what is presales

Pre-sales Workshop

Contents

Presales Process Overview1

Roles & Responsibilities2

Writing a Winning Proposal3

A Generic Framework5

Post-RFP stage4

What is presales

A set of activities normally carried out before a customer is acquired

A typical sales cycles Suspect Prospect/Opportunity Lead

Presales involvement in these phases differs from situation to situation

What is Presales

Happens along with a sales person before a sale closes

It is sales support It is also about being a technical and business consultant

A Typical Sales Process

Product Knowledge ProspectingApproachNeeds AssessmentCustomer PresentationSales CloseFollow-up

Presales Involvement

Product Knowledge ProspectingApproachNeeds AssessmentCustomer PresentationSales CloseFollow-up

What is not presales

Searching for new suspects, prospects or leads

Qualifying prospects Deciding and planning to approach

prospects Negotiating with customer in closing

a deal

What is not presales

Developing relationship with customers

Calling for a meeting with the customer

Deciding the price of a deal Collecting feedback from the

customer

Presales in IT

Companies looking for vendors to implement software solutions call for proposals

Support for Sales in closing a deal Many times a technical and business

consultant for the potential customer Crucial link between Sales, Customer

and Delivery Needs a blend of technical, business

and soft skills

Presales in IT

Needs to work having the ‘big picture’ in mind – winning the deal for the company as well as customer delight

Presales role could be specific to account, territory, technologies and partners

Plays an important role in making proposals for RFPs and RFIs

Why Presales

Increasing complexity in customer’s business requirements in terms of variety in technology, number of components or modules, security and infrastructure needs

Customer delight is more than matching customer needs with a right technical solution. Customers expect vendors to partner with them in meeting their evolving business needs

Why Presales

Bidding process is a complex and a very formal one, with strict adherence to procedures and timelines

Bidding process involves intelligent negotiation on price, scope of work, schedule and other contract requirements

Therefore is too important to be done without committed and dedicated professionals

Without Presales

Making proposals may either end-up with delivery heads or worse, with sales

Sales will not have the depth of technical knowledge to provide a solution

Delivery heads may not have skills to match customer’s business needs with the right technical solution

Both the teams could be short on bandwidth to take full responsibility

Place of Presales

PresalesCustomer

Sales

Services

Presales in career growth

A great opportunity to know up close the market and the business of software, and what ‘sells’

Opportunity to get a systemic view of many things that makes up an organization and it’s business

Opportunity to get to know different cross-sections of customer and technology solutions

Presales in career growth

People with a technical background can add lot of value by bringing in their experience and thereby benefit from it

Working in presales can also be seen as a choice for shifting to management career path

Opportunity to learn a variety of skills including client liaison, managing cross-functional teams, leadership, consulting skills

Presales in career growth

In larger organizations, presales gives a very good opportunity to network with all the right people

Since presales is demanding on both technical and business knowledge and management skills, it’s the right place for a challenging job

Presales is different

Any specific sales engagement is temporary

therefore the corresponding sales-presales engagement is also temporary

The same is true for the other cascading engagements between presales and others down the line

The engagement on an average lasts for about a month – from the start of the RFP to the end of the RFP

Place of presale

Where does a presale person belong to Practices Center of Excellence or Technologies Accounts Territory Partners Sales Sometimes from the project itself

Common Attitude and PerceptionsI am on bench. So they picked me up

to do this job…This is mainly a ‘cut-copy-paste’ job.

Why do they need me ?In any case, winning depends entirely

on the sales team and the top management…

After all, I am a technical person… I don’t know or want to be a sales person

I don’t see the results immediately, it usually takes months before I hear…

Common Attitude and Perceptions

We are non-billable resources. Obviously we don’t get enough resources to do the job

I am not trained for this job…There’s just not enough and right

information around to write this proposal…

There’s hardly enough time to do this work… Why can’t they inform me much ahead ?

How do I grow in my career in this path ?

Common Problems

Presales work is not assigned the right resources

Not enough training is givenPresales work needs many temporary

resources and therefore gets less commitment

People who are on bench are assigned

Proposal can have too many technical components and therefore may need involvement of many people

Common Problems

May face ownership problemsDemanding on technical, business

and soft skills all at onceEvery RFP response ‘suffers’ from

extreme time constraints

Presales Process

Winning a Deal

Opening Game

• Market Analysis• Strategic Planning• Account Planning• Branding

Middle Game

• Account Management• Relationship Management• Opportunity Management• Pursuit Management

End Game • Proposal Management• Presentation• Negotiation

Mark

et

Clie

nt

Deal

• RFP Issue• Pre-Bid

Conference• Clarifications

on RFP• Modifications

to RFP• Identify

resources to work on RFP

• Finalise reqmts

• Shortlist vendors

• Finalise Evaluation Criteria

• Finalise Budget

• Customer presentation by vendor

• Prepare Proposal according to RFP guidelines

Pre-RFP RFP Proposal Post-RFP

• Customer Visits

• Demo of Capabilities

• Presentation• Evaluation

Presales Stages

Presales Stages

Roles Customer Sales person Presales person Finance Solution Architect Domain Expert Technical Consultant Account Manager

www.themegallery.com

• Finalise reqmts• Shortlist vendors• Finalise Evaluation Criteria• Finalise Budget

• Issue RFP• Arrange pre-bid conference• Provide clarifications

• Receive proposal • Request for site visit and/or demo• Evaluate and finalize vendor

• Make customer presentation showcasing services, products and strengths

• Receive RFP• Seek clarification on RFP• Get commitment from internal resources• Keep mgmt informed

• Assist presales with inputs from customer and about customer• Add commercials to the proposal

• Arrange for Customer visit• Arrange for demo and presentation

• Provide inputs as needed

• Receive RFP• Identify resources to work on RFP• Form cross-functional team• Seek clarifications

• prepare proposal by working with cross-functional teams or by taking inputs from them

• Assist sales in customer visit, demo and presentation

• Provide inputs as needed (case studies, testimonials)

• Provide inputs as needed (questions to customers on business needs, technical specs, etc)

• Provide inputs as needed (technical solutions, relevant case studies, etc)

• Provide inputs as needed (inputs for demo)

Del

iver

y

Sal

esP

resa

les

Cus

tom

er

Pre-RFP RFP Proposal Post-RFP

Presales Stages

Information Flow

Customer

Sales

Pre sales

Delivery

• Business Reqmts

• Technical Reqmts

• Constraints• Evaluation

Criteria• RFP• Clarifications

• Provide infn on products, services

• present success stories

• seek further infn on customer

• RFP• Infn on

customer constraints, preferences, priorities

• Competitor infn

• RFP Clarifications

• questions on RFP

• questions on customer

• status update

• Response to RFP

• questions on business and technical reqmts

• questions on customer constraints,

Evaluation Criteria• assumptions,

customer problems, etc

• seek to understand business and technical reqmts to form a solution

• seek to • understand solution provided

Discussion

Use the IFD to discuss about The gaps in information flow The inefficiencies What kind of information loss happens Identify areas of potential risks The choice of medium and its suitability

Session 1 -Summary

What did we learn

Questions