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 backgrounds to find great talent.
Follow Us
Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ 

Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/ 

Connect with Adam Bauman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamjbauman/ 

Links and Resources Mentioned
Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack 

Sol/Con 2026 (Chicago, August 2026): https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026 

Presales Collective Unscripted: https://luma.com/pscunscripted 

Key Topics Covered
What Defines a "Traditional" Path to Presales and Why Most Paths Are Non-Traditional

Adam's 20-Year Engineering Career and What Drew Him to Presales

The Learning Curve: Demos, Confidence, and Learning Not to Know Everything

Scoping Engagements and Understanding Buying Journeys Beyond Technical Validation

Staying Involved Through Security, Procurement, and Legal Reviews

Understanding Business Value and ROI from an Engineering Mindset

Using AI Tools Like Claude for Personal and Professional Efficiency

How to Interview for Presales Without Traditional Experience

Changes Needed in Recruiting: Using Rubrics and Formalized Evaluation

Timestamps
00:00 Start
03:36 Welcome Adam Bauman
06:58 Building confidence without all the answers
10:25 Drawing from an engineering background
13:55 Timeline for feeling confident in the role
22:07 Communicating value without presales experience
24:34 Changes needed in recruiting and hiring
27:23 Final Thoughts

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: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ 

Connect with Mathew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/ 

Connect with Lisa Jameson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisajamesondb/ 

Links and Resources Mentioned
Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack 

Sol/Con 2026 (Chicago, August 2026): https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026 

Key Topics Covered
Building Initial Trust Through Proactive Learning and Debrief Calls

The Deal Review as Critical Trust Builder for Won and Lost Deals

Strategic Use of Closed Lost Deals to Increase Credibility

The "If We're Working It, We're Working It" Philosophy

Recognizing When Sales Teams Trust Your Strategic Input

Developing Deep Expertise in a Niche Area

Creating Custom IC Roles Through Proven Value

Moving Beyond Product Limitations with Partners and Creative Solutions

The Long Game of Career Development and Building Credibility

Structuring Compensation and Proving ROI for Strategic Roles

Rob Fallon, 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 most companies struggle to fix it.
The discussion covers the business case for academies, how to secure executive sponsorship and funding, the structure of successful two-year programs, and why hiring for technical curiosity and grit matters more than existing technical knowledge.
Follow Us
Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/

Connect with Rob Fallon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robfallon/

Links and Resources Mentioned
Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack

Sol/Con 2026 (Chicago, August 2026): https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026

Contact Rob: rob.fallon@nutanix.com

Key Topics Covered
The Inverted Pyramid Problem: Why SE Organizations Over-Hire Senior Talent

Executive Sponsorship and Funding: Getting Buy-In for Long-Term Investment

The Two-Year Academy Program Structure at Nutanix

Hiring for Technical Curiosity, Communication, and Grit Over Knowledge

Why Field Integration and Manager Engagement Are Critical to Success

How Academy Associates Become Productive Within 12 Months

Academy Programs as Diversity and Fresh Thinking Enablers

Success Metrics: When Field Leaders Want Academy Grads on Their Teams

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: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ 

Connect with Yasmeen Hyder: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasmeenhyder/ 

Links and Resources Mentioned
Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack 

Sol/Con 2026 (Chicago, August 2026): https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026 

Presales Collective Podcast: https://www.presalescollective.com/podcast 

Key Topics Covered
Voice AI vs. Typing: Why Speaking Creates Higher Bandwidth Communication

AI as Thought Companion Rather Than Answer Engine

Yasmeen's Career Journey: Healthcare to Pharma to Tech Presales

Overcoming the Behavioral Change of Talking to Your Computer

Stress Testing Leadership Decisions with Voice AI

Using AI as a Coach: Asking for Questions Instead of Answers

Time Compression Benefits: 60-90 Minutes Down to 15-20 Minutes

Addressing Zoom Fatigue: Voice AI as Reset and Grounding Tool

Negative Prompting Technique for Better Outputs

Personal and Professional Applications Beyond Work

Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
02:45 Welcome Yas
05:45 Why talking to AI
08:02 Setup and behavioral change
10:57 Writing vs. speaking
15:27 Rubber ducky but better
16:28 Stress testing leadership decisions
20:46 Using AI as a coach
22:36 Addressing Zoom fatigue
26:00 Personal life applications
30:19 Closing and contact information

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 rapidly while metrics, compensation plans, and tooling have remained static. 
Follow Us
Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/ 

Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/ 

Connect with Kintan Brahmbhatt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kintan/ 

Links and Resources Mentioned
Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack 

Sol/Con 2026 (Chicago, August 2026): https://www.presalescollective.com/solcon-2026 

Olto: https://olto.com/psc  (3 months free promotional offer mentioned)

Key Topics Covered
Why AI Timing Is Better Now: Moving Beyond Productivity to Workflow Transformation

The Personalization Gap Between B2C and B2B Buyer Experiences

What Olto Is: Product-Trained AI Agents Across the Revenue Journey

Kintan's Amazon Background: Building Personalized Experiences at Scale

SE Capacity Economics and the Unspoken Rule About Qualified Deals

How Product-Trained Agents Differ from Generic AI

The New SE Workflow: Agents Handle Discovery, SEs Focus on Sense-Making

Evolution of SE Metrics, Compensation, and Tooling for the AI Era

Implementation Challenges and Change Management

The Future of the Presales Profession

Timestamps
00:00 Welcome
04:04 Now vs a year ago
05:40 What is Olto
07:52 B2C vs B2B personalization disconnect
11:15 Agent capabilities and limitations
21:35 Future of the solutions roles
28:26 Key takeaways from solutions leaders