The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20Sales: What is Sales Engineering? When and How to Hire Them? How They Should Work With AE's? How to Measure Their Success? How They Change Close Rates and Sales Comp Plans with Zach Lawryk, Head of Solutions Consulting @ Rippling


Listen Later

Zach Lawryk is Head of Solutions Consulting @ Rippling, what is solutions consulting? They are the product expert in the solution that ties a business value to help support the sales rep in the execution of their quota. And there is no one better than Zach, prior to leading the solutions consulting team at Rippling, Zach was VP of Solutions Consulting at Slack where he scaled the SE team from 10 to 200. Before Slack, Zach was Head of Solutions Engineering @ Optimizely and before that was Director of Sales Engineering at Box.

In Today's Episode with Zach Lawryk We Discuss:

1. ) WTF is Solutions Engineering:

  • What is Solutions engineering and why is it important?
  • How does a software developer turned lawyer become one of the OGs of Solutions Engineering?
  • What is the single biggest piece of advice Zach gives to graduates entering the workforce today?

2.) When and Who: Building the Foundations:

  • When is the right time to hire your first solutions engineer?
  • Should this be a senior hire or a more junior hire? What experience is ideal?
  • Would Zach rather have someone who has sold to the same customer segment or sold to the same deal size? What are the challenges with each?

3.) Making the First Hire: The Process:

  • What is the right hiring process for solutions engineers?
  • Which members of your existing team should be involved in the process?
  • What are some of Zach's favourite questions on the candidates past to determine quality?
  • What are the best case studies and tests to give potential hires to test their aptitude?
  • What are the biggest red flags in the hiring process for solutions engineers?

4.) Integrating into the Team: Making it Work:

  • What is the optimal onboarding process for solutions engineers?
  • Why does Zach think it is important they spend time with customer success in their first month?
  • What is the right way to measure the effectiveness of SE's?
  • How should the entrance of SE's impact the close rate and comp structure for AE's?
  • How can sales leaders prevent division and friction between AEs and SEs?

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The PitchBy Harry Stebbings

  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4

4.4

468 ratings


More shows like The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

View all
This Week in Startups by Jason Calacanis

This Week in Startups

1,267 Listeners

a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

a16z Podcast

1,002 Listeners

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors by SaaStr

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

174 Listeners

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy by Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

2,288 Listeners

Equity by TechCrunch, Mary Ann Azevedo, Kell, Theresa Loconsolo, Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey, Margaux MacColl

Equity

343 Listeners

Masters of Scale by WaitWhat

Masters of Scale

3,964 Listeners

Y Combinator Startup Podcast by Y Combinator

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

207 Listeners

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg by All-In Podcast, LLC

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

8,717 Listeners

The Logan Bartlett Show by by Redpoint Ventures

The Logan Bartlett Show

189 Listeners

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups by Conviction

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

125 Listeners

The Ben & Marc Show by Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz

The Ben & Marc Show

120 Listeners

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley by BG2Pod

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley

434 Listeners

AI + a16z by a16z

AI + a16z

33 Listeners

Lightcone Podcast by Y Combinator

Lightcone Podcast

19 Listeners

Training Data by Sequoia Capital

Training Data

36 Listeners