>Author
Jan-Erik Jank
Co-Founder, SE Rockstars
Jan-Erik is co-founder of SE Rockstars. In enterprise PreSales since 2013, he led PreSales teams at SAP and Salesforce before becoming an ICF-certified coach. He writes about PreSales leadership, coaching, and building SE teams that customers treat as trusted advisors.
>13 Articles
How to Build a PreSales Career When There Is No Path to Follow
Nobody hands out a degree in Solution Engineering — so what actually moves a PreSales career? One path from Germany's lowest school track to VP, back to IC, and out the other side.
12 min read >
How to Build a PreSales Career When There Is No Career Path
Nobody certifies Solution Engineers. There's no degree, no apprenticeship, no ladder — so here's the loop that actually produces a PreSales career, and the parts of it you can copy.
10 min read >
Why PreSales Leaders Need a Peer Group — and How to Build One That Works
An SE leader at a 2,000-person software company might have two or three real peers. A developer in the same building has 400. Here's how we closed that gap for 250 leaders — and what you can copy.
8 min read >
Lies in PreSales? The Uncomfortable Truth About Sales, Cost Centers and the Technical Win
A CRO with 30 years on the other side of the PreSales budget takes apart five provocations — from strategic silence in front of the customer to why your AE-to-SE ratio is really a qualification problem.
10 min read >
Macro, Micro, AI: What CROs Actually Want From PreSales Now
Geopolitics, frozen budgets and agentic AI all land on the same desk — and the only filter that turns that noise into decisions is a brutally honest Ideal Customer Profile.
11 min read >
AI in B2B Sales Is a Leadership Job, Not a PreSales Side Project
One seller organizes a used-car purchase with agents while another is banned from transcribing calls — and the gap between them is a leadership decision, not a tooling problem.
10 min read >
From Top Performer to First-Line Leader: What Companies Get Wrong About the Most Important Promotion in B2B Software
The best AE or SE on your team is usually the worst-prepared first-line manager you can hire — and the bill for finding that out the hard way runs into seven figures.
12 min read >
Should Solution Engineers Talk About Price?
Quoting a number to the customer is the AE's job. Knowing what the deal is worth is yours — and most SE organizations have the two backwards.
9 min read >
Do LLMs Give Good Demo Advice? Context Is the Whole Answer
A one-line prompt got a decent demo tip out of Claude — and started a fight in the comments. The real lesson isn't about AI at all: it's about how much you dare to leave out.
9 min read >
PreSales From the Partner Side: What Solution Engineers Can Learn From Life Beyond the Vendor
Most SE playbooks assume you work for the software vendor. Working at an implementation partner flips the incentives — and reveals what being a trusted advisor actually costs and what AI is about to change.
6 min read >
How to Orchestrate a PreSales Team: A Leader's Playbook for Direction, Rhythm, and Coverage
Great SE team management isn't about handing out tasks and running meetings — it's about creating identification, clarity, and a rhythm that turns a group of individuals into a team that wins together.
6 min read >
The Problem With MEDDICC: Why PreSales Is the Missing Piece in Value Selling
MEDDICC isn't broken — but the way most sales organizations roll it out is. Here's how to turn empty CRM fields into real value discovery, and why Solution Engineers are the ones to do it.
6 min read >
Consultant or Salesperson? How Sybit Reinvented PreSales and Why They'd Never Go Back
SAP partner Sybit split PreSales from Solution Consulting and gave the team no sales quota. PreSales lead Saskia Cempel breaks down why, how they did it, and why she'd never go back.
7 min read >
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