Solutions Engineered for ICs, Leaders, and Organizations to Thrive
Break into presales with a 10-week online, cohort-based course. Students receive:
- Interactive online curriculum with hands-on projects
- Unmatched support with personal mentors, coaches and advisors
- Ongoing career services to secure a presales job
- Access to the largest presales professional network
Increase your impact, connect with leading practitioners, and accelerate your career. Membership is free and includes:
- 50+ online and in-person events
- The largest presales knowledge base on the internet
- Slack community with 15,000+ presales pros
- 1:1 Member Connections
- And so much more!
Hone your customer-facing skills in a 4-week online, cohort-based course covering:
- Master presales discovery, demoing, and objection handling
- Uncover nuances like storytelling, rapport building, and identifying core needs
- Create a complete toolkit to excel in presales customer engagements
- And more!
Increase your impact, connect with leading practitioners, and accelerate your career. Membership is free and includes:
- 50+ online and in-person events
- Slack community with 15,000+ presales pros
- The largest presales knowledge base on the internet
- 1:1 Member connections
- And so much more!
PSLC is the preeminent community for presales leaders (managers, directors, VPs). Membership includes everything in free membership, plus:
- Exclusive in-person events and dinners
- Private Slack channel with 350+ presales leaders
- Priority selection for speaking and writing opportunities
- Monthly leadership roundtables
Enable presales excellence at scale with best-in-class onboarding and leader training programs:
- For ICs, our programs help them hone skills in discovery, demoing, and objection handling within the unique context of presales
- For Leaders, our programs coach how to bring process to performance, maximize resources, and scale and sustain a team
Build an exceptional presales organization. Here's how we help:
- Advertise open roles on our job board
- Browse candidates in our talent network
- Join our Presales Academy career fair
Enable presales excellence at scale with PSC's best-in-class training programs for:
- For ICs, our programs help them hone skills in discovery, demoing, and objection handling within the unique context of presales
- For Leaders, our programs coach how to bring process to performance, maximize resources, and scale and sustain a team
Showcase your solutions to the largest community of presales professionals. Here's how we engage with sponsors:
- Speak at PSC events
- Sponsor dinners with presales executive leaders
- Co-write thought leadership pieces with us.
- Guest star on the PSC podcast
PSC members
PSC helps members increase their impact, connect with leading practitioners and accelerate their careers through professional development, tactical resources, and countless opportunities to engage with other members.
- Slack community of 15,000+ presales pros
- Live events & industry summits with visionary leaders
- Best-in-class articles, reports, and templates
- Job board with the best jobs in presales
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In this episode, Jack Cochran is joined by Jon Billett, Founder and CEO of StoryQuadrant, to discuss why storytelling in presales needs to be treated as an industrial skill rather than a soft skill. They explore Jon's framework for the four types of stories every SE should master, the danger of "Mad Libs" style customer stories, and why the most important story is the one told after you leave the room. Jon shares insights from his 15 years in presales and his unique background as a member of the Magic Circle, revealing how structure, rather than content, creates memorable presentations that drive deals forward.
Follow Us-
Connect with Jack Cochran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcochran/
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Connect with Jon Billett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbillett/
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Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
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StoryQuadrant: https://storyquadrant.com/
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Why Storytelling is an Industrial Skill, Not a Soft Skill
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The Story Quadrant Framework: Four Essential Story Types
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The Mad Libs Problem in Presales
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Discovery as Stepping Into Your Prospect's Story
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The Power of Contrast in Creating Memory
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What Makes Stories Retellable
00:00 Welcome
03:16 Jon's Journey to Storytelling
06:31 Storytelling as an Industrial Skill
09:23 Overcoming the Belief: "I'm Not a Good Storyteller"
12:24 The Success Story Trap
15:59 The Mad Libs Formula Problem
18:13 Discovery Stories: Stepping Into Their World
21:20 Maximizing Your 5% of Face Time
23:10 Your Story: The Four-Minute Trust Window
26:51 Positioning Stories: Nobody Cares About Your Offices
27:40 The Story They Tell
30:30 One Technique to Implement Tomorrow: The Power of Contrast
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