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Eric Glick, Regional Vice President of Enterprise Sales at Sierra · Pre-Sales Pathways

• Chris: What was sort of as expected and what was different or maybe more difficult? Eric Glick: if anyone has the mentality, like I do all the work, the AE shows up and and makes all the money. That is not a recipe for success, Chris: What then prompted you then to move back from A to pre sales again? Eric Glick: I kind of had that realization that like the product matters to me. I'm gonna do whatever I can to go get a role at Slack. Like, I will come be the janitor at Slack. Chris: outcome-based pricing has always sort of been the holy grail. Eric Glick: what I love about it is when done well, it creates this like quadruple win, right? Chris: looking back to some of the traditional SaaS companies it all really hinged on the demo. Eric Glick: as a buyer, I would never bring a technology into my workforce without going through a thorough evaluation Chris: they want to do one of these evaluations like a POC or a pilot. But that doesn't mean that the storytelling and the creativity is is no longer relevant. Eric Glick: A hundred percent. I think that demo is is the best way that you can help someone see this potential future state. Chris: Hello, Eric. Great to see you. Thanks for joining me on the show. Eric Glick: Hey Chris, excited to be here. you've had some amazing guests on this show, so I'm honored to be one of them. Chris: Yeah, absolutely. And I saw you recently crossed your six month market Sierra. That must be quite a milestone. Eric Glick: It is. I've been here officially for six months. I think our our company has grown substantially since then. it feels like sometimes it's been six years and sometimes it's been six minutes. Chris: Amazing. I saw as well you got a conference coming up in a in a few weeks in London. I was like blown away looking at some of the guests you have there, like a caro group speaking, Next speaking. It's like the not just the customers but like publicly referenceable customers you have is yeah, testament to the amazing work you're doing. Eric Glick: Yeah, yeah, it's been amazing. I'll be out in San Francisco. We have summit there happening in two weeks. and then I I think I'll actually be in London for our summit that's happening out there. So I'd I'd love to try to meet up with you or any of the folks who are out there. Chris: Awesome. Sounds good. Well, Eric, you are currently in a sales role. You're you're an R V R VP, but you spend, if I understand correctly, more than half of your selling career actually on the pre-sales side of things. So I'd love if you could maybe take us back to the first S E or pre-sales role that you were in and you know, what sort of motivated you to move into the AE side? When did you start thinking about that? Eric Glick: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I'll take it back a little bit further. my first role out of college was at Deloitte Consulting and Chris: Okay. Eric Glick: doing kind of your standard strategy consulting, but on a lar lot of large technology implementations. so the big project that I was staffed on was an SAP implementation that was I mean, in all reality it was a seven-year implementation that kept turning into a bigger and bigger and bigger scope. But what I found out early about just being around that type of technology was one, how I just enjoyed it. I enjoyed, you know, being on kind of the leading edge of new technologies getting deployed and just seeing how that changes the dynamic between the companies, the people who are at those companies, and also like their end customers or clients. And a lot of what it came down to was what is the big problem that they're gonna solve, and then how do we solve that? And and that was kind of my first introduction. I've always loved kind of problem solving and being a part of that. So I I was there for a few years, had a quick stint as in corporate finance. and it was there that we started using this technology that we mostly use for data and data intelligence or business intelligence. and I became what I now look at as a as kind of a coach or a champion at that company. We did an evaluation of multiple different softwares. And I remember, you know, sitting in and seeing all the pitches come in, and just kind of taking it in, not not realizing what it was ever gonna be like to be on the tech side of the house, and nor did I ever imagine myself there. but we picked a vendor and my job was really to solve business problems for our company and leverage that technology, you know, whenever it made sense. You know, fast forward a few years later, I had someone reach out to me and they said, Hey, have you ever thought about being in in sales or pre sales or technology? And it was so far off my radar. I I truly didn't. I didn't know what it what it meant, right? And luckily this person was was like fairly persistent. They were like, We've heard from our teams that they love working with you. And he summarized it to me and said, you know, you'll be on this pre sales team. You'll partner with a lot of different companies and basically you're gonna go around and tell them