Introduction to IT Presales | A Complete Beginners Guide

Hello everyone, Welcome to the world of Presales!

This course, “IT Presales Foundation 2022 | A Complete Beginners Guide” is a comprehensive course on the entire gamut of presales activities carried out in both product-based and service-based IT companies.

Presales Masterclass course starts with Introduction to Presales which gives a quick overview on what is Presales, who is a presales consultant and what are his/her characteristics, why presales are important in the growing IT sector along with some of the general rules to be in Presales domain. We also discuss the required primary and secondary skills to be honed by the Presales consultants for a successful career in this domain. On completion of this section, you should be able to assess whether you are a correct fit for this role.

Moving on, let's decode the presales role in detail. In general practice in the IT sector, we have both product-based and service-based companies. We will understand their business model, role, and exposure of presales consultants between these companies, the general presales process followed in service-based and product-based companies. As an outcome on completion, you should be able to decide which type of business model suits you better and be able to choose wisely and move ahead in your career.

In the next section, we will discuss the Bid Management process in detail. We will understand the importance of Bid Management and some of the must-know standard documents followed in Bid Management practice. Also, we will have a walk-through on the Bid Tracker template which is used to track all the activities involved in Bid Management along with a standard proposal template walk-through. Here, we will go about all the important sections to be listed and highlighted in any business proposals to the customers. At the end of this section, you will have a fair idea of Bid management alongside a comprehensive handy template to get started in your Presales career.

Moving on, let's understand the role of Solution consulting, which is mainly followed in IT product companies. Here, we will understand the importance of solution consulting, product demo, characteristics of solution consultants, must-know documents, and mistakes to avoid during a product demo with a prospect. We will also touch upon the differences between POC and Pilot processes which are very common business practices followed in any product company. On completion of this section, you will have a very clear idea of the expectations and process workflows of Presales consultants in any IT product company.

Presales is all about wearing multiple hats. Although we have multiple primary activities to be executed, we also support multiple business teams such as Sales, Marketing, Market Research, and project team during the entire lifecycle. I will share some of the prime activities where we would be involved based on my Presales experience.

Additionally, I will also share some of the good-to-know information to be in the Presales domain. We will discuss in detail the available benefits to be a Presales consultant alongside the existing challenges. We also touch upon the roadmaps like who can become a Presales consultant and what is the path ahead of Presales consultants if they wish to move to other practices in the later part of their career. In the end, I will share some basic tools that are used by Presales consultants along with some basic acronyms that are very common and popular in the Presales fraternity.

That brings us to the end of our Presales Masterclass course which covers most of the must-know topics in Presales. On a whole, at the end of this course, you will have a very good idea about the Presales role and you should be in a position to decide whether this role suits your passion and interest. This role is designed for both freshers and experienced professionals if they wish to switch their careers in the mid-way.