Senior Presales Manager

As a presales manager, you will work closely across various verticals such as product development, sales and marketing, and customer relations. Your job will also include understanding the customer’s needs and pitching the company’s products as suitable solutions. You will also be required to actively observe customer behavior and predict future needs for product development.

· Product Mix in sales-The company cannot rely on one or more solutions for all its business. This is risky for the business. It is important to balance time and effort in a way that all solutions are positioned to the relevant prospects.

· Effort estimation- Proposals usually contain the following elements :

Licenses

Implementation Services

Maintenance and Ongoing Support

Implementation Services should be estimated by presales and supported by a Project Plan to explain the break-up of activities. Project Planning is critical to estimation of efforts and should be reviewed thoroughly before submission. All aspects of the project and expectations of the customer should be met. Customization efforts, if visible, should be estimated and quantified. In the absence of this information from the client, the proposal should exclude customization or contain a reasonable estimate of the same (with a clause for review) based on past experience with similar businesses. Additional time commitment from presales to scope this better is welcomed.

· Project Plans -Project Plans and the initial workshop schedule is the responsibility of presales until the site is handed over to the Project Manager. The initial workshop schedule when finalized and the tentative plan for the remaining project is the basis for allocation of the Project Manager and team to the site.

· Requests for Proposals-Assist the sales team in responses to RFPs and tender documents. Our scope of work revolves around the project plan, functional requirements, estimates , methodology and scope of work.

· Project Handover-Presales should conduct a meeting involving the salesperson and the PM/Head of Delivery to hand over the project. The agenda of this meeting should cover :

1.About the project (business nature,requirements, customizations identified, unique features required, modules to be implemented)

2.Commercials of the contract(Value,Licenses,Man-days, Payment Terms, Penalties, Onsite Support)

3.Project Plan agreed with the customers

4.Workshop Dates confirmed with the customer

5. Project team profile of the customer

6. Any recommendations and suggestions

· Project Transition- It is important to transition cases smoothly and seamlessly to the Project Team. This involves

assessment of readiness for the project

issuing guidance to the customer to form the core team for the project

preparing them for the project

attending the initial workshops

Once the project team has taken over and the project is underway, the Presales resource can disengage from project activities.

· Project Scope Reviews-The Presales resource should remain on the Steering Committee of the project. Presales should attend review meetings/steering committee meetings with the customer periodically and engage in discussions involving changes in scope and understanding.

·Change Requests and Additional Requirements - Presales should work with the Account Manager post-implementation to identify and propose additional work to enhance the customer experience while generating additional revenue to the company.

Customer Escalations- Presales is often the point of escalation in projects. Presales should assist the delivery and sales teams in handling escalations