Solution Heroes: Sara Jones on Why Human Connection Still Wins

In our latest Solution Heroes interview, I had the privilege of sitting down with Sara Jones, Global VP of Solutions at Sitecore. What struck me most wasn’t just Sara’s impressive background — spanning more than 20 years across SAP, Zendesk, and global leadership roles — but her refreshing perspective on what really moves the needle in Solutions Engineering today. 

Why? Because she’s seen firsthand how grabbing coffee with a customer, or picking up on an office cue you would have missed on Zoom, sparks deeper conversations and trust. After years of remote work, getting her teams back together has re-energized their collaboration and confidence.

Sara shared how her first team summit since pre-COVID revealed team dynamics that had been completely invisible on video calls. The energy was better, with improved communication, smoother handoffs, and strengthened customer relationships.

Beyond Features: Teaching SEs to Speak Business

One thing that Sara is passionate about is developing business acumen across her organization. According to her, the days of the purely technical Solutions Engineer (SEs) are behind us and features alone don’t win deals. Today’s SEs need to connect their product narratives to real business outcomes, financial impacts, and strategic metrics. This kind of storytelling takes preparation — it creates clarity for buyers, and credibility for SEs.

Sara takes a streamlined approach to this challenge. Rather than a lengthy training program, she uses Sitecore’s industry value team to provide vertical-specific context, and external tools like ChatGPT to help her team quickly research industry trends.

The goal isn’t just to make SEs sound smarter, it’s to build genuine credibility with everyone they encounter, from Marketing leaders to financial decision-makers. 

From Support Role to Strategic Partner

Perhaps the most significant shift Sara is driving is to elevate the SE role from technical support to strategic partner. Her team doesn’t just show up for demos; they’re actively involved in deal strategy by shaping win themes, reinforcing business cases, and playing a hands-on role in internal enablement.

This transformation comes with measurement challenges, and Sara’s approach is brilliantly balanced. She pairs objective KPIs (influenced pipeline, reduced time-to-close) with qualitative signals like feedback from Account Executives and customer testimonials.This dual approach helps surface the full value SEs bring to the business.

The Right Work at the Right Time

To scale the impact of her team, Sara invested in a Demo Engineering team that takes manual prep work off her SEs’ plates. This frees her team up to focus on the moments where SEs do their best work: discovery, alignment, and deal orchestration.

Rather than spending hours customizing demo environments, SEs spend more time guiding customers through real business outcomes and collaborating on strategy with Sales.

How SEs Contribute to Retention

Sitecore’s Solutions team is integrated across the full customer journey. SEs don’t fade into the background once a deal is signed. Instead, they stay engaged with account teams to deepen relationships, introduce new capabilities, and maintain continuity.

That consistency is paying off. Instead of rushing to save accounts at renewal time, the team builds trust continuously, so when renewal comes around, it’s a non-event. And when competitors come knocking, the connection is strong enough to hold.

Key Takeaways

• Face-to-face matters: Nothing builds trust faster than showing up in person
• Business storytelling is a differentiator: SEs win by connecting Product to real business outcomes
• Measurement needs depth: Track both performance data and reputation signals
• Strategic demo support unlocks SE focus: Offload prep so SEs can drive high-value work

Want to see the full Solution Heroes interview? Watch the video here.