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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, and welcome to V5, where we spend exactly five minutes getting on our soapbox on some of the hottest topics in all the B2B sales and SaaS. Today I have the distinct privilege of talking to Marjorie Abdelkrime, who is the West and Healthcare Lead at Broadcom. Now, Marjorie, you know how to play the game. We're going to start the timer and we're going to get on your soapbox. Ready to rock?
Marjorie Abdelkrime [00:00:27]:
Ready to rock.
Jarod Greene [00:00:28]:
All right, let's do it. So, Marjorie, top of mind for you. What do you got?
Marjorie Abdelkrime [00:00:31]:
We got a couple of things, but they're primarily around the career progression for the SEs in our industry. I think, you know, as we think about the solution engineer and the future generation of who we bring into our roles, and I think a lot of folks believe that there's just a traditional way to come in and there isn't. There's so many pathways into the SE role. And I think the second aspect that I want to touch on from a topic perspective is just your career progression once you land the SE role at a specific company.
Jarod Greene [00:01:02]:
Yeah. So, Marjorie, how did you get started into the SE world?
Marjorie Abdelkrime [00:01:06]:
I started my technical career in help desk and progressed into an IT role. I was managing Exchange servers back in the day when everything was not for him. And I had a project where we were trying to reduce our data storage footprint and we were working with this vendor called KBS. The sales rep, he's like, you know, you're doing this and you're not using any consulting. You should really consider going into professional services. It's like a young 23-year-old at the time. Like, I have no idea what that is. At Toys R Us, we didn't really use professional services because we were a very cost conscious company being in retail.
Marjorie Abdelkrime [00:01:47]:
And I interviewed for a consulting role and then, you know, I spent a larger part of my career at KBS that got bought by Veritas and Symantec in the professional services side. But company direction changed and I was placed in sales. It wasn't actually intentional placement or direction that I was seeking personally, but I'll tell you, I've had so much fun ever since, and it's helped me really rethink how we look at our talent when we're bringing in new folks. I think there's always this stigma of oath. You haven't been in it for 100 years. You can't sell the solution, especially in our space where it's very technically deep. I think there are other products within the industry that are probably a little easier to position for the SE role. So that's a little bit about my background on how I landed up in the SE world.
Jarod Greene [00:02:37]:
That's awesome. You've obviously seen a wide range of kind of entry points for solution consultants, sales engineers, pre-sales rose by another name. What would be some of the things you tell someone who's looking to get into it that might not believe they have the skills, whether they be technical, whether they be sales, whether they be a hybrid.
Marjorie Abdelkrime [00:02:55]:
I think if you have the understanding of what it takes to deliver outcomes and most folks that work within a company, especially that are technically driven, if you're rolling out a project, you got to work with stakeholders, you got to sell your project, you've got to position the why behind you on a specific project. Those are all selling skills. And I think a lot of folks forget that we do selling every single day. I've met many talented now SEs who were project managers or technologists within a specific company and have interviewed them and they'll leave the meeting room saying, you know, I don't really think I'm a good fit for this job. Like, what are you talking about? You just do fantastic job positioning how you sold your projects within your own environment. And that's what we're looking for for someone who can explain complex solutions to a stakeholder, for them to buy into it.
Jarod Greene [00:03:50]:
Totally. Yeah. Taking that super complex, making it simple around a context. It is the unicorn skill I see in a profession. What would you say to folks who say, well, how do I level up? I'm here, I'm doing the job, but I might want to go from level X to level Y, or if I did the math the right way or did the variables the right way. How do folks level up? What advice would you give them?
Marjorie Abdelkrime [00:04:09]:
I think there's a couple of areas. One is looking at the industry. So you introduced me as leading part of the healthcare business and understanding the customers that you sell to. So know their business, understand the why behind what they're doing. Especially if you're in a vertical. Super important about understanding the special use cases that they might have. The second area is looking at the ecosystem that surrounds your solution that you're interested in. Like for me, in infrastructure, how do my solutions interact with whether it be the application layer or other infrastructure components or even cloud.
Marjorie Abdelkrime [00:04:41]:
Super important to look at your skill set and continue to keep it sharp. Don't just focus on the product that you sell, look at the entire ecosystem.
Jarod Greene [00:04:50]:
Yeah, yeah. I think it was great advice, especially with the way the pace of change around how product solutions move, companies get acquired, companies integrate with other things. And you're right, that holistic solution frame I think will do folks really well. Well, see, this goes so fast. Like, five minutes is up and, like, we're here at the end. And this was outstanding. Really appreciate you spending some time with us on V5. Thanks a lot.
Marjorie Abdelkrime [00:05:14]:
Thank you. It was good to chat.
Jarod Greene [00:05:15]:
Appreciate it.