Presales Talks European "Fire in the Belly" with PSC

The zoom generation gathered for a very interesting chat centered around European, Middle East and North African presales (and even into subcontinental). We touched on several good topics including video content, working with partners, sales teamwork, generalist and specialists and then setting up next week's talk. Extended notes below! 

Partners

• Advantage of language & geography

• Depends on the kind of technology

• How do you get their quality up?

• Takes two to tango

If you are a partner

• Vendor companies often look at partners in their own terms

• How do you show a holistic solution

Clubhouse Bios

• Intros via bio

• What goes in a good bio

• Instagram & twitter

Helping Partner orgs do their own Presales

• Learning services - for customers & partners

• Certification levels (gold silver bronze)

• Strategy vs implementation

• Sales or post.

• Remote = easier to record

• Share out demos & presentation practice 

• Video library/partner portal

• Youtube? Unlisted video

Video 

• Camtasia

• Asynchronous reach

• Gives you something both before or after meetings.

• Something you can measure - do they watch

• Gives value beyond just sales - can add to long term marketing funnel or mapping out customer organizations

• Short = 3 mins

• Has a story

• Bespoke - don't put public

• Time box for effort.  

• Don't be a perfectionist.

Downsides?  

• You might not hear back from them

• Competitors could see it?

Account managers can have presales requirements

• Some conflicts between too

• Module vs top line revenue.

• Specialists vs generalists

• Make sure everyone is bought into the customer need, and understand the solution to be sold.

• Make sure you are working well as a team, and share a view of the business side

• Build up each other's credibility

Selling without competitive advantage

• Get the "fire in their bellies"

• You need to sell better than your competition

• Think about non-technical competitive advantages

• How do you handle the customer problems.

• Be a better partner for the customer.

• RFP response - easy to just fill in the cells in the spreadsheet. Need to differentiate. What additional information do you supply?

Next week's topic

• Digital tactics

• Discovery

• Preparation