The selling journey is about understanding and exploring a prospect’s needs and objectives to offer a tailored solution that increases trust and adds value​​.

Description: The first point of interaction with the lead is typical via email, calls, webinars, website, conferences or meetings. The aim is to gauge the interests and needs of leads.

Key Activities: Setting up introductory calls, responding to inbound enquiries, and clarifying basic details about the offering.

PreSales Actions: Prep the sales team with technical collateral to share during the initial outreach. Join initial calls if technical queries arise.

Description: The first point of interaction with the lead is typical via email, calls, or meetings. The aim is to gauge the interests and needs of leads.

Key Activities: Setting up introductory calls, responding to inbound enquiries, and clarifying basic details about the offering.

PreSales Actions: Prep the sales team with technical collateral to share during the initial outreach. Join initial calls if technical queries arise.

Description: Assessing if the lead is a good fit for your solution based on their needs, budget, decision-making authority, and purchase timeline (BANT)

Key Activities: Conduct discovery calls, determine pain points and requirements, and evaluate the potential deal size. Use the BANT for this.

PreSales Actions: Attending qualification calls to understand potential technical requirements. Assist sales in categorising leads based on functional and technical fit.

Description: Delving deeper into understanding potential clients’ technical landscape, integration, pain points, and needs. (Cohan 2022)

Key Activities: Hosting detailed discovery sessions, mapping clients’ current technology stack potential integration points, and understanding their pain points, as well as the desired future state. It is also crucial to understand critical dates and events.

PreSales Actions: Lead or co-lead discovery sessions focusing on functional and technical aspects. Document clients’ functional and technical requirements, infrastructure, and potential challenges.

Description: This phase involves a deep dive into the specific technical and functional requirements that a potential client’s solution must meet. The goal is to understand the technical environment and functional needs in detail, ensuring the solution proposed will align with the client’s technical architecture and functional requirements.

Key Activities: Conducting detailed technical assessments and functionality checks. Verifying compatibility with existing client systems and processes. Assessing the skills of the client team to manage and integrate new solutions.

PreSales Actions: Engage in comprehensive functional and technical discussions with internal teams, including Delivery, Product Management, IT, and Sales, to clearly define the scope and specifications of the solution. Conduct a thorough assessment of the solution’s functional and technological alignment, with a focus on the aspects most critical to the client’s needs. Based on this evaluation, make an informed decision on whether to advance the opportunity or to strategically step away

Description: Presenting software features and benefits tailored to potential clients’ needs.

Key Activities: Setting up and conducting tailored product demos, addressing questions and objections, and highlighting the unique selling proposition (USPs).

PreSales Actions: Prepare tailored demos, ensuring alignment with client-specific needs. Address any queries or concerns during the demonstration.

Description: Offering an estimated price considering technical complexities, customisations, or special support.

Key Activities: Pricing based on client requirements.

PreSales Actions: Provide insights into any functional and technical aspects that might influence pricing (such as custom development).

Description: Identifying additional services or technical support that the client might need. This is mainly done by the Professional Service Department to create a statement of work (SOW). This phase may not be required for smaller SaaS solutions with no configuration effort.

Key Activities: Discuss integration, potential configurations, customisations, or training.

PreSales Actions: Handover and align with professional services before service discovery. Guide the client to potential service requirements based on functional and technical discoveries. Support professional services with knowledge so that they can document and create implementation documents such as a statement of work (SOW) or similar documents.

Description: Provide a detailed proposal that outlines the solution’s capabilities, pricing, terms, and expected return on investment (ROI).

Key Activities: Crafting detailed proposals, explaining the value proposition, and setting clear terms and conditions.

PreSales Actions: Help draft the proposals for functional and technical sections. Validate the functional and technical feasibility of any promises made in the proposal.

Description: Working through any objections or concerns from the potential client, discussing contract terms, and aligning pricing.

Key Activities: Addressing contractual concerns, negotiating pricing or payment terms, and clarifying service-level agreements.

PreSales Actions: Provide clarity on any functional and technical aspects of negotiation. Collaboration on potential compromises or alternatives.

Description: Finalise the deal by obtaining the contract signed and initiating the onboarding process.

Key Activities: Sending the final contract for signature, celebrating the win, and transitioning the client to the onboarding or client success team.

PreSales Actions: Handover the account to Professional Service, Onboarding and Client Success. Offer reassurance on post-sales functional and technical support or onboarding. Validating final functional and technical agreements.

Description: Guiding the new client through the initial setup, ensuring a smooth transition and positive first experience with the software.

Key Activities: Setting up training sessions, assisting with software integration, and providing initial support.

PreSales Actions: Collaborate with the onboarding or implementation team to ensure a smooth transition. Guide clients through technical hiccups.

Description: Identify opportunities to provide additional value to the client by upselling additional features or expanding to other departments within the client’s organization.

Key Activities: Regular check-ins with the client, presenting new features or modules, and discussing potential expansion.

PreSales Actions: Identify expansion opportunities based on evolving client needs. Offer demos for new features or integration

Description: Ensuring that the client renews your subscription and potentially turns into an advocate for your solution.

Key Activities: Discussing renewal terms, gathering feedback, seeking referrals, and testimonials.

PreSales Actions: Assists in discussions on renewals. Collaborate with the client for case studies, focusing on success points.

Description: Responding to RFI, RFP, and RFQ requests.

Key Activities: Drafting technical responses and attending related meetings.

PreSales Actions: Lead the creation of responses to the RFX and lead sessions and workshops.

Description: Cultivating relationships with leads that may not be immediately ready to purchase but show potential for future business. This process involves nurturing leads through consistent communication, educational content, and periodic check-ins.

Key Activities: Sending periodic newsletters, sharing insightful content, offering webinars, and maintaining regular touchpoints without being overly driven by sales.

PreSales actions: Offers periodic insights or product updates that may benefit the lead in the future. Arrange webinars or workshops that address the potential future needs of these leads.

Description: Recognising that a lead or potential client is not the right fit for the current offering. This may be due to budget constraints, differing technical requirements, or a mismatch in business goals.

Key Activities: Clear communication with the lead about the reasons, ensuring a positive experience despite the disqualification, and possibly referring to a more suitable solution if possible.

PreSales Actions: Conduct an assessment to confirm whether the product truly does not align with the client’s requirements. Provide detailed feedback to the sales team on misalignments and suggest alternative solutions or future product updates that might cater to such leads if possible.

Description: Analysing the reasons for winning or losing a deal.

Key Activities: Gathering feedback and adjusting future strategies.

PreSales Actions: Contribute to the analysis by shedding light on the strengths or weaknesses encountered during the sales process.

Regularly Review Sales Stages: As the market, product, or team evolves, so should the sales process. Regular reviews ensure that they are effective and relevant.

Leverage CRM Systems: Using CRM helps track progress through the sales stages, providing insights and ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks.

Sales and Marketing Alignment: Ensure that both teams are aligned in terms of messaging, lead qualification criteria, and handovers.

Continuous Training: As product and market evolve, continuous training ensures that the sales team remains effective throughout all stages.

Feedback Loop: Encourage a culture where the sales team can provide feedback on the sales stages and process, ensuring continuous improvement.