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The secret sauce to your sales success? It's what happens before the sale. It's the pre-sales. And it's more than demo automation. It's the work that goes on to connect technology and people in a really thoughtful way. If you want strong revenue, high retention, and shorter sales cycles, pre-work centered around the human that makes the dream work, but you already know that.
The Unexpected Lever is your partner in growing revenue by doing what you already do best—combining your technical skills with your strategic insights. Brought to you by Vivun, this show highlights the people and peers behind the brands who understand what it takes to grow revenue. You're not just preparing for the sale—you're unlocking potential.
Join us as we share stories of sales engineers who make a difference, their challenges, their successes, and the human connections that drive us all, one solution at a time.
Jarod Greene [00:00:00]:
Hey everybody. Welcome to V5 where we spend exactly five minutes getting into some of the hottest topics in all of B2B sales. I am excited because I am joined today by Dave Schultz, Head of Solution Consulting at Employ. Dave, how you doing today?
Dave Schultz [00:00:18]:
I'm living a dream. Doing awesome. How you doing? Awesome.
Jarod Greene [00:00:21]:
Good to see you. Hey, so you know the rules, you know the game, let's get into it. What is top of mind for you? What is a spicy take you want to share with the V5 audience? Timer goes off now. Let's do it.
Dave Schultz [00:00:31]:
Top of mind is just the changing landscape of what the SC rule is and the flexibility that needs to be built into being in SC. It used to be a very defined process. Disco demo, move through the chain. And we'd all love to still have that. But with the type of research in the way customers want to buy today, we kind of have to meet them where they're at, which means SCs need to be a lot more flexible and out of their comfort zone, often during their day to day. Maybe that means more disco demos, maybe that means flying a little bit blind. Whatever it is, we kind of have to make sure we're meeting the customer where they're at so they can see what what is we're trying to solution, we're trying to sell and improve their lives.
Jarod Greene [00:01:10]:
I think a lot about the research you see out there, right? 70, 80% of folks want a demo on the first date. Or like you say, the buyer's done more research, more energy spent in understated solutions before they show up for that first call. Where do you stand on that? Do we demo on the first day? Do we disco demo? What's the, what's the connection there?
Dave Schultz [00:01:29]:
Being the typical consultant I am, it does depend on the, on the prospect. I think you should be prepared to do a demo, slash disco demo. You don't know what kind of information they have, but if you don't have anything, at very least you should be able to show something to generate a conversation. It may not be a full demo. You might find out, oh, I really care about X. And then you want to give something visible and tangible for someone to see. And then I can drive maybe a 15 minute discovery conversation around that topic. It's a different way of getting to the pains and the true underpinnings of why they're chatting with you.
Dave Schultz [00:02:04]:
And that's one of the things you always want to figure out is why are you chatting with me? And sometimes people are visual and they need to see the system or they think they need to see the system. Just letting them know that you're there to help figure out what will and will not work for them. And if it's a good fit. It's not a bad thing to just show up on the screen for a hot minute there.
Jarod Greene [00:02:21]:
I think what's interesting too is like, we cite a lot of research. Our friends at Gartner a while ago put out a B2B buyer survey. 56% of buyers, most prefer the SE to learn more about products and services. They trust you, they want to trust you. They want to lean in. They want that inside advice from you. When you think about building flexibility and building agility into your teams, what are some of the skills and competencies you look for in an SE so that they can be flexible to meet adjusting buyer needs.
Dave Schultz [00:02:50]:
It's basic communication. And, you know, if I'm interviewing, I'm chatting with someone. I like to throw a curveball, not to trick them, because I don't really care what the answer is. It doesn't matter to me what the answer is, but it's how they handle the. Well, I wasn't expecting something like that. And to see how they adapt to that, because our prospects do that almost every single call. Can they articulate, you know, based upon that curveball, something that resonates with me, that there's a conviction behind what they're saying. They're comfortable with being thrown off their game, as comfortable as someone can be thrown off their game.
Dave Schultz [00:03:21]:
But it's like they've seen it before, they've done it before, and it doesn't phase them too much. Customers don't just follow the script. And I don't believe in scripts to begin with. I believe in talk tracks and not scripts. But they're not going to follow our path. We can try. Then you're just going to alienate them. So back to the original question.
Dave Schultz [00:03:37]:
If the individual I'm chatting with or folks on my team, as they're ramping up, I want to put them out of their comfort zone and just see how they handle. That's going to emulate real life.
Jarod Greene [00:03:47]:
Buyers don't follow a script at all. Typically, you know, as that buyer committee gets larger, more and more people on it have never purchased software before or have never been part of a purchasing committee, don't understand it. And so I think a lot of times they'll blend a lot of the ways they buy things in their personal lives, which is scattershot, right? They leave it in the cart for months. They argue themselves out of the purchase over and over again and again. SEs, I think, bear the brunt of that. So I think having a flexible agile team that can adjust makes a ton of sense. So, Dave, you were saying before you're new to the company, what's the first kind of 30, 60, 90 look like for you?
Dave Schultz [00:04:25]:
So right now I'm in the midst of the probably 60 to 90 right now and seven weeks in. So it's all about learning, I think. You know my previous role, I built the team from scratch in this world and I grew up with the organization in this world. I'm inheriting a team. I'm joining organizations that was a little bit more mature and so it's really just not coming in and thinking just because I did it a certain way before that will absolutely work here. So tons of conversations not just with the SEs but cross-functional with product, product marketing, et cetera. Understand where things are working, where things are not working or at least hearing from people their lens on what's working and not working and then making my own opinions and decisions based upon that, seeing if systems and tools I've used before would sit here, make sure that I set the team up for success.
Dave Schultz [00:05:13]:
And I'm fortunate that I joined the beginning of Q4 with the goal. My goal is really I'm going to impact 2025, not 2024. I'm not going to be able to ramp up and help the business too much this year as much as I'd love to. And so it's just assessing and showing the SE organization, but the sales organization and the broader organization that I'm a thoughtful leader who isn't just here to just make change for the sake of change. That there will be a thought out process tied to empathy and understanding on any changes that happen as we roll into a new year.
Jarod Greene [00:05:43]:
So thanks for sharing that, Dave. I know as a lot of leaders look to new opportunities and maybe are starting new ventures next year. That sound advice and it follows a theme I think we've shared throughout this conversation which is all about adaptability and other things you need along the way. Hey, thank you for spending five minutes with us today to talk about solution consulting. We really appreciate it.
Dave Schultz [00:06:05]:
My pleasure. Happy to be here.
Jarod Greene [00:06:06]:
All right, thanks a lot, Dave.