Sales and Fulfillment
Understanding pre-sales management services: A comprehensive guide
An often-misunderstood concept, many people make the mistake of equating pre-sales activities with the sales process. However, pre-sales management is an integral part of the overall sales cycle – almost akin to courtship – where you are engaging with the customers and convincing them to “click the buy button”. Encompassing everything from customer research and lead qualification to demos and post-implementation relationship building, pre-sales is a comprehensive and critical process that can help businesses boost revenue, build a loyal customer base, and gain a competitive edge.
Understanding pre-sales management
An often critical element of B2B sales, pre-sales management refers to a set of activities a company must focus on before they can close a deal and acquire a customer. It is a precursor to the actual sales process, where a group of professionals from sales, product, engineering, and marketing teams work together to establish customer relationships, understand their needs, and propose customised solutions before a sale can occur.
It encompasses many essential elements, from lead generation and proposal crafting to conducting demos and proposal submission. The pre-sales team wears many hats, working behind the scenes to identify promising prospects before the sales team can step in. Armed with intelligence from the pre-sales team, the sales professionals can then go in to highlight how the product or service can best meet customer needs, negotiate terms and conditions, handle any objections or queries – often with support from the pre-sales team, and, finally, execute the contract to close the deal. There has to be synergy between pre-sales and sales strategies as the two often overlap and must work in sync to ensure customer satisfaction and meet the company’s revenue goals.
Benefits of an effective pre-sales management strategy
Without an efficient pre-sales team backing their operations, many sales teams will struggle to close deals and achieve the revenue goals they set out to achieve. Here are the key benefits an effective pre-sales management strategy offers that contribute towards overall business success:
Understand and meet customer needs
Pre-sales is all about understanding your customers, assessing whether their needs align with your value proposition, and understanding any doubts and reservations the customers may have. This gives the pre-sales and sales teams the opportunity to address any misunderstandings about the product offerings, propose a customised solution, and demonstrate how it can solve the key pain points the customer is facing. Aligning the offerings with customers' needs in the early stages of the sales cycle gives businesses the power to turn prospects into loyal customers.
Streamline the sales process
Pre-sales management plays a critical role in streamlining the sales process by not only identifying the most promising leads but also equipping the sales team with accurate and detailed information about the prospects. As a result, the sales team needs to spend less time combing through customer data and focus on meaningfully engaging with potential customers and actively selling the products and services. As a result, they can close the deals faster, making the overall sales cycle more efficient.
Build solid relationships
Pre-sales is not just about researching potential customers and finding the best ways to sell your products or services to them but also about building trust and credibility with the prospects. You are spending time with the customers to understand their needs, identify pain points, offer personalised solutions, and address any concerns they may have. This, along with excellent after-sales support, builds and fortifies the foundation for lasting relationships that will be mutually beneficial going forward.
Boost revenue
All the benefits above culminate in more significant revenue. By building lasting relationships, you can stay on top of changing customer needs and, thus, offer custom solutions that increase the likelihood of conversion. As a result, you can close more deals, resulting in sustainable business growth and a competitive edge in a world where customers are often spoilt for options.
There are challenges when it comes to effective objection handling, customising solutions for individual customers, maintaining seamless communication and coordination across teams, and effective time management. However, with the right pre-sales management solution, you can empower your pre-sales and sales teams to optimise the entire sales cycle, boost revenue, and drive sustainable business growth.
How can Infosys BPM help simplify pre-sales management?
As a key driver of customer satisfaction, revenue growth, and lasting customer relationships, you cannot afford to underestimate the importance of effective pre-sales management. Infosys BPM offers a suite of pre-sales management solutions, tackling issues like complex sales compensation programs, limited governance, improper mapping of the sales force, and more. We offer specialised services ranging from targeted marketing and marketing and campaign management to customer management, proposal management, and administrative support. With these, you can maximise the efficiency of your pre-sales management strategy to focus on cost-reducing and revenue-enhancing activities and improve customer-facing time to improve the overall effectiveness of your sales process and boost revenue.
