The Importance of Presales Professionals (aka Pre-Sales Engineers)

Last week, my post focused on the critical need for a well defined and executed sales operations role. Staying with the theme of the holistic elements to a successful sales team, let’s take a look at the technical folks we bring into the sales arena. Historically, we referred to them as Pre-Sales Engineers, Pre-Sales Technical or just Pre-Sales for short. A more common name nowadays for the critical role is a Solution Architect.  

In fact, they typically are neither engineers nor architects at all. In Ontario, Canada it is against the law to use the term Engineer or Engineering or Professional Engineer in a title, without the credentials of having completed the degree that awards you the “P. Eng” suffix to your name. I would imagine that the same would be the case for the use of Architect in any formal manner. For the most part, it is used informally as an adjective to describe their role as a technical part of the sales team. 

Let’s just call them Presales.  

Individually, they rarely have direct responsibility to manage the entire sales cycle with any given client. However, in the best cases, presales are not only responsible for the conducting of the technical validation phase, but are also individually rewarded and compensated for the successful closure of the business when they were involved in the deal. Champions of this role are savvy in both the technical and business challenges faced by the prospective customer. Presales needs to be able to engage the customer to consider a new approach to resolving their business needs. In some cases, the presales needs to be able to humble the prospect into accepting that this vendor in general and the presales in particular is more of a subject matter expert in this area than they are. To gain the confidence of the prospect that the presales are adding value, they need to come into the conversation at a level that offers additional technical or line-of-business insight, without losing sight of the business needs, and ultimately, the business impact that their solution can bring. 

How should you try to fill this role in early stage startups? 

Firstly, don’t ignore it. Sales executives work best when they are focused on advancing the buyer to proceed progressively through the sales cycle, step-by-step. If they are taken down into a technical place where the customer is unable to trust that they are going to learn anything, then the sales cycle becomes controlled by the prospect, and to their own detriment. The engagement will often get reduced to the prospects getting the vendor to provide all the information that the prospect has assessed are the deciding factors, and that often looks like a spreadsheet comparing vendors and who has all the boxes checked, and what is their price. Often overlooked in this approach is the value of one solution over the other. Which vendor really appreciated the prospect’s challenges best, and which have resolved them best? 

Secondly, dedicate someone. What often happens is that the presales function in early stage startups is handled by support, or client success, and all too often, nobody in particular. Even if the technical skills are there, it is unlikely that the people you hired for support will have the presentation or communication skills to enter the discussion and challenge whatever assumptions the prospect already has about how to address their needs. 

Your young and growing sales organisation needs to be able to work closely together. When they are fighting for resources and the support team has other primary challenges, it puts the sales team into a situation that they will try to resolve as much as possible without relying on a part-time resource to take the conversation to another level. Perhaps even worse, the sales executive will try to become that technical resource him/herself. Even if it is possible, it is not a good idea. The sales executive should not be expected to focus on technical questions. The sales executive needs to refer them to an expert (the presales resource) in order to keep the business discussion going on and in parallel. 

So, to summarize - a presales resource should be:

• Dedicated to presales, at least as part of their official functions and identified as such to your sales organisation. 

• Qualified to have both a technical and business discussion with the prospect. 

• Have strong presentation & communication skills. 

• Compensated for and therefore focused on winning the opportunities they are engaged in. 

In my years in sales and sales leadership in startups in Israel, I am pleased to have seen this in action in many successful organisations. Some notable to mention here are Panaya, WalkMe and FraudSciences (acquired by PayPal). In the comments below, let’s give a shoutout to the great presales professionals out there. They often do not get the recognition they deserve. 

Are there any other key takeaways you have from the organisations and presales champions you have worked with?