teams operate as one and avoid silos  → How strong Pre-Sales and AE collaboration really works  → What separates good Sales Engineers from true A-players  → What an effective...

Give us Feedback on this episode In this solo episode, Arvi Carkanji breaks down the real version of mindset toughness that shows up in SaaS when the pipeline is messy, deals go dark, and you still have to perform even when your brain is not cooperating. You will hear a personal story from the trenches of SaaS recruiting where rejection is daily, plus the exact principles top performers use to sta...

Give us Feedback on this episode In this episode of Pre-Sales Unplugged: The Leadership Playbook , host Arvi Carkanji sits down with David Schultz , Head of Solution Consulting at Employe , to break down what it really takes to build a career and lead high-performing Sales Engineering teams. David shares how he accidentally found his way into Solutions Consulting, why raising his hand early change...

Give us Feedback on this episode Join me and Join me and Matt Green, CRO & Co-Founder of Sales Assembly, for a tactical look at what’s working in today’s GTM landscape. Matt works with hundreds of CROs and VPs of Sales and sees what separates winning teams from the rest. We’ll cover: → Real AI use in sales → Pipeline-driving top-of-funnel tactics → The return of in-person selling → Sales &...

Give us Feedback on this episode In this episode with Yotam Rotgoltz ...we explore how unconventional careers lead to strong pre-sales leaders, why enablement is the first thing to break in startups, and how AI helps teams move faster without replacing human judgment.  Practical tips include structuring onboarding, preventing misalignment, and building true AE–SE partnerships. • distinguishing val...

Give us Feedback on this episode Join me and Michael McDowell, GTM leader and author of Demotainment, for an unfiltered conversation on how PreSales can drive more than just demos, it drives growth. We’ll cover:  → The role of PreSales in modern GTM strategy  → Why most demo experiences fall flat and how to fix them  → How to align Product, Sales, and Marketing for buyer impact  → Tactical tips fr...

Give us Feedback on this episode Super Excited for this Episode with Chris White, Author of The Six Habits of Highly Effective Sales Engineers, for an exclusive LinkedIn Live. Chris is the founder & CEO of Tech Sales Advisors (now Tech Sales Mastery) and has spent decades in enterprise software, presales, and technical sales training. If you lead technical sales, presales, or revenue teams or...

Give us Feedback on this episode Chris Mabry, VP of Solutions & Partnerships at Reprise and a leading voice in the PreSales space, joins Arvi Carkanji (Founder of Elite Talent) to break down: How he transitioned from a basement-dwelling network engineer to PreSales leadership The underrated power of solving “boring problems” to accelerate your career What separates good SEs from true A-players...

Give us Feedback on this episode Join me and Brian Martynowicz, Head of GTM Engineering for an exclusive LinkedIn Live where we’ll cover: → SE Career Growth: What every aspiring SE leader should know → Hiring SEs: When to hire, who to hire, and how to avoid costly mistakes → A-Player SEs: The key skills that make top-performing SEs stand out → Balancing Tech & Communication: How to master both...