IT investments are increasingly being made by business-focused, senior level management rather than the IT buyer and smart suppliers realise that it is the ability of their Pre-Sales people to understand the customer’s business needs and persuade them that their solution achieves the customer’s desired outcomes that makes the difference between winning and losing the business.

There are many sales skills programs for salespeople, but few specifically for Pre-Sales.

Total Inter Action have developed a unique development program for Pre-Sales that assesses and improves thinking, planning and persuasive communication skills.

So far we have our development programs with 8,000 IT professionals in over 12 countries at organizations including SAP, Adobe, Symantec, Oracle, HDS, Microsoft, NetApp, Singtel/Optus Business to name a few.

Program Details:

The Pre-Sales program is broken into parts which can be run separately or together:

1. ASSESS PRE-SALES PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

On-line SE Skills Development Dashboard – 24 skills and 6 major competencies required in the Pre-Sales role. Groups and individuals receive a recommended learning path based on their results.

2. ASSESS THINKING

We have profiled the thinking preferences of over 5,000 individuals in technical consulting roles (using HBDI, the world’s number one thinking preference profiling tool) and noticed some interesting results. The thinking associated with focusing on customer needs and business outcomes does not come naturally to 75% of Pre-Sales. Recognition of this by the individual is key to shifting their approach and improving their interactions with senior management.

3. DEVELOP THINKING PLANNING & COMMUNICATION SKILLS 

Based on the skills assessment we take a lazar-focused approach to developing skills using virtual and face to face training and coaching. Participants are introiduced to simple, practical tools that they can use as part of their customer interactions.

PROGRAM RESULTS

280% increase in average sale (Symantec)

33% improved turnaround in proposals and a 26% increase in win rate (Optus Business)

Various testimonials on how Pre-Sales won significant deals by turning the customer