Zach Lawryk on Sales Engineering, Buyer Value and Building the First Team

In this 2023 interview, Rippling solutions consulting leader Zach Lawryk tells Harry Stebbings that modern software sales should help buyers make sense of a complex decision. He explains when to hire a sales engineer, how to evaluate candidates and how the role works with account executives.

Lawryk began studying computer science, switched to political science and considered law, but remained interested in business and technology. At Salesforce he worked in customer support before discovering sales engineering. His first demonstration in an interview went poorly; a second attempt earned him the job.

He describes a sales engineer, solutions consultant or presales consultant as a product expert who connects a solution to business value and supports a sales representative in meeting quota. The names vary, but the role combines technical knowledge, communication and collaboration.

Across Salesforce, Slack, Box and less successful companies, Lawryk says the quality of people around him mattered most. He advises early-career professionals to seek colleagues from whom they can learn and with whom they can collaborate, rather than choosing solely on growth or market size.

Lawryk argues many technology sales teams still act as if the seller controls information and the buying process. In his view, customers increasingly direct that process and need help interpreting options. He calls the work buyer enablement or “sense making,” rather than withholding information until a lengthy discovery call is complete.

Harry asks whether product-led growth has already changed this. Lawryk says self-service lets people explore a product, but many still want to speak to someone on their own terms. A seller’s job is to understand the buyer’s objectives and help determine whether the solution fits.

He does not think outbound sales is dead, but says generic emails and LinkedIn messages are easy to ignore. He recommends reaching prospects through multiple channels and formats that suit how they consume information, including short content rather than relying only on long emails.

The boundaries between marketing and sales are becoming less distinct, he says. Solutions teams can contribute short demos, videos and materials earlier in the journey. Creating reusable content allows technical expertise to reach prospects without requiring a live specialist on every early call.

Lawryk says some technical founders validate the technology with peers and investors without spending enough time understanding the actual buyer. He suggests identifying a specific person, role, pains and desired outcomes, then mapping what the product can do to those needs.

A business-value canvas can make those assumptions explicit: identify the customer, their challenges, possible gains and how the proposed solution connects to outcomes. Lawryk presents it as a useful exercise, not a substitute for testing whether customers will buy.

With more stakeholders, including CFOs, the exercise needs to cover each buyer or influencer. Lawryk recommends articulating how the investment could produce meaningful business outcomes and, where possible, a financial return. A useful feature alone may not create enough value to justify the cost.

He recalls that Slack needed time to connect value selling with its product-led motion. Helping people adopt a product is not automatically the same as explaining enterprise business value. His observations reflect his own experience at the companies where he worked.

A technical product may need a solutions specialist very early, especially if an account executive cannot handle the depth alone. A specialist can also matter when competing teams bring comparable expertise. The right timing depends on complexity, deal volume and the economics of the sales motion.

Asked for a contract-value threshold, Lawryk avoids a universal number. He cites a conversation involving roughly $35,000 annual contract value and says the decision depends on opportunity volume, staffing and whether improved outcomes justify the additional resource. It is an example, not a required threshold.

A clean handoff to customer success is important, though difficult to execute. Lawryk says solutions consultants may stay involved after the sale, especially at a company with fewer than 50 people, to help make sure a customer can realize what was promised.

On compensation, he believes adding specialist support should enable higher account-executive quotas. He gives a typical illustration of 50% base and 50% variable for an account executive versus about 70% base and 30% variable for a solutions consultant. He favors linking both to a shared number; these are his recommendations, not universal benchmarks.

For a less technical product, he suggests a first specialist might become valuable around five to seven sales representatives, with a roughly five-to-one ratio as an illustration. A highly technical offering may need one earlier. The ratio depends on workload and should not be treated as a fixed rule.

To hire, Lawryk describes the chronological interview Slack used: roughly 90 minutes exploring each job, motivations, contributions and reasons for moving. The aim is to understand the person beyond their résumé. He says Rippling had not implemented that exact approach at the time.

He also wants candidates to demonstrate their craft. His preference is a simplified scenario using the employer’s own product: interviewers know the customer and value proposition, but must not expect a newcomer to deliver the best demonstration they have ever seen. The exercise should assess the ability to connect features to value fairly.

A panel can include the hiring manager, a sales counterpart and another solutions specialist or manager. Sales endorsement helps a new hire start with trust. Lawryk says the team should evaluate each stage against defined competencies rather than merely justify an initial impression based on a famous former employer.

Sales representatives may initially feel that a new specialist is encroaching on work they previously handled themselves. Lawryk says leaders need to explain team selling and its value. In his experience, customers may answer a technical specialist differently from an account executive they associate with closing a deal.

Beyond product knowledge and presentation, he tests collaboration. Follow-up questions about actual disagreements, difficult colleagues and helping a new account executive can reveal more than a rehearsed claim to be a team player. Tolerance and willingness to mentor matter as much as technical intelligence.

Harry asks whether to prefer technical depth or charisma. Lawryk rejects the assumption that sales aptitude always looks like traditional charisma. He looks for someone who can empathize with a buyer, understand the technology and connect it to business outcomes.

For onboarding, he describes a blend of product training, exposure to customer calls and study of the ideal customer profile. At Slack, a roughly six-week program included self-service learning. The goal is confidence in demonstrating the product and understanding the buyer; the time needed varies with technical depth.

Time with customer support can accelerate product learning by exposing a new hire to real questions, particularly at a small company. Lawryk notes that scheduling such exposure may be difficult at larger organizations.

If forced to choose for an early-stage hire, he prefers experience in the relevant market over experience with a particular annual contract value. His reasoning is that industry credibility with buyers is harder to teach quickly, whereas someone can learn to sell a larger deal.

Lawryk separates a solutions consultant’s “solution win” from the final close. The consultant establishes whether the technology and requirements fit the customer’s business needs, including necessary technical or security checks. The account executive is responsible for closing the deal.

Measuring specialist impact is difficult. Comparing close rates on deals with and without a consultant can mislead because specialists may be assigned to better-qualified opportunities, and they can also save time by identifying a poor fit early. He suggests examining outcomes after a defined solution win alongside the work that produced it.

His first red flag is an inability to work with account executives, regardless of technical skill. At an early-stage company, the first specialist must also be a self-starter willing to build demos and materials while working directly on deals. The company should describe that breadth honestly before hiring.

In the quick-fire round, Lawryk says customer focus remains constant, while multi-hour discovery calls are less suited to modern buyers. He describes a playbook as choosing an appropriate tactic for a desired outcome and advises new leaders to understand the buyer’s business goals.

He favors asynchronous video as a way to engage customers earlier. He also praises a sales-technology company for building a customer-centered community, while noting he was not yet a customer. These are his personal preferences at the time of the interview.

Harry thanks Lawryk for explaining the role and concludes the conversation.