In this episode, Jack Cochran and Matthew James are joined by Art Fromm, author of "Making Seamless Sales" and sales enablement expert, to discuss how presales and sales teams can work together more effectively. Art shares insights from his 25+ years in sales enablement, exploring the common disconnects between SEs and AEs, and provides practical strategies for building stronger partnerships that drive better outcomes.
The conversation covers the evolution from tribal knowledge to systematic collaboration, the importance of discovery before demos, and how to create value perception rather than just showing features. Art emphasizes that when teams work together properly versus teams that don't, there's a 37% difference in sales outcomes - a substantial opportunity sitting on the table.
Connect with Us
Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Art Fromm: https://www.linkedin.com/in/artfromm/
Links and Resources Mentioned
Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
Art's Website: https://teamsalesdevelopment.com
Team Sales Development: https://www.teamsalesdevelopment.com
"Making Seamless Sales" by Art Fromm: https://teamsalesdevelopment.com/making-seamless-sales-book/
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome
03:55 Sol/Con East 2025
05:26 Making SEAMless Sales
11:27 Our Solutions Have No Value
24:02 You Only Get One Shot
29:42 Aren't We All Presales
Key Topics Covered
The SEAM Framework
SE (Solutions Engineers) and AM (Account Managers) working together
Breaking down organizational silos between presales and sales
Creating systematic approaches rather than leaving collaboration to chance
Moving Beyond the Demo Rush
Why "we need to do a demo" often leads to failure
The importance of proper qualification and discovery first
How luck can reinforce bad habits in sales processes
Creating Value Perception
Understanding that solutions have no inherent value
The Venn diagram of customer needs overlapping with solutions
Turning "sell" into "buy" and "push" into "pull"
The Trust Dynamic
Presales comes with trust that can be lost
Sales lacks trust that needs to be gained
How proper discovery helps both teams build credibility
Organizational Alignment
Top-down (business focused) vs bottom-up (technical focused) approach
Creating healthy overlap between sales and presales responsibilities
The pyramid model of customer engagement levels
Training and Enablement
Moving beyond feature-function training to client success thinking
Understanding the complete buyer journey from hello to consumption
The concept of "solution enablement" as a continuous process
