Why Your Implementation Team Shouldn't Be Doing Your Sales Demonstrations

Earlier this week I was talking to an Exec from a high growth, London based, FinTech (Financial Technology) company. Halfway through the discussion the conversation moved onto a business growth hurdle I'd personally experienced many times over the years; first working in growing ERP Channel Partners creating their first PreSales team and then as part of the Channel Management team of a global software author trying to encourage Partners to invest in PreSales resource and skills. Time to put pen to paper; well fingers to keyboard.

The Problem Definition

You can't have the same individuals both implementing / deploying your technology (the Implementation Function) and supporting the sales cycle (the PreSales Function) at the same time. All that will happen is that you'll get into a cycle of selling then not selling [see diagram] which will seriously restrict your business growth.
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All growing Tech companies with complex products or services will eventually have to overcome this problem. The solution is to build, invest in and develop a separate PreSales team.

​A Growing Business

As a Tech company grows its business, it will naturally hire sales people (driven by quota achievement and pipeline) and, as sales are made, hire an implementation team (driven by utilisation rates (75% - 80% maybe), revenue, cash flow and customer success).
As you increasingly sell to mid to large-sized prospects or sophisticated buyers, they will expect you to split the sales focus and technical, trusted-advisor role:

1. one person for relationships and sales/buying process, to 'talk money' and contracts (the Sales Exec) and
2. another person to do discovery, the demonstrations and explain how the technology will solve their business problems and create value (the PreSales Function role)

Its natural to look to your Implementation team for this technically orientated, trusted-advisor role. Experience of delivering live implementations gives your team huge credibility that builds trust with buyers.

​So lets follow the sales cycles and see what happens (see diagram)...

Green - Selling

• In the first sales cycle, an Implementation Consultant performs the PreSales Function. The Prospect 'buys into' the Implementation Consultant who did the demo; the trusted advisor they've met on numerous occasions and feel comfortable with (in their 'PreSales Function' role). Naturally, the Prospect assumes that at the point they sign the contract, the Consultant will also be on their implementation team. That might even be part of your sales pitch; the trusted advisor making personal promises about what will happen during implementation; because they'll be personally involved.
• Hurrah; you win the deal and the implementation starts. The Sales team have already moved onto closing the next Prospect ('got a quota to make and a pipeline to convert you know'). The Consultant moves into their 'Implementation Function' role for the new Client.

Yellow - Can't Sell

• For the next sales cycle, the Sales Execs request the same Implementation Consultant to demonstrate and become the trusted advisor (perform the 'PreSales Function' role again). Sales people tend to want to work with the same few Consultants because they see them as successful and believe they have the extra people skills, empathy and presentation skills that make good PreSales Consultants.

• Then the problems start. Of course, your existing Clients are very reluctant to lose anyone from their implementation team to do a demo for another prospect; why would they want that. Also, you're probably prioritising implementation revenue (thus cash flow) and/or customer success (you need the references) so you need the Consultant to stay onsite.Its creating a huge tension; you need the Consultant to help make new sales but you also don't want them to leave the current implementation.
• You try and pull Consultants out of the implementation for half-days here and there (giving the Client excuses like there's a 'sickness in the family' or a 'dental appointment' [trust me I've heard them all]) but there's no time for the Consultant to prepare for the demonstration/presentation; you don't have the flexibility to respond to the buyer's preferred dates, the sales cycle slips, the buyers perceive inflexibility and reluctance, the Consultant eventually delivers a sub-standard presentation because there was no time for discovery or preparation. You lose the deal. Everyone's unhappy. Frustration all round

Green - Selling... Again

• Ultimately you had to wait for the Consultant to finish the Implementation (or hired someone to replace them on-site) before you could start selling again.

Its a perfect storm. You can't sell anything until the Consultants finish their last implementation.

​Resisting the inevitable...

Here's a real quote from an enterprise software reseller:

"Having a PreSales team is just an extravagance isn't it?

​Dedicated PreSales staff are expensive and just a cost to the business aren't they? They may not carry a quota (unlike Sales Execs) and they don't pay their way ('wipe their nose') earning a day rate out at customer sites like Implementation Consultants. They're an extravagance; why have a dedicated PreSales team when you can just use Implementation Consultants that are temporarily 'on the bench' or can be pulled off an implementation / deployment job for half a day?
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I think by now we know the answer to this. If you want to grow and continuously sell, you need to invest in and continuously develop a separate, dedicated Presales team that are credible, know the industry / domain and have the right people and presentation skills.

If you want to know more about what makes PreSales different to Implementation Consultants see my article 'Hiring PreSales Solution Consultants? The three skills that make the perfect profile'.
What do you think? Please comment below...

Source: Thank you for the quote; you know who you are.
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​Don is the Founder of Winning Skills Ltd. Talk to Don about building Presales organisations, best-practice PreSales skills and processes and how to build the perfect 'Wow' demo. Let's connect on LinkedIn or talk at don@winningskills.co.uk