Presales is a profession that rewards curiosity.
Curiosity about the prospect and their business. Curiosity about the product. Curiosity about the tools, workflows, and colleagues who are doing things you have not tried yet. The best Sales Engineers don’t just know their stuff. They are always in the process of learning more.
That is the kind of professional we created the Presales Circle of Excellence to recognize.
We are proud to name Seamus Hutchens, Senior Sales Engineer at Salesloft, as our May SE Spotlight winner.
What Sets Seamus Apart
Seamus brings something special to presales: genuine enthusiasm for the work itself. He is passionate about connecting sales professionals with technology that helps their teams and businesses thrive, and that passion shows up in how he approaches every part of the role.
Advice for SEs Looking to Level Up
Seamus calls his own advice a bit cliche. But he still offers it as his top suggestion.
Be unapologetically curious.
But the way he explains it makes it anything but generic.
“Start with your prospects; understand their business, their competitive pressures, and their personal motivations. Why does this matter to this person?” Seamus goes on, “Carry that same curiosity into technology: first with your product, and then with all of the ancillary tools that help you do your job. Get excited about testing out the new feature, talk to colleagues about what they’re doing that’s new and exciting. When you see someone more technical than you, don’t get discouraged; instead, open up and ask to learn, maybe use AI to help with some of that learning, everybody is busy.”
Seamus offers a concrete example. A colleague recently built a custom MCP integration, something well outside his current technical depth. His first reaction was imposter syndrome. His second was to open Claude and ask for step-by-step instructions, then schedule a 1:1 with the colleague. That sequence, self-directed learning followed by a real conversation, is a model worth repeating.
His last point cuts to something important for SEs at any stage: think of yourself as a product that is always in beta. Constantly look to ship improvements. And once you have, share them with your team.
“By now you should be a tenured SE,” Seamus says, “and helping the new SEs.”
What is the SE Spotlight?
The SE Spotlight is Saleo’s monthly program honoring top performers in presales. Each month, we select one winner for our Presales Circle of Excellence and feature them to celebrate their craft, leadership, and impact.
Winners are featured on LinkedIn, included in our Winners Circle, and receive a recognition badge and gift card.
Know someone who consistently delivers standout demos and elevates the people around them? Nominate them now.
