Having an effective presales process can significantly influence your company's sales success by creating a strong foundation for informed decision-making. A clearly outlined presales process also helps ensure effective matches between solutions and customer needs, accelerate the sales cycle, and drive more revenue.
The presales process includes a range of activities that occur before closing a deal. For example, qualifying leads and demonstrating products are just a couple of tasks that need to be checked off to ensure that each prospect is positioned to make the right purchasing decision.
Let's go over the components of a typical presales process, the roles of different stakeholders, the benefits of an effective presales strategy, and how to improve and execute this process for maximum impact.
What's involved in the presales process
A well-defined presales process usually includes four main steps:
- lead qualification
- discovery
- product demonstration
- sales hand-off
Each of these presales phases contributes to a well-structured and strategic sales journey that ensures each prospect is genuinely interested and informed about the product.
Step 1: Lead qualification
The lead qualification phase focuses on determining which leads are worth pursuing. During this step, sales teams evaluate prospects based on factors like business size, industry, and specific needs. This way, they can better determine whether your company's solutions and ideal customer profiles match.
Criteria like budgets, timelines, and decision-making authority are also taken into account when it comes to assessing a prospect's potential to convert.
Qualified leads are prioritized, which allows sales and presales teams to focus their efforts on the most promising opportunities.
Step 2: Discovery
The discovery phase allows teams to gather in-depth information about the prospect's needs, goals, and challenges.
During discovery calls, presales consultants or sales engineers discuss the customer's pain points, use cases, and expectations with them. With the information collected, sales teams are better able to adjust all future interactions and product demonstrations so that they address the lead's needs directly.
Step 3: Product demo
The product demo stage involves giving software demo presentations in a format that best suits the prospect’s preferences and use case. Formats can range from live demonstrations to recorded videos or interactive product tours. The goal of this step is to show prospects how the product addresses their specific pain points.
The most appropriate demo format often depends on the lead’s technical requirements and level of familiarity with similar solutions.
To learn more about demo formats, which to use when, and best practices, read our guide to SaaS product demos
Step 4: Sales hand-off
The sales handoff is the final phase of the presales process. During this pivotal step, the qualified lead and associated insights are transitioned over to the sales team.
This hand-off involves discussing the prospect’s needs, preferences, and the insights gathered throughout the presales process.
By ensuring that all relevant information reaches the sales team, you'll be able to reap the benefits of a smooth and informed transition.
Who’s involved in the presales process?
An effective presales process calls for close collaboration among several individuals, including presales consultants, presales enablement teams, and sales engineers. Each of these presales professionals helps guide customers through the early sales stages.
Presales consultants
Presales consultants are responsible for determining the needs of potential customers and then aligning product features with those needs.
From there, they aim to establish a strong rapport with prospects and make them feel supported as they're being introduced to the brand and product or service.
Presales consultants often make the initial discovery call and work closely with sales engineers to create demos that resonate with prospects.
Sales engineers or solutions architects
Sales engineers, also known as solutions architects, provide the technical expertise needed to address more complex questions or scenarios.
They work with presales consultants to set up sales demo environments, deliver detailed product demos, answer technical questions, and ensure the solution meets the prospect’s technical requirements.
Presales enablement efforts
Presales enablement provides resources, training, and tools to empower the presales team.
Professionals who handle these efforts are invaluable when it comes to creating structured presales workflows, offering insights into best practices, and equipping the team with up-to-date product knowledge.
Enablement processes help ensure that presales consultants and sales engineers are well-prepared to engage with prospects.
What does an effective presales process benefit?
An effective presales process can drive a variety of benefits, including:
- Building trust and credibility: By engaging with prospects early and providing them with relevant information, presales teams set up a foundation of trust.
- Accelerating the sales cycle: Addressing prospect concerns and objections during presales can shorten sales cycles and decision-making timelines.
- Improving resource allocation: By qualifying high-value leads, the presales process ensures that resources are focused on the most worthwhile opportunities.
