How Demo Automation and AI Are Transforming Presales with Nalin Senthamil
In this episode, Matthew James and Timmy Hendrickson are joined by Nalin Senthamil, Founder and CEO of Storylane, to discuss the future of pre-sales and AI driving influence beyond pipeline. They explore how demo automation is transforming the self-serve buyer experience, the changing role of solutions engineers, and how AI can create 10X impact in pre-sales workflows. Nalin shares insights on leveraging AI for demo personalization, managing complex product integrations, and why the traditional discovery call may be dying.
To join the show live, follow the Presales Collective's LinkedIn page or join the PSC Slack community for updates. The show is bi-weekly on Tuesdays, 8AM PT/11AM ET/4PM GMT.
Follow the Hosts
Connect with Matthew James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewyoungjames/
Connect with Timmy Hendrickson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmyhendrickson/
Connect with Nalin Senthamil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nalinpradeep/
Links and Resources Mentioned
Join Presales Collective Slack: https://www.presalescollective.com/slack
Storylane: https://www.storylane.io/
Timestamps
00:04 Welcome
01:08 Nalin's background and founding Storylane
03:08 What does a self-serve buyer experience look like?
08:18 How AI has changed presales
13:40 Training AI agents to answer technical questions
17:02 AI testing customer scenario
19:28 Overlooked use cases for demo automation
26:30 One workflow where AI can create 10X impact today
Key Topics Covered
The Death of Discovery Calls
Why buyers are coming to conversations already educated
How self-serve experiences span the entire buying journey
The role of AI sales agents in initial discovery
The Four Categories of SE Work
Relationship building and strategic solutioning
Demo delivery and POC management
Administrative tasks and CRM updates
Knowledge sharing and product insights
AI as an SE Sidekick
Demo preparation and tailoring automation
Administrative task reduction
Strategic thinking enhancement rather than replacement
Demo Automation Use Cases
Supporting different AE to SE ratios
Managing complex product integrations
Upsell and expansion opportunities
Micro-demos for specific features
Training AI for Technical Questions
Leveraging tribal knowledge from Slack, Google Drive, and call recordings
Importance of data quality and curation
Automatic ingestion of organizational knowledge
The Future of Pre-Sales
AI enabling faster iteration and personalization
Strategic partnership between CS and pre-sales for upsells
The evolution from technical support to strategic advisory roles
Presales Podcast by Presales Collective
Presales Podcast by Presales Collective is a podcast dedicated to growing the Solution Consulting community. We aim to provide presales professionals with the resources, knowledge, network, and mentorship to develop long, impactful careers.
On the Presales Podcast, you’ll hear from global presales leaders, top individual contributors, industry experts, enablement professionals, and entrepreneurs who have developed products for our profession.
- No. of episodes: 150
- Latest episode: 2025-06-16
- Business Technology
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