Multi-Product Generalists Are on Their Way Out with Dave Greene, Gainsight

Are solution consultants the key to bridging the gap between pre-sales and post-sales success?

In this episode, Jarod Greene sits down with Dave Greene, Regional Vice President of Solution Consulting at Gainsight, to unpack why the days of multi-product generalists are fading fast. Dave explains why buyers demand deeper expertise from SCs and how specialization is driving better outcomes for both customers and teams.


In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why specialization is the future of solution consulting: Dave explains why the shift away from multi-product generalists is critical to meeting buyer expectations and delivering deeper, more effective support.
• How to address burnout in solution consulting teams: Teams managing multiple product lines and geographies can improve performance and morale by prioritizing specialization.
• The evolving role of SCs in customer success: Solution consultants are uniquely positioned to support customers both pre and post-sale because of their technical training.

Things to listen for:

(00:00) Introduction
(00:21) Why multi-product generalists are becoming obsolete
(00:48) The value of specialization in solution consulting
(01:27) Addressing SC burnout and challenges with multiple product lines
(01:53) Why buyers want deeper expertise and customized solutions
(02:31) The critical role of SCs in pre- and post-sales collaboration
(03:43) The synergy between SCs and CSMs for customer outcomes

What is The Unexpected Lever?

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, and welcome to V5 where we spend exactly five minutes getting on our soap box about some of the hottest topics in all of B2B sales. I am joined today by my brother from another mother. this is Dave Green, Regional Vice President of Solution Consulting at Gainsight. And I want to hear Dave's hot take.

Jarod Greene [00:00:21]:
I'm going to let him give it to you straight. So Dave, what do you got?

Dave Greene [00:00:24]:
Awesome, Jared. Thanks for having me. So my hot take is the days of multi-product generalists for SCs are numbered. What we're seeing today is that customers are expecting more specialization. They need people on calls supporting them who understand the deep use cases, who could create customized demonstrations and aren't just surface-level anymore.

Dave Greene [00:00:48]:
And so that's really what we think at Gainsight is the most effective way to serve our customers and what we've seen the most success with.

Jarod Greene [00:00:54]:
Yeah, absolutely. what would you say to those folks who just heard that message and get a little nervous?

Dave Greene [00:01:00]:
I would say talk to your team. I would say go to them and ask them, Hey, are you doing okay supporting five products, keeping up with all of the roadmap items for those products? you're probably going to get SCs who are honest with you that they're burnout, that they're having trouble keeping up.

Dave Greene [00:01:17]:
And, you know, maybe the sales counterparts they're working with and even the customers are saying, we just need a little more. We need someone to go a little deeper with us and support us in a more effective way.

Jarod Greene [00:01:27]:
Yeah, absolutely. You touch on something I cite a lot on V5s, which are, you know, Gartner did a study a couple years ago and they did a buyer survey and they said, hey, 56 percent of the buyers want a solution consultant at the forefront, right? Not the AE, not the SDR, not the marketing team, but they want a solution consultant.

Jarod Greene [00:01:45]:
So you touched on something I think is interesting, which is your buyers want that depth. It's less about the rep. It's more about the buyer. Can you elaborate on that a little bit?

Dave Greene [00:01:53]:
Yeah, when a buyer, engages with any vendor, similar to when I engage with vendors, There is a problem I'm trying to solve for an initiative that I'm trying to work and kind of help with. So, I'm not necessarily looking for someone who knows how the wrenches are turned necessarily, or someone who can set up some deep integration.

Dave Greene [00:02:13]:
I want someone who's done it before, who's seen the use cases, who's an expert. Really, I'm giving trust in that person if I choose you, and I work with your company, I'm going to get the outcomes I had hoped. and Jerry, just to elaborate on something you just said. Buyers want a solutions consultant at the forefront.

Dave Greene [00:02:31]:
And also customers want a solutions consultant to be involved post-sales as well. Because, you know, as a customer of products myself, I'm always thinking, What can I do next? Can I consolidate technology? Like for example, does Vivint do all the things I needed to do, plus some, maybe some new initiatives happening?

Dave Greene [00:02:49]:
And I think Solutions Consultants are just uniquely positioned to be able to support that.

Jarod Greene [00:02:55]:
Absolutely. Yeah. It wouldn't be a Vivun Gainsight conversation without the crossover from kind of pre-sales to post-sales. Another stat we see a lot, about 65 percent of our solution consulting teams are saying, I'm either supporting post-sales activities, we're having a conversation about being pulled in more, or we're actively integrating the teams.

Jarod Greene [00:03:15]:
Where do you stand on this? I think you have a really interesting perspective as both the solution consultant leader, but also a leader at the world's leading CSM company.

Dave Greene [00:03:23]:
Working at Gainsight, I think that one thing that we just talked probably more than any other company about is like, what are our [00:03:30] customers saying? What do they need? How do we support them better? And our customers want someone who has this, you know, technical use case expertise, which really is a solution consulting org at Gainsight.

Dave Greene [00:03:43]:
And so, yes, our CSMs are incredible. Some of the best CSMs in the world. bye. You know, a good CSM and a good coach knows where to pull in the right players for the right conversations that, you know, our CSM or our SCs are consistently working with our CSM to supporting our customers and saying, Have you tried this new feature?

Dave Greene [00:04:03]:
Or I noticed you're doing this in candidly a harder way than I think you should. And maybe it's something we can help with because, you know, CSF just don't have the time to focus on, you know, all the nitty gritties of the product anymore. They need that person who's focused on the solutioning of that product to support.

Dave Greene [00:04:20]:
So we definitely see that as a trend. Something we're leading into now.

Jarod Greene [00:04:24]:
Totally. Yeah, you said it before. If the SC is struggling, if you ask your team if they're struggling to manage multiple product lines, multiple segments, multiple geos, multiple industries, imagine the CSM on the other side. So I think those synergies going to be incredible for us moving forward. One more thing before we go.

Jarod Greene [00:04:42]:
What's something you're excited about going into the new year?

Dave Greene [00:04:45]:
I'll be personal. I'll give my plug for Gainsight. I think what's so exciting about working at Gainsight and why I've loved it for the past nine years is you're never bored. We are constantly innovating. We're in the forefront of everything customer success. And don't just think of it as only the [00:05:00] customer success solution.

Dave Greene [00:05:01]:
Gainsight is now the post-sales solution. So we are the operating system for Your customer base. And so we have created so many AI solutions. We have education solutions, community solutions. So what I'm excited about is I'm not going to be bored this next year. I am just a swabbed with not only work to do, but getting to talk to our exciting customers about how we can help them with their problems.

Jarod Greene [00:05:25]:
That's awesome. Love to hear it. Dave, thank you so much. Thanks for joining us for V5. Appreciate you.