The Story of Goldilocks and the Three Presales Tools
Once upon a time, there was a sales engineering manager named Goldilocks. Her company had big goals for the year, so she went on a search for presales productivity and management tools to make her team more efficient and more effective. She soon came upon a few possibilities…
Adopting a new tool can be challenging, and she knew that ease of use was critical. With that in mind, she looked the first tool. "This tool is too simple!" she said. “I don’t see how it provides any value over my existing CRM, spreadsheets, and note taking tools!”
So, she looked at the next one. "This tool is too complex!" she exclaimed. “Lots of administrative burden on me and lots busy work for my team. When will we have any time to do real presales?!?”
So, she looked at the last one.
"Ahhh, this one is just right," she said happily. “Just enough presales functionality to be effective, but not so much that it gets in our way!”
After thinking about ease of use, she decided to explore how flexible the tools were. The importance of her presales team was growing within the organization, and her presales process was rapidly evolving. She knew that her new presales platform would need to grow and evolve just as her presales process grew and evolved.
So with that in mind, she went back to the first tool. "Hmmm… it’s quite limited in its capabilities,” she thought. “As my needs change over time, I’ll have to buy new tools from new vendors to get everything that we need."
So she looked again at the second one. "This tool seems to have the presales features that I’m looking for, but it’s quite rigid!” she exclaimed sadly. “As my needs change over time, I’ll be stuck in the past. And I reeeeally don’t want to re-do a vendor search… it’s exhausting!"
So she looked at the last one again.
"Ahhh, this tool is just right," she sighed with relief. “All of the functionality that we need, clearly designed to work together, and loaded with flexibility. As we change our process, our metrics, our team… it’ll adapt right along with us.”
Growing tired of looking at presales tools, Goldilocks still needed to understand if her sales engineers would use the tool. Her executive team wants high ROIs on every project that they fund, and so she thought to herself, “Will my SEs want to use it because it helps them be more efficient and effective, or will they avoid it because it just gets in their way? If they don't use it, my ROI will be negative!”
So once again Goldilocks looked at the first tool. "You know... this one is really more of a project management tool versus a presales tool. A few of my SEs might find it useful for a few of their deals, but it doesn’t offer them much else. It also doesn’t do much for me as a presales manager," she complained.
So she looked again at the second tool. “Ugh!” she cried out. “This one was clearly designed for presales managers, but not for my SEs. While that’s great for me, my team will rebel if we mandate yet another tool and have to force its adoption.”
So she looked at the third one for the last time.
"Ahhh, this tool is just right," she sighed with a smile. “It was clearly designed by SEs who have lived the hectic life of a sales engineer. They get it, and it shows. My team will LOVE this! And it helps me understand my presales pipeline, my team, how we are performing, how we can get better, and how we can scale. I LOVE this too!”
Fortunately in this version of the fable, Goldilocks didn’t need to worry about three angry bears barging into her home office. Instead, she waited patiently for her CRO and CEO to come online so she could tell them about her research and the amazing presales solution that she had found.
“I looked at all of our options. I found ‘too much of this’ and ‘not enough of that’ across the other solutions, but I did find one that was juuuust right!” she proudly explained.
Her budget was approved, her team was onboarded, and her presales results were exceptional.
The End.
Want to learn more? Talk to one of our experienced presales experts about why Homerun might be 'juuuust right' for your presales organization. Click here to get started!
