Adil Dittmer

Manta

I help organizations understand their data to make better decisions and measure their impact. 

As part of Equal Opportunity Ventures, we believe helping organizations learn and apply data science will unlock economic opportunity and close opportunity gaps across America.

Head of Customer Success

Success in Black

Success in Black is a community platform promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion while elevating Black Customer Success professionals to help them advance their careers.

Founding Team - Content Editor

NCAA

NCAAW Basketball Referee

TestBox

TestBox gives your customers reliable, personalized, AI-generated product demos and instant sandboxes so they can quickly get a hands-on experience with your products solutions

Tropic

Director of Customer Experience

Director of Customer Success

Senior Customer Success Manager

On Deck

On Deck Customer Success (ODCS) is a continuous community for senior CS leaders and operators.

On Deck Customer Success - Founding Fellow

Signal Vine, a Modern Campus Company

FY '20 - 124% NRR (#1 Team Attainment)
FY '19 - 109% NRR

Account Manager

Customer Success Manager

Inside Higher Ed

Account Development Representative, Careers Platform

Phi Gamma Delta

Change Management Consultant/Field Secretary

Virginia Tech

Supervisor, Recreational Sports Intramurals

Experienced Customer Success leader focused on providing strategic value for software companies. My professional interests include leadership theory, revenue growth, fundraising, start-ups, and building community through my work.

CS Consultant

Allma provides a suite of tools that allow companies to seamlessly manage and deploy AI to their employees to ensure consistent and optimal use of AI templates to help accomplish their daily tasks. The Allma platform offers companies the power to save, refine, and collaboratively employ AI templates across their teams.

Preparing CROs & CEOs for the future of B2B SaaS | GTMshift | CRO Functional Head @ Pavilion | Former CRO | Co-Founder @ PreSales Collective (Acquired) | Breaking The GTM Playbook |

I’ve always been fascinated by what makes a great customer experience—not just good, but truly memorable. My interest piqued while working in hospitality at Hyatt, where I learned how small details could turn a routine interaction into something special. 

That same obsession led me to tech, where I learned to scale exceptional experiences across sales and GTM teams at Showpad and Salesforce.

Then in 2020, I saw an even bigger opportunity—the need for a real community in PreSales. So I built one.

The PreSales Collective started as a simple idea and grew into a global movement with 35,000+ members, four business lines, and a full-time team dedicated to elevating the profession. In 2021, it was acquired, a milestone that cemented just how powerful community can be in shaping an industry.

Now, at TestBox, I’m taking that same passion for innovation and connection and applying it to how businesses evaluate software. The B2B buying experience is broken: endless sales cycles, generic demos, and a lack of real hands-on experience before making a decision. TestBox is changing that by enabling buyers to test-drive software in live, pre-configured environments before they buy, leading to better, faster, and more confident decisions. 

We’re redefining the way companies purchase technology, making the process easier, more transparent, and built for today’s fast-moving GTM teams.

Outside of work, you’ll find me traveling, hunting for the best new restaurant, or diving into a new challenge—whether it’s fitness, an unfamiliar experience, or a tough problem that needs solving. I believe the best insights come from staying curious and never getting too comfortable, and that’s how I approach everything I do.

James Kaikis

If I had to lead or build a Solutions Engineering startup team, here's the EXACT roadmap I would follow.

I've spent 10 years building and scaling SE teams. 

And I've learned that what separates great teams from mediocre ones isn't talent, it's the foundation you build from day one.

Most leaders get this wrong. 

They take too long to hire, onboard slowly, and never develop a strong bench. They react instead of lead.

Here's the step-by-step roadmap:

Phase 1: Listening Tour
Start by listening - to your solutions team, sales org, marketing, customer success, product, and engineering.
Understand what the org is known for. Where do SEs add value? Where do people wish they had more SE support? Where are the bottlenecks? (Because there always are.)
You need to know who you are and who you aren't. Identify your top talent and the people who get shit done.