Signs of an ineffective presales process
An ineffective presales process can lead to challenges and missed opportunities throughout the sales journey. Signs that your presales process needs to be revisited include the following:
- Slow or long sales cycles
- Misunderstanding of buyer needs
- Lack of coordination and alignment
- Poor lead qualification
- Inconsistent or generic demos
Let's look into each one so you can see if your process is being impacted.
Slow sales cycle
If leads are taking longer to convert, losing interest partway into the sales cycle, or deals seem to stall, this could signal a need to improve the presales process.
Bottlenecks slowing down the sales cycle could be:
- lack of clarity and preparedness
- confusion about roles and responsibilities
- delays in creating and delivering demo environments
- slow response to customer questions.
Chris Joco, Principal Solutions Architect at DSD Business Systems, says you can shorten your sales cycle by getting discovery right:
"Discovery is where I find the best opportunity to shorten the cycle. Finding out the specific pain points of a client helps direct the SE where to go with their demo."
Misunderstanding of buyer needs
If there seems to be a poor understanding of buyers' business needs, pain points, or decision-making criteria, this could be a sign of an ineffective presales process specifically during the discovery phase.
There could be a lack of data or tools to guide customer engagement, enable sales teams, and tailor solutions effectively.
Learn about presales tools that can help streamline processes and enable teams to close more deals
Lack of coordination and alignment
Are communication issues happening between presales and sales teams during the handoff process?
Delayed handoffs tend to result in misunderstandings and inefficiencies along the way related to unclear roles and responsibilities, and disconnects between sales objectives or customer pain points.
Poor lead qualification
If unqualified leads are entering the sales funnel, this can result in wasted time and resources.
If sales teams are engaging with prospects who lack budget, decision-making ability, or don't have a clear need for the solution, this is a sign of ineffective lead qualification.
Inconsistent or generic demos
If product demos are failing to address specific customer needs or pain points, or prospects seem disengaged during demo calls, this is a sign the product demo step of the presales process needs improvement.
Learn more about how to improve software demo presentations
How to build and improve presales strategies and processes
Creating a presales strategy that works requires careful planning, close alignment with business objectives, and continuous review for optimization opportunities.
Let's look a little closer at plotting objectives, structuring presales processes, and giving your sales team the tools they need to close as many deals as possible.
Align with business goals and define objectives
An effective presales process starts with making sure its goals make sense in relation to your broader business goals.
This involves determining who your ideal customer is, conducting thorough customer research, and understanding the unique values your product or service offers.
Knowing the pain points and challenges your target market deals with helps teams create a presales strategy that not only attracts prospects, but adequately highlights your product as an appropriate solution.
Deepti Khemka, Director of Pre-Sales at Pando, believes:
"Presales should focus on identifying the pain and, more importantly, the impact of the pain on the organization. Ideally, you want to try and set up a cadence call to finish the process of discovery to value prop building (even if 2/10 clients agree it makes a difference)."
Develop a structured process
Clearly defining roles, responsibilities, and workflows within the presales strategy keeps the process more consistent and ensures a smoother journey for prospects.
In addition, documenting each step (from lead qualifying to the sales hand-off) helps clarify expectations for every team member involved.
It's also important to outline any variations in the presales process based on specific use cases or special customer segments.
Build a high-performing presales team
A good presales team needs to have a combination of technical expertise, client-facing skills, and a customer support mindset.
Team members should have strong communication skills and the ability to understand and address what customers need.
A customer-focused approach helps enable the presales team to effectively build a rapport with prospects, which tends to result in stronger relationships and higher conversion rates.
The typical presales team includes the following roles:
Sales engineer / solutions engineer
- Responsibilities: understand prospects’ needs, design solutions, deliver technical presentations, and support the sales team in technical discussions
- Skills: strong technical knowledge, communication skills, and the ability to translate complex technical concepts into understandable terms aligned with business outcomes and benefits
Solutions architect
- Responsibilities: develop customized solutions that meet complex needs, align capabilities with requirements, and make sure the solution is technically feasible
- Skills: skilled in product architecture, has industry knowledge
Presales consultant
- Responsibilities: functions similarly to a sales engineer, but more focused on understanding ICP pain points and challenges and identifying how the product can solve those challenges
- Skills: communication and soft skills, full knowledge of the org’s offerings, understanding of product capabilities, and features
Create a library of custom presales materials
A library of use case-specific materials, including technical documentation and case studies, can enhance the presales process.
