Two PreSales in a Pod

Your buyers already researched you. Your competitors. Your product. And probably generated a shortlist with AI before the first meeting even started. In this episode, we’re joined by Stephen Morse (30+ year SE leader, founder of the SC Leadership Institute, executive coach, and former Salesforce global SE leader) to unpack what leadership looks like in an AI-first world. We dig into: Why SEs need...

Buyers aren’t showing up to your first call “curious” anymore, they’re showing up pre-researched, pre-ranked, and powered by AI. In this episode, we’re joined by John Brunswick (former Distinguished SE at Salesforce, founder of StoryPath.ai , and author of Burn the Deck ) to break down what AI is changing in the buyer/seller dynamic. We dig into: Why AI gives buyers “superpowers” (and what that me...

In this episode, James Kaikis (Co-Founder, PreSales Collective; Founder, GTM Shift) joins Adam + Todd to unpack the rise of Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) and what it signals for the future of presales: a world where proof beats polish , and the teams that win are the ones who can show it working —fast. We get into: What an FDE actually is (and why it’s not as “new” as it sounds) The real drive...

The presales job market is evolving —leadership roles are competitive, and entry-level SE opportunities are tighter than ever. But there’s good news: hiring is picking up again. So… how do you stand out and land your next role? We’re joined by Yuji Higashi , Co-Founder of PreSales Collective and Better Career , to break down: The current state of the presales hiring landscape Why first-time SE rol...

AI isn’t just another tool—it’s becoming a career-defining skill . In this episode, Zach Lawryk, Head of Solutions Engineering at OpenAI , joins us to talk about why AI fluency is essential for presales professionals. We dive into how AI can streamline workflows, accelerate onboarding, and even reshape how we think about demos. Zach also shares practical ways to integrate AI into your daily life—b...

Sheevaun Thatcher , a seasoned sales enablement leader with a presales background, joins us to discuss how aligning presales and enablement functions can empower sales teams and organizations at large. Listen in to hear her five key questions to ask before launching any project, what KPIs presales and enablement can share, and what the career pathway between these roles can look like.

Susan Beal, Chief Customer Officer at Blue Yonder , joins us to discuss why presales teams need to think "beyond the sale" and work closely with CS to drive account growth, expansion, and ultimately a better client experience.

2PIAP is back!!! After a 6-month break, your favourite presales podcast is back and ready to dive head first back into the world of presales and all things GTM. Adam is back and joined by Todd Janzen. We’ll be joined by some world class thought leaders and visionaries in GTM space. Come join us as we catch up on what we've been up to, share some hilarious presales stories, and discuss the latest i...

John Simpson joins us to share his wealth of experience in building teams from scratch otherwise known as 'bootstrapping' the build. There's a right way, a wrong way and it's likely you'll sit somewhere in between, but with John's experience and the chat from Mark Green, Adam Freeman and Mark McKinlay there's sure some interesting discussions on the topic. https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnsimpso/ C...

Networking helps your internal team, but as Ron Whitson points out in this episode, it's building that outside your business that ultimately leads to the healthy growth of ideas for you and your team. Thanks Ron, for coming to share your wealth of knowledge and for offering connections at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronwhitsonse

What if you treated your job search as a software sale? You'd need all the skills that great presales people have, and so you're one step ahead already - it's like you were leading up to this exact moment. So you've done all your discovery and prep - right? Special guest Mark Winey joins Mark Green and Mark McKinlay on a masterclass of making sure you're prepped and ready. Find all three Marks on...

Ever had to check yourself before giving feedback? Is your way actually the right way, or just the way you'd do it. Leaders have to foster creativity and growth in others but sometimes things just have to be done the way you say. Getting the balance right is hard so we've brought in an expert. Ben Pearce has seen it all, and now spends his time helping other people communicate in the best way - fr...

For the first time in Two Presales in a Pod history, all the presenters are together, live and in-front of the wonderful Demofestx London 2023 audience. Join your hosts Mark Green, Don Carmichael, Adam Freeman and Tom Edwards as audience members share their journey into this wonderful presales profession! There's even a giveaway, find out who gets it!

