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.
Areas of specialty of Presales include:
1.Discovery – a means to uncover details of business problems that the prospect has. The presales person will understand and closely analyse the prospects requirements.
2.Preparation - Tailoring a prospect specific presentation or software presentation that precisely meets the needs of the prospect.
3.Demonstration- A demonstration of the vendor product that specifically addresses the prospects business problems. It will be done in a manner that highlights an easy method to solve those problems using the tools available within the vendors suite of product.
4.Request for Proposal (RFP) - presales have a detailed knowledge of the product suite, in addition to its application to business problems. As such, presales are frequently involved in technical details in RFP preparation.
5.Marketing assistance - Marketing assistance Typically the marketing department and presales department align closely. Given presales is directly in touch with the market, they can share market feedback with the marketing team. Presales will often create the technical detail for use in marketing collateral.
