Presales is an often overlooked aspect of the sales process, commonly focused on providing demos. However, the proliferation of SaaS companies has led to a constant cycle of demonstrating a software’s functionality to prospective customers and showcasing features that differentiate them from the competition or better fit the prospect’s needs.

In addition to this, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased need for virtual selling and, in turn, increased the burden placed on solution architects, sales engineers, value engineers, and other presales professionals. With the growing importance of presales in the sales ecosystem, G2 launched its Presales Software category in April 2022.

The presales space deserves attention, too 

Sales technology has continuously evolved and expanded its use case over the past few years. We are now seeing this process trickle down to presales activities as well. Previously, organizations viewed presales as “the person who does the demos” instead of a prospect's first interaction with their product. 

With evolving technology, these presales professionals have also gained the necessary software that enables their jobs and tracks their progress. Presales software streamlines the demonstration process to save time and lets presales professionals conduct demos, proof of concepts (POCs), or proof of validation (POV).

POCs and POVs typically occur in the final stages of the presales process and are used to show that a product can solve a customer’s pain points. POCs and POVs are similar, with POVs commonly known as a lighter version of a POC. Both aim to ensure value to the prospect.

Presales software also brings accountability and oversight to an area that was lacking them—presales activities. Presales departments are oftentimes one of the largest business units in an organization, due to the imperative role they play in the buying process. However, for a long time, there was no technology aimed at increasing oversight, accountability, and analysis of presales activities. Presales software also allows organizations to structure presales processes, track activities, and provide analytics to optimize the presales process and shed light on what has been an overlooked aspect of B2B sales.

Why use presales software?

Presales software has many uses, including providing more efficient avenues to create demos, identifying where prospects are most engaged and intrigued with the product, and tracking their activities and how they may impact revenue.

All software buyers need to evaluate a product and understand its functionality to assess its ability to fulfill their needs. However, product demos are often time consuming. This is usually due to the time it takes to schedule demos with a prospect or buying committee and the need for additional demos to showcase the features most relevant to a prospect’s business needs. While the pandemic helped solidify the importance of virtual selling, it has, in turn, overburdened presales professionals. When there are countless product demos, it can slow the buying process down and cause prospects to take their business elsewhere.

However, presales software allows vendors to streamline the product demonstration experience by offering sales engineers the technology to create repeatable, interactive, and engaging demos. This software enables sales engineers to focus their time and attention on value-added activities rather than conducting numerous demonstrations, often to unqualified leads. Presales tools assist in qualifying leads by ensuring that prospects understand a product's functionality and value. 

In today’s world, sales engineers spend their day going from demo to demo, usually with prospects from various industries with specific desires or use cases. Without presales software, it can be difficult for sales engineers to accommodate each prospect’s specific requirements, leading to the need for an additional demo or, even worse, a missed sales opportunity. Presales software enables sales engineers to tailor demos according to the prospect’s needs and resolves any question concerning the software. Furthermore, they can create reusable demos to recreate the experience for prospects who have similar needs. 

In conclusion, these solutions can provide a lens into the life of presales professionals and enhance performance measurement and other internal processes. Some presales solutions allow businesses greater insight into product gaps, streamlining communications between product and sales teams, which leads to the ultimate buying experience. These solutions also provide analytics to gain insight into best practices, appropriate workloads, pipeline dashboards, and performances.

Increased investments into presales software

Over the last few years, considerable investments have been made into presales software, with investors recognizing this growing space and the benefits these tools provide.

Looking forward

The presales software space is an emerging market in the sales technology world. It is destined to evolve in the coming years, likely with more products differentiating the numerous presales activities, such as demo automation, presales management, and execution. As the market evolves, G2 will continue examining it and updating our taxonomy accordingly.