Presales

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presales

Presales is a process or a set of activities normally carried out before a customer is acquired, though sometimes presales also extends into the period the product or service is delivered to the customer.

Responsibilities
In a typical sales cycle the stages are: 1. Contact. 2. Lead / Suspect. 3. Prospect / Opportunity. The task of a presales person starts from the initial contact phase and often ends once the customer is acquired i.e. sale is made. In some cases, presales also provide some initial or transitional support post sale. The responsibilities differ from organization to organization but in general include: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Solution Preparation/Proposal based on Customers Requirements Product demonstrations Proof of Concept Creation Creation of Marketing Documents ... and any other activity required to generate business

The Software Industry and IT Services Industry provide a vital and significant role for presales professionals. The role of presales falls right in the middle marrying the customer needs to the (provider) company's services or products. This role is especially crucial in these industries because the products and services are often heavily customizable and also because the requirements of different customers are often unique. The presales professional thus understands what the customer needs, develops an initial view of the solution the customer needs, then tailors the product or service of his company to meet what the customer needs, explains (or helps sell) this solution to the customer, helps close the deal or sale and often stays on to ensure that the delivery team or product specialists that follow him provide the intended solution. In Canada and the United States, real estate properties that are sold before construction or before construction is completed are referred to as Presales. These properties are known as off plan properties in the UK and Australia.

Day in Life of - IT Services Pre Sales Manager

UT Career Desk, [ Thursday, Mar 24, 2008
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The most important element of the sales function is the sales persons time. Greater the number of hours a sales person spends on customer focused activities and initiatives, greater is the prospect of generating increased sales and thereby revenues. Assisting a sales person clock greater productive hours is one of the primary and most important elements of a pre sales function. It is with this aim in mind, that I start a typical day in my life as a pre sales manager of a top Indian IT services firm. I chose this role, with an intention to move into the business development focused initiatives in my career. Having spent close to half a decade in the delivery or software development space and subsequently armed with a management degree, I find myself having just the right blend of skills needed for such a profile. Couple of certifications in the financial domain have helped me bring in the crucial functional aspect needed in my role. My day usually begins at around 9-00 AM with checking up on my mails over the previous day. Being at offshore in Bangalore, I usually receive a plethora of mails from multiple sales guys based at various customer geographies. Majority of the mails relate to various RFIs (request for information) and RFPs (request for proposal) in various stages of their lifetimes. As pre sales manager, I am the focal point in the sales life cycle leading a team of 10 pre sales consultants. I take the ownership of successful delivery of all sales related deliverables, which include various collateral, responses to RFIs/RFPs etc. We have two new RFPs, I see, as I scan my mails apart from few requests for collaterals from various sales person. I assign the RFPs to the appropriate team members whod take them to closure. The collaterals deal with providing insights of our capabilities and experiences in relevant areas of customers business. These would be handled by various other members of my team. At 10-00 AM, I participate in the review of an RFP. Collating inputs from various teams such the legal, HR, Finance and most importantly the teams from the delivery/development and business analysts, the RFP is finally in shape to be shipped to the content writers and graphics teams. All our RFPs undergo a round of review by the content writers who polish the language of the document to conform to professional business standards. They then undergo an upheaval or transformation of sorts under the graphics team which ensures that the document looks appealing to its audience, before being shipped out to the sales person for submissions. By 10-30 AM, I am back at my desk to plan for an upcoming customer visit. The visit, which would involve the CIO of one of our customers, is crucial and would involve senior management from our side as well. I review the agenda of the visit along with another of my team member, ironing out certain loopholes. This is the fourth visit in as many weeks this month. Ensuring participation of appropriate members from different functions from our side in the visit to meet the objectives is crucial. We pore through the expectations of the customers CIO as communicated by the sales, to decide on the relevant participation. The visit is four days down the lane, by when we would have the presentations of the various participants ready for the sessions. A visit sometimes can make or break months of prior efforts and therefore deserve the necessary attention and bandwidth from all concerned. The visit planning takes about an hour of my time. After grabbing a quick cup of coffee, I head into a training session on the best way to handle responses to customer proposals which lasts until lunch.

