Considering Presales? Interviewing? Newly Hired? Check Out This Path to Presales Podcast - Great Demo

Considering Presales? Interviewing? Newly Hired? Check Out This Path to Presales Podcast

I joined Matt Madden for this 1-hour exploration of your first few steps into presales and opportunities to accelerate your journey. We discussed:

  • The origins story – and what presales can lead to
  • Presales as a cultural ecotone
  • Presales beginnings
  • “Presales” as a term – what’s in a name?
  • Situational fluency
  • Doing Discovery and Great Demo! books – when to read
  • Enabling an unfair advantage for yourself
  • Qualification vs discovery
  • Company culture and discovery
  • Great Demo! origins – the horror of traditional demos
  • Do the Last Thing First!
  • An advanced methodology
  • Great Demo! third edition organization – two books in one!
  • Do the exercises – why?
  • Core methodology vs advanced topics
  • Storytelling in demos
  • Partnering with sales – three scenarios
  • A surprising interaction with a seasoned salesperson
  • Pre-meetings with seasoned salespeople
  • The “Harbor Tours” origins story
  • Establishing roles in accord with strengths and weaknesses
  • Sales is not easy – no pressure!
  • Partition discovery
  • Working with new salespeople – “get over it!”
  • Mapping roles and laying your cards on the table, mutually
  • Structured approaches and processes
  • What are hiring managers looking for?
  • Three pillars: Situational fluency, product knowledge and use cases, technical acumen
  • What else can help you differentiate?
  • Passion… aligned with pragmatism
  • Dealing with Imposter Syndrome – embrace it (in a way)!
  • Dunning Kruger – and Mt. Stupid
  • Be conscious of what you may not know…
  • “We can’t know all of the answers to all of the questions in the universe…”
  • “I don’t know, but I’ll find out…”
  • Strong desire to learn and awareness of current knowledge
  • Problem-solving skills
  • A desire to see customers succeed
  • Time-management skills
  • Strong documentation and observation skills
  • Strong communication skills
  • Understand the differences between the “what” and the “how”
  • End-results vs how it works
  • Some comments about note taking
  • Some guidance for presales managers regarding interviewing processes
  • “Never Stop Learning” and resources available to you
  • The Lunar Module and ongoing learning

You can find this podcast here. Enjoy!

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