Pre-Sales Unplugged: Leadership Playbook

Arvi Carkanji
  • 5.0 (6)
  • BUSINESS

Pre-Sales Unplugged is the show for anyone serious about winning in modern GTM in SaaS and the Tech world.  Hosted by Arvi Carkanji, founder of Elite Talent and one of the loudest advocates for Pre and Post-Sales in SaaS, each episode goes deep on the conversations that actually move the needle.  From hiring and leadership to revenue strategy, sales execution, and what it takes to level up as an individual contributor, we cover the full picture of how today's best GTM teams are built and run.   These are honest conversations with the founders, operators, revenue leaders, and individual contributors shaping the future of sales.  Whether you're a CRO building a team, an SE trying to grow into leadership, or a founder figuring out your GTM motion, you belong here and you need to give this a listen!  Past guests include CROs, VP of Solutions, Authors, Founders, and individual contributors from across the SaaS world, people who have actually done the work and are willing to share what it really took to win in their roles!

  1. 6D AGO

    From Sales Engineer to VP: How to Builds Teams People Actually Want to Come Back To w/ Tamir Verthim

    Give us Feedback on this episode Most leaders lose their best people and never get them back. The ones who do? They built something different: a culture where people don't just work for you, they want to work with you again. This week I'm sitting down with someone I've genuinely loved working with as a client, not just because he gets results, but because he's the kind of leader that makes people want to come back. Meet Tamir Verthim, VP of Customer Experience at Apono, the cloud access management platform helping companies like Intel, HPE, and Monday.com move fast without compromising security. Tamir's career has taken him from Sales Engineering at HP all the way to leading CX at a company that is disrupting the cloud access management space. And along the way, he's built something most leaders never learn how to crack: a reputation so strong that the people he's led keep finding their way back to work with him again. We're going deep on:  → What it actually takes to build a team people want to return to  → Leadership that drives results without killing culture  → How great CX and great SE leadership overlap more than you think  → What Apono is solving in the cloud security space.. and why it matters for GTM teams → How to build a winning culture and team that drives results in this competitive market. I know I’m going to be taking a ton of notes here personally.. BUT whether you're a leader trying to build something worth coming back to, or an IC trying to figure out what separates good managers from the ones who change careers..make sure you don’t miss this one!  Elite Talent Recruiting helps B2B SaaS leaders hire high performing Pre Sales and Post Sales talent when speed and quality actually matter.  We are on a mission to prove Pre Sales and Post Sales teams are just as crucial to revenue as offensive linemen are to quarterbacks.  They accelerate sales, fuel growth, and help SaaS companies win bigger deals faster.  We build SaaS GTM teams by headhunting top Pre Sales and Post Sales talent and delivering hires in 35 days or less, including Sales Engineers, Solutions Consultants, Solutions Architects, Customer Success, and Technical Account Managers.  If your team is stretched thin, specialized roles are sitting open too long, or you are scaling fast and need reliable recruiting support that actually moves the needle, we help you hire the kind of talent that drives growth, innovation, and customer success without wasting months in interview chaos. Check out our website: https://elitetalentrecruiting.io/ Connect with Arvi directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvi-carkanji/  All other resources: https://linktr.ee/elitetalentrecruiting

    47 min

  2. MAY 15

    The GTM Plateau Is a Leadership Problem. How to Break Through and Build a Winning Team with Mike Simmons

    Give us Feedback on this episode Most SaaS teams blame the market, the tool, the AI craziness, but they are overlooking one VERY IMPORTANT factor about why their company might be plateuign: Mindset - of the founder AND the team. This Thursday, May 14th at 11AM ET, I'm going LIVE with Mike Simmons, consultant, operator, and someone who's helped companies from early-stage startups to enterprise giants like Walt Disney and Lockheed Martin break through growth plateaus. Mike has a refreshingly simple framework that most leaders ignore: Mindset → Skillset → Toolset. Most companies do it backwards. We're diving into: Why your leadership team might be the thing killing your growthHow to identify and build the next generation of leaders from withinThe 5 core leadership skills every GTM team needs right nowAnd why communication is silently destroying execution at your companyIf you're a founder, CRO, or leader trying to scale past that next plateau.. or an IC trying to understand what separates good from great — you need to be in this conversation. Elite Talent Recruiting helps B2B SaaS leaders hire high performing Pre Sales and Post Sales talent when speed and quality actually matter.  We are on a mission to prove Pre Sales and Post Sales teams are just as crucial to revenue as offensive linemen are to quarterbacks.  They accelerate sales, fuel growth, and help SaaS companies win bigger deals faster.  We build SaaS GTM teams by headhunting top Pre Sales and Post Sales talent and delivering hires in 35 days or less, including Sales Engineers, Solutions Consultants, Solutions Architects, Customer Success, and Technical Account Managers.  If your team is stretched thin, specialized roles are sitting open too long, or you are scaling fast and need reliable recruiting support that actually moves the needle, we help you hire the kind of talent that drives growth, innovation, and customer success without wasting months in interview chaos. Check out our website: https://elitetalentrecruiting.io/ Connect with Arvi directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvi-carkanji/  All other resources: https://linktr.ee/elitetalentrecruiting

