The Land of the Inbetween: The Mythical PreSales Role
Welcome to the Land of the In between: The mythical PreSales Role
The “in between” sounds like a scary plot on a Netflix series about tech sales, but in actuality, that’s where all PreSales professionals spend their days.
We live in the in-between. We’re half technical, half sales but we’re not sales, not product, and not quite implementation or tech services. We’re the bridge – (caffeinated, mildly frazzled bridge)—that keeps the whole sale organization moving forward. We are constantly battling doing whatever it takes to close the deal vs ensuring the post sales team is set up for success. I’ve often struggled to convey to others in my life exactly what I do for this very reason. I’ve found that even people who work with the PreSales team – don’t fully understand the scope of the role.
The Role That Defies Definition
We’re the ones who make tech talk sound friendly, the ones who get called in to explain exactly how a platform works without scaring away prospective customers.
If you’ve had the pleasure of interacting with PreSales, you may think our job is all about answering questions like, “Can your software do X, Y, and Z?” and “What exactly happens if…?”
But that’s the basics. We have to tell a story, we have to ensure the prospect can see their problems being solved. We need to earn trust while equally setting exceptions, because, let’s be honest, some of those sales pitches get a little ambitious. I’m all for ambition, but realistically ambitious. Happy customers, start as happy prospects with properly set expectations. Without this, the customer will churn. We are the voice of reason who can both lead or swoop in to ensure the deal stays on the rails.
So, you must be super technical then?
Well, no. In SaaS sales, I know there is a WIDE definition of what Presales is. Sure, some roles are not tech, while other roles are. Some tech people might roll their eyes and say, “Sales Engineers aren’t really technical.” Sure, some of us are not knee-deep in code (every day), but we speak tech fluently enough to make it sound effortless.
We might not be pulling all-nighters to release new updates, but we’re the ones who need to explain “the tech” to a wide audience on a demo that they can understand AND that sounds easy. No only do we need to explain the tech we need at the same time demo it to showcase the magic, even if we occasionally rely on a few well-timed workarounds. Sale Engineering is a show. It’s a performance.
Ok, are you on the Product team then? Also….no.
Product teams create the magic, and Presales are the magicians performing it for an audience. We stay updated on every new feature, bug fix, and product roadmap update so that, at any given moment, we can answer the tough questions with confidence and ease.
But as much as we champion the product and it’s potential, we don’t get to steer the ship. In fact, when we pass along customer feedback or request a tweak here or there, we often get the polite nod that means (in my son’s words) “Yeah…maybe no.” The product knows what they’re doing, and they’ll take our ideas into account—eventually. In the meantime, we improvise, rolling out the “That’s a possible future vision for the product!” line to keep the customers happy.
So, What Are We?
The truth is, PreSales Engineers are a little bit of everything, but we don’t quite belong anywhere. We’re chameleons. We have to adapt on every call. We’re the ones who don’t mind being sales-adjacent, tech-adjacent, and product-adjacent all at once.
Being a Sales Engineer means jumping into customer calls, diving into a product dashboard, and translating tech-talk into plain English, usually all before lunchtime (if we even take one). We’re handy, versatile, and probably overworked.
The Silver Linings of Living in the Between
The best part of being a Sales Engineer? You get the best of all worlds. You’re a little bit of a salesperson, a touch of a techie, and you get to play product tester every now and then. There’s no such thing as a dull day, and while we may never truly belong to any one team.
