Responsibilities of a Pre-Sales Manager:

 1)       Develop and manage the Pre-Sales Team

2)       Selection and recruitment of suitable Pre-Sales personnel

3)       Day to day management of Pre-Sales personnel including time management, assessment, training and disciplinary issues.

4)       Ensure that Sales, Product Management and Development receive such support as they request.

5)       Work with Product Management and Marketing to help define/refine sales messages and ensure sales packages are developed and messages communicated to sales team

6)       Ensure that the Pre-Sales resources evolve in line with the Marketing Message and Sales Teams stated requirements. 

7)       Ensure that all pre-sales personnel including the Pre-Sales Leader maintain and develop the following skills.

a)       Able to communicate technical and business information to widely varied audiences

b)       Excellent interpersonal relationship building skills

c)       Ability to understand business processes and business problems

d)       Strong analytical skills

e)       Ability to understand data relationships and how data can be used to solve business problems

f)        Ability to multi-task and be able to represent multiple subjects and products

g)       Ability to understand and capture business and technical requirements

h)       Ability to develop a broad awareness of the client's technical architecture and emerging technologies with enough knowledge to determine what is and is not possible.

i)         Knowledge of strategic, conceptual, consultative selling

j)         Ability to develop marketing messages

 8)       Duties of all Pre-Sales personnel including the Pre-Sales Leader. 

a)       Production of responses to Requests for Information and Requests for Pricing.

b)       Development of Industry specific and technical whitepapers

c)       Work with Sales Personnel to provide product, business and technical knowledge in support of pre-sales activities.

d)       Liaison with Product Managers and Development to understand details of product direction and design and communicate information back to sales organization.

e)       Responsible for staying abreast of product roadmap as well as understanding the scenarios, features and functions within each of the products and how these are applied to address business and technical problems. This includes interacting with Product Management and Development on an on-going basis to stay current.

f)        Responsible for understanding business and technical problems addressed by the products including key regulations, business drivers, evolving business needs, etc.

g)       Attendance at conferences and working with Subject Matter Experts, and research to stay on top of changes in business issues/requirements/regulations/Technology and understand where the market is going.

h)       Responsible for staying current on competitive analyses and understanding differentiators between the company and its competitors.

i)         Responsible for preparing for meetings and tailoring communications to address business needs of potential clients as part of the pre-sales process.

j)         Responsible for providing feedback from the market to Product Management and Development regarding products including coordinating gaps between product functionality and market/customer demands.

k)        Responsible for working with Product Management to develop and deliver training on business problems, products, and messages (classroom and OJT) for new pre-Sales team members.

l)         Coordinate requirements for proofs of concept with Product Management/Product Development

m)      In conjunction with Sales Personnel, develop and conduct transition briefing - communicate commitments, expectations, customer organization, etc.