So, what exactly is pre-sales support? If you’re selling your products online or you have a complicated sales process, you can consider it imperative. But it’s also something any business can benefit from, as pre-sales support helps with obtaining, assisting, converting, and keeping customers. 

It’s all about ensuring that a prospect has the facts they need to click the buy button. By developing an effective pre-sales support strategy, you can improve the sales process and build lasting relationships with customers. 

Shoppers are often hesitant to make a purchase from an unfamiliar company. Putting their mind at ease by answering any questions they might have about the product or service increases the likelihood of them converting. In a B2B setting, pre-sales support reps can assist in identifying which deals to focus on. 

Of course, this doesn’t just happen. Proper planning and clearly defined objectives are key. You also need to have a knowledgeable team that knows what you’re selling inside-out. They need to be able to listen to the customer and understand them. Get that right, and you can reap some tremendous benefits.

Read on to learn more about the advantages of pre-sales support. 

Increased Qualified Leads

As you may already know, a qualified lead is someone who requires your product or service and has the money to buy it. The pre-sales process helps to make your prospects more qualified by informing and persuading them. This naturally results in more conversions. 

The pre-sales support team can focus on leveraging their knowledge and expertise to engage your audience with the right marketing messages, which contributes to a more robust and consistent sales process.

Specialized Sales Skills

In order to move a prospect along the sales pipeline, you need to have a certain set of skills. That’s what the pre-sales process is dedicated to. 

Your pre-sales team can freely sift through a quality pool of prospects while satisfying any queries that come their way, as you’ll now have other departments responsible for accumulating customers who are within the circle of influence. 

Valuable Insights

A pre-sales support team doesn’t just convert prospects. They can also serve as a valuable resource for improving the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. 

Through interactions with customers, pre-sales support reps can obtain vital information about your target audience that can be relayed to your marketing team. This can help to increase your marketing ROI by inspiring content that resonates better with the ideal buyer. 

It’s rare for the two departments to work in alignment with each other, so sharing details about relationships with the end user can help sales and marketing stay on the same page. 

Winning Over Prospects

In the B2C space, pre-sales are incredibly useful when it comes to educating customers. This is particularly true for businesses that sell complicated products or services that don’t necessarily speak for themselves. One way that B2B companies benefit is that they can build the type of trust and closeness required to get clients on board. 

For instance, prospects may ask for case studies or referrals, which would typically leave a sales team in disarray. On the other hand, pre-sales support will be able to provide what potential clients request, and are likely to do it through face-to-face conversations that further improve relationships. 

Customer Satisfaction

The impact that pre-sales support has on customers is evident even after the sale is made. When applicable, pre-sales can streamline the implementation of the product or service after ensuring that it’s an ideal fit for the buyer

Another way that pre-sales can help with customer satisfaction is by communicating with customer support teams to better inform them about the customer’s needs. In fact, there’s no end to where a pre-sales team can prove useful, as they have the ability to collect a wealth of data that can prove valuable in several departments. 

This all comes together to create a superior experience that leads to improved customer satisfaction, which might just be the edge your business needs to stay ahead of the competition. 

Understanding the Pre-Sales Process

Now that we have a better idea of what pre-sales support can do for your business, let’s take a closer look at the activities that pre-sales covers: 

  • Product and market research
  • Identifying and qualifying leads
  • Analyzing customer data 
  • Preparing scripts for communication with clients
  • Developing solutions to pain points 
  • Creating a value proposition 

Keep in mind that there’s typically some overlap between what sales and pre-sales does, but the latter mostly focuses on prospecting and research. Here’s what the pre-sales process flow entails:

  1. Qualifying a lead
  2. Discovery
  3. Product or service demonstration
  4. Proposal
  5. Closing the deal
  6. Implementation
  7. Follow-up

When your pre-sales process is working like a well-oiled machine, it supports sales throughout the pipeline. 

Building an Effective Pre-Sales Process

What makes a pre-sales process effective? To start, you need to foster a culture of mutual respect and collaboration in your sales department. Making the most out of the opportunities that come down the pipeline requires an environment where everyone trusts each other and works together productively towards a common goal. 

Part of this is predicated on the implementation of clear objectives. Each support rep needs to know exactly what they have to do at every stage. This is especially important when the sales process is more complicated. 

Take the time to define everyone’s roles and responsibilities. Then, determine how time and talent are best distributed along the pipeline. This will help to prevent miscommunication and misunderstanding that may otherwise cost you opportunities. 

Finally, ensure that there is effective communication between teams and team members. Getting this right will help you leverage everything that pre-sales support can bring your business. Clients will be more satisfied, marketing will be more effective, your ROI will increase, and with it, retention. That’s not even mentioning the insights you can gain. 

With sufficient planning and a bit of know-how, you can see major benefits from the implementation of pre-sales support in your company. Don’t forget to invest in the latest tools for supporting the pre-sales process. It’s only a matter of time before your competitors follow suit.