all about the great things our technology can do for them and their companies and help them evaluate if it's the right fit and you know, understand their business and go out and try to solve those problems. so that was kind of my first foray into tech and pre-sales, and really kind of set the tone for for me moving forward. Chris: And so that, just so I understand correctly, that was the vendor of the software you had implemented within your current organisation that approached you. Eric Glick: Exactly. Yeah, I become a I became a power user, to to a very high degree. Chris: Super interesting. Yeah, 'cause that's for people looking to break into pre sales and they're not doing the role yet. That's such a great route to do it, right? If if you are managing a piece of software, if you're the admin of a piece of software, you're developing against it or implementing it, gives you that appreciation for what that vendor's customers actually have to go through. Eric Glick: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I talk to a lot of folks who are looking to break into sales or pre-sales. And I always say there's a few routes that you can follow. one is find a product that you absolutely love and you know inside and out, right? And reach out to that company and see what roles they have available. one is transitioning within your current company, right? So if you're in a company that has a sales or pre-sales function, Get to know the team, get to understand what they do and eventually see if there's an opportunity for you. And then the third is just networking. And, you know, I've been really fortunate to meet so many great people along my journey who put a lot of faith in me and, you know, really helped me out tremendously. So, you know, you can never, you know, network enough and really make sure, not just that you're out there, you know, at conferences, shaking hands, but really make like those deep, meaningful connections. Chris: Yeah, great advice. So you moved from being a power user of this software to actually selling the software, but at this point still on the pre sales side of things, when was it that you start to think about transitioning into pure sales and what motivated that? Eric Glick: Yeah, so at the first tech company I ever worked at, it was really interesting. It was probably the closest that I've ever seen SEs and AEs work together. And I've been a lot of companies where the partnership is really strong. but I almost felt like I reported directly to my sales leader, the RVP, and then dotted line into my pre-sales manager. I mean, I was involved in all of their team meetings, their QBRs, their kickoffs, like quite literally everything. And something that sales leader said to me still sticks with me to this day. And he goes, Look, I have a team of eight people. I only have two eyes and two ears. You see more of what's going on. So I need to have a strong relationship with you. So I just understand what's going on with my team. Where do they need help? Where do they need support? Who's doing what well? And so on. And I mean, that really set the stage for me going forward. So one, I immediately out of the gate have really strong relationships with all the sellers, the account executives that I worked with, and had a lot of respect and appreciation for really what they were doing. So I think from an early stage, and especially not coming from a a very technical background, which you may remember from my early days at Slack because I leaned on you quite heavily for a lot of help and support. But, you know, I I always just loved kind of the business problems and I really loved being a part of the sales organization and team. And, you know, my background, I played a lot of competitive sports in high school and college. I I I love to be in that environment. I remember, you know, those first few sales calls, I felt my my adrenaline starting to rush like I was out on the tennis court or the baseball field or whatever. so I really, really love that. I loved how metrics driven, you know, pre-sales was, but also sales, I think takes that to the next degree. So fast forward a few years, I had a great run at at this first company called Click. and I really wanted to go to an early stage company. So I went to a Series A company. I think I was employee number, you know, 21. and really wanted to go there and help start their pre-sales team. but after a year, I was approached by a few of the leaders over there to to move over and kind of build out our sales function for some of the smaller companies who we weren't servicing. So more of like a mid-market or commercial AE. Chris: Okay. Eric Glick: so that was the first time that I actually transitioned and and carried a bag. Chris: Interesting. I I love the point around your R VP and the previous role sort of proactively coming to you for your opinion. I know you know that made a such a big difference to me when the sales leader had that confidence and was proactive. but yeah, so in so you you sort of got this competitive nature, you're working really closely with the A's at this previous company, then you actually move into that role. What was sort of as expected and what was different or