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Zach Lawryk: The Ultimate Guide to Sales Engineering | E980

Zach Lawryk is Head of Solutions Consulting @ Rippling, what is solutions consulting? They are the product expert in the solution that ties a business value to help support the sales rep in the execution of their quota. And there is no one better than Zach, prior to leading the solutions consulting team at Rippling, Zach was VP of Solutions Consulting at Slack where he scaled the SE team from 10 to 200. Before Slack, Zach was Head of Solutions Engineering @ Optimizely and before that was Director of Sales Engineering at Box. ------------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:33 Who is Zach Lawryk? 2:29 Sales Engineers vs Sales Consultants 3:56 Tips for Hiring Sales 5:01 What is broken in Sales today? 7:55 Is outbound dead? 9:09 The Blurring of Sales & Marketing 11:28 Why Technical Founders Make PMF Hard 14:27 The Challenge of Multiple Buyers 16:06 Biggest Mistake Founders Make 17:38 Why We Need Solutions Consultants 19:27 The Transition to “Customer Success” 21:03 How to Structure Comp for a Sales Engineer 22:20 When to Hire Your First Sales Engineer 23:29 Hiring Tips for Sales Engineers 33:03 How to Onboard a Sales Engineer 34:32 ACV Experience vs Industry Experience 35:39 How to Close a Deal with a Sales Engineer 36:33 How to Measure Success 37:47 Red Flags for Sales Engineers 38:51 Quick-fire Round ------------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Zach Lawryk We Discuss: 1. ) WTF is Solutions Engineering: What is Solutions engineering and why is it important? How does a software developer turned lawyer become one of the OGs of Solutions Engineering? What is the single biggest piece of advice Zach gives to graduates entering the workforce today? 2.) When and Who: Building the Foundations: When is the right time to hire your first solutions engineer? Should this be a senior hire or a more junior hire? What experience is ideal? Would Zach rather have someone who has sold to the same customer segment or sold to the same deal size? What are the challenges with each? 3.) Making the First Hire: The Process: What is the right hiring process for solutions engineers? Which members of your existing team should be involved in the process? What are some of Zach’s favourite questions on the candidates past to determine quality? What are the best case studies and tests to give potential hires to test their aptitude? What are the biggest red flags in the hiring process for solutions engineers? 4.) Integrating into the Team: Making it Work: What is the optimal onboarding process for solutions engineers? Why does Zach think it is important they spend time with customer success in their first month? What is the right way to measure the effectiveness of SE’s? How should the entrance of SE’s impact the close rate and comp structure for AE’s? How can sales leaders prevent division and friction between AEs and SEs? ------------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Zach Lawryk on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zlawryk Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com ------------------------------------------------- #ZachLawryk #Rippling #HarryStebbings #20vc #solutionsengineering #salesengineer

Zach LawrykguestHarry Stebbingshost
Feb 20, 202341mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Sales Engineering Redefined: Buyer-Led Journeys, Sense-Making, and Scale

  1. Zach Lawryk, veteran sales engineering leader at companies like Salesforce, Slack, Box, and Rippling, explains how modern sales must shift from seller-centric control to true buyer enablement and “sense-making.”
  2. He outlines why solutions engineers (SEs) are critical in complex, technical sales cycles, how their role is evolving earlier in the funnel, and how to scale their impact through content and collaboration with marketing.
  3. For founders, he demystifies early sales and product-market fit by stressing deep customer empathy, value mapping, and concrete ROI—especially when multiple stakeholders like CFOs are involved.
  4. He also offers practical guidance on when to hire the first SE, how to interview and onboard them, how to structure comp and responsibilities with AEs, and what red flags to watch in the first 3–6 months.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Modern sales must prioritize buyer enablement over seller control.

Most orgs still sell as if they control the process, but buyers now drive the journey. The seller’s job is to help buyers make sense of a noisy, complex world, not to gatekeep information.

Use “sense-making” to guide complex deals rather than pure persuasion.

Borrowing Forrester’s concept, Zach frames sales as helping buyers interpret options and tradeoffs; reps and SEs win by clarifying, contextualizing, and simplifying decisions for time-poor customers.

Scale SE expertise by productizing it into content, not just calls.

Because SEs are scarce, their knowledge should be converted into short videos, demo vignettes, and reusable assets that marketing and AEs can deploy earlier in the funnel.

Technical founders overcomplicate sales by ignoring basic customer empathy.

Zach advises founders to explicitly map who the buyer is, their pains and desired gains, and how the product ties to their outcomes—using tools like value canvases—before obsessing over features or investors.

Tie value to proportional business outcomes and hard ROI, especially for CFOs.

Founders and sales teams must show that the business impact justifies the spend; soft or localized value isn’t enough when CFOs scrutinize every purchase against a stack of other tools.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

Most technology sales organizations are selling the same way they were 20 years ago.

— Zach Lawryk

The buyer is in control of the process, and it's more about buyer enablement than it's about selling anymore.

— Zach Lawryk

Your job is not to sell something to somebody. Your job is to help your buyer make sense of a really increasingly complex world.

— Zach Lawryk

If you don't feel like you're learning from the people that you're surrounded with, then you're in the wrong spot.

— Zach Lawryk

Our job as solutions consultants is to ensure the technology aligns to what the customer is trying to accomplish from a business perspective.

— Zach Lawryk

Shift from seller-centric sales to buyer enablement and sense-makingRole, value, and evolution of sales engineers / solutions consultantsModern outbound, PLG, and the blurring of sales and marketingEarly-stage sales, product-market fit, and value proposition designMulti-stakeholder selling and CFO-driven ROI scrutinyHiring, interviewing, and onboarding high-performing SEsMeasuring SE impact, AE–SE collaboration, and early red flags

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