Having this collection available and easily accessible enables team members to quickly review relevant content that supports customer needs and provides valuable insights into the benefits of using the product.
Standardize the demo process and leverage personalized experiences
Planning and executing the right demo process ensures consistency across all of your customer interactions, while adjusting your demos to specific customer needs helps prospects better understand the product’s value.
Demo automation tools, like those offered by TestBox, can support scalability by empowering teams to provide personalized, high-quality demos at scale every time they work with a prospect.
Collaborate with the marketing team for sales enablement
Marketing teams can support the presales team and process overall by providing resources such as webinars, case studies, and white papers.
This collaborative effort helps make sure that the presales team has all the content necessary to engage prospects effectively.
Having marketing and sales teams working together reinforces the strength of the sales pipeline, as information at one's fingertips gives prospects the confidence they need to trust the product or service.
Align with the sales team
Improving alignment between presales and sales teams is an absolute must for securing success.
This includes optimizing the handoff process, holding regular meetings to share insights and experience, and using new collaborative tools to enhance communication.
Executing the presales process
Executing an effective presales process calls meticulous attention to detail when it comes to each phase. This includes everything from drawing in leads to helping prospects finalize a purchase.
Lead qualification
Lead qualification includes identifying key decision-makers in a company, understanding stakeholder needs, and assessing the customer's fit with your product.
Techniques like BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline) can help your presales team prioritize the right leads and ensure the team is engaging with high-potential prospects.
Customer engagement
Building and maintaining strong customer relationships involves active listening, empathy, and addressing concerns proactively on the presales and sales teams' part.
These skills enable presales consultants to create a positive experience that encourages trust and makes it easier for prospects to proceed with confidence.
Product demos
Choosing the right type of demo for each prospect depends on a few important factors, such as their familiarity with the product (or product type), level of technical understanding, and specific use case.
Catering your demos to these needs ensures that the prospect receives relevant information.
POCs
Proof of concept (POC) demonstrations can provide incredibly valuable insights into how a product would function in the customer’s environment.
This step is especially beneficial for high-stakes deals, as it allows prospects to validate their decision before committing to the purchase.
To boost your presales process, learn how your teams can create one-click, scalable POCs quickly with TestBox
Sales handoff
A smooth handoff from presales to sales ensures that the insights your team gathered during presales are applied properly.
Providing organized and easy-to-follow information about the lead’s needs, preferences, and objections helps the sales team tailor its approach and close deals more efficiently.
Measuring and optimizing presales success
Tracking key metrics helps teams understand how well their presales process is performing and identify areas where their efforts can be improved upon.
To optimize your presales success, consider the following:
Keep an eye on metrics and KPIs
Metrics like demo-to-close ratios, sales cycle lengths, and POC conversion rates offer insights into how effective the presales process is.
By setting realistic targets, presales and sales teams alike can assess their progress and make data-driven decisions that make way for better tactics as time passes.
Continuous improvement and training
To keep the presales process working as desired, it’s essential to adapt to changing market trends and customer needs.
Regular training sessions and access to presales best practices can help ensure that the entire team stays up-to-date and prepared to meet evolving demands.
Leverage tools and technology
Automating presales work can enhance your company's efficiency and allow teams to engage more effectively.
Presales software, presentation tools, and collaborative platforms can enhance each team member's productivity and streamline communication between sales professionals along the sales pipeline.
Build, evaluate, optimize, and succeed
A well-structured and optimized presales process is necessary in today's highly competitive market.
With the right strategy, tools, and training, your presales process can be a powerful differentiator that enhances customer trust, shortens sales cycles, and fuels business growth in 2024 and beyond.