maybe more difficult? Eric Glick: Yeah, you know, I I I do think I had a deep understanding and appreciation for the entirety of the role, right? And and again, this goes back to some of the conversations I'll have with sales engineers or other people that work with account executives who who are interested in in trying their hand at it. And one thing that I say right up front is if anyone has the mentality, like as an S E or whatever s whatever role they're in. I do all the work, the AE shows up and and makes all the money. That is not a recipe for success, right? Because there is so much more that goes into it. And you know, fortunately, through a lot of the relationships I had, I really understood, you know, what it looks like to prospect and generate pipeline and get rejected time and time and time again, and you know, see a 1% response rate when you're reaching out, just trying to find a qualified opportunity. so I think I had a pretty good sense of what I was in for. I think what was surprising was the weight of it. And you know, I you probably hear some people who are in a direct quota carrying role say, say there's some weight that comes with the bag that you take, and you feel it on day one, right? You know, day one it's it's like here's your quota, here's your accounts, go figure it out. And and that is like a scary feeling. But it was also really exciting to me at the time and and I was up for the challenge. So I think that was one of the things that surprised me was just how it felt the day that that it happened. Chris: Yeah. And even once you've had a fantastic quarter, right? That as soon as the next one begins that that feeling sort of resets. Eric Glick: That's it. Chris: Yeah. Okay, amazing. So so you went in quite eyes wide open into what the AE role would involve. Obviously the the pressure there was a bit of a surprise. What then prompted you then to move back from A to pre sales again? Eric Glick: Yeah, so I I think the biggest thing is I've had the opportunity to work at companies where I deeply believed in the product, leveraged it in in different areas of my life. I t I told the story about when I went into tech. this company that I transitioned to being an account executive at, I totally understood the value of the product. It was more of a middleware data management application. It just the challenge that I found was that I I didn't have this like emotional tie to it. Right. The last company using their product helped me get promoted. It helped me get a new role in tech that I was really excited about. I used it personally for my, you know, everything from managing my expenses to handling my fantasy football stats and data. So like I really, really loved it. And so after my first year of being an account executive at at this next company, I sat down and I kind of had that realization that like the product matters to me. And I made a list of a few companies that I truly just love their product. And literally at the top of that list was Slack. And I said, I'm gonna do whatever I can to go get a role at Slack. This was in like 2016, 2017. Chris: Okay. Eric Glick: And for me, that was the big thing. And I said I literally remember, I mean, I think I have the note in LinkedIn still where I was just messaging anybody trying to see if they would talk to me. Like, I will come be the janitor at Slack. That is how much Chris: Yeah. Eric Glick: we used Slack in my company. I was using it personally. I just had such a deep like love for the product. and saw the company was doing really well and and all of those sorts of things. So that was number one on my list. And I was really fortunate that one of the recruiters that I reached out to Connected with me, we had a really good conversation and a pretty open conversation. She said, look, you have, you know, a year as an account executive, you have six or so years as a sales engineer. your paths are kind of like coming in as an entry-level account executive or potentially BDR, or you can go straight into large enterprise or strategic pre-sales. And I I honestly had a lot of back and forth on it, but I always liked working with larger, more strategic companies. so I went that path and I could have you know, either way would have been great. I was just happy to be there. But that's kind of how I got back into into pre-sales. Chris: Yeah, interesting. So it's really about the the company and the fact that the role, you know, you'd be working on the large enterprise side of things, larger, more complex deals. Eric Glick: Exactly. Yeah. Yep. Chris: And so after Slack you move to Coda and you ultimately end up leading the solutions engineering organization there. And then you make the step into being head of sales. Talk us through how that transition happened, because you mentioned earlier on, you know, it could be quite difficult getting into an AE role at a certain level without the experience. Pretty impressive that you you moved from head of SE to head of sales there. considering the amount of direct sales experience you had. So yeah, I would love to hear sort of what made that move happen and what did it feel like. Eric Glick: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, moving