24th October 2015

t: #business365sg

So You Want to be a PreSales Architect /

Consultant
K. Mohamed Faizal and Alvin Lau
Microsoft MVP

Please complete the evaluation

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Questions?
1. What is Pre-Sales all about ?
2. Do we need any sales experience?
3. Are there any mandatory learnings
to enter the field?
4. What are the career prospects?

What is Pre-Sales all about ?

Simple answer
is any function
or task that is
performed
before the
actual contract

Account Type

20:5:2:
1

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Is it existing account ?
Do you have coverage?
Is the deal is seeded ?
Do you have any
relationship ?
Is people know who we
are?

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5 rules of Pre-Sales Engineering:

1. Youarea member of the sales team
2. Youare nota salesperson
3. You must beBusiness Relevant
4. You must beTechnically Knowledgeable
5. Knowyour audience

What is Pre-Sales all about ?

1. Pre-sales is all the stuff that happens to develop a sale
2. Initial Contact between the Sales Team and the Technical Expert
3. Fill the gap between the functional and business requirements of the Customer
4. You don't have to be a sales person but you do need to understand sales cycles.
5. You do need to be the "expert" in your field and understand how your product works.
1. Most products these days are not a one size fits all and most successful business are in solution
oriented sales.

6. pre-sales consultant closely tied to the sales team but support them in a technical way.
7. Pre-sales consultants are instrumental in technical sales cycles as they are able to
analyze the customer requirements and assist in developing a proper solution.
8. Pre-sales technical consultant, Job to make sure the solution fits the customer
requirements and will work properly once implemented.

What is Pre-Sales all about ?

1. Pre-sales professional thus needs to understand what
the end customer is looking for, access the Sales
requirement along with the Sales person and work with
the technical team to deliver this requirement in a
document.
2. These solution then need to fit the business objective,
technical objective and financial objective of the client,
3. Which means tailor the proposal 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

What is Pre-Sales all about ?

Pre-Sales is not a role a person can plan to be in from
the start of his career. Its something that one can
'evolve' into after passing a decent time in technical
group, gaining some business acumen and learning
many soft skills like presentations, proposal writing,
communication, influencing etc etc.

Are there any mandatory learnings

to enter the field?
No = No course or Certification required
Yes = You must know the tools & techniques

Tools & Techniques

RFI Request for Information
An open enquiry that spans the market seeking broad data and understanding.

RFQ Request for Quotation

An opportunity for potential suppliers to competitively cost the final chosen solution(s).

RFT Request for Tender

An opportunity for potential suppliers to submit an offer to supply goods or services
against a detailed tender.

RFP Request for Proposal

Sometimes based on a prior RFI; a business requirements-based request for specific
solutions to the sourcing problem.

BQ Budgetary Quotation
ITQ - Invitation To Quote
Bulk Tender Set for a period
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Tools & Techniques

1. Initial visibility in the sales pipeline
2. Initial Contact:
3. The Request for Information (RFI) and Request for
Proposal (RFP)
4. Presentations
5. Demonstrations
6. Face-to-Face Meetings

Tools & Techniques

Initial visibility in the sales pipeline
Sales person will reach out to you for assistance, education,
involvement, or just to discuss the opportunity with you
Sales stage is formally managed through the sales pipeline that can
take the form of a spreadsheet for small companies, or a software
system with processes around it in medium to large companies
Initial Contact:
sales person contacting the prospect and getting them to agree to a
conference call, demo, initial preliminary discussion, or face to face
have observed that a face-to-face meeting this early on is the
exception, but it does happen and more times than you would think

Tools & Techniques

The Request for Information (RFI) and Request for Proposal (RFP)
A Request for Information : is just that, white papers, brochures,
on-line demo, or most of the time, completing a RFI that the
prospect has submitted to your company and most likely others.
Request for Proposal (RFP) which is similar to the Request for
Information, but is much more detailed and inclusive because its
just that, a request for a proposal that you as a company will
have to deliver on. The RFP isnt just a response to questions
about your product, technology, services, functionality,
implementation, security, and support; its a proposal

