Episode 181 of the Presales Podcast featured an insightful conversation with Miriam Graf, who brings three decades of presales experience, split between 20 years as an individual contributor and 10 years in leadership roles. Hosted by Jack Cochran, General Manager of Presales Collective, and Matthew James, the discussion explored the often-overlooked topic of intentional career development in presales, challenging assumptions about what career growth really means in this field.

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Listen to the full episode now!

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The Career Lesson That Changes Everything

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When asked about lessons she wished she'd learned earlier, Miriam's answer was both simple and profound: "People don't know what you want to do unless you tell them."

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It sounds obvious, but as she explained, "I think for years I sat there kind of waiting for somebody to notice that I could maybe do more than just deals. And I didn't tell anybody. These were the things that I could do or that I was interested in doing. I just figured, well, they should know."

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This pattern is remarkably common in presales. High performers often assume their excellent work will automatically translate into career advancement. But as Miriam learned, being visible about your aspirations is crucial even if you're not quite ready for the opportunity yet.

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She shared a powerful example from her time at SAP: "There was a leadership position that came up and I really wasn't ready to be a leader yet, but I got encouraged to put my name in. The manager said to me, 'I'm really glad you put your name in. It's not appropriate for you at this time, but now we have you in our head as potential for future spots."

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That conversation changed everything. The next time a leadership role opened up, Miriam was top of mind and got the position.

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From Hero to Leader: A Difficult but Necessary Shift

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One of the most candid moments in the conversation came when Miriam described her early days as a leader. She had received an award for a personal contribution and proudly shared this with her mentor. His response? "You're not really a leader yet."

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"I went home in tears," Miriam admitted, "but he was absolutely right."

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The distinction she learned to make is critical for anyone considering leadership: "If you're involved in deals and you do something really extraordinary that makes the deal come in and you get rewarded at club and all these different things…that all feels great. But being a leader is more being in the background and helping everybody else look great."

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The turning point came when she witnessed one of her team members being praised by a customer in front of senior leadership. "The look on her face was so beautiful. That just made her year. Multiple events like that where I was listening to my own people being congratulated. It's just extremely rewarding."

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This shift matters because many presales professionals assume the natural career progression is: good SE → great SE → SE leader. But as both Miriam and Jack pointed out, the skills don't necessarily translate. In fact, some of the best leaders weren't always the top individual contributors.

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Beyond Management: The Expanding Universe of Presales Careers

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For those who love the "hero" aspect of presales including the accolades, and the recognition for closing deals, Miriam offered reassuring news: leadership isn't the only path forward.

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"The field is getting so broad right now," she explained. "There's a lot of good positions for national experts or technical deep dive people, where a generalist SE will take you so far in a deal and then you need somebody who has a particular expertise in a part of the product or a part of the industry or value consulting or whatever area that's needed."

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Other paths include:

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• Product management or product marketing

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• Customer success or post-sales roles

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• Demo engineering

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• Implementation and professional services

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• Sales roles

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• Technical writing and content creation

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Jack emphasized this point: "The presales profession requires skill sets from a lot of other full-time work. Building out roadmaps, understanding implementation, working with product feedback…these are all things you're required to do to be a good SE that could easily parlay into a full-time next step."

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Miriam herself tried customer success after years in presales. While she ultimately returned to presales leadership, the experience was invaluable: "It made me a better SE leader because I understood more about the customer success role."

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The Three Essential Skill Categories

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When asked about what to focus on for career advancement, Miriam broke it down into three categories:

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1. Soft Skills. Have a passion for your product (if you don't believe in it, why would customers?). Build a competency in communication. Don’t focus on just speaking, but in really communicating with customers and doing great discovery. Improve your writing skills, which is becoming increasingly important in modern presales. Always have empathy and put yourself in someone else’s shoes.

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2. Business Acumen The most important principle here is thinking about "the so what to the listener." As Miriam put it, "If I'm talking about some dumb feature that doesn't relate to anything that you want to do, that's a waste of your time and my time."

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Her team had a creative way of reinforcing this: they created "so what?" cards that team members could hold up during practice presentations when someone was rambling about irrelevant details.

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Understanding your audience's top concerns isn't difficult in the internet age. "You can look this stuff up if you don't already know," Miriam noted. "Then you want to speak to the things that they care about and how what you could do could help them."

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3. Technical Skills "The technical is changing so fast," Miriam observed. "To say you have to be expert at X…tomorrow, it will be Y."

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The key isn't mastering specific technologies but rather developing the ability to learn quickly and maintain genuine curiosity. She's a firm believer in ongoing education, recommending at least biweekly learning sessions for teams.

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"Think about where you were 18 months ago with regards to AI. You probably barely knew anything about it. And now I'm sure it's part of your everyday work."

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Taking Initiative: If You See It, Do It

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A recurring theme in Miriam's career has been taking action rather than waiting for permission. Early in her career, she noticed that her organization lacked ongoing education for SEs. So she simply started a program.

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"I was sitting there wondering, why isn't anybody doing this? And so it's like, if you see something to do, you just should do it. Or if you see something that you think you could contribute, you should speak up."

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This initiative likely contributed to her eventual move into leadership. But more importantly, it demonstrated the principle that career advancement often comes from going beyond your defined role to add value where you see gaps.

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Learning Your Industry (Without Having Worked in It)

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For SEs considering specialization or worried they don't have industry experience, Miriam offered an encouraging perspective. After working in healthcare presales for just a couple of years she presented to a healthcare leader and a Gartner analyst. Their feedback? "It's obvious you've been in healthcare a long time."

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"This is when I realized you don't have to know the actual process of each little thing, but you know what are the things they care about and you can learn that," she explained. "So you don't have to feel like, 'I can't go after that job because it's in an industry I don't know.' You can learn it."

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One Final Piece of Advice

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When asked for her final thought, Miriam's answer perfectly encapsulated the conversation: "Evaluate what you love doing and make sure people know about it."

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Career advancement in presales is about understanding what aspects of the work energize you, developing those skills intentionally, and making sure the people who can help you grow are aware of your interests and capabilities.

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For those interested in discussing their own career paths, Miriam welcomes connections. You can reach her at migraph3@gmail.com, through the Presales Collective Slack, or on LinkedIn.

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Join the Presales Collective Slack community at presalescollective.com/slack to stay updated on future episodes, and follow the PSC LinkedIn page for upcoming shows.

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