to Coda w was similar, right? I I saw I started using the product, I love the product, and then I also really connected with the people who who I spoke to over there. namely, especially out of the gate, was the CRO at the time, a guy named Brian Letterman who who became my boss. And, you know, I I think it was a combination of, you know, how how did I make that transition from You know, leading the SE organization over to sales. I think a lot of it came down to, you know, Coda very much was still a startup at that time. And you jump in and all you all anyone wants to do is make an impact. Right? You're you're all on this mission to make your customers and make this company successful. And so I naturally just jumped into quite a bit and had a pretty wide span. I think my background, you know, as a as a direct seller, but also You know, really I I always say I feel like I got a MBA from being around so many incredible salespeople. You know, that's one of the benefits of being a sales engineer is sometimes you can work with two, three, five, eight, however many account executives it it is. And I truly feel like I took like a mini superpower from each of them and have been trying to like use that to culminate like what who is Eric in this situation. so I I ended up getting to a place where, Brian, the CRO, approached me and he said, Hey, you know, you're you've been helping out with some of our pipe gen plays. You know, you're in pricing and packaging conversations. I've always, I mean, shout out to to Alex King. I was just seeing your conversation you had with him here. I've always been big on, you know, selling value and business cases. So I was in these like commercial conversations where we were just aligning on on the value we could provide. So he kind of approached me with it. And and I always knew I wanted to do it. I think there were a few reasons why, you know, we talked a little bit about how I got into it, but I think like the why behind it is important. I think one of them was that I knew it was going to be challenging. And not that pre-sales for me wasn't. I think there was still a lot to learn. And I looked up to some of the people in the industry who were amazing. some of the people we've gotten to work with. at Slack, who now are running, you know, pre-sales at some the largest companies in the world. And I definitely saw that I still had more to learn there, but I felt like I was gonna be more uncomfortable making this transition. And for me, that's always been like one of the core values that I I look for is being uncomfortable. I mean, I feel like I've been uncomfortable my entire career. At some point, I'd like to be a little more comfortable. So, you know, the the temperature goes down, but It it truly was something that I saw when when I started talking to the CRO about this. and I think he he just had faith in me. Like I think he truly saw that I was capable of it, even if I wasn't entirely sure. and same with our our CEO and some of the other leaders there. So I really just had a good support system and you know, maybe not the most like confidence-inspiring thing, but I did ask him, I said, Hey, what happens if this goes really, really bad? Like is th is there still a spot for me? And you know, at that point I had been there for a few years and and I think created a good brand for myself. So he was like, Look, one, we're gonna figure this out together. It's not just you that needs to be successful, it's us. This is a team sport here. but if you ever wanna go back, we can we can have that conversation. Chris: Yeah, amazing. And that has been a recurring theme. You'll know I've had a couple of other guests on the show that made the move from S E over to to the AE side of things. And in both cases they had a really supportive sort of manager or leader there and and had that conversation around well, what if it doesn't work out and the the door is always open? So it must be very reassuring, particularly when you're moving into a a role like that that has a lot of pressure. Eric Glick: Absolutely. Yeah, I I I don't think you can do it without that. I I think if you did it absent of that it would be really challenging. Chris: Yeah. So fast forward to today, and as I said, you're R VP of sales for Sierra. Sierra, yeah, AI native company, but really famous for the idea of outcome-based pricing. And a lot of companies now, particularly as they're working AI into the products, are looking at a shift from maybe per seat to consumption based or some kind of blend. But outcome-based pricing has always sort of been the holy grail. And I've not not seen many companies pull it off, but Sierra being Well that, you know, very famously has. I would love your impression, particularly as you've got a lot of experience working at more traditional SaaS companies. What does that shift to outcome based pricing mean for the sales motion generally? Eric Glick: Yeah, it it's it's really interesting and I mean companies have been wanting to do this forever. Like I going back to my first company in tech that I worked at, this was about fifteen years ago. I literally can can go back and see conversations about value-based pricing and we're unlocking all this