February Sales Engineering Braintrust

The February Sales Engineering Braintrust is back with fresh insights to keep your momentum strong. This edition is packed with engineering highlights from recent events, new vendor additions, peer perspectives, and practical takeaways you can put to work right away. Let’s dive into what’s shaping smarter sales strategies and stronger outcomes this month!

Here’s what’s featured:

• Sales Engineering Updates

• Pathfinder Updates

• New Vendors
  

• Trusted Advisor Testimonials

• Engineering Spotlight

Sales Engineering Updates

Train with AVANT Sales Engineers: Want to become an indispensable Trusted Advisor? Staying ahead of industry trends, deepening your technical expertise, and sharpening your sales strategy all matter—and our Engineering team is here to help. Explore the 2026 events calendar and learn directly from AVANT Sales Engineers through engaging, hands-on training focused on key technologies, sales conversations, and evolving solutions. Download the full calendar to keep learning, and level up all year long.

Q1 Inside Track Webinar: Join us on February 25, 12 PM CT, for our first Inside Track vendor webinar of 2026! Shane McNamara, along with practice leads Stephen Semmelroth, Chip Hoisington, and Andrew Pryfogle, will break down the biggest technology trends and success stories from 2025, as well as what to watch for in 2026. Learn how you can stay ahead of the biggest disruptions in the tech space, emerging solutions, and focus areas—so you can bring deeper insights, stronger guidance, and real value to every engagement. Register for the webinar today.

Q4 Inside Track Webinar Recording: Missed the Q4 Inside Track vendor webinar? The recording is now live on Pathfinder! During the call, we walked through the latest vendor updates from Q4 of 2025, cost containment strategies and client conversation starters, new CX AI tools to support cost management, and introductions from our newest vendor additions—Blue Mantis, LevelBlue, and Telesystem. Log into Pathfinder and head to AVANT Academy to watch the recording today!

Pathfinder Updates 

New CX AI IQA: The new CX AI IQA, designed by John Paullin, helps Trusted Advisors evaluate and identify the right CX AI solutions for their clients’ contact centers. By guiding TAs through key questions and an optional self-assessment, it clarifies customer gaps, priorities, and goals—so they can build a more effective CX AI strategy and help their clients deliver faster, smarter customer experiences through better self-service, AI-powered agent support, and deeper customer insights. Log into Pathfinder to fill out the CX AI IQA today.

New Vendors

SVT

Solution Type: UCaaS

Geographic Coverage: United States

What does SVT offer? SVT brings over 70 years of experience in collaboration and AV installation and integration. Through its Pro-Tech Management offering, SVT provides 24/7 proactive support to manage and maintain collaboration and AV environments—covering everything from initial installation through future upgrades or deployments.

Key Differentiators: 

• Delivers an end-to-end partnership through system design, deployment, and ongoing optimization
• Offers hardware-agnostic compatibility across all major AV and UC platforms
• Goes beyond basic monitoring to provide actionable business intelligence
• Combines proactive system health management with real-world room utilization insights
• Provides a scalable service model that supports environments from 5 rooms to 500

What kind of client is best fit for this provider?

Organizations with 10+ conference rooms or collaboration spaces that want to:

• Move from reactive break/fix support to proactive, data-driven AV/UC management
• Gain clear visibility into room usage, ghost meetings, and technology performance
• Reduce downtime, travel costs, and support tickets through remote monitoring and automation
• Standardize AV/UC experiences across multiple sites or campuses
• Equip IT and Facilities teams with real-time analytics and predictive insights for smarter decision-making

 Learn more about SVT here. 

Explore our full vendor portfolio including their offerings and key differentiators by logging into Pathfinder today!

Trusted Advisor Testimonials

What are your peers saying about their experience working with AVANT Sales Engineers? 

“I have had the pleasure of engaging with AVANT’s Engineering team at multiple levels. To review a customer’s IQA, to proactively prepare for a customer solution, and importantly as an extension of our team and the direct customer call. We feel very fortunate to have an extremely well-versed team supporting our process and our customer journeys.” – Alex Toschi, Solution Interface

“Great support, team, and tools that make us look like pros to our customers!” – Josh Lawless, Conectrix

Engineering Spotlight

This month, we’re spotlighting John Paullin, Director of Sales Engineering, CX AI.

John has 14 years of industry experience in UCaaS, CCaaS, SD-WAN and conferencing/collaboration. He’s held previous roles as a Solutions Engineer at Stratosphere Networks, as well as a Sales Engineer and Web Collaboration Specialist with InterCall.

Here’s a bit more about John, in his own words!

Tell us about something you do for AVANT that Trusted Advisors may not know.  

I wear many hats at AVANT. I specialize in architecting strategies and solutions for our Trusted Advisors’ most complex UC, CCaaS, and CX AI opportunities. I guide partners and their clients in selecting the optimal vendors and technologies to solve their critical communication challenges.

In addition to deal support, I oversee the development and maintenance of our core enablement resources. This includes our dynamic matrices, technology assessments (IQAs), and training content, ensuring our partners are equipped with the best tools and knowledge in the industry. I like to keep busy!

Where are you located?

Chagrin Falls, OH (suburb of Cleveland)

What invention do you wish existed to make your life easier?

Teleportation. I enjoy traveling (for work and pleasure), but even plane travel takes too long! I am not optimistic I will see teleportation in my lifetime, so thankfully there are podcasts and other streaming media to fill the time. Oh, and of course, answering our Trusted Advisors’ emails while en route! 🙂

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Strong relationships start with strong listening. I believe that being adaptable in how you communicate and staying aware of the dynamics around you is essential for building trust and rapport, whether you’re working with colleagues, clients, or anyone else. When you truly listen and stay attuned to the people around you, building meaningful connections becomes natural.

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!