Life as a presales consultant.

Hi there! Welcome to my little corner. If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of two types of readers 1) You’re curious about what a presales consultant does. Maybe you’re a fresh grad or someone who’s interested to switch to a role like this? OR 2) You’re a recruiter who happens to find my blog and would like to know more about me.

Either way, welcome! I’m glad you’re here. Hope that I can shed some light on what I’m currently doing as a presales consultant.

If anything, I’m more than happy to chat about this - you can email me at amandalimqiyin@gmail.com.

What exactly is a presales consultant?

I chanced upon this role because of my friend who kindly referred me. Back then, I was on the lookout for my next adventure into sales and this role was a good in-between as I had marketing experiences that complement the nature of presales consultant in my company.

Due to the nature of my company’s solutions, my role as presales consultant revolves around supporting the enterprise sales reps to get that signature on the dotted line. I’m responsible for all the prep work that’s required before any demos or proposals are submitted to the client. I also coordinate between different teams - particularly the sales, professional services, security, legal, and finance teams to get that contract approved.

Interestingly, when I share my role with other presales consultants, it seems like the role differs considerably when compared to other firms. Most presales consultants in tech firms are more engineering focussed. They come from a computer science background and have great knowledge of IT infrastructure, code, and architecture. As presales consultants, they provide expert advice and partner with the sales reps to develop the most suitable solution for their clients. Think of it as the technical expertise you bring into a call when it comes down to solutions and ironing out the technical aspects of their scope of work.

In my case, it’s more business-centric and I do not need to have the technical expertise to provide that solution process to our clients.

My favorite analogy of this is to relate it to Formula One. We have the top drivers (the sales reps) and the pit crew with varying skill sets that support the drivers throughout the race. Presales is sort of like the pit crew team, we craft and monitor the car’s progress, provide and gather feedback to improve our sales targets, and hopefully get across the finishing line with a beautiful car and flawless engine.

What does my day-to-day look like?

I have a few standard to-dos that require my attention as a presales consultant.

1. Qualifying and responding to tenders, RFPs, and proposals usually take the bulk of my time. This means assessing the requirements and objectives of a prospect, clarifying the details of their scope of work, identifying opportunities and advantages that match our solution, coordinating between the different teams in my company, and formulating the best proposal we can. Essentially, I will be responsible for the entire proposal writing process, defining the scope, commercials, proofs-of-concept, and onboarding plan for every client.

2. Prospecting is another focus area I do, roughly 20% of my time is spent here - doing research on prospects within the right buyer persona for our solutions, finding their contacts, ideating creative ways to conduct outreach (calls, email testing), and getting that demo booked for sales reps.

3. Meetings, meetings, and more meetings. Well, kind of self-explanatory - I have to join meetings to understand the pains and provide a catered solution to the client. It does get overwhelming with multiple meetings for different sales reps but you’ll have to manage and prioritize given that you’re a shared resource.

I shan’t rattle on from here, hope this gives you an idea of what my role is and the kind of skillsets you’ll gain as a presales consultant. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions, I’m happy to grab a coffee and chat more.

Till then, stay safe and stay sunny!

Cheers,

Amanda (Alo)