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A conversation with Samantha Burrell, Enterprise SC at Benchling, recorded on PSC Unscripted on January 22nd, 2026.
Picture this: You return from maternity leave to discover your company has launched a major new product. There's enablement documentation. There are technical deep-dives. There's even a detailed product roadmap. But what’s missing is the story you need to tell prospects in those first conversations about why they should care.
This is exactly what Samantha Burrell walked into when she returned to Benchling. And instead of simply creating another enablement deck or hosting another training session, she did something different. She created Demo Face-Off.
Think March Madness, but for solution consultants.
The Value Narrative Gap
Here's the problem Samantha identified immediately: Benchling had released their newest, most technical product. The team had received thorough technical training on how it worked, how it integrated with existing systems, and what it could do. All critical information for Stage 3 evaluations and proof-of-value engagements.
But SCs weren't getting pulled into deals at Stage 3 anymore. They were being engaged much earlier.
"SCs are getting engaged so much earlier in deals now, which is wonderful. I love that," Samantha explains. "But in that early stage, you really gotta speak more to the value, a little bit more high level, and not dive so deep into the technical conversations at first, so you can gain that trust."
This is the shift happening across presales organizations everywhere. The role of the SC is evolving from technical validator to strategic advisor. And that requires a fundamentally different skillset than what most traditional enablement programs teach.
Product teams naturally focus on features and technical capabilities because that's what they build. Sales teams focus on pricing and competitive positioning because that's what they negotiate. But the value narrative which is the bridge between what a product does and why a customer should care often falls into a gap.
That's the gap Demo Face-Off was designed to fill.
How Demo Face-Off Worked
Samantha structured Demo Face-Off like a bracket tournament with multiple rounds of competition. The entire SC organization participated, split into three regional teams: Global, Europe, and Americas.
It started with context. Before anyone recorded a single demo, the product and strategy team came in for a mini enablement session. Not to explain features, but to share their vision. “What was their map and their compass? What did they envision this being useful for? Why were they doing it? What have we heard from customers that we even built this thing in the first place?”
This framing was critical. It gave SCs the underlying strategy behind the product, which became the foundation for their value narratives.
From there, every SC recorded a 10-15 minute "power preview" demo focused on value, not features. Regional managers reviewed submissions and selected two finalists from each team to compete live. Those regional champions then advanced to the global championship round, where the entire organization watched, voted, and a panel of celebrity judges from the product team provided feedback.
The result? Not just better demos, but a shared understanding across the entire SC organization of how to position the product in early-stage conversations.
The Rookie Who Won It All
The championship round came down to the wire. Neck-and-neck voting. Rock star demos from experienced SCs who knew the platform inside and out.
And then the winner was announced: the most rookie solution consultant on the team.
"I think that was incredible and really refreshing," Samantha reflects. "Someone's coming in here with a new perspective and new eyes. They're maybe seeing stuff about the product differently than how the rest of us, set in our ways, see it."
This outcome reveals something important about presales excellence: fresh perspective often matters more than product tenure. The newest SC hadn't developed the unconscious biases and assumptions that come with experience. They approached the product with genuine curiosity about what problems it solved, not just how it worked.
It's also a reminder that communication skills transcend product knowledge. As Jack Cochran points out during the conversation, "The way you talk about value can go with you a lot more than your product knowledge can."
Your next company won't care how well you knew your last company's API architecture. But they'll absolutely care about your ability to translate technical capabilities into business outcomes.
The Bigger Lesson
Demo Face-Off succeeded because it solved a real problem in a way that was engaging, competitive, and collaborative. It didn't feel like another mandatory training session. It felt like an opportunity to showcase skills, learn from peers, and contribute to how the organization talks about a new product.
But the deeper lesson is about what enablement should focus on. Technical product knowledge is table stakes. Every SC needs to understand how their platform works. But in an environment where SCs are being pulled into earlier-stage conversations, the differentiating skill is the ability to articulate value quickly and compellingly.
That's not something you can learn from reading product documentation. It's something you develop through practice, feedback, and seeing how others approach the same challenge.
Demo Face-Off created space for all three.
And in the process, it reminded the entire team that sometimes the newest person in the room has the clearest perspective on what actually matters.
Join the Conversation
Want to dive deeper into presales enablement, value-based selling, and creative approaches to team development?
Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/2nZjv-vWdF0
Subscribe to PSC Unscripted for weekly unfiltered conversations with presales leaders who are figuring it out in real-time: https://luma.com/pscunscripted
Join the Presales Collective at presalescollective.com to connect with thousands of solutions consultants, sales engineers, and presales leaders who are building their careers together.
Do you have a story that you'd like to share? Join PSC Unscripted as a guest: https://www.presalescollective.com/contribute
PSC Unscripted is a weekly series featuring unscripted conversations with presales leaders. No rehearsed answers, no polished talking points, just honest dialogue about the challenges and opportunities in being in presales. New episodes are live every Thursday, and you can find the full playlist of past episodes on YouTube.
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About the Guest
Samantha Burrell is an Enterprise Solutions Consultant at Benchling, a cloud platform for life sciences R&D. With deep expertise in biotech and synthetic biology, Samantha helps research organizations modernize their scientific workflows and accelerate discovery. She's passionate about making complex technical concepts accessible and building enablement programs that actually work.
About Presales Collective
Presales Collective is the largest community of solutions consultants, sales engineers, and presales professionals in the world. Through events, content, resources, and peer connections, PSC helps presales professionals level up their skills, accelerate their careers, and build the relationships that matter. Learn more at presalescollective.com.