Post lunch, I closet myself with few of my key team members to plan for sales strategy in various accounts that we own. As a pre sales team supporting the front ending sales persons, we have aligned ourselves into a structure similar to the sales, with members owning accounts mapped to sales persons. Each account owner within my team is responsible for mining the account helping the sales person achieve his targets. This is achieved through account maps which are our capabilities mapped to the customers lines of business along with relevant case studies to help direct the sales persons to the right people with right content. Today, we take stock of the status of the various initiatives within different accounts and relevant collaterals that need to be sent out. Through these pro-active initiatives we help sales persons save time by a considerable amount and more importantly expand our sales offerings. Moreover, since most of presales consultants graduate to business development managers in the organization, these activities ensure the right mindset right from the onset. Some of our strategic initiatives are driven from a business unit or the organization level perspective. These include planning for increasing our brand recall through participation in industry forums/events, creation and publication of advertisements in various business journals such as the WSJ or the Bloombergs of the world, profiling of companies for potential alliances/partnerships/M&As, entry strategies for various new geographies in which we dont have presence and man y more. By now its almost 4-00 PM in the evening, and time for me to get into a meeting with a senior product manager within the organization to help shape the strategy and approach for the sale of a new product that we have developed. This involves considering all aspects of positioning the product in the market from a branding, launch and sales perspective. Finishing off with the meeting, I head back to my office for a couple of interviews of the interns that we plan to hire for the summer sessions. We usually have interns joining us from various business schools in the country every year. Internships are instrumental to establish our brand in the various campuses where we go for recruitments and also help us in identifying the right personnel that we could hire. By the time the interview finishes, its the fag end of the day, the time I usually reserve for an hour in the gym. Keeping track of multiple tracks with multiple deliverables and interacting with multiple people every day takes its own toll. Keeping myself fit through such regular workouts helps me come back daily with renewed vigor and focus.

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Pre-sales Job Description

By David Ingram, eHow Contributor

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Pre-sales employees work closely with potential customers

Pre-sales activities are a vital element in the sales process for companies offering highly customized, technical, or expensive products or services. Pre-sales employees assist customers in making informed decisions requiring a large investment, such as information technology infrastructure, security systems or financial services.
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Pre-Sales Consultant Job Description

How to Become a Presales Person

1. Requirements
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Pre-sales can be a highly technical career requiring extensive and specialized knowledge of the company's products, customers and competitors. Due to the nature of the job, most pre-sales positions require indepth experience and a proven record of success in sales. A bachelor's degree is generally required as well, in a field relevant to the specific company. A pre-sales position in a financial services firm, for example, may require a business or finance degree, while a position in a software services firm may require a computer science or engineering degree.

Product Demonstration And Customer Service

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The main responsibilities of pre-sales employees revolve around creating awareness of the company's products, and working closely with potential customers to determine how the company can best serve their unique needs. Customer service elements of the job include detailed, upfront phone support, personal product demonstrations, onsite audits of potential customers' current solutions, responding to requests for information or pricing and preparing sales package proposals. Apart from personal customer service, pre-sales employees are also responsible for creating a deeper product awareness in the marketplace than that achieved by the marketing department. Marketing responsibilities include performing demonstrations at trade shows and other events, publishing white papers and creating highly technical sales literature

Internal Coordination
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Pre-sales personnel must maintain open communication with the product development and marketing departments. These departments must continually apprise pre-sales employees on new or planned products, features, technical issues, advertising campaigns and promotions. In return, pre-sales personnel must continually inform product development and marketing personnel about evolving customer preferences, complaints and needs, in addition to the status of competitors' efforts and trends in the overall industry and marketplace.

Post-Sale Service
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Although pre-sales positions are generally concerned with serving customers before the sale, these positions can include post-sales support as well. During the pre-sales process, customers will establish a professional relationship with a presales employee, and will build a measure of trust in the salesperson. As a result, it is often natural for these customers to call the pre-sales agent, whose contact information they have likely saved, in the event of a post sale service need. Presales employees must attempt to solve customer issues effectively and reliably, but more technical and labor intensive issues can usually be forwarded to the customer support department.

Potential
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Sales departments contribute significantly to the success of any business, and a sales position can be an excellent starting point for an executive career path. There are often several layers of management through which an entry level presales employee can progress, eventually leading up to a position as Chief Executive Officer, Sales Director or Chief Operating Officer.

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