The December Sales Engineering Braintrust is here to help you close out the year strong and head into 2026 with confidence. This month, we highlight a massive $145K MRR Win Wire, the latest Sales Engineering announcements, updated Pathfinder matrices you can use immediately, new vendor additions, and more.
Covered in this edition:
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Sales Engineering Updates
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Pathfinder Updates
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New Vendors
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Win Wire
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Trusted Advisor Testimonials
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Engineering Spotlight
Sales Engineering Updates
Q4 Inside Track Webinar: Join Shane McNamara, Niko O’Hara, Mike Wolfington, and Andrew Pryfogle on December 18 at 12 PM CT for the latest vendor announcements and a focused session on cost containment. You’ll walk away with updates that directly influence your deals, actionable guidance for leading effective cost-containment and management conversations with clients, a demo of the new CX AI Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator to help illustrate client cost structures, and introductions to new additions in our vendor portfolio.
Register for the webinar today.
Special Forces 2025 Recordings: Watch keynotes from Ian Kieninger, Drew Lydecker, and our special guest speaker, along with all Main Stage sessions from this year’s Special Forces Summit, now available on Pathfinder! Dive into the channel’s biggest trends, where the industry is headed over the next decade, peer success stories, and insights from channel executive speakers. Explore deep-dive content on CX, AI, Security, and AVANT’s Pathfinder platform.
Log into Pathfinder and navigate to AVANT Academy today to start watching!
Pathfinder Updates
Updated Managed Public Cloud Matrices for AWS, Azure, and GCP: Developed by Dane Menke, David Bjerke, and Niko O’Hara, the Managed Public Cloud Matrices provide a structured comparison of the three leading Public Cloud platforms across critical technical and operational dimensions. These matrices help Trusted Advisors guide clients in configuring and maintaining their Public Cloud environments with confidence, covering areas such as security, backup, DevOps, and more.
New Vendors
Exabeam
Solution Type: Security
Geographic Coverage: United States
What does Exabeam offer? Exabeam is a global cybersecurity leader, powering security operations for the world’s smartest companies. It delivers intelligent, industry-proven, and highly flexible security solutions that enable faster, more accurate threat detection, investigation, and response (TDIR).
Key Differentiators:
- Rapid behavioral analytics powered by AI and machine learning to help detect and remediate threats within minutes
- Significant cost savings through baselining normal behavior to identify abnormalities
- Real security outcomes through large-scale data analysis and correlation
What kind of client is best fit for this provider?
Exabeam’s solutions are best-suited for organizations in highly regulated or high-risk sectors such as financial services, government, healthcare, higher education, manufacturing, and transportation.
Learn more about Exabeam here.
Tellennium
Solution Type: Connectivity
Geographic Coverage: United States
What does Tellennium offer? Tellennium delivers over 25 years of expertise in enterprise expense and asset management. Its Management of Things® (MoT®) platform provides intelligent procure-to-pay automation, giving organizations real-time visibility and control over complex expenses across telecom, mobility, cloud, utilities, waste, and IT services.
Key Differentiators:
- Management of Things® (MoT®): centralized proprietary expense and asset management platform
- In-house operational support ensuring data security and regulatory compliance
- No-late-payment-fee guarantee
- Seamless ServiceNow certified integration
What kind of client is best fit for this provider?
Tellennium’s solutions are best-suited for multi-location enterprises spending $5M–$100M+ annually that need centralized control, cost savings, and financial transparency across telecom, technology, and utility expenses.
Learn more about Tellennium here.
Explore our full vendor portfolio including their offerings and key differentiators by logging into Pathfinder today!
Win Wire with Chip Hoisington
The Breakdown
- Technology Category: Large bandwidth connectivity
- Solution: Connectivity
- Customer Type: Technology – AI
- Industry Type: Food retail
- Size and Scope: Multiple 100-gigabit point-to-point connections
- MRR: $145K
- Winning provider: Telstra
- Competitors: Zayo, Arelion, Lumen, Tata
The Details
What were the drivers for the client?
The client was looking to launch a large-scale AI initiative that required significant bandwidth and high reliability, which drove the need for multiple 100-Gigabit point-to-point connections.
How did the Trusted Advisor close the deal?
The Trusted Advisor closed the deal through seamless teamwork with the Channel team and the Sales Engineers. Together, the team delivered the detailed Keyhole Markup Language Zipped (KMZ) route maps, latency tables, and diversity assurances the client required before they would move forward.
How did AVANT support the win?
AVANT played a key role by identifying the providers capable of meeting the client’s strict diversity, bandwidth, and latency requirements, and by managing extensive back-and-forth to ensure every detail was validated. AVANT Channel Manager Annie Dempsey, along with the Sales Engineering team, provided hands-on support to the Trusted Advisor to help drive the deal to completion.
Trusted Advisor Testimonials
What are your peers saying about their experience working with AVANT Sales Engineers?
“Don’t have to wait an age for the resource to support on opportunities. The engineers are presentable in front of prospects & clients plus they demonstrate useful knowledge to increase our chances of securing the engagement & winning business.” – James Connors, Quetzel Ltd
“AVANT’s technology portfolio is absolutely incredible. Combine that with the technical knowledge of the team and it’s game changing!” – Jack Hunter, Softcat
Engineering Spotlight
This month, we’re spotlighting Peter Callowhill, Field Sales Engineer & Director, with a focus on WAN and Colo.
Peter has more than 25 years experience with specialties in Connectivity, Colo, Mobility, and Telecom Expense Management. Before AVANT, Peter founded a CLEC (carrier) and TEM provider.
Here’s a bit more about Peter, in his own words!
Tell us about something you do for AVANT that Trusted Advisors may not know.
Each quarter, I provide a template with questions to several top data center providers. The providers are asked to send data that reflects the power capacities they have (or will have) that are 1MW or greater for the next two years. In addition to identifying the markets that have this capacity, they are asked to designate other core information such as those that have liquid cooling or any other key data. This allows us to continue refining our agnostic vendor recommendations by leveraging up-to-date information and aligning it with customers’ needs.
Where are you located?
Mill Valley, CA
What’s the best advice you have ever received?
Do not bet against my wife. For many years (really decades), I have always been convinced that I know the correct answer on a variety of topics. I have been a very slow learner and rarely am right (about anything). When we were dating, I once lost a bet that cost me the use of my brand new car for a full month while I had to drive her older one.
What invention do you wish existed to make your life easier?
It already has been – AI. I am fascinated by the depth and breadth of topics that I can ask and receive comprehensive and on-point responses. It is amazing to consider and/or imagine where this technology will lead us as a civilization. It may become my secret source to win future bets with my wife
Ready to level up your sales game with expert guidance? Our Engineers have your back and are available for you to bring them into your opportunities! Connect with them and get started by filling out an IQA on Pathfinder!