value. How can we tie ourselves to that so we aren't charging per seat and we can unlock more revenue? but it's really hard to do. It's it's hard to figure out the attribution of it. I think with the the product and the service we provide, it gets a little bit more clear. And what I love about it is when done well, it creates this like quadruple win, right? Usually you're looking for the win-win. This truly is the quadruple win, right? So you have, you know, when we align on outcomes, you have the person who's gonna champion this or bring this into their organization. They have a clear line of sight to you know being able to tell the ROI positive story about the investment that they made. Right. Because we are tied to driving these outcomes. Their company, number two, is able to move forward and drive positive outcomes. As a seller, you're able to retire quota and get closer to a successful year. And then your company is able to generate revenue in support of these organizations. So it really does create this alignment across the board and It it's challenging to figure out what it looks like initially, right? So I think one of the things that that we do really well is we align on an evaluation so that we can get in and really understand like what are the outcomes that we want to drive and then what is the value that it will provide to you and that will help us set up a commercial model that is equitable for everyone. Chris: Yeah. Yeah. And you mentioned evaluation because again, looking back to some of the traditional SaaS companies and you know, you and I worked at Slack and it's like acquired by Salesforce. There the evaluation so often was, you know, you go in, you do some discovery, whether that's user interviews or a workshop, but you really understand the customer's world. And then the playback, you know, there might be something like a a a business case, there often was. But in terms of bringing the solution to life, it all really hinged on the demo. That was such a big part of The SE's role, right? Is you build this all singing, all dancing demo with the hope that that's the thing that persuades them to sign off and the customers making this huge commitment up front to a certain number of seats, at least for a year, but often longer than that. Is the demo sort of still the same, you know, event in in in in Sierra in this outcome based world, or you know, wha what do those evaluations look like? Is there is there an alternative? Eric Glick: Yeah, yeah, it's good question. I think the demo still is is the wow moment, right? So as companies who are I mean, now there's so much technology that you can evaluate. And I think that demo is is the best way that you can help someone see this potential future state. And so, you know, you know this. A lot of what we need to do as sellers and and in pre-sales is help them understand what the current state is, help understand what the future state is, and build the bridge and help guide them along that journey. And so the the demo still does help them visualize that future state. I think what the evaluation does is it gets them fully confident that they can get there and beyond. And I've worked at plenty of companies where you don't really want to do an evaluation, right? It's just like for many reasons. Maybe it's just we know our technology works, we have all these referenceable customers. Why would you have to try it out? We're wasting time. But I'll tell you what, this is one of those things that when you see it, you can't unsee it. as a buyer, I would never bring a technology into my workforce without going through a thorough evaluation and and like live in production, working with their team, not just like downloading the free one and kicking the tires, like really testing it in production. Because I just think, you know, if you're gonna spend that kind of money, you have to have confidence that it's gonna drive the the outputs that you're looking for. Chris: Yeah. Yeah. And so when you say evaluation, that involves, you know, what other people might use the term pilot, but we're talking about, like you said, getting the solution into the hands of the customer and connecting it to production data, like really testing out not just does the product work in a demo environment or does it work technically, but can it deliver the outcomes that we've talked about? Eric Glick: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So we are deploying live in production against production data and typically with their customers, right? So Sierra is a customer facing product. So it'll usually be with some percentage of volume, right? And then we'll scale it up over time as the teams get comfortable with it. but yeah, it it's live in production from day one. Chris: Amazing. And I'm curious, sort of what this sort of change in selling motion means for the traditional roles and role boundaries. Because as I said, like as an SE, historically a lot of your role would be building up to that demo. But is this evaluation, a sort of pilot, something that the SE is heavily involved in? Can they rely on other resources? Like what do the sort of roles and responsibilities typically look like? Eric Glick: Yeah, it's a it's