Zach Lawryk: The Ultimate Guide to Sales Engineering | E980

... what has changed and, uh, what is sort of broken about most sales organizations today is they're still trying to sell like they're in control of that process, when the truth is they're not. The buyer is in control of the process, and it's more about buyer enablement than it's about selling anymore.

Zach, I have heard many great things from Maggie, wonderful, wonderful person. But thank you so much for joining me today first.

Yeah. Well, I'm happy to be here, humbled to be included, and, uh, it's an honor.

Not at all. This is a very special 20 Sales episode, and I wanna start with a little bit of context. So tell me, how did you make your way into the world of sales, how did you make your way into the world of solutions engineering, and most recently, you know, end up at the wonder that is Rippling?

Sure. So long story short, I started, uh, university with the idea that, uh, I was gonna complete a computer science degree, uh, because it was around, it was 1999, right before the bubble burst, and, uh, that was the best way or the best path to making great money. Halfway through it, I realized I didn't wanna spend all my time in a lab, because that was most of the, you know, initial coursework for the computer science degree. I pivoted and said, "I'm gonna be a lawyer." So I did political science instead, but it never got away from technology, and I always loved the intersection of business and technology. And frankly, I sort of stumbled into technology sales. I started a company in college. I'd had no idea what I was doing but was sort of on, like, the business and technology side. I worked for a company that got me to San Francisco. I luckily got a job at Salesforce. I knew nothing about the company, knew nothing about the job, was just happy to get paid a little bit more than what I was paid previously. And, uh, again, long story short, I'm in a training room. I started my job at Salesforce. I was, like, a premier support person basically, so I had a set of accounts. I was the Salesforce expert, helped them set up their Salesforce instance and manage it. On one h- one side of the room, there were the technical support people, like myself. On the other side of the room, their sales engineers. The sales engineer side of the room was having a lot more fun than I was, and I looked across the room, and I said, "I wonder what that job is about? It looks like they're having a lot more fun than we are. We're taking this so seriously." Uh, and lo and behold, it's true. It was a much more fun and, uh, and rewarding career, and I never looked back. And so that was, like, around 2006. I, I interviewed for my first SE job. I didn't get it the first time. I demoed. They said, "Uh, y- n- you're gonna need to do that again. That was pretty bad." The second time around, they said, "That was okay. Come on aboard." And, uh, I've never been more excited about getting a job.