Closing a big deal feels amazing, especially when you're selling to other businesses. But getting to that "yes" takes tons of work. And even after someone says yes, things can still go wrong if your product doesn't work well with their existing systems.
That's why many companies now use two different teams: regular sales people and presales experts. If you're new to this idea, you might wonder - what's the real difference between sales and presales?
The simple answer
Sales people focus on building relationships with customers. Presales people handle the technical stuff. Sales makes sure the customer is a good fit for your product. Presales makes sure your product is a good fit for the customer's problems. Both jobs are important, and they work together.
What do presales people do?
Selling to businesses is complicated. There's too much work for just one salesperson to handle everything. That's where presales comes in - they take care of the technical parts so sales people can focus on building relationships. Presales experts know your product inside and out. They understand exactly how it fits with a customer's existing technology. They can answer detailed questions about features and setup that regular sales people might not know.
Common presales tasks
Different companies split up the work differently, but presales people usually handle:
Writing discovery emails
Joining customer calls
Doing product demos
Creating proof of concepts
Filling out security forms
Helping set up the product
Creating handover documents
Sometimes presales work with sales people on these tasks, sometimes they do them alone. The key is having clear rules about who does what.
What do sales people do?
Sales people focus on earning trust and convincing customers to buy. They handle the relationship side of things. While presales deals with technical questions, sales people work on the human connection.
Common sales tasks
Sales people usually focus on:
Finding potential customers who are a good fit
Building relationships with prospects
Negotiating deals
Closing sales
Keeping customers happy after they buy
These might look simple, but each one takes lots of time and skill. By handling the technical stuff, presales gives sales people more time to do what they do best.
Making sales and presales work together
Both teams need each other to succeed. But you need clear rules about when and how they should work together. Without this, people get confused about who should do what.
Think about every step in your sales process. Then decide who should handle each part and when they should work together. Make it crystal clear when sales should ask presales for help, and the other way around.
Good rules prevent fights and make sure everyone focuses on what they're best at. Since both teams depend on each other, you want them working together smoothly.
How technology helps both teams
Having good processes is most important, but the right tools make everything easier. Wonit provides AI-powered proposal software that helps sales and presales teams work better together by handling boring tasks like creating proposals and responding to RFPs.
With AI that can create personalized proposals in minutes, presales people can spend more time on important technical advice instead of formatting documents. The analytics show both teams which proposals actually win deals and why. Real-time collaboration with comment features makes it easy for team members to work together and ensures no customers get forgotten.