Goals and reviews can be crucial for the best running teams, but how many managers get them wrong and what are the best tips for getting them right? Don, Mark and Adam discuss top tips and pitfalls of working with your team to create the right outcomes, rather than just 'tick the box' of doing reviews. Find out more about SMART goals, OKRs and our key actions for you to try at the end! Come find u...

Hey - do you even do discovery right, and is it really enough? Peter Cohan joins Adam to 'discover' How much discovery is enough?, and is a disco demo a good thing or bad thing? We're all ace at doing discovery (or at least we think we are), but what if you doubt the quality of discovery by someone else? Come join us on LinkedIn and add Peter, here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petercohan/

Today we tackle an important and difficult conversation. We were excited to welcome Lidia Vasileva on the show who if you don't know yet where HAVE you been! Lidia shares her journey of growth into Presales from a more technical role, and how having a particularly creative mindset can be a boost to presales in the way problems are approached and solutions are presented. She's a champion of clarity...

Adam and Mark welcome Ian Merry, Global Head of Presales for Ideagen. His journey is a fascinating trip through many areas that made his understanding of people and our industry particularly impactful. So listen in to the key benefits of running a leadership team in a certain way, and helping people grow in the way they need and you need. Thanks for coming on the podcast Ian - we loved having you...

Bo Borland joins us to discuss presales playbooks, and given his experience orchestrating so many vibrant and effective parts of our world, Mark and Adam are keen to explore just how much the game has changed when it comes to organising strategic plays for your teams. As a long-time leader now turned co-founder (Playbuilt), Bo's coined the phrase 'Teaming is the new selling' and how it adds to alr...

This episode Adam Freeman and Don Carmichael welcomes a very special guest, Peter Cohan. We talk about how to identify a Champion within a Buyer, what might be motivating them, and how their previous experience of buying Tech changes their approach. We look at whether it's even a Sales Engineer/PreSales Consultants job to enable a Buyer champion or whether that's just some Sales Execs do. We talk...

There's lots of doom and gloom in tech, but we're feeling completely the opposite as there's so much to look forward to in our profession right now. Don, Adam and Mark chat about why we're so excited to be in Presales, some of the key moments we can see happening across the industry and how to grab these great opportunities with both hands! As presales / sales engineering leaders we're incredibly...

In this episode of 2PIAP Adam is joined by Pavey Purewal. Pavey is an experienced executive coach with 20+ years tech B2B marketing experience for both large enterprise companies and high growth startups. Former VP and CMO roles at startups and VMware. Now, Pavey is helping senior marketing and sales leaders succeed. Providing Executive coaching for leaders for sustained personal and professional...

In a world where more of our buyer's spending is scrutinised more closely than ever, qualification matters. Don, Adam and Mark go back to basics about qualification and discuss why BANT, MEDDIC and others are crucial to today's presales teams but also why pushing back on sales, and constantly questioning the buyer motivation matters more these days than ever before. Find out what it means for us i...

There are millions of books on sales, but very few on what happens when deals go wrong. Daryn's spent years seeing the need rise, so here's written a book to help presales and sales do a systematic analysis on what goes wrong, and how to learn from those rich lessons. Deal Crash Investigation is a fascinating topic that Tom Edwards, Adam Freeman and Mark Green join Daryn Mason to dive into a task...

In this latest episode Toby Baker joins Don Carmichael and Mark Green to take us through why consistency is important in B2C, and even more important in B2C.  Certainly making the customer journey memorable is an important part of making that experience great, and that presales people shouldn't ever exist in a bubble - they're part of what should be a joined up message, collaborative journey and s...

Kerry Sokalsky from Presales Mastery joins Don and Mark to discuss what he's learned from seeing thousands of presales compensation plans on how and why adopt strategies to help compensate people for different reasons. If payments is base salary, compensation and upside incentive over and above OTE. The general rule is the amount of pay that's at risk should align with the degree of influence on t...