Presales Overview: 5 Presales Practices

Presales are all the activities—including pitching, data analysis, and follow-up—that occur before a salesperson finalizes a deal with a customer. Presales operations are often the job of the sales team, but a company may have designated presales professionals who specialize in the operations before the final deal. Presales are one part of a company’s overall sales process.

Presale activities—sourcing and vetting leads, pitching to customers, and following up to close a deal—are crucial elements of the sales pipeline. These critical early steps significantly impact long-term customer retention and overall sales.

“Sales” is a general term that encompasses all activities in the sales cycle, including presale operations and post-sale strategies. A company might designate a specific presales team to focus on lead qualification and general presales support, but the presales team members and sales reps share the same ultimate goal of securing a deal. A company might also use the term sales to describe closing deals rather than the sales organization as a whole.

The presales process involves several tactics and initiatives that all share the purpose of bringing in new business. Presale activities generally follow this order:

1. 1. Sourcing leads: Before you start selling to a potential client, you need to create a pool of potential leads. Sourcing can take many forms, including direct outreach through networking events, cold calling, or research strategies like keeping tabs on possible connections on social media.
2. 2. Vetting leads: The next step of lead generation is to ensure the possible buyers you sourced are “qualified leads,” which means you need to analyze your potential client’s pain points and determine if what you’re selling can help them.
3. 3. Research: Understanding your client will help you create the perfect pitch that shows how your product meets their needs. You get an understanding of their business interests and processes so you can understand how your product fits into their workflow and solves their problems.
4. 4. Pitching: Your pitch is your chance to show off a product demo or proof of concept to your customer to try to close the deal. To create a strong pitch, you should work with sales engineers and the marketing team to ensure you have strong assets and proper messaging.
5. 5. Fielding questions and concerns: Potential leads and stakeholders often have questions or doubts during the presales process. Part of the presales role is anticipating and addressing a customer's concerns. You might work alongside a solutions consultant or engineer to help modify a product to meet a customer’s needs.

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