    52 min

  3. MAY 8

    How to Treat Customer Success as a Revenue Growth Lever and Not Post-Sales Babysitting with Ivan Stefanovski

    Give us Feedback on this episode Most SaaS companies treat Customer Success as a post-sales cleanup crew. The handoff is messy, expectations are misaligned, and by the time CS gets involved.. the damage is already done. On our next episode, I'm bringing on Ivan Stefanovski,  a CS and Partner Success leader who's managed 50+ stakeholder enterprise accounts and built the kind of relationships where clients text you on Slack when something breaks. We're going deep on: → Why CS needs to be in the room before the deal closes → How to manage enterprise accounts with dozens of stakeholders → The metrics that actually matter (hint: it's not revenue) → Sales vs. CS — and why confusing the two kills retention → Partner Success as a CS strategy most companies are sleeping on If you're building a CS function, leading one or trying to figure out what great post-sales looks like in 2026 Elite Talent Recruiting helps B2B SaaS leaders hire high performing Pre Sales and Post Sales talent when speed and quality actually matter.  We are on a mission to prove Pre Sales and Post Sales teams are just as crucial to revenue as offensive linemen are to quarterbacks.  They accelerate sales, fuel growth, and help SaaS companies win bigger deals faster.  We build SaaS GTM teams by headhunting top Pre Sales and Post Sales talent and delivering hires in 35 days or less, including Sales Engineers, Solutions Consultants, Solutions Architects, Customer Success, and Technical Account Managers.  If your team is stretched thin, specialized roles are sitting open too long, or you are scaling fast and need reliable recruiting support that actually moves the needle, we help you hire the kind of talent that drives growth, innovation, and customer success without wasting months in interview chaos. Check out our website: https://elitetalentrecruiting.io/ Connect with Arvi directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvi-carkanji/  All other resources: https://linktr.ee/elitetalentrecruiting

    54 min

  4. APR 29

    The Future of Pre-Sales Isn’t Human vs AI with Joseph Lee

    Give us Feedback on this episode Joseph Lee, founder of Supademo, joins me live to break down how the buying journey in SaaS is rapidly changing and why traditional demos are no longer enough. We dive into his founder journey, the realities of bootstrapping, and how he identified a major gap in how buyers evaluate products today.  Joseph shares how self-serve demos are reshaping pre-sales, speeding up deal cycles, and helping buyers qualify themselves before ever speaking to a rep. We also get into one of the most talked-about topics right now: AI in sales.  Is it replacing pre-sales teams, or making them more effective?  Joseph gives a grounded perspective on where AI actually adds value .. and where it still falls short. If you’re a founder, GTM leader, or part of a pre-sales team trying to keep up with how buyers are evolving, this episode gives you a clear, no-BS look at what’s changing and how to adapt. Elite Talent Recruiting helps B2B SaaS leaders hire high performing Pre Sales and Post Sales talent when speed and quality actually matter.  We are on a mission to prove Pre Sales and Post Sales teams are just as crucial to revenue as offensive linemen are to quarterbacks.  They accelerate sales, fuel growth, and help SaaS companies win bigger deals faster.  We build SaaS GTM teams by headhunting top Pre Sales and Post Sales talent and delivering hires in 35 days or less, including Sales Engineers, Solutions Consultants, Solutions Architects, Customer Success, and Technical Account Managers.  If your team is stretched thin, specialized roles are sitting open too long, or you are scaling fast and need reliable recruiting support that actually moves the needle, we help you hire the kind of talent that drives growth, innovation, and customer success without wasting months in interview chaos. Check out our website: https://elitetalentrecruiting.io/ Connect with Arvi directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvi-carkanji/  All other resources: https://linktr.ee/elitetalentrecruiting

