PODCAST · business
Leading PreSales | The Solution Engineering Leadership Show
by Jan-Erik Jank & Tim Brömme
Two voices. Two perspectives. One goal: making you a better PreSales leader.Leading PreSales is a weekly podcast where Nate Hargrove and Ava Vasquez break down the real challenges of solution engineering leadership — in five minutes or less.Nate brings 12 years of SE leadership experience from enterprise SaaS. He's the pragmatist who's seen it all, led through reorgs and acquisitions, and knows what actually works at scale.Ava brings the builder's perspective — five years of leadership in high-growth Scale-Ups, where she built an SE team from zero to twelve and went from Series B to IPO. She challenges conventional thinking with modern frameworks and a coaching-first mindset.Each episode: one topic, one honest conversation, one practical move you can use the same week.Topics include 1:1 coaching, discovery skills, demo strategy, pipeline management, hiring, retention, and everything else that keeps SE leaders up at night.⚠️ Full transparency: The voices and characters in this pod
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13
Your Champion Isn't Enough Anymore [9]
In a deal review, Nate asked one of his SE Directors a single question: who's going to be in the room when this gets signed off? She couldn't answer. Four months into the deal, strong champion, and she couldn't name a single other stakeholder. In this episode: why 'arm the champion and trust them' has stopped working, and the concrete tool to replace it.
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12
What Am I Actually For? [8]
A six-week-old new hire asked Ava a question she couldn't answer in the moment: if AI does the research, drafts the RFP, handles the standard demo, and now negotiates quotes — what am I actually for? Ava's first answer was good. Nate tells her it's dangerous. Together they land on a better one.
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11
You Were Never Actually In That Deal [7]
One of Nate's SE Directors just lost a deal she was convinced she was winning. Three-vendor shortlist, great demo, champion fired up. Week two — gone. Nate explains why the deal was probably lost before it ever showed up in her pipeline, and what that means for how SE teams should operate.
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10
I Cancelled Every Technical Deep-Dive [6]
Ava pulled her team out of every standard post-demo technical deep-dive. Her team thought she was insane. Win rates went up. In this episode, she tells Nate what triggered it — and Nate pushes back on the 'cancel them all' framing with a sharp point about necessary theater at enterprise scale.
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9
One Skill Per Quarter — That's It [5]
Nate shares the hard lesson that changed how he develops SEs: pick one skill per quarter, go deep, and watch mastery compound.
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8
How Are You — Really? [3]
Nate and Ava explore why the standard "how are you" check-in fails SE leaders — and what to ask instead to surface real signals before you lose your best people.
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7
The One Question That Reveals Everything [4]
Ava reveals the single question that exposes whether a deal is real or just activity — and how going deep on one deal beats going shallow on eight.
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6
Your 1:1s Are Broken — Here's the Fix [2]
Most SE leaders run their one-on-ones the same way: open the pipeline, go deal by deal, close the laptop. Ava shares a structure that changed everything for her team.
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5
Welcome to Leading PreSales [1]
Before Nate and Ava take over, Tim Brömme introduces Leading PreSales. What the show is about, who the characters are, why the voices are AI-generated, and why the experiences behind them are very real.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Two voices. Two perspectives. One goal: making you a better PreSales leader.Leading PreSales is a weekly podcast where Nate Hargrove and Ava Vasquez break down the real challenges of solution engineering leadership — in five minutes or less.Nate brings 12 years of SE leadership experience from enterprise SaaS. He's the pragmatist who's seen it all, led through reorgs and acquisitions, and knows what actually works at scale.Ava brings the builder's perspective — five years of leadership in high-growth Scale-Ups, where she built an SE team from zero to twelve and went from Series B to IPO. She challenges conventional thinking with modern frameworks and a coaching-first mindset.Each episode: one topic, one honest conversation, one practical move you can use the same week.Topics include 1:1 coaching, discovery skills, demo strategy, pipeline management, hiring, retention, and everything else that keeps SE leaders up at night.⚠️ Full transparency: The voices and characters in this pod
HOSTED BY
Jan-Erik Jank & Tim Brömme
CATEGORIES
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