Phase 2: Build a Culture of Innovation 
Challenge the status quo. Start thinking about where you can change things.
I have a saying: I micromanage process, not people.
This is where you add new processes to improve efficiency. Create a culture of innovation and calculated risk-taking. Find early wins to showcase something different.

Phase 3: Bleed Outside Your Box
Where can you make a greater impact on sales? On customer success?
Where and how can you deliver more value beyond your traditional role?
This is how you justify more headcount and comp plan changes, by proving expanded impact.

Phase 4: Measure the Impact
Where and how have you implemented new changes?
How has it impacted sales cycles? Upsells? Expansions?
Measure everything. Use data to prove your value and fund your next phase of growth.

Phase 5: Market Leadership 
Build clear career paths with meaningful enablement.
Want to attract A-players? Show them exactly how they grow from SE → Senior SE → Principal SE → Solutions Leader (if they want to be in leadership).

Make it concrete, not aspirational.

Elevate your team's expertise to keep pace with changing customer expectations. 

Your buyers are smarter and more informed than ever; they want consultative partners who understand their business.

The SE role isn't what it used to be, and neither are customer expectations.
Build with that reality in mind.

What would you add to this roadmap?

(PS - picture of some of the Showpad SE team in 2019 at SKO in New Orleans)

Want to be the Solutions Engineer every Account Executive fights to get on their deals? Or the “AI expert” everyone Slacks when they’re stuck and need a better way?

This December, David Maloof and I are running a 3-day AI-Powered Solutions Engineer workshop for SEs and Solutions Leaders who want to actually put AI to work in their day-to-day.

We’re focused on three outcomes:
- Adopting an AI Mindset: understanding the tools landscape and Prompting 101 (without the hype)
- Research, Discovery & Demo Prep: using AI to do the unglamorous work faster and sharper
- Demo Presentation & Storytelling: turning AI research into clear, compelling customer narratives

If you’re an SE/SC who wants to apply AI to real workflows to get ahead, or a Solutions Leader who wants a clearer playbook for how your team can leverage AI to become more effective, this is for you.

We’re keeping it intentionally small and hands-on.

👉 Grab your spot via the link in the comments.

PS - use your L&D budget for this workshop. If you need a justification letter, let me know.

What separates good GTM teams from elite ones? The speed of their feedback loops. For a CRO, that speed looks like:

- Feedback happens in real time, not at the end of the quarter
- Coaching layered into the next call, not a week later watching game tape
- Messaging and talk tracks are evolving daily, not once a quarter

I’ve been rebuilding the GTMshift narrative lately.
Not in a vacuum, but through fast, low-risk at-bats inside of Avarra.

No need to pressure-test new messaging or positioning in front of a customer; I can pitch Coach Cate using real-life scenarios until the story is sharp.

One thing keeps proving true:
Great teams don’t out-message the competition.
They out-iterate them.

If your team gets one rep a week and your competitors get five, you know who improves faster.

How quickly does feedback reach your reps after a key call?
Hours? Days? Weeks?

When asked what motivates me, it is my achiever mindset. More importantly, it is the desire for significance. 

These are two of my top Gallup Strengths, which I discussed on the Lodestar Podcast with ☁️ Cliff Simon of Polaris Ops. 

As defined by Gallup Strengths, Significance is "a desire to be important, recognized, and to make a lasting impact. Individuals with this theme want to work on meaningful projects that allow them to stand out and achieve goals with a significant, lasting legacy. This drive fuels their independence, professional credibility, and ability to inspire others by highlighting the impact of everyone's work."

So when people ask why do I do what I do? 

Simply to make an impact, as there is nothing that is more professionally fulfilling.

Check out my episode in the comments.

taplio

The Battle

Adil Dittmer

James Kaikis

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taplio

The Battle

Adil Dittmer

James Kaikis

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}James Kaikis's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreJames Kaikis's LinkedIn Performance