a good question too, because I do think there is a divergence in the industry right now with companies going one of two ways. so I'll tell you what we do. so we have typically it's the account executive and the sales engineer partnering really closely. I I do think it's here we have a really strong partnership with our sales engineering team. I know I personally, obviously, based on my background, take it very seriously, but I mean we just have a tremendous team. So Our two teams will really work to educate, conduct discovery, learn about the customer's business, learn about where we can provide value. Once we do get to a point where a customer says, we want to evaluate this, we want to move to a POC, we wanna do this the right way. the AE and the SE will kind of take the first pass at scoping the POC. And then we'll bring in our agent development team. which is kind of our forward deployed engineering team. So there's a few roles there. We have an agent strategist, an agent product manager, and then also an agent engineer. So each of them have kind of a a different role to help launch this successfully, this pilot successfully. but the A and the S E are are involved the whole way. And really, even through the POC, they're gonna be involved even if the agent development team is more hands-on. And I think this is kind of like you know, unique based on what you're seeing in the industry. You're seeing some companies go to a model where they they don't even have an S E anymore. They have and maybe they call it SA or whatever the term is, but they'll have an AE and then they'll have someone who basically runs everything, right? So they'll do pre-sales and post sales. so I think it's interesting to see the two models. I have my own biased perspective. but I'm curious to see what happens with some of these companies as we move forward, just in terms of what model prevails. Chris: Yeah. Yeah, interesting. And it's like you said, it's it's interesting times in that it's not like everyone's moving in the same direction, right? You know, Notion caused a lot of sort of waves in the market by by going public with the fact that they were merging the AE and the SE role, but I see other companies, like you said, asking maybe the SE to get more involved in post sales. And for SEs and people in pre sales, I think there's a lot of anxiety about that for deployed engineer role because they see it as maybe, that's something that's going to replace. me or the the solutions engineering function, but it sounds like a Sierra is very much additive. You know, not just it y you don't have the term for deployed engineer, but the agent development team are coming in and working alongside the AE and the SE to to add value above and beyond what they're already doing. Eric Glick: Yeah, yeah. And they really do. I mean, that team is so talented. I I am always in awe of them. I mean, they're they're so smart, so technical, so articulate. and I mean we hear it from from companies that, you know, working with them is is one of the special parts of of even doing the evaluation, like understanding what is that partnership motion. so customers are evaluating that as well. Chris: Yeah, interesting. one of the things that I've definitely noticed when you're looking at the AI native companies is the sort of job descriptions for the SE roles are often a lot more technical. You know, you mentioned you were maybe a a less technical SE. I would put myself in that category as well. I'm curious, you know, at Sierra, would the agent development team as as an individual they're like typically from a more technical background than the solutions engineering team? Like, do you see those individuals having Different skill sets as well as different roles. Eric Glick: Yeah, I'll I'll break down kind of like the the role background for each of them. on the AE side, I would say it's traditional, right? Like, you know, we have a lot of people who've come from companies we've worked at or other similar companies. on the agent development side, so you have your agent strategist. I would think of them as almost like a a Bain or a McKinsey consultant. Like that's kind of Chris: Okay. Eric Glick: the the background they bring. We have our agent PM or product manager, truly like a product manager. A lot of these folks worked in product orgs at, you know, companies that we have also heard of. And then the other one is agent engineer. And so they are they are more technical and they're actually like hands-on keyboard developing in code and things of that nature. Now the SE role here I think is really interesting. I would say for the most part, they are more. Business oriented than technical. I always look at this, you know, spectrum of like technical, business. A lot of times people are in the middle. I would say they're in the middle or closer to the business side. I think what's also kind of like a a unique thing about being an SE at Sierra is, and maybe it's not unique, maybe it's just it's different. But I think being an SE, there's a lot of creativity that you need to bring to the role, right? Because you get thrown these problems and you need to. figure out creative ways to solve them. but what I love