Presales Best Practices: Responsible Growth and Operational Excellence
We had a demo this week with a presales leader who said that 2023 needed to be a year of Responsible Growth and Operational Excellence for his company. Love that! But what does that mean for a presales team? Let’s break it down.
PART 1: RESPONSIBLE GROWTH
Up until last year, the modus operandi for many companies, especially VC-fueled startups, was to Grow. At. All. Costs.
There was fast and furious hiring across the org.
Within sales leadership, the thought was: Just throw more sales engineers at the pipeline so we can give more demos, run more proof of concepts (POCs) / proof of values (POVs), and close more deals… more. More. MORE!
But today is today.
Budgets are tight.
Headcounts are frozen (or decreasing with layoffs).
The new modus operandi is ‘responsible growth’.
Management still wants more, More, MORE in terms of performance… but you don’t get more to help you achieve it.
Every presales team is now looking for ways to do more with what they have.
That means finding ways to be more EFFICIENT.
✅ More efficient presales processes.
✅ More efficient use of presales time and effort.
✅ More efficient presales tooling.
✅ More efficient cross-functional collaborations between presales and other teams.
RESPONSIBLE GROWTH = PRESALES EFFICIENCY
PART 2: OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Up until last year, business was BOOMING.
[If you’re old enough to remember Oprah…] YOU get a lead. And YOU get a lead. EVERYONE is getting LEEEEeeeads!!
But today is today.
Sales pipelines are smaller, both in Deals and Dollars.
Top of the funnel (TOFU) lead flow is dwindling, so there are fewer deals.
Buyers have reduced budgets of their own, so your Average Contract Value (ACV) is smaller (either your prospect buys less or they negotiate deep discounts).
Every deal matters now more than ever.
Therefore, every presales team is looking for ways to boost their win rates now more than ever.
That means finding ways to be more EFFECTIVE.
✅ More effective discovery.
✅ More effective demo prep and delivery.
✅ More effective POCs/POVs.
✅ More effective relationship building.
✅ More effective problem solving.
✅ More effective solutioning.
✅ More effective transitions to post-sales / customer success (because you also need happy, vocal customers right now and eventually renewals!)
OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE = PRESALES EFFECTIVENESS
If 2023 needs to be a year of RESPONSIBLE GROWTH and OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE for your company…
Then 2023 needs to be a year of PRESALES EFFICIENCY and PRESALES EFFECTIVENESS for your team.
Do you need to boost your presales efficiency and effectiveness? Talk to one of our presales experts about about how Homerun can help. Click here to get started!
