SolutionExec Live
A Podcast by Jeff Margolese and James Kaikis
Episodes
For two decades, “avoid a POC” was standard sales advice. That advice is now backwards. Buyers have been burned too many times to take your word for it, and the teams winning are the ones running proof as a weapon.
In this episode, James Kaikis sits down with Steve Davis, CEO of Provarity, on why the burden of proof is rising and what it means for the future of the Solutions role.
In this episode:
→ Why buyers now demand t...
Most Solutions orgs get measured on how much they cost. The best ones get funded as a growth engine instead. Here's how one leader made that shift stick with her finance team.
In this episode, James Kaikis and Jeff Margolese sit down with Leah McTiernan, Group Vice President of Solution Consulting at DocuSign, to talk through how she's using AI, experimentation and a real partnership with finance to reposition Solutions as a revenue...
For years we treated the signature as the finish line. The buyer never did. Now the pre-sales and post-sales orgs are collapsing into one, and the reps who survive it will look nothing like the ones we hired five years ago.
In this episode, James Kaikis sits down with Nalin Senthamil, founder and CEO of Storylane, to unpack how changing buyer behavior is rewriting the solutions profession, from AI-ready teams to the merging of pre a...
Most Solutions leaders want a blueprint for forward deployed engineers. Shannon Hogue, Global Head of Solutions at Vanta, has a different answer: there isn't one yet, and you have to be okay with that.
In this episode, James sits down with Shannon to unpack how she scaled her org from 24 to 52 people in 11 months, restructured her team around a Center of Excellence, and iterated her FDE model in real time as Vanta pushed past $300M ...
We hear from Solutions leaders all the time that they love their Solutions role, but want to think about what’s next. So what is the real next move in a solutions career, and which paths actually hold up?
In this episode, James Kaikis and Jeff Margolese map the routes opening up for solutions leaders taking their next step, from product owner to CRO to chief customer officer, and what it takes to make each move work.
In this ep...
Too many Solutions leaders are single threaded into the CRO. While the relationship between Solutions and Sales is important, the leaders who stand out are the ones who build relationships across the whole company, in legal, finance, HR, and IT, long before they ever need them. Jeff Margolese shares his approach to becoming known throughout the organization and building relationships through genuine curiosity.
In this episode, Jeff ...
Every leader has been told no to something they knew was right. Not because they were wrong, but because the business doesn't understand what Solutions actually delivers. This profession is at a crossroad, and the leaders who cross the chasm will define what it becomes. The Modern Solutions Mandate names what's actually happening to this profession right now, and what it's going to take to get through it. James Kaikis opens with th...
What does it actually take to scale a Solutions org without breaking it? A 3B+ company and a 1B company with 400+ SEs sit down to compare notes, and the answers are not the ones you'd expect. From unit economics-driven ratio models to agentic SEs joining live customer calls, this is where the real conversation is happening.
In this episode, David Maloof sits down with Leah McTiernan, GVP of Solutions Consulting at DocuSign, and Alok...
Your company has an AI mandate. No one gave you a playbook. That gap is exactly where most Solutions teams are losing ground right now.
In this episode, Jeff Margolese sits down with David Maloof, Managing Director of Programming and Advisory at SolutionExec, to unpack what SE leaders are actually getting wrong about AI adoption and what a practical path forward looks like.
In this episode:
→ Why jumping straight to AI tools without a...
What does it look like when Solutions leadership sits at the center of a $12B GTM strategy? Jeff Margolese, SVP of Global Solution Consulting at ServiceNow, has lived it.
In this episode, James Kaikis sits down with Jeff to unpack how ServiceNow rebuilt its Solutions motion from the ground up. They scrapped discovery-heavy demos in favor of live Proof of Value engagements, stood up AI-first build teams, and earned a seat at the tabl...
This episode originally appeared on the GTMshift podcast with Jeff Margolese and James Kaikis.
Jeff Margolese, SVP of Global Solution Consulting at ServiceNow and 20+ year industry veteran, explores how AI is fundamentally transforming enterprise sales and the solutions engineering profession. Having guided ServiceNow's SE organization through explosive growth from $300M to over $10B in revenue, Jeff shares insights on navigating ma...
Join Jeff Margolese & James Kaikis for a sneak peek at what SolutionExec is, how to find value in it, and what the 2026 programming will look like. The 2026 schedule will be unveiled at the March 4th Virtual Kickoff.
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Join Jeff Margolese & James Kaikis as they share their stories of SolutionExec, a private network that exists to equip Solution Executives with the executive programming and resources to lead in the next era of go-to-market.
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