Curious about the evolving role of presales professionals? Let's check out some recent surveys to see if they'd be up for doing post-sales activities if they were compensated for it. This could help customers since they'd deal with the same experts pre & post-sale. We're wondering, though, what activities presales individual contributors would actually want to do after the sale. Join the conversation about what presales can do and what else they might be able to tackle.

A LinkedIn poll was conducted to confirm what presales individual contributors wanted as they make up the majority of the presales industry and are the most impacted. So of course, their insights are needed.

When you sign up for compensation linked with post sales, such as quotas for implementation or retention for example, you open yourself up to supporting the activities expected of professional services, customer success or support departments.

Presales are versatile in nature. Capable of wearing many hats. Many come from a background in post-sales, equipped with the skills to assist in such activities once again. However, does that mean they would want to additionally cover post sales activities and be compensated for it? That is what this poll aimed to find out.

It's important to note that revenue-generating activities like selling additional licensing or new products to existing customers are already part of presales' responsibilities and are appropriately compensated for in many organisations. These activities should not be confused with the post-sales activities typically not compensated for in the presales domain.

At first glance, this proposal might pass in a democratic setting. However, of the 53% interested in covering post-sales tasks, not everyone is willing to handle all the typical activities associated with implementation, customer success, and customer support.

A similar question was asked in a survey by Demoboost, with 59% in favour of:

Where Do Presales Draw the Line on Post-Sales Activities? 

The follow-up question in the Demoboost survey reveals preferences for covering post-sales tasks. Interestingly, no one wants to handle all the listed activities across all post-sales scenarios. (Hopefully, LinkedIn’s poll capabilities will allow for more detailed responses in the future).

‍

The outcomes are interesting, with activities linked to specific departments grouped together.

Customer success: The top two results, highlighted in green, align with customer success. 68% are willing to handle success reviews, and 63% for onboarding. On average, this corresponds to approx. 42% of the total survey respondents willing to support customer success activities, the most favoured among the three departments.

Professional services: Around 51% of those in favour of are open to covering implementation and scoping tasks, highlighted in orange. This accounts for approx. 32% of the survey participants.

Customer Support: The least favoured activities, highlighted in red, are related to customer support. Tasks like capturing and reviewing diagnostics and answering support tickets are common in support however, on-call weekend support is less common and the least desired. Only approx. 14% of respondents are willing to cover activities associated with customer support.

Managing / supporting post-sales escalations: This activity spans across many departments and hasn’t been grouped with other activities. However, 50% of those who answered yes expressed willingness to support this. This is approx 32% of the survey participants.

Challenges of Expanding the Scope of the Presales Individual Contributors:

Scalability: The size of the company will have a big impact. Supporting both presales and customer success for example might well work in a startup. Some startups naturally handle both, even assisting with support tickets. However, for larger companies this would be a challenge.

Balance Between Pre-Sales & Post-Sales: Dividing time equally between pre-sales and post-sales is like herding cats. A single major customer issue can shift focus entirely to post-sales, impacting pre-sales commitments.

Impact on Dedicated Post-sales Personnel: Introducing presales into existing departments poses risks. Replacing established departments with presales isn't advisable.

There could be an opportunity for more technical roles within customer success if required. However, if the customer retention rate was already high above 90% for example, there may be no problem to fix.

Risk of Burnout and Unhappy Workforce: Pushback on the idea of broadening the role can be expected as the results suggest. Aggregating 2 or more jobs results in being spread thin. This could result in an expert becoming a jack of all trades. It is a big ask to perform multiple jobs whilst remaining happy.

The spanner in the works: In some respect, it’s arguable that the results above don’t matter to some degree. If you’re compensated on renewals for example, you could open yourself up to supporting any post-sales activity that you are capable of.

Presales with a customer support or services background are often versatile. If you have the ability to be answering high priority support tickets in an escalation that involves in-depth troubleshooting for example, you’ll likely end up doing so. The problem here being, the poll results suggest these activities are the least favoured with only 14% willing to cover for support and 32% for professional services.

Whether the new proposed compensation model includes retention or a professional services number, those with support or services backgrounds could be the most versatile but also the most stretched.

Wrapping it up

The primary challenge for presales in 2024 lies in prioritising what should be done over what can be done.

Organisations now want to do more with less and can see presales as a catch-all given their versatility to fill the gaps across the business. With presales already overstretched, it's crucial to spend time in the right areas. High-impact activities geared towards revenue generation should come first. This should include new sales but also working with existing customers when buying additional licensing or new products.

Startups may have the opportunity to expand the role of presales, as they often wear many hats by default. The evolution of these companies and their impact on the role of presales individual contributors will be interesting to observe.

However, for more established companies, adopting the same approach won't be as straightforward. Trying to expand the business with limited presales resources can overload the presales department leading to a high turnover rate.

Pushback on broadening the role can be expected as the results suggest however ultimately this comes down to the nuances in each solution area and company.