Presales Rising Star 2026
Meet the Winners of Presales Rising Star 2026
Presales Rising Star 2026
David Kohout
Solutions Engineer
Unily
David started at Unily as an Onboarding Consultant, moved into a Senior Consultant role, then into Solutions Engineering, a path that shapes how he demos today. This year he ran dozens of customer demos across North America and global markets, supporting strategic enterprise conversations and high-value proofs of concept. He's helped move Unily's demos from feature walkthroughs toward outcome-driven experiences and picked up the company's Go Faster Award along the way.
Lewis Whitfield
Sales EngineerSolutions Engineer
Alteryx
Lewis works across Alteryx's public sector accounts, including the NHS, central government, and policing. He helped build HLD 2.0, a Codex-based system that speeds up and standardizes High-Level Design creation across the SE team. On the Sellafield AYX1 renewal, worth $904k ACV, he was recognized for his technical depth on Alteryx One. A Softcat stakeholder called his demo on the Reds 10 deal "really great." He also shares GenAI architecture guidance across the wider team.
Sébastien Wallart
Presales Engineer
Boomi
Sébastien has grown his win rate to nearly 50 percent by sharpening technical discovery and running value-led demos instead of feature dumps. He's a certified Great Demo practitioner and builds his own AI skills for presales work, using them to turn discovery notes into demo scripts and branded decks in minutes, all grounded in real Boomi content. His focus: spend less energy deciding what to demo, more time on the conversation that matters.
These finalists impressed the judges with mix of AI fluency and buyer-first instinct.
1. Lead with the end result
Show the outcome first, instead of explaining the AI process or underlying technology.
2. Connect AI to business value
Make it clear why the AI capability matters to the customer and what problem it helps solve.
3. Keep it simple and realistic
Use the fewest clicks possible and show the AI capability in a daily-use scenario, not as a feature tour or technical showcase.
I’m looking for someone who can make AI feel useful, valuable, and easy to understand.
1. Evidence of achieving truly best practices in preparing for and delivering demos.
2. Uncovering new best practices in preparing and delivering demos and people or person that are able to do one or the other or both of those and present it compellingly, convincingly, and enjoyably
Perfectly the mix of these two abilities.
Presales Rising Star 2027 opens next year. If you know someone changing how their team demos, sells, and wins, this is where that story starts. If you're already thinking of someone, keep them in mind.