RFQ - Documents
Company Background

Professional Services

Products Offered

Project Management and Roadmap

Services Offered
The Overall Solution
Showcase Customers

Implementation Methodology
Implementation Estimates

Thought Leadership / Awards / Industry Recognition

Partners

Prospects Overall Requirements

Hosting

Prospect Questions

Support and Maintenance

Architecture

Change Request and Product Features Methodology

Functionality
Standards Complied To
Security
Development Lifecycle

Customer Conferences and Committees

Pricing
Legal

Presentations
You will be required to make presentations on every aspect of your company and its
products, solutions, and services at some time
Presentations and demonstrations, you are center stage in front of a demanding
audience that wants to be educated, entertained, and interacted with.
Sales is about relationships and being able to interact with one or many people in
demanding situations
Keep in mind that the customer will use the presentation as a point of reference in the
future, so major points of interest should be captured, but the details should be
elaborated upon by you.
Remember, the business requirements are most likely driving the meeting and your
presentation should address the business requirements and how your product / solution
can technically address the business requirements.
You will always run into the situation where you dont have enough time to present what
you want to. This requires that you continuously trim your presentation to present only
the salient points of interest to the prospect or that you feel are important enough.

Face-to-Face Meetings
Practice makes perfect and the better you are able
to present your solution and interact with multiple
personalities and show a level of confidence the better
off you will be.
Think of a politician at a press conference. Most of
the time its a professional and cordial event, but
usually there is always that one moment when
someone presents a question, comment, or
objection that can throw you of. You have to be
able to handle it professionally, show your
credibility, and interact in a constructive manner.

Tools & Techniques

All of the steps outlined here require everyone to be at the top of
their game, but demos are that event that require experienced
resources, planning, coordination, and fall back procedures in
case something goes wrong. Too many times the demo is lacking
because prior planning wasnt taken and the lack of coordination
can lead to confusion and the perception or reality that you as a
company are disorganized.

Skills
Technical Knowledge, functional knowledge with some Domain experience
Presales Professional because you need to have technical skills in your
domain of expertise, but also Sales skills and preferably also knowledge in
PM (Project Management) and BM (Bid Management).
It's a very unique set of skills, you have to be technical to understand what
would be the best way to design the solution and with perfect customer
facing skills at the same time. The most difficult bit it to "translate"
customer words into a valid requirement

Skills
During the whole sales-cycle you act as a trusted adviser and interface between
your prospect,
Your technical expertise, industry knowledge, and your capability to explain
technically complex things in a simple and comprehensive way, are making you
the perfect sparring-partner for contacts in IT as well as special departments.
Your tasks cover amongst others analyzing customer specific processes, answering
RFIs/RFPs, preparing & executing of product demos, giving speeches or
participating in panel discussions on fairs and events, analyzing competition, and
regular meetings with product management to improve our products.

What is the career path of a pre sales

consultant
Pre-Sales Consultant >>> Senior or Principal
OR
SME
Solution Manager ,
Bid Manager,
Proposal Author,
Estimation Specialist,
Practice Head
Marketing Head

The technology
is only one
small part of
the equation. If
you dont
understand
your customers,
you cant build
adoptive
solutions.

Please complete the evaluation

http://j.mp/b365-sg

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http://business365.azurewebsites.net

Thank you to our sponsors!

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Reference
http://www2.wwt.com/united/art-pre-sales

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/What-is-career-pat
h-pre-2123766.S.103947640?qid=045d5c31-074e-4fed-b
421-acc357e5defc&trk=groups_most_popular-0-b-cmr&g
oback=%2Egmp_2123766

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/What-defines-PreS
ales-64542.S.93540970?qid=999be0c5-0c7e-4bd0-a713
-d743a5c42a8d&trk=groups_most_popular-0-b-ttl&gob
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