    40 min

  5. APR 23

    How to Build a High-Performing BD Engine in 2026 with Danyal Cremerious

    Give us Feedback on this episode 2026 is more competitive than ever… and it’s not slowing down. Everyone keeps saying “personalize your outreach.” But AI made that easy. Which ironically made most “personalization” feel even more generic. So now the real questions are: Is AI replacing SDRs and BDRs? What’s actually working in outbound right now? And how do you build a BD engine that actually performs? These are the questions leaders are trying to figure out every day. I’m sitting down with Danyal Cremerius. He’s led and scaled outbound teams across Europe and the US, managed multi-region SDR orgs, and is now building and ramping a BD team from zero to performance. We’re breaking down: → How to build a BD team from zero → What top performers actually do differently → What’s working in outbound in 2026 → How AI is really impacting BD (not the LinkedIn version) → The tech stack behind high-performing teams → Metrics that actually matter vs vanity → BD + AE alignment and where it usually breaks → Europe vs US selling differences If you’re: • A founder trying to build pipeline • A sales leader scaling a team • A BD or SDR trying to break into top performance You’ll want to be in this one. Elite Talent Recruiting helps B2B SaaS leaders hire high performing Pre Sales and Post Sales talent when speed and quality actually matter.  We are on a mission to prove Pre Sales and Post Sales teams are just as crucial to revenue as offensive linemen are to quarterbacks.  They accelerate sales, fuel growth, and help SaaS companies win bigger deals faster.  We build SaaS GTM teams by headhunting top Pre Sales and Post Sales talent and delivering hires in 35 days or less, including Sales Engineers, Solutions Consultants, Solutions Architects, Customer Success, and Technical Account Managers.  If your team is stretched thin, specialized roles are sitting open too long, or you are scaling fast and need reliable recruiting support that actually moves the needle, we help you hire the kind of talent that drives growth, innovation, and customer success without wasting months in interview chaos. Check out our website: https://elitetalentrecruiting.io/ Connect with Arvi directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvi-carkanji/  All other resources: https://linktr.ee/elitetalentrecruiting

    54 min

  6. APR 13

    Inside the RevOps Playbooks of Top Tech Teams with Jacki Leahy

    Give us Feedback on this episode Picture this: The company is growing, deals are coming in, revenue is moving… but behind the scenes, everything is duct-taped together. Google Sheets are breaking. Forecasting is guesswork. And leadership is flying blind. That’s usually the stage where things feel like they’re working… until they don’t. And that is the reality for a lot of companies that sit in that $5M + in revenue…  Most SaaS companies break (or stall) because they can’t see what’s actually happening. At 5M to 50M, things start to get messy fast: → Deals may be closing, but no one knows why → Forecasting becomes a guessing game, and you don’t know what’s predictable → Systems are duct-taped together → Leaders are making decisions without real visibility and gut feelings I’m bringing a RevOps expert to break this down for us on Pre-Sales Unplugged: The Leadership Playbook.  @ Jacki Leahy The Founder of @ Activate the Magic has worked with a multitude of startups to fix exactly all of those issues  We’re talking about:  → What RevOps actually looks like behind the scenes in growing SaaS companies → The moment “messy but working” stops working → The 3 things I fix first when I step into a business → Metrics that matter vs metrics that waste your time → When to use AI and when not in RevOps → What actually changes inside a company when RevOps is done right → And what separates real RevOps operators from people who just manage tools If you’re scaling and things feel a little chaotic… this conversation will probably hit home so come prepared with a pen and paper (Or your notetaker) 😄 Elite Talent Recruiting helps B2B SaaS leaders hire high performing Pre Sales and Post Sales talent when speed and quality actually matter.  We are on a mission to prove Pre Sales and Post Sales teams are just as crucial to revenue as offensive linemen are to quarterbacks.  They accelerate sales, fuel growth, and help SaaS companies win bigger deals faster.  We build SaaS GTM teams by headhunting top Pre Sales and Post Sales talent and delivering hires in 35 days or less, including Sales Engineers, Solutions Consultants, Solutions Architects, Customer Success, and Technical Account Managers.  If your team is stretched thin, specialized roles are sitting open too long, or you are scaling fast and need reliable recruiting support that actually moves the needle, we help you hire the kind of talent that drives growth, innovation, and customer success without wasting months in interview chaos. Check out our website: https://elitetalentrecruiting.io/ Connect with Arvi directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvi-carkanji/  All other resources: https://linktr.ee/elitetalentrecruiting

    57 min

  7. MAR 21

    Art of the technical evaluation for presales metrics and AI integration, with Steve Davis