about the SCs here at Sierra is there's actually like a performance that they do, right? So, you know, we do these demos and we have demos on our website, so you could you could watch and get a feel for it. But you know, they they call in to talk to the Sierra agent. And for those who aren't familiar, Sierra does like voice agents or chat agents that are are really powerful and and harness all the latest AI technology. And They're almost doing this performance of like being frustrated, like being a frustrated customer who's calling a bank or an airline and interrupting the agent and interjecting and throwing a lot at it. So I actually I think that's one of the unique things about SEs at Sierra is there's like this theatrical nature to it, right? It's creative, but there also is this like performative aspect. Chris: I love it. Yeah. And I mean I I I I think back to Salesforce, right? Salesforce was so good at that in terms of getting the customer excited and sort of bringing the solution to life. And, you know, I guess an oversimplified narrative might be that, you know, that old way isn't working and now customers just want to do a proof of concept and as a result, SEs don't really need those storytelling skills. It's all about the more technical skills. But actually what I'm hearing is like, yes, customers do demand more in terms of proof they want to do one of these evaluations like a POC or a pilot. But that doesn't mean that the storytelling and the creativity is is no longer relevant. Actually you've got that as well as the additional evidence. Eric Glick: A hundred percent. I mean it it's so relevant and it comes up I love I've always loved watching demos. I feel like demo is kind of an art and you know, you're mentioning storytelling. I love watching these Sierra demos and I mean we just had one yesterday and the the company we were presenting to commented on it and they were like, Wow, it's amazing how when you showed that you were more frustrated, the agent took a more empathetic tone and tried to like lower the temperature there and You threw a lot of things at it once, it compartmentalized them. So it's pretty, it's pretty fun to see these. And I think the SE team, you know, has fun with it too, which also just comes across in these videos, right? We're on, we're on Zoom calls and there's 20 people in the room, and you're trying to make it light and enjoyable, and and people appreciate that. And so I think our SE team does a tremendous job of that. Chris: I love it. So you've talked about some of the things that you admire in the SE team at Sierra, but I'd love to know, you know, turning it on yourself, you've had this amazingly successful career that spans both pre sales and sales and before that, you know, consulting as well. Looking over all those roles and your whole career trajectory. Are there, you know, one or two traits that you would attribute some of that success to? Eric Glick: it's a good question. I th I think first and foremost is just the people around you, honestly. So, the people at at the companies that you work for, I've been so fortunate to work for incredible people who for some reason or another I always felt like went above and beyond to support me and find out what it what it means for me to be successful and help me get there. and obviously like the the internal support system at home with, you know, my wife and and our kids and everyone who who really supported me along the way. I think the other thing that I always talk about, I mentioned it briefly, but I think it's really pushing yourself to be uncomfortable and and really just continually challenging yourself. I mean, I remember literally from day one when I started my first role at Deloitte, I I walked into this room. It seemed like everybody who was there went to an Ivy League or a top twenty-five school. I did not. And just felt like, you know, whether it's called imposter syndrome or or whatever, just really felt that. And it was tough, but I felt that so many times when I transitioned into pre-sales and when I transitioned to sales. And I think I look back on those moments so fondly of just like, wow, like that is where I grew and went somewhere I didn't even know was possible. So now I'm almost like seeking those out. And it's still scary. Like I c I came here to Sierra, We have tremendously talented sales leaders who are here who have done so much more than me. And so I feel it again, but now I have like the comfort and confidence to say, I've been here before. I know I'm gonna get out on the other side and be better off for it, even if that means there's a few sleepless nights or you know, I'm I'm a little more stressed than I'd like to be along the way. But I think just continuing to push yourself and and be uncomfortable, has been a core tenant of like my my entire career. Chris: I love that. Yeah. And I was actually, you know, funnily enough, just today discussing with someone on LinkedIn that there is, I think, an inclination as people get more senior within their careers and that confidence builds, perhaps that the curiosity drops a bit and maybe they don't push themselves outside of your comfort zone as much. And so amazing to hear that you