Case Studies Upsun
>Customer Story · Upsun
From Demo Desk to Deal Partner
How Upsun’s global Solutions Engineering team lifted its revenue close rate from 55% to 65% — and made sales its biggest fan.
- Upsun — Platform as a Service
- Global Solutions Engineering
- Jonas Kröger, Senior Director, Customer Solutions
- Trusted Advisor Academy since Q1 2026
+30%
Average Contract Value, across the last two quarters
55 → 65%
Revenue close ratio, on SE-touched pipeline — 2025 full year vs. 2026 to date
9+ / 10
Seller satisfaction, with the Solutions team, sustained quarter after quarter
>Two minutes with Jonas
The whole story, in his own words.
Prefer to read? The full story continues below.
>The Challenge
The vision was clear. What was missing was everything after the agreement.
“There’s a demo tomorrow, I need someone.” Little context, little lead time — and a Solutions team measured on demos per week, treated as technical support rather than a partner in the deal.
Jonas Kröger had already set the direction: SEs as deal partners, not demo resources. The team agreed. The vision was discussed, aligned, wanted. And then Tuesday’s call went exactly like the one before it.
There was a lot of awareness — but very little practical implementation.
Senior Director, Customer Solutions, Upsun
>Inside the Programme
No content library. A system.
01
Success defined first
Onboarding began with a working session on goals and the KPIs that would prove them — leading indicators as well as lagging ones.
02
The leader went first
Jonas walked the learning paths himself, so the same language showed up in his 1:1s, his coaching, and the weekly deal reviews.
03
Reps, not theory
Small-group roleplays with expert feedback. Once something SEs endured twice a year — now booked voluntarily, and repeatedly.
>What Changed
Different conversations. Different deals.
Qualification got faster — and more ruthless
With a structure for compelling event, why-us, why-anything, why-now, weak deals get named earlier and strong ones get worked properly.
Discovery reaches business outcome, not technical fit
A different kind of conversation — and, Upsun believes, a materially different average deal size.
POCs run on rails
A strict POC process: agreed structure, success criteria, the customer taken along by the hand. A global enterprise customer named it, unprompted, as the reason they felt in safe hands.
Sales stopped bracing for the demo
Sellers see SEs walk in wanting to understand the customer, not perform the product. Satisfaction: above 9 out of 10, every quarter.
>Why the Academy
“We already knew it was right to change something. But turning that into muscle memory — that’s where the Academy is essential for us. I would never have managed that on my own.”
Jonas Kröger — Senior Director, Customer Solutions, Upsun
>Jonas’s Advice to SE Leaders
Think big. Move small.
Think big, move small
Have a vision for why you’re changing. But execution is one thing from the last training, applied to the deal you’re reviewing right now — not “from Monday, every meeting is different.”
Don’t start with the demo
Improving demos is the obvious first move and the wrong one. If the foundation underneath isn’t there, a better demo doesn’t buy you anything.
Bring sales leadership with you
Pitch a direction, not a training programme — connected to revenue, because that’s the argument sellers act on. Better collaboration with sales became one of the biggest effects of all.
Your team already knows what good looks like.
The question is whether they get to practise it — every week, on real deals, with expert feedback.
100% free | No commitment required