    Give us Feedback on this episode Competition in SaaS has gotten a lot tighter. Especially when it comes to running a strong POCs. A strong POC can be the difference between winning a deal… or losing it to a competitor. And most of the time, that falls on your Sales Engineers. Here’s the problem though… A lot of teams think they’re running a solid technical evaluation. In reality, they’re just running demos or missing key important aspects and they just don’t know it I’m bringing in an expert this week: Steve Davis, CEO of Provarity to break this down with me. Steve has seen it all..from doing it himself.. To building winning team and now to running and building a winning company! We’re getting into: → The difference between running a demo and actually winning the technical evaluation → What a strong POC really looks like behind the scenes → The KPIs and metrics pre sales teams should actually be tracking → What’s changing with AI in pre sales workflows → What’s getting harder in the hiring market right now and how to stand out to hiring manager If you’re a founder, GTM leader, or part of a pre sales team… This will give you a much clearer picture of what’s actually happening in your deals. Elite Talent Recruiting helps B2B SaaS leaders hire high performing Pre Sales and Post Sales talent when speed and quality actually matter.  We are on a mission to prove Pre Sales and Post Sales teams are just as crucial to revenue as offensive linemen are to quarterbacks.  They accelerate sales, fuel growth, and help SaaS companies win bigger deals faster.  We build SaaS GTM teams by headhunting top Pre Sales and Post Sales talent and delivering hires in 35 days or less, including Sales Engineers, Solutions Consultants, Solutions Architects, Customer Success, and Technical Account Managers.  If your team is stretched thin, specialized roles are sitting open too long, or you are scaling fast and need reliable recruiting support that actually moves the needle, we help you hire the kind of talent that drives growth, innovation, and customer success without wasting months in interview chaos. Check out our website: https://elitetalentrecruiting.io/ Connect with Arvi directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvi-carkanji/  All other resources: https://linktr.ee/elitetalentrecruiting

    55 min

  8. MAR 9

    How to build a AI-Native Companies with Community-Led GTM in 2026 w/ Ben Hills, Founder of Iris AI

    Give us Feedback on this episode What does it actually look like to build a company in an AI-first world… instead of bolting AI on later? Most founders talk about AI as a feature. Ben Hills built  Iris AI with it at the core. And most B2B SaaS companies are still running the same old outbound, paid ads, and gated content playbook… hoping it works. Ben Hills is doing BOTH differently. He’s building an AI-native company from day one. And instead of relying on traditional lead gen, Iris AI has leaned heavily into community as a core GTM engine. So what happens when you combine: AI-native operations + Community-led growth? That’s what we’re breaking down. In this episode of PreSales Unplugged we’re shifting lens a little bit and we’ll talk about: → What “AI-native” actually means inside a company → Why community is outperforming traditional B2B lead gen → How trust inside peer networks shortens complex sales cycles → What founders get wrong about building distribution early → How AI changes the way GTM teams operate internally Elite Talent Recruiting helps B2B SaaS leaders hire high performing Pre Sales and Post Sales talent when speed and quality actually matter.  We are on a mission to prove Pre Sales and Post Sales teams are just as crucial to revenue as offensive linemen are to quarterbacks.  They accelerate sales, fuel growth, and help SaaS companies win bigger deals faster.  We build SaaS GTM teams by headhunting top Pre Sales and Post Sales talent and delivering hires in 35 days or less, including Sales Engineers, Solutions Consultants, Solutions Architects, Customer Success, and Technical Account Managers.  If your team is stretched thin, specialized roles are sitting open too long, or you are scaling fast and need reliable recruiting support that actually moves the needle, we help you hire the kind of talent that drives growth, innovation, and customer success without wasting months in interview chaos. Check out our website: https://elitetalentrecruiting.io/ Connect with Arvi directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvi-carkanji/  All other resources: https://linktr.ee/elitetalentrecruiting

    32 min
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Ratings & Reviews

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About

Pre-Sales Unplugged is the show for anyone serious about winning in modern GTM in SaaS and the Tech world.  Hosted by Arvi Carkanji, founder of Elite Talent and one of the loudest advocates for Pre and Post-Sales in SaaS, each episode goes deep on the conversations that actually move the needle.  From hiring and leadership to revenue strategy, sales execution, and what it takes to level up as an individual contributor, we cover the full picture of how today's best GTM teams are built and run.   These are honest conversations with the founders, operators, revenue leaders, and individual contributors shaping the future of sales.  Whether you're a CRO building a team, an SE trying to grow into leadership, or a founder figuring out your GTM motion, you belong here and you need to give this a listen!  Past guests include CROs, VP of Solutions, Authors, Founders, and individual contributors from across the SaaS world, people who have actually done the work and are willing to share what it really took to win in their roles!

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