you're still chasing that. And like you said, you you haven't hit the comfort level yet. You're still pushing yourself into those roles where you're gonna get growth and find the work challenging. Eric Glick: Yeah, yeah. Sometimes I do think it it would be nice to be in a a state of comfort and Chris: Yeah. Eric Glick: calmness, but I don't know, maybe I just don't have it have it in me. It's not my DNA. Chris: Great. Well, I would love lastly to hear one piece of advice that you would give to to listeners on this show, may may maybe in particular with those in mind that are in a pre sales role and weighing up potentially moving into a sales. Eric Glick: Yeah, there's probably a few. I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is net networking has always been a big part of of my career and and and it's generally something I like doing. Like I like going out and I'm not the most extroverted person. You know, I need time to recharge and sit in silence like everyone else. but networking has had such a profound impact on my life. I right when I got into pre-sales, I met a few people who were brand new. we started a pre-sales community in New York called Sales Engineers in New York. it's still going today. We have over 2,000 members. And Chris: Amazing. Eric Glick: that has shown me like the power of community and networking. And I think like there's a lot of myths around networking, and there's some like stress involved around like, my gosh, I'm gonna go to this event, and like what am I gonna talk to people about? And I think the core thing for me, like, I have never had a wide network. Like I I focus on having a very narrow, deep set of relationships that are important to me. I feel like I can provide value to them, they provide value to me, and it's this bi-directional thing. but really just going out and spending the time networking, it pays off like tenfold. So for anyone who's even if you're not looking for anything. Go out, go to events, you know, reach out to someone on LinkedIn. The worst thing they say is is no. I mean, I I have people reach out, I try to respond to everyone. I'm sure there's been a few who've been ignored, unfortunately. So I apologize to them. But for the most part, I try to, you know, have conversations with everyone. So you'll be surprised what happens when you just reach out to someone and say, Hey, you know, be specific. Hey, I see you've made this transition from pre-sales to sales. I'd love to I I'm sure you're busy. I would love just fifteen minutes of your time if you would give it to me anytime over the next six months. And I guarantee ninety nine percent of the time people say say yes. Chris: And like you said, do it before you're actively looking for a role, right? I mean, it's gonna come across as very transactional if the first time you reach out to someone is, Hey, could we meet and you know, I just so happen to be applying for this role at your company. Eric Glick: Yeah. Yeah, those are tough. I I do try to respond to those as well. but you know, most of the time if you've been in that position where someone reaches out to you and they say, Hey, I'm applying this role, you know, I don't know you, but I know you you work there and you're in a position that maybe it's on your team, and it's tough because sure, I c I could refer someone internally, but if you don't know them, it's you know, it's it's gonna be a little more challenging. Chris: Amazing. Anything else you'd like to share, Eric, before we wrap things up? Eric Glick: no, I think it was a good conversation. Hopefully, some of what we covered today is helpful. I have a lot of people reach out and ask me about moving from pre-sales to sales. I love talking about it. I I think there's probably more just around, you know, there's there's pros and cons, just like everything else. but I think the one thing anytime I have those conversations with people, I say, you know, think about where you're trying to get to. I know it's hard to look five, ten, fifteen years in the future. but that's what I've continued to try to do, figure out where do I wanna be five, ten years from now and let that guide my decision making. Chris: Yeah. Speaking of which, I mean, it's still stuck in my head that right at the beginning of the conversation you said in management consulting you were working on these SAP projects that took seven years to implement. And c kind of contrasting that with where you are now with Sierra, where I imagine the software is implemented significantly faster than that. It's kind of crazy how much this technology has changed, right? Eric Glick: It really is. Yeah. We actually we have a leaderboard of companies that deploy our AI agents and to see how fast they're deploying them. I think the fastest we've seen has been just under thirty days. So I mean Chris: wow. Eric Glick: to deploy something in production to millions of customers in under thirty days is pretty amazing. So you're right, the technology has come quite a ways. Chris: It's incredible. Well, Eric, what a note to end us on. thank you so much for for taking the time and sharing your insights. It's been a great conversation. Eric Glick: Thanks, Chris. Appreciate it